Dioramas and Delight
The stuff of childhood
Greetings, Dear Reader,
What was the last new thing you tried? Or, here’s another question: what’s a thing you loved to do in childhood that you haven’t done in a long time?
This week in my monthly Art Experiment Club, my good friend, who is a talented artist and skilled miniaturist, led us in making dioramas. I used to look forward to grammar school assignments that required a diorama. Give young Beverly a shoe box, some construction paper, and tape or glue, and off she went to the land of diorama delights! Guess what? Adult Beverly loves making dioramas, too! Here’s a picture of my diorama in progress:
Maybe now is a good time for you to try something new or return to a long lost creative love.
Upcoming Workshops:
May 6, 2024, 7:00-8:30 EST “Empathetic Voices: Using the Stuff of Life to Navigate Multiple Perspectives” Investment $30.
Art critic John Berger introduced readers to new “ways of seeing.” This workshop will allow you to explore new “ways of feeling.” Through focus on the persons, objects, and relics of everyday life, you’ll be given the opportunity to enter into the “body” and “experience” of others and give voice to the feelings and details of existence that arise. Our presentation will focus on persona poems and the empathetic voice. You will have time to experiment with multiple perspective poems after viewing photographs of Emily Dickinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo and the objects of their life. We’ll offer lists and examples to help initiate participant ideas.
Deadline to register: Wednesday, May 1.
May 13, 2024, 7:00-9:00 EST “Zine Poetry and Art” Investment: $50.
Zines, small circulation self published works, offer writers and artists the opportunity to put their work into the world. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn to create a zine from a single sheet of paper, and how to settle on a theme for it. We’ll provide prompts for writing poetry or prose and for creating artwork to use in your zine. We’ll also talk about how you might distribute your zine.
Deadline to register: Monday, May 6.
(Note: date change, so still time for enrollment) Sunday, May 19, 2024, 12:00-2:00 p.m. EST “Fragments and Fascicles: Stitching Short Forms Together” Investment: $70 includes kit fee.
In her late 20s and early 30s, Emily Dickinson gathered more than 800 of her poems into 40 fascicles, sewing stationary together with string. While some critics claim their ordering is random, others, like Dorothy Huff Oberhaus, argue that they form one major work. While we may not definitively understand Dickinson’s purpose, we can learn from the fascicles how to gather shorter poems together to create greater meaning by bringing them together.
This hands-on workshop will invite participants to generate a series of short poems–some may make use of forms such as the cinquin, haiku, or haibun–or image fragments. Following the generative part of the workshop, you’ll learn simple ways to sew their poems together, imitating the fascicles created by Emily Dickinson. You’ll have the opportunity to consider the order of the poems and how they appear on the page.
To ensure you receive your kit on time, registration will close on Sunday, May 12. International and want to participate? Please register by Sunday, May 5.
To sign up, visit our workshop site.
Links List
Books I’m reading:
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. This is my before-bed book. Still dipping into it each night.
The Girl from the Channel Islands by Jenny LeCoat. I’m listening to this now and enjoying it. I read/listen to a lot of WWII historical fiction. I’ve been considering why that is; I wouldn’t call myself a history buff by a long shot. I suspect that reading The Diary of Anne Frank at a young age sparked a fascination with this period that burns in me still. If you like historical fiction, do you favor a particular period?
Things I’m Eating
A return to oats for me! I am a creature of habit, and eating the same breakfast for years on end (with occasional exceptions for French Toast) is one of my habits (reduce decision fatigue, yo). While Neal found this overnight oats recipe “gloppy” and disliked eating cold oats, I am loving it. Maybe you’ll try it yourself and decide!
I can’t get enough of this broccoli rabe and white beans recipe. I don’t use burrata, just a touch of good ricotta–not for any reason other than I typically don’t have burrata in the house but often have ricotta. When I don’t have an orange around, I leave it out. Sometimes I add a little balsamic glaze.
I always claim that Smitten Kitchen taught me how to cook. When I am looking for a new recipe, that’s where I go first. I enjoyed this tortellini with peas (I left off the meat). I added asparagus, and it was delicious. It’s a super fast meal to cook, too–always important when I want to get in a run or hike and some creative time after work!
Stuff I’m Enjoying
Jim Doran’s dioramas–funny and odd and full of delight.
Mindful Art Studio’s Inchie Challenge–it’s free, and it just started yesterday, so you can still sign up!
Workshops Exciting Me
Pretty much anything Cal Patch teaches rocks my world. I’m finishing up my shirt from her Deluxe Hand Sew a Shirt class, and I can’t wait to take the full-placket version with her in the fall.
I signed up for the two-day katazome class with Chinatsu Nagamune. She is a generous teacher with a deep wealth of knowledge. Last year I took a one-day workshop with her, and I can’t wait to return and deepen my skills!
Tatter has sustained my curiosity and desire to learn since they launched their online classes. I’m looking forward to the quilt series and this hussif class with Jody Alexander, a fantastic teacher.
Creative Prompt: You knew this was coming: what’s a creative practice that you loved as a kid but haven’t done in a long time? Do it!
Thanks, as always, for reading this.
xx,
Beverly