Perpich residency, 3 hours. MIA residency, 3 hours
Due to the massive and absurd snowstorm last weekend, Perpich and many other schools around the metro area were closed on Monday. Thus I was only in on Wednesday, but it ended up being a fairly productive and busy day over there. The senior show/retrospective opened the following Thursday, and it was pretty amazing to see how much progress the students had made in the week since I had last been there. Almost every installation had gone from a rough idea or pile of work sitting in front of a half painted wall, to a full fledged, finished and actualized work. Jeremy, Rosie (Perpich's gallery coordinator) and myself spent the afternoon overseeing the work and helping out where it was needed, with install, lighting or any other needs and concerns. I helped one student install a number of paintings and drawings on their wall, and it brought a bit of an interesting realization about how much I've grown as an artist or maker outside of purely making "artwork". This student was a very talented painter and drawer, but less confident in the hanging, measuring, spacing and installing (using a drill) of their work. Due to a couple of jobs I've had in the past few years, I've become pretty confident with this sort of thing, but these peripheral skills are sometimes forgotten or unnoticed at the expense of progressing ones more focused creative practice. At any rate, it was a pleasure to help them realize their vision for the show, and an interesting unintended lesson or affirmation.
Saturday, then, was my last session at MIA with Witt for the Creative Saturdays program. This session was done in collaboration with the Minnesota Zoo, and the focus was on creating watercolor landscapes based off of Minnesota wetlands, populated with drawings of local animals or insects. As usual, there was a gallery tour, which was in part conducted by the representative from the zoo. She and Witt played well off of each other, with Witt providing art historical context to the pieces and the zoo rep relating them to local fauna (all works were based off animals and insects). After the tour, we brought the students back to the classroom for a combined work time and viewing session of live animals. The zoo rep brought a hissing cockroach, a toad, a turtle and small python for the students to observe, draw from and lightly interact with. Having the "draw" of live animals was immediately and obviously captivating for the students, and it really seemed to catalyze their drawing and painting. It provided an exciting experiential hook that they were eager to translate into something creative of their own, and was a cool insight on my part. I've been thinking a bit lately about interactions between experience, looking and seeing and creating, but without direct intention. Basically, I'm interested in being open to experience and aesthetics, and sitting with it to see where it comes up in work (for myself and for others). This instance was pretty immediate in terms of how much time we gave the students, but it was amazing to see how the animals as stimuli had such an intense creative effect.
Lastly, as it was my last session at MIA, I'd like to say thanks to Witt, Victoria, and the rest of the staff that I met and worked with there. The Creative Saturdays program is a great model of intensive art making and creative process for young students that tries (and I think succeeds) to expose them to new processes, things and ideas, and it was truly invigorating and a pleasure to be a part of over the past few months.