Workshops in
Surrealism and Magic
with Daniel Mack and Janet Hamill
of the Seligmann Center for Surrealism
July 6, 10-noon, Mack Studio, 14 Welling Ave, Warwick
July 15, 10-noon, Mack Studio, Warwick
July 23, 10-noon pm, Seligmann Studio, Sugar Loaf
July 29, 5-9 pm Presentation at DUSKLIT
at the Seligmann Center, Sugar Loaf
They will be in costume offering card divinations,
poetry recitations, smoke divination, arrangements
of a textural portrait of the Seligmann Homestead and music: one plays the sax, the other the drums.
They will be reciting Carroll’s The Jabberwocky and inviting people to help them create an image of what this beast or beauty looked like.
The Surrealists
were artists who explored the Creative Unconscious
with various techniques--made up and borrowed from other older traditions. The purpose was to get to know better the elements of Magic. Magic is simply the name for energies and influences which are less able to be seen and measured. Magic befriends coincidence, accident, chance and distraction as doorways to the Creative.
In these workshops we learn some of these methods to present at a Magical Festival--Dusklit-- July 29th, from 5-9pm at the Seligmann Center in Sugar Loaf.
Before the Course
Look through Dan Mack's Website
Look through the DUSKLIT Website
Activities at the Workshops
Costuming
What hats, scarves, shirts, masks might you wear to mark this as special?
Scrying
Get a hand-held mirror, sit down and just look at yourself for five minutes
Bundling/Wrapping
Get a few sticks and some string or yarn. See what you can do.
Pounding:
Sandwich fresh flowers or leaves (Oxalis is great) between 2 pieces of white paper and pound with a hammer.
Marking
on paper with mud, ash charcoal, smoke.
Make accidental shapes, stains, spills
from coffee, juice, wine. Put them in a drawing
Intuitive sculpture
casually rework an egg carton, paperclip, candy wrapper, twist tie; shaping, sanding small stones with a pocket knife and sandpaper
Making Figures
Bark, Yarn/sticks, with squishy mache from egg or berry cartons.
Making Places
Make places in bushes, under trees. Invite people to sit or hide with you
Gift:
Make a gift for someone? A necklace, bracelet, amulet,
Poem-Sharing
memorize a few poems and ask people: "Would you like a poem?"
Names the Surrealists gave to some of their art-making activities... We will develop some of these for you to do on July 29th.
Automatic drawing/writing,
deep breath, clear mind, just see where the pencil/pen goes
Calligramme
words or letters of a text create a related shape
Cut-up technique
randomly cut up a text and reassemble in a new way
Collage
combining found and created images, text and objects
Photomontage
cut up and reassemble photographs
Cubomania:
cut an image into squares and randomly reassemble
Coulage
pouring molten metal, wax, chocolate into cold water. The results can be "read" as the diviniation technique of ceromancy
Frappage:
flowers or leaves pounded onto paper to create colors and shapes.
Parsemage charcoal or chalk dust scattered on the surface of water and skimmed off by passing a stiff paper or cardboard just under the water's surface
Frottage
"rubbing" over a textured surface and adding to it
Fumage
the smoke of a candle marks a paper or canvas.
Bulletism
ink is shot at a blank paper and images are developed
Aerography
Spraypaint a 3-dimensional object as a stencil
Drippography
dripping a flow of a liquid on paper or canvas
Find Your Surreal Name:
use the letters in your name as an anagram to re-name yourself