Mixed Media

That's Me!: Portraits

Fenella Belle, Instructor of Art, Piedmont Virginia Community College

Who are you? What are the important ideas and symbols that express your wishes, dreams, and everyday life? From Ancient Egypt to modern times, man has used art to record his identity through portraits, self-portraits, and symbols. In this workshop, students use a mixed-media approach, including monoprint, chine colle, collage, and stamping, to construct a self-portrait that captures their identity and puts it on display. No drawing experience necessary!

This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is supported by the Paul Mellon Endowment.

Available: July 2011 – June 2013
Audience: 3rd grade through Adult
Enrollment: Maximum 15
Facilities needed: Nearby sink with hot water, tables that can be covered, no carpets

Mobile Glass Studio

Ryan Gothrup, Adjunct Professor of Glass, Tidewater Community College

Share the unique experience of glass blowing — even add an educational component to exhibitions —with this mobile hot-glass studio, created by artist Ryan Gothrup. This studio can be used for lectures, demonstrations, workshops, or multiple-day residencies.

This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is funded, in part, by the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund.

Available: July 2011 – June 2013
Audience: Middle School through Adult
Enrollment: 15

Clay Animation Moviemakers

Abigail McKenzie, Chairman of Art Department, Flint Hill School
Andrew Morgan, Washington D.C.-based filmmaker

This workshop is for anyone who has ever wanted to make a movie! Students learn the steps used by the pros to go from character creation to construction — and sometimes destruction. Using real animator's clay, students sculpt original characters, design sets, and work together in small groups to make a three-minute animated movie with sound character voices. Who says a movie can't be made in a day?

This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is funded, in part, by the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund.

Available: July 2011 – June 2013
Audience: 5th grade – 12th grade through Adult
Enrollment: 5 – 20 participants

A one-hour optional lecture is offered to the community and workshop participants. The lecture begins with a short tape of student animation, including footage of a workshop. There is also a demonstration of character construction, set building, and different techniques of animation. Audience members have the opportunity to participate in these steps with a short video is produced. The basic processes of clay animation are discussed and demonstrated, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Symbols of the Self: Portraits

Rachel Sawan White, Art and Design Faculty, Orchard House School

A self-portrait can be a moving and enlightening process. In this workshop, students create a whole new kind of self-portrait, one in which they use symbols, colors, and other elements to tell who we are — without faces. Different ways of defining oneself through lines, textures, colors, and materials are discussed, and a variety of media is available so each artist can paint or sculpt the image.

This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is supported by the Paul Mellon Endowment.

Available: July 2011 – June 2013
Audience: High School through Adult
Enrollment: 8

Looking at Our Lives, A Tile Mural Workshop

Beryl Solla, Chairman of Art Department, Piedmont Virginia Community College

In the venerable tradition of landscape, farm, and animal paintings that are featured prominently in the Mellon collection, artist Beryl Solla encourages students to think about the people and things that give their own lives meaning and value. Students identify common ideas and develop images that best represent them. Using broken tile and quick-setting thin set, students design and install a small broken tile mural (approx. 3' x 4') in their school or community center. The installation includes designing the mural, drawing it on the wall, breaking the tile (using protective glasses), and placing the tile on the wall. The tile is then grouted and cleaned. A highly decorative and imaginative frame (also made from broken tile) that reflects the aesthetics of the Mellon collection and supports their own concepts surrounds the image(s). The mural is permanent, beautiful, and maintenance-free.

This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is supported by the Paul Mellon Endowment.

Available: July 2011 – June 2013
Audience: Middle School and older
Enrollment: 10 – 20 participants

A lecture component is available for partners who book this workshop. In this lecture, Ms. Solla describes and illustrates community-based tile projects that she has completed. The slides include many in-progress shots and people of all ages working on tiles. She also shows panels of completed tile pieces to give the audience a better sense of the final work.

Visual Pull of the Canvas: Three Layers of Glass to Create a Painting

Sayaka Suzuki, Adjunct Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Craft/Material Studies

This course will introduce everyone to glass making with a twist, a contemporary approach to a material and new way of thinking about the tradition of “painting” and “glass art.” Through the use of a cutter and grinder, glass will be transformed into different shapes and high- temperature enamel will be used as a painting material to transform the glass into a canvas of overlapping imagery.

All students will work with three layers of glass, each layer representing different techniques to create a visual sense of depth. Each layer can represent a foreground, middle ground, and a background, or more abstractly speaking, a visual tunnel into the final layer of glass. The glass will be enhanced through image transfers, etching, engraving, enamels, and adhesives. At the end of the session, students will have an opportunity to engrave their signatures with a diamond-tipped tool. With all the techniques and equipment available to students, they will have an original work that pushes the boundaries of glassworking and painting by the end of the session.

Great for everyone, this class gives students an opportunity to work with glass as a canvas as well as a material that can be pushed to change shape and be worked more sculpturally.

For this class, please come with at least ONE simple 6” x 6” LINE drawing that you find inspiring and with which you'd like to work.

This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is funded, in part, by the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund.

Available: July 2011 – June 2013
Audience: High school through Adult
Enrollment: 5 – 12 participants

Free Form Sculpture: Reuse and Recycle

Kendra Wadsworth, Artist and Educator

Using hardware cloth and copper wire as a foundation, students construct a creative form to be woven and decorated with recycled and recovered objects. Emphasis will be on free-form and creative expression. Students are encouraged to bring in materials to be incorporated into their sculpture: old articles of clothing, bed sheets, ribbon, yarn, buttons, soda can tabs, cheap jewelry, and random keepsakes.

Abstract Mixed Media