By Melanie Jacob
Journal Editor
[email protected]
While not as busy as some of the other events, the ceramic storytelling with Sandy Christensen will leave behind a tangible legacy unlike all the rest.
"We had some really great artists doing some amazing work, both kids and adults," said Annah Gullacher, one of the organizers for Culture Days. "This was a really great project for the whole family."
Everyone who came in was given clay to work with and was asked to pick something in the community that meant something to them. After sketching out a concept of their idea, they had to use a clay tile the size of their hand and different colours of clay to mold that concept. It could be abstract, realistic, or an impression of anything they wanted.
"We were all making tiles to put together in a large mosaic," said Gullacher. "There was no skill needed. People could just come in and try it out."
The workshop went on for a large part of the day and people could stop in at any time. According to Gullacher, the idea was to support their local artists and learn more about their work. Since Christensen works in the clay sculpture medium, it was a good opportunity for people to work without an artist and try it out for free.
"It was lovely. We had good, interested kids who were interested, well behaved, and creative, which was wonderful," said Christensen. "We had some interested adults too and teachers that came along and did something."
Most of the workshop was fairly easy for Christensen, though she said she sometimes struggled working with new groups coming in when old groups were ready to move to the next stage of their art. Moreover, she had different ages to work with, so teaching concepts had to specified to the individual.
"Usually, people had to be taught about the simplicity of sculpting, the sizes of things, and the proportions," she said. "I also had to warn them about colour transfer from scummy stains (from the differently coloured clay). So they had to keep their hands clean when working between the different colours."
After the workshop, all of the tiles will be put together in a collaborative piece for display in the gallery. It would be a piece of mosaic art that was made for Humboldt, by Humboldt.
Since Christensen and the gallery were looking for something easy to display, they decided on something flat that could be mounted. Beyond that, Christensen didn't know how it would turn out or what shape it would take. According to her, it will depend on the shape of the tiles and how many there are. They might even just lay it down flat for people to look at.
"The whole thing's been great. They're all proud of what they've done," she said. "The gallery had good staff to bring out the best in people."
