PTC Weekly #11: Fantastic Fabric Dinosaurs
This week at PTC, we go collage-crazy with textile artist, Diane Levoie, and look forward to the exciting month ahead!
It has been a very exciting week here at Pass the Crayon. While we had just one workshop, we remained busy with new faces, and lots of looking ahead towards an action-filled next couple of weeks. We welcomed a few fresh interns, and got to know our wonderful artist of the week, Diane Levoie. Beyond the work surrounding our Tuesday workshop at Weissensee, we began planning for some exciting upcoming events, including our participation in Welcome Camp 2018 and our summer program with Kreativhaus in July!
WEISSENSEE This week, kids at the Weissensee center used fabric, scissors, and glue to create colorful images through collage. Friend of Pass the Crayon and our Artist of the Week, Diane Levoie, a contemporary folk artist who specializes in creating fabric-based collage art, led this weeks session.
"Heading up the fabric collage workshop on June 12 was a great experience and a learning one. Somehow, we ended up that day with a group of mostly boys, and while some of them seemed like they would rather be playing fussball or Memory, a couple of them got really into their fabric collages and didn’t want to stop working. Though I still feel my idea to make still lives was a decent one, next time I would try to have a simpler project concept, more personally relevant to each child. Perhaps we could make fabric collages of favorite animals and their environments or build a story around an object each kid has in their possession."
- Diane
Diane brought a few of her collages with her to show everyone an example of the sort of art they’d be creating. Armed with a few models for what a fabric collage looks like and an expert collage artist at their disposal, the kids got to work. The first step was finding collage inspiration. Kids were encouraged to think outside the box and choose a model they connected to. Among these chosen models were dinosaurs, soccer fields, flowers, watches, and sunsets. After everyone had settled on a single image to bring to life, they began creating their art.
Along with her collaging expertise, Diane brought with her a plethora of fabrics, all in varying colors and patterns, to be used for the collages. The kids took full advantage of their ample resources, making use of lots of different fabric pieces to form their artwork. Beyond the variations in fabric options, the kids also created different techniques for using the fabric. Some cut the fabric into small pieces for a mosaic-esque effect, whilst others cut the fabric into letters to form words.
This workshop was especially successful due to the abundance of dedicated volunteers. Each kid could work one-on-one with a volunteer, allowing for the formation of deeper volunteer-kid connections. Some kids finished early, and played games like memory until their artwork had dried. After two lively hours, the kids left our workshop with some stellar fabric collages that they were all very proud of!
For more on this workshop, check out this video!
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