Sculpting with Handmade Paperpulp and String
press release: 3-DAY WORKSHOP: Thursday, May 17 from 6:30-8:30pm, Saturday, May 19 from 9am-12pm and Sunday, May 20 from 1-4pm
Ages: 15+
Register HERE for all three days, maximum 10 participants
This is a really special opportunity! Over three days, participants will learn to use paper pulp to make 3-D woven sculptures. We’ll experiment with natural pigments, and different kinds of strings. Each person will make at least one wall hanging and a number of smaller projects. This is a messy process--wear old clothes, an apron and shoes that can get wet. Bring geometric drawings (for ideas), an open mind, and a snack.
Participants must be able to attend all three sessions, please register once for all three sessions on the May 17 date, maximum 10 participants, no experience needed, ages 15+
Hannah O'Hare Bennett grew up on a small organic farm in Kansas, where she was in constant contact with the textures of the natural world. After studying printmaking in college, she returned to farming as a career. Eventually she realized that she approached the work as if it were a personal art project, an ultimately inefficient way to grow food. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, she learned how to knit and saw beautiful weavings made by local people, and a seed of what would become her career in fiber based arts was planted. Then, as a graduate student, she encountered hand paper making, an art form that holds infinite possibilities. Ultimately, her work emerges from the tactile and obsessive labor of farming, and the patterns and textures of the midwestern landscape. She exhibits work around the country, teaches workshops, and takes on custom dye, quilting and paper projects, as well as working part time as a substitute in Dane county public schools.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY: Domesticated: A Fiber Arts Studio inspired by a Wild World Bigger, brighter, softer, piebald, cuter, tamer, sweeter, less spiny, more compact: these are some of the characteristics that plants and animals develop as they become domesticated by human beings. Think of the difference between your pet dog and a wolf. During this residency, we will create works of art inspired by nature and domesticated nature. Objects will expand or shrink, grow harder or softer, explode outward or bind shut, become evenly patterned or patchy, spikier or smoother or more noticeable or more camouflaged. A book will go feral, extending longer and longer over two months. Sewing pins will sprout strange vegetation and disperse across the walls, spreading like milkweed. We will make paper from plant material and old rags, learn embroidery patterns and then let them go wild, and much more.
The root word of domestication is domus, which means home or hearth. This studio will reflect my own home, and I hope that visitors will be able to feel at home themselves. Make a cup of tea, bring a book or a project and nestle in for the afternoon. Additionally, this residency will emphasize reusing and recycling materials, but also conscious decision making around when new materials are the best choice.