Resilient Kitsch
June 20 - 25, 2021
Salvador Jiménez-Flores · salvadorjimenezflores.com
Casey Weldon · caseyelizabethweldon.com
Workshop at a glance
Inspired by the resourcefulness and resilience of both Rascuache and Southern-kitsch cultures, incorporate personal stories, history, narrative and symbolism to create sculpture using various handbuilding methods, posting and stacking techniques, basic surface application, and assemblage.
Techniques
- Cultural studies and conversations about culture and context
- Handbuilding with basic surface application and assemblage
Materials
- Basic pottery toolkit
- Clay with surface techniques and glazing
- Clay and assemblage sculpture
Outcomes
- Enhance handbuilding skills
- Design ceramic sculpture for installation
- Create meaning and explanation in culture, storytelling, and identity in your artwork
Artist Bios
Salvador Jiménez-Flores is an interdisciplinary artist and assistant professor in Ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In his work, he explores the themes of colonization, migration, “the other,” stereotypes and futurism. Jiménez-Flores is a recipient of grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors and the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Arrowmont Connections
Casey Weldon is an artist and lives in Chicago where she teaches at Lillstreet Art Center and the Chicago Ceramic Center. Her extensive art education started at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. She earned her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she graduated with the James Nelson Raymond Fellowship Award. Weldon received her MFA at Kendall College of Art and Design with a full-ride fellowship.
Arrowmont Connections
Workshop Description
Incorporating personal stories, history, narrative, symbolism and found objects, this workshop parallels the resourcefulness and resilience of both Rascuache and Southern-kitsch cultures. They both come with loaded histories, contradictions, and dichotomies. The goal is to reclaim, celebrate, and study how the aesthetics make the most of what is available to create fine art. Students will explore various handbuilding methods, posting and stacking techniques, basic surface application, and assemblage. Through demonstrations, slides, activities, readings and group discussions, this course will be a constructive collaboration promoting a critical learning environment. Class conversations will focus on the content and context of student work. By making sculpture, students with an interest in culture, storytelling, and self-identity will gain or enhance their handbuilding skills, ceramic surface techniques, and ability to design and create a modular ceramic sculpture or installation. Open to all skill levels.
COURSE FEE: $600 · materials list
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