Summer Workshops

3/BEGINNING GLASS

The Vitreous Body

Tumbler by Helen Lee, 2009. Still from video installation.

This class will use the definition of glass as a state of matter in approaching the material. Solids, liquids, and gases are common to our experience, but how does one physically interact with the glassy state? We will focus on the body’s engagement with this material’s behavior in the field of gravity to gain an indepth introduction to the movements and sensitivities that comprise the skill of glassblowing. Body mechanics, muscle memory, proprioception, and motor skills will be developed in the context of the hotshop as we generate basic blown forms that evidence a greater practice of working with this elusive physical state. For beginning glassblowers.

HELEN LEE is an artist, designer, educator, and glassblower based in Oakland, California. She holds a BSAD in Architecture from MIT and an MFA in Glass from RISD. She has taught in the Sculpture Department of California College of Art, at the MIT Glass Lab, and at Palo Alto High School, California. She will be teaching in the Digital + Media Department at RISD in spring 2010. Helen Lee is currently an Affiliate Artist at Headlands Center for the Arts, California and also works as a freelance graphic designer, most recently for Celery Design Collaborative. www.pink-noise.org

3/CLAY

Floralis by Steven Heinemann, 2006. Ceramic, multiple firings, 26” x 20” x 17”.

Plaster to Clay: A Journey in Form

In this workshop we will explore the creation of ceramic forms via the process of mold-making and slip casting. With our combined philosophies and distinct approaches to 3D, a range of ideas about the potentials of plaster and clay as compatible ‘partners’ in the development of new form possibilities will be covered. Through demonstrations, presentations, and group discussions, students will learn a variety of skills and techniques that will enable them to begin developing a personal language of form. There will be some bisque firing. Basic ceramic or sculpture experience helpful. All levels welcome.

STEVEN HEINEMANN received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri and an MFA from Alfred University. His work is in the collections of the Boymans Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Steven Heinemann maintains a studio in Cookstown, Ontario.

Ice Storm 12 by Tom Spleth, 2009. Slip-cast, high-fire porcelain, porcelain slips, terra sigilatta, and oxides, 21 1/2” x 8 1/2” x 7 1/2”.

TOM SPLETH earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri and an MFA from the College of Ceramics at Alfred University. His work has been in exhibitions at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design at North Carolina State University; the McColl Center for Visual Art, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Asheville Art Museum, and the North Carolina Museum of Art, all in North Carolina. Tom Spleth’s work is in the collections of Cameron Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina; Illinois State University; Kohler Company, Wisconsin; and RISD, and he has received public commissions through the North Carolina Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the North Carolina Art in State Buildings Program. splethcups.com

3/ENAMELING

Dahlia by Linda Darty, 2008. Fine Silver, enamel, boulder opal, sterling, and 14K gold, 4” x 4 1/4”. Photo by Linda Darty.

Enameling: It’s Hot!

Discover ways to use the ancient techniques of enameling to create innovative, personally expressive work. Inspired by the dramatic Maine coastal landscape, students can create small jewelry or objects, investigating enameling techniques that interest them most. Explore opaque, opalescent, and transparent colors on copper or silver, using sifting, painting, cloisonné, and champlevé techniques as well as liquid enamels and experimental approaches. Setting and metal fabrication as it relates to enameling will be included. This class will allow both beginners and those with experience to work at their own level. Some metalworking experience is helpful but not required. All levels welcome.

LINDA DARTY is Head of the Metal Design program at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She is the author of The Art of Enameling (Sterling Books) and frequently lectures and teaches workshops in the US and abroad. Linda Darty is the recipient of The Lifetime Achievement Award for research from East Carolina University and also The Lifetime Achievement Award from The Enamelist Society. She exhibits widely and her work is included in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Museum of Arts & Design, New York. LindaDarty.com

3/MIXED MEDIA/SCULPTURE

Jamaica Pond Bench by Matthew Hinçman, 2006. Cast, welded, fabricated, and painted aluminum, wood, 101” x 21” x 28”. Photo by Matthew Hinçman.

Creating and Playing in Wood: Making Sculpture

Come to this workshop with a desire to expand your understanding of wood and the processes and tools by which we manipulate wood and mixed media. Through safe instruction in the basics of woodworking, (i.e. tool sharpening, the proper and safe use of hand tools and powers tools, etc.) participants will engage in rigorous investigation of material and content inherent in form. Short assignments, exercises, and demonstrations are designed to encourage discussions surrounding the relationship between playing, making, thinking, and envisioning. All levels welcome.

MATTHEW HINÇMAN is an Assistant Professor in the Sculpture Department at his alma mater, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston. He was a founding member of the acclaimed metalworking companies MAKE Architectural Metalworking and SO Works. Designs from SO Works were featured in the exhibition SAFE: Design Takes on Risk at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2005. In 2007, Matthew Hinçman received an Individual Artist Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His sculptures can often be found in public places—sometimes with permission, sometimes not. www.matthewhincman.com

3/PRINTMAKING

Help Wanted by Susan Webster, 2009. Gelatin plate print collage, letter stamped text by Stuart Kestenbaum, 8 1/2” x 8 1/2”.

Making Prints Without a Press

This workshop will offer a range of low-tech monoprint and monotype printmaking processes that require no press. There will be a focus on gelatin plate printmaking where participants will make printing plates from commercial gelatin and learn a variety of techniques: painting directly on the plate, using subtractive and additive methods, applying stencils, and cutting into the gelatin surface. Other printmaking methods will include simple relief, direct stencil, and monotypetransfer drawing. In addition, we will explore ways to combine printmaking methods and assemble parts of prints to create print/collages, and make simple book structures to showcase work. All processes lend themselves to experimentation. Inks are water-based and prints can be produced on both paper and fabric. All levels welcome.

SUSAN WEBSTER is a visual artist living in Deer Isle, Maine. She was an artist-in residence at the Maine Correctional Center, where she created a nationally recognized art program. Susan Webster has been a visiting artist at University of the Arts Borowsky Center, Pennsylvania and College ofthe Atlantic, Maine. She has taught at Haystack; the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Connecticut; Penland; Oregon College of Art and Craft; and the Books Arts Institute at the University of Southern Maine. Susan Webster has exhibited her work at the Tyler School of Art, Pennsylvania and Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, and is in the permanent collections of the University of Maine, Orono and the US Department of State, Washington, DC. www.susanwebster.net

3/QUILTS

Couplets by Jan Myers-Newbury, 2008. Cottons dyed with arashi shibori and direct application techniques; machine pieced and machine quilted, 85” x 40”. Photo by Jan Myers-Newbury.

Shibori for Quiltmaking

The basics of patternmaking by means of binding, clamping, stitching, and pole-wrapping will be covered quickly. We will then combine multiple layers of pattern and coloration to achieve fabrics that exhibit both depth and luminosity. As our knowledge of technique progresses we will explore quilt compositions with these fabrics—relationships that will guide further dyeing. There will be discussion of quilting options, but no time spent on actual quilting. Emphasis will be on the compositional potential of shibori patterned fabrics, ranging from the organic to the architectural; work will be with cellulose fibers and procion dyes. Basic machine sewing skills required. All levels welcome.

JAN MYERS - NEWBURY is known for her pieced quilts using fabrics hand-dyed with various shibori techniques. She has exhibited and taught nationally and internationally, having been included in thirteen Quilt National exhibits. Jan Myers-Newbury’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts & Design, New York; the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minnesota; the Museum of the American Quilters Society, Kentucky; and the American Quilt Study Center, Nebraska. Nearly 200 of her quilts are included in corporate and private collections and her quilt Depth of Field: A Plane View was selected as one of the Twentieth Century’s Best American Quilts: Celebrating 100 Years of the Art of Quiltmaking (edited by Mary Leman Austin).

3/VISITING SCIENTIST/FAB LAB

NEIL GERSHENFELD is the Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. His work at the boundary between the worlds of bits and atoms has ranged from quantum computers to computerized cellos to field fab labs. Professor Gershenfeld is the author of numerous technical publications, patents, and books, including Fab, When Things Start to Think, The Nature of Mathematical Modeling, and The Physics of Information Technology, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, CNN, and the McNeil/Lehrer News Hour. He has a BA in Physics and an honorary Doctorate from Swarthmore College, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. ng.cba.mit.edu

While at Haystack, Neil Gershenfeld will discuss and demonstrate ways that artists can use digital fabrication. Activities will include hands-on instruction with prototype hardware and software tools for personal fabrication.

Visiting artists augment the session with informal activities and are not workshop leaders.