Words and Photos from McKenna W. - Writing & Visual Art cohort
Working alongside an experienced artist in a lovely space was the perfect start to a year of creativity and exploring. To start our adventure, we loaded the bus and headed to the home of a local artist with her very own studio, she works with a lot of abstract art and is very passionate about what she does! We began with a few creative writing prompts to get going; thinking back to our childhood and remembering our favourite objects, places and things to do. It was really exciting to step outside of our comfort zones in both our abilities as artists and connecting with the other students in the cohort. With our memories down on paper, we talked them through and shared as a group while enjoying a yummy selection of pastries, courtesy of Mr. Dewar! After taking those thoughts from one art form, written, to visual, we began our pieces, our task being to draw out the objects that represented memories we had written about. These were really important and provided a core for the meaning of the piece which we would build upon as the day went on. Something that we all took away was the idea of ongoing change with our art, to “trust the process” and know that there will always be meaning even if you can’t see it, which we all learned. We spent most of the day layering, covering up and exposing our art with different colours that eventually came to represent different abstract scenes and ideas. Being able to see and hear how someone’s art progresses has helped me open the creative side of my mind. We are definitely very excited for the next time we get to create together!