Text and Image Class

While I'm on sabbatical (which technically starts in the fall, but whatever) I've vowed to take art classes almost all the time. This is partly because the side of my brain that does stuff like art (right? left? can't remember) is puny and atrophied... while the other side is big and overdeveloped. So it's a balance thing. It's also because I really like it, of course - and that's really the first reason.

So I'm in my first class now, a text and image workshop taught by Lynn Avadenka . So far, I'm enjoying it HUGELY. Lynn gave us a poem to work with - a cool and funny poem (by a poet whose name I can't remember) - and we divided it up into lines. We're typesetting the lines (by hand), and then illustrating the typset pages with images that resonate for some reason with us vis a vis the lines. My lines are great- they have to do with the author of the poem trying not to be loud and out there, which resonates with me. :-) Last night I messed around with some of the elements I wanted to use in my illustrations - bubble wrap (which worked fabulously) and cool textured paper that I bought at Hollander's, which is where the workshop is being held. I was trying to do pressure printing with these - so last night I first inked a plexiglass plate and put the stuff on that, then put the paper on that and used the tympan (the heavy roller on a printer) to press the paper into the ink. Cool, but too dark. After a few tries, Lynn suggested inking the elements, not the plate, and rolling the paper over - beautious. When it's done, I'll take a photo and post it. (That will be a few weeks.) It's WAY cool, though. I'm into these art classes that don't involve drawing, since that just doesn't work for me. But collaging kinds of things, like this? Yes. And of course jewelry, which I still enjoy making and don't do nearly enough.