Technology
I admit I’m a little behind with this post and playing catch up so here it goes. We wrapped up our summer series at the end of August. Wow, the time went by in the blink of an eye. We at Art For All had been mulling over the idea of a community drawing program for over a year. When Art for All first started about 5 years ago, there was an earlier Drawing Jam program that met at Nashoba bakery or Three Stones gallery. This was the brainchild of Margot Kimball. It was loosely structured. Meet on this day, finds a comfortable spot, work on some drawing and maybe meet some new people.
When Margot Kimball told me about her Drawing Jam sessions years ago and showed me some photos, I thought , “This is cool. I want to be part of something like this.” I also told myself, “Keep it simple.” Provide people in the community the opportunity to take time out of their busy schedules, relax, and rediscover the joy of making art. I wanted to create an environment which would jump start imagination and stimulate creativity. To this end I collected books with interesting photographs or “how to draw…” examples as well as fun images downloaded from the internet. I also collect objects from home and created “still life” that artists could refer to. I also wanted music playing in the background. That had to be easy-to-listen-to and not distracting. The music by Khruangbin created a nice vibe (jazzy, new age-y, with a little bit of funk). With the help of my Art For All friends I was making it up as I went, followed my own creative intuition along the way, going with what felt right at the time, and learning all along the way (just like creating these blog posts :-).
The theme de jour for this last summer meeting was “Technology”. Of course technology is all around us, and is an integral part of our everyday lives. It was not difficult for me to find objects around the house and in my basement to bring into the studio to serve as models for our artists. More trips to local libraries to find books on a variety of subjects with great photos look at for inspiration. Because it is so pervasive in our daily lives, some artists would rather escape the modern world by diving into art which celebrates natural worlds either real or imaginary. Others though find the modern world in which we live full of amazement, possibility, and promise. One of the artists at this session commented that a “technology” theme felt less intimidating and more easily accessible than nature oriented themes.
Designing and tweaking this program over the course of the summer has been a fun challenge. I started with topics I imagined had many avenues for artists to explore. Here’s what I was looking for in a subject matter:
#1 a broad palette of colors, textures, and shapes to chose from
#2 a variety of topics that were very different from each other from one session to the next
#3 choose subjects that were accessible to beginners as well as more experienced artists.
“Technology” seemed to check these boxes. Rather than focus on the natural world, this week we would turn our attention to the nonorganic, human-made landscape of the modern world. This world is full of basic geometric shapes (circles, triangle, rectangles), angles and lines (wavy and straight) which artists could begin with and build upon and embellish as they saw fit. At this session, artists were creating images of robots, race cars, flying drones and cityscapes of the future. Smiles and lively conversation were enjoyed along the way.
Drawing Jam will continue into the fall, meeting at the Art Room on the second Saturday of each month. Also, our friends at The Nature Connection will be hosting DJ sessions at their place on the third Wednesday of each month. Check the “Programs and Events” tab for more details. Happy Fall season to all.
