Looking for artists interested in helping to create an accessible art workshop for Arisia

[kestrell.livejournal.com]

This past Arisia we created a tactile tour of the art show which drew a group of enthusiastic art fans and artists, and it occurred to me that some of these same folks might be interested in creating a tactile art workshop. I owuld be willing to help organize this but I was hoping to find a few, say 2-4, artists who would be willing to help provide pointers for the workshop. Being available during the workshop itself would be great, but just providing advice on how to put together an intro-level art class would be welcome also.

Potential crafts suited to tactile art: beading, simple weaving (bracelets, etc.), collage, mask decoration, clay, small pottery, polymer clay decorations (maybe with cookie cutters?).

I am hoping to locate a few people who would be willing to help develop this idea so we can create a plan by the time idea suggestion time rolls around.

Comments

[tagacosplay.livejournal.com]

I do have an idea for something. A few years ago I took a class up in Rockport Maine. I cant remember what it was called but basically the artist handed us a piece of mat board from a framing shop (real cheap) and some water color pencils told us to scribble with them normally then to get our hands wet and smudge it around the picture. After we had to look at the picture and draw what the scribbles looked like to us. It was lots of fun and maybe not something for the adults but I know kids would enjoy it.

[kestrell.livejournal.com]

That's an intriguing idea; one of the things I like about tactile art is that it encourages adults to do something they possibly haven't had the opportunity to do since they were kids, which is to use touch as part of the sensing experience. It's one of the things which I think makes tactile art as appealing to sighted people as it is to visually-impaired people.Plus, nowadays there are lots of cool paints like "puffy" paint which is 3D. That could be cool.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I'm always willing to help with clay, though I don't know what my time schedule will be like. There's several kinds of clay we could get: probably an air-dry variety would be best, but some are 'cleaner' than others. (As you might guess, the cleaner ones are also pricier.) You would need to budget some money for the materials. Polymer clay would require cooking (a toaster oven).

Other stuff: Fast Track has a ton of pony beads (the bigger kind) it doesn't use; there are also seed beads (the tiny kind) in the teen tote. Stone beads can be expensive. FT also has plenty of paper masks & decorating materials. And it also has yarn.

Several cons do a "blindfold sculpting" panel, where artists are blindfolded, given a lump of clay (usually Model Magic), and told to make something.

[kestrell.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the great info! It sounds like I should definitely try coordinating some of this with FT. Also, thanks for the tips on clay--air-drying sounds like it is probably more practical than polymer.

I was definitely thinking of offering the blindfold option. I know a lot of folks think of the blindfold sculpting as kind of a funny lark, but I have found that doing art, include textile art, through touch often allows crafters to experience art in a way they don't usually.

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how well book+paper arts would integrate into this, but perhaps something with popups? Cushion leather onlay is very tactile but way too ambitious for the context, as is tooling in blind (term of art, refers to embossed designs and titling done without gold or other coloring in the impressions). But I just remembered another technique where you glue raised shapes to a book board, then cover the whole thing with leather, resulting in a raised pattern on the board; I've been involved with novices doing that one.

Anyhow... yes, I'm interested in contributing, you can reach me at rachel at post dot harvard dot edu if you want.