Hey Blog! On Thursday last week I ran two workshops for the last part of my Arts Award, which I’d love to tell you about!
As I have recounted previously, I have been working for an Arts Award on the topic of Prehistoric Art. You might think this is a very complicated subject which is a little indefinable – well, in some ways you’d be right. ‘Prehistory’ lasted so long (all the way from the Big Bang to when someone developed writing) that a handprint from 100,000 years ago is rather far away chronologically from a handprint made only 4000 years ago, be it by the same species or with the same materials. If you weren’t thinking that, you might have been wondering if there is even any art at all from this period – either because they were primitive people and didn’t think like that or because we’ve trashed it all before we realised it was art. No and no. While I recognise art is subjective and therefore my views may not be yours, I think the art from the prehistoric period, besides being aesthetically pleasing, stunningly colourful, made in a special place, and having a stupendous amount of history that goes along with it, is some of the purest, most lifelike and moving, with the raw power of the captured image of the subject in it. “After Altamira [one of the caves of art in Spain] all is decadence” Picasso said, and in this I agree.
It is that story I wanted to tell even more than the art. The idea of art always being a story is a notion I learned from my study of Banksy, and have since applied to every artwork and it seems to be true. Drawing on the inspiration from the prehistoric people, I decided to focus on art inspired by nature for the first workshop and then, to include the prehistoric element, art inspired by people for the second. This gave rise to a rough plan, then refined, which included comparing categories of art then and now, a timeline, a large collection of natural materials enough for a museum, a selection of art materials, and a couple of hours for making art. I then added a Powerpoint presentation and quite a few printed photos of art from different times and places, a set of frames, and several very heavy boxes to carry all of this, put an advert for the workshops on the local Home-Ed Facebook page and hired a hall to use. I should be honest; at this point the plan was still barely worked out.
Then it was a week before the workshops. The plan was still more in my head than on paper.
Then it was the weekend, and the plan – you guessed it – still remained largely in pencil and covered in question marks.
[Ed.: By this point, the Home Ed in a Shed finance department was wondering why they had agreed to pay for materials and the room.]
Then it was the last two days before the workshops, and I finally got down to actually pulling all the loose threads together. The plan went down on paper and it seemed like it would work, though I had no time to practice or change anything.
Then, on the day of the workshops, I was finally able to see the hidden meaning of life and solve all the problems of the world bring all the paraphernalia to the hall and have a go.
The first thing I got everybody to do was to listen to a quick recount of the story of my trip to Paris two years ago where I attended the exhibitions. That provided the story for the ‘Art is a Story’ trope I was focusing on. Then, I displayed some of my art that I had prepared and some art from other people; all this was inspired by the natural world – the second crucial concept I wanted to impart being ‘Art from Nature’. Then, indicating the table covered in my nature collection, I set them making art. The brief was to be inspired by either the shape, colour, texture, pattern, or some other factor of the material and then create art from it. Alternatively, they could arrange the objects in a pattern or arrangement to either draw or put in a frame. The story could be how the natural objects were found, or what their backstory was, or who found them and what happened next – or it could just be how you interpreted them, which is another type of story.
The second workshop, in the afternoon, was about the third theme – ‘Art from People’. I started by getting participants to arrange artworks along a timeline to guess when they were made. Overall, it went amazingly – lots of art, lots of discussion, and lots of laughs! Then, when everyone had worked out the dates of the art, I introduced the idea behind the art they would create – take inspiration from the style, subject matter, or some of the motifs used in prehistoric art, and use that inspiration to develop their artwork. When they were starting to finish off their creations, I brought out the final mini-activity of the day – a slate pendant, inspired by both a prehistoric one and one I made when I was messing around in the shed, before I realized it wasn’t my idea. The day rounded off with everyone wearing a pendant, differing only in the design, and admiring each other’s art.
Both workshops went very well, I think. The plan worked, and all participants went home with some beautiful artwork. Next time I run a session, I will make sure to plan in advance, not that morning! Aside from that, I think I did very well and am glad I had the chance to introduce more people to the world of prehistoric art. There remains one final thing to do before I get my Silver Arts Award – evaluate my work on this project and project delivery, and analyse feedback I receive from participants, helpers, and people who see the art in the mini-exhibition online. Hopefully I can do that soon without too much difficulty!