Description
Wednesdays, May 17th-31st from 5:30pm-8:30pm
Instructor is Naeco Studio (Jess Wilson), a University of Guelph graduate of Studio Art & Philosophy, currently completing their post-graduate certifications for Art Therapy at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. Jess facilitates arts-based workshops, community-care initiatives, and believes in the remedial qualities of creative expression.
These workshops have been designed with the goal of exploring the self through creative modalities. Artistic catharsis is in each of us, so there is no previous fine art experience required. The goal is less to mastering an art form, and instead gears towards utilizing the artistic process as an avenue of research inwards. Within each class, students can expect to learn modalities (beyond verbal communication) as means of exploring, expressing, and exhibiting elements of the self. We will untangle our creations together as a class. Students will be provided with a range of mediums and prompts to guide their experience, and much of what's learned can be returned to time and time again after completion of these lessons.
1.) The first of three classes will involve using found-text to give voice to our perspectives. There will be numerous exercises to gather words that prompt us, rearrange, re-contextualize, and find meaning. By consulting pre-existing text sources, and using our own autonomy and experiences to re-shape them, we generate something new and of our own. Found-text is often more accessible than making writing from scratch. To radiate the overall theme of exploring our inner selves, the prompts will involve speaking to our own experiences, and the opportunity to listen to one another's expressions. Though text-based, there is always the inclusion of visual art to embellish and elaborate.
2.) The second class urges a departure from words/text and instead makes use of long forgotten materials from childhood. Think of crayons, stickers, chalk, rainbows, and so on. The fun stuff we may not have connected with enough recently. It might even make some of us cringe or notice resistance. The purpose of this class is going inwards to listen to the little kid that lives inside. Prompts will indulge in play, exploration, and focused listening; which can impact our present. It can also afford us more grace towards ourselves. There will be room to keep it light or delve deeper.
3.) The third and final workshop seeks to culminate the process of self exploration through art by creating an abstract self portrait. Instead of a literal representation of the physical self, students will explore alternative elements of themselves and find creative ways of expressing them. Hence the pull towards more abstract representations. Making use of multiple mediums, we will exhibit meaningful parts of ourselves, as somewhat of a summarization of what we may have uncovered in classes prior. How may we rectify the parts of our identity that go unnoticed? How do we give weight to what matters most regarding who we are? The pieces created in this class will function as artifacts to remind students of their inner world brought to surface throughout this process.