That was what I asked myself over the weekend as I lay awake one night. The saying goes: "ask and you will receive". "Prints"...potato cut prints; mini lino cut prints. Let's put them onto cards to sell for gold coins or the option to "make an offer" at the exhibition. I hadn't done any lino cut printing since a one off print as part of an assignment for a book cover design at my school of advertising and graphic design in the mid eighties! Before that, it was during high school in the early eighties!! Potato cut printing? Well, I have been known to design logos and have made backgrounds for publications using potato cut prints!
By the time our lovely people walked into this week's workshop, Denise and I had everything from paint, crayons and ink; to donated coloured papers, blank folded greeting cards and thick sliced potatoes placed in the middle of our workspace ready to go. Before the meditation the sight was met with a few childlike giggles and maybe a tiny bit of apprehension!
The meditation was "asked" for when I offered the option of "to meditate or not to meditate today" so it's nice to know that that part of the session is highly regarded. We repeated last week's meditation just because it was so good. Being the 2nd to last session, I felt we were winding down a little this week. We had a few late comers who missed out on the meditation and it was easy to see their unease. Some repeated reinforcement and encouragement offered to commence and then refocus on their art play a few times over eventually brought some at least aesthetic meditation into being, and then harmony soon returned. Alternatively, let go, I gather that one person's drama could have been let play out in its normal pattern and it would have been a different story. I felt grateful that there was a distraction in the form of art in this situation while the therapeutic dynamic played out in front of our eyes and validated it's self.
With minimal demonstration of potato cut prints, pieces started to appear in front of our eyes. The lino cut printing fortunately had a competent player in one of the participants. She had spent the week lino cut printing at home and had brought in a strong body of work already. Even though she knew the technique, others fearlessly went ahead and used acrylic paint on their lino cut designs, transferring and creating magnificent rustic pieces adorning roll folded blank cards – some into triptych. The play continued with stuff like melted crayons over mixed mediums, and layers of torn pre-prepared abstract works on paper shared and worked on collaboratively.
The most rewarding aspect of today's workshop was the evident transformation of the state of mind. The play from a distance – from an outsider's perspective – may have seemed a little chaotic with what seemed like maybe too many materials on offer to choose from. From my perspective, when given time to interact with the participants one-on-one, it was easy to slip into their zone and appreciate how much fun they were having while surrendering to this play with no rules. Who cares if the edges of the lino cut prints were unruly! The raw nature of the pieces created today were magnificent. I know that this week was one of the most enjoyed sessions.
I continue to get regular approaches from participants and their carers in regards to these workshops and their possible continuation into the future. What set out as a mentorship to get these people to produce a body of work for an exhibition has turned into another whole entity. As I am informed, we really have a "recovery model" here in this work. I still rather call myself the "cultivator" here though. These people have simply been allowed to play, and be seen to do something they can do rather than surrendering to a disability label they may have been given. It is clear that we need to make these workshops regular and accessible. Now all I need to do is cultivate the time to explore funding options and see what sort of facility we can manifest to house a permanent studio. All radars are on, searching for empty (maybe flood effected Ipswich buildings). Or an unused historic building loft with some amazing skylights! ...all while I keep graphic designing on the side to pay the bills.
Oh, to visualise... and a little less sleep!
These are some of the fantastic pieces that will be on sale at the exhibition opening next Thursday night. Oct. 13. Start saving the gold coins, or prepare to make an offer!
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