Workshops are held the third Saturday of every month beginning in September
at Cornish College of the Arts unless otherwise specified.
Schedule of workshops:
The workshop will incorporate Rachel's unique process of printing on "plates" made of heavy cardboard coated with layers of shellac. As the plate is printed the surface will decay and evolve with each successive print run, leaving the students with their own palimpsest recording the passage of time.
The AIGA Link Program's October workshop was Poster Design with world-renowned designer Robynne Raye from Modern Dog Design Co. She asked the students to create a poster about a cause they are passionate about using found magazine collage, cut paper and sumi ink. Some popular causes chosen by the students were environmental disasters, self image, animal rights and pollution. After creating their posters students talked about their posters in a half hour critique. Finally, students participated in a raffle where one lucky student received a copy of Robynne's book, Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art. Students were then sent home with other various Modern Dog paraphernalia including the bumper sticker: “I'm not gay, I just like rainbows” and the ever popular Modern Dog deck of cards.
November's workshop featured artist Romson Bustillo. He encouraged students to represent themselves and their emotions somewhat abstractly in an anthropomorphic wire sculpture. They each began similarly with five circles of wire and built their sculptures into either stand alone figures or mobiles using pliers and a range of wire gauges. Students then helped themselves to different embellishments such as feathers, handmade japanese papers, painted on beeswax or oil sticks. The results were fabulous of course and Romson closed the workshop with a discussion about the challenges and rewards of making artwork and an encouragement to share their artwork in the end of year gallery show.
December's Typography Workshop was lead by Graphic Designer and current Seattle chapter AIGA President Jeff Barlow who presented to the students a new means of looking at and recognizing letterforms. Beyond computer generated fonts, Barlow displayed a series of alphabets commonly found in everyday objects. From stand pipes that created the letter R to the negative shapes in between city buildings that can create an entire alphabet if viewed with a creative eye. Barlow underscored that not only is Design ubiquitous, but so too Typography-one of the major elements of graphic design. The challenge for students was to pour through a collection of random found objects and as a group develop a unique alphabet. Letters of the alphabet were then photographed by volunteers and printed so that students could further develop their letters into works of art. The workshop culminated in a group critique.
January's artist, Don Moore, taught students the basics of linoleum block carving and printing. He presented a short survey of the history of printmaking and then demonstrated techniques in carving and printing a linoleum block. Students were then supplied with drawing tools to create a design and carving tools with which to cut their blocks. Volunteers then individually helped each student ink and print multiple colors and stages of carving. A short discussion and critique followed the working session.
