artLab: ephemeral exhibition

It’s been distractingly gorgeous outside: Warm. Sunny. Quintessentially Springy. And yet, today, on another quintessentially gorgeous Spring day, there was anything but distraction in the ArtLab.

Maybe it was in part due to Satie, whose Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes are such a dependable soundtrack for a studio-frame-of-mind.

Or maybe the ease and focus in the room had to do with the materials.

Simple geometric shapes in soft wood.

White glue, painted on with a small brush.

Few people asked questions, nobody seemed to look at what anyone else was making.

Everyone slid right into their groove, designing and composing without pause.

Unless, as in the photo below, something else beckoned…and an emergency design problem of another sort that had to be resolved…

But then it was back to the work at hand

the designing of pins and pendants

which were created in as many styles

as there were people.

And this is of course what ArtLab is all about.

One can’t possibly guess how people will approach the materials, and how that approach, in combination with the private, inner narrative, will drive the process…

Families might create collections, sharing color palettes and also some techniques discovered along the way (like painting with layers of thin washes, as in a few of the pieces below).

Other people might make pieces as gifts, like these below, for a sister who is a librarian and art teacher.

Of course, many people make pieces for themselves.

Each ArtLab for All Ages workshop is like an ephemeral group exhibition

where works are conceived, created, and assembled as a series

for just one fleeting moment.