Another fabulous day at Steve Aimone's workshop!

Steve is truly one of the most gifted teachers I've ever had the opportunity to work with. His guidance is on point and yet he lets us make mistakes. His teaching is practiced and methodical. But he knows what he's sharing with us so well that he can "go with the flow" of the class and its needs--the perfect combination in a teacher, in my opinion.

So... today we worked hard yet again... here are a few photos of what went on:



Here's where I'd begun after working in response to Steve's directions to start with (on the left) a number of angular marks (like check mark, Ws, Ls, etc.) and on the right, with a dictated grouping of other marks (like S, commas, Ms, etc.) The point was that the left side beginnings contained more sharp and angular lines/shapes while the right side was full of more rounded shapes. We were then encouraged to develop them both in any way we wanted to. These are my two... didn't photograph the initial marks that I'd made on the two panels with chunky charcoal... but those marks in charcoal were in response to Steve's dictates (" Put in two Ls... add an S... three commas....")




We moved through several exercises today... can't even keep count anymore! The day is spent with activity at one's own space in response to Steve's challenges and the "gallery walks" that I mentioned last night... walking around the room and spending at least 5 or more seconds taking in a viewing of each person's work. That's only one of the several ways that Steve so kindly allows for each of us to have her/his place on the agenda of discussion of work.

We worked with rhythm today and with an exercise to begin with full body engagement as we made marks. Steve asked us to put the marking tool (could be graphite, brush & paint, or any other medium) into both of our hands and to connect our hands and the tool to somewhere on our body... head, shoulder, or anywhere... and to make the marks from the whole body in a rhythmic way. He wanted us to repeat motifs/movements with the tool held in a way that lessened our control.

A few photos of the initial stages after we'd stopped:









Then, as we circled up for discussion after the initial work had been reworked:





Steve talks about Trish's work here...



... and then makes a point/counterpoint during discussion.




Here's my initial rhythm marks... I used a wide brush and dark paint, attached the brush to a cardboard roll and put it mostly against my chest/heart as I made the marks...



Then, this is what developed from the rhythm that I set up.



Last thing today, Steve talked about how the space of the rectangle or square we use is activated and how our eyes "read" the shapes.












One more day of this! Everything each one is doing is so amazing and it's mostly because of Steve's gentle, yet directed, guidance. I'm not sure any tapestry work will come from this... but, perhaps! Working with composition and design and concept is always valuable for a tapestry maker--after all, that's what we have to do before we even begin to weave!!


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