July 20, 2015 at 2:24 p.m.
School of the Arts draws creative minds to Rhinelander
School of the Arts draws creative minds to Rhinelander
By Kayla Thomason-
There were 35 classes for participants to choose from. Selections ranged from visual, culinary, theatre, writing; and body, mind and spirit.
Lynn Tarnoff, director of SOA, said there were 150 participants - roughly a third of whom were first-timers.
"The turnout is great this year, I'm really excited," said Ashley Gordon, encaustics instructor. "There's a ton of first-year attendees and I can't be more thrilled because once they have attended for their first time they're going to be lifers."
This is Gordon's third year as an instructor with the SOA.
She taught her advanced session - for those with prior knowledge of the artform - about surface preparation, embedding, mixed-media and end treatments.
"The medium is really cool to work with, it doesn't turn out like anything else that I've experienced," said Susan Schneider, a fifth-year attendee. "You can do so much with it because you can build it up and make textures and you can meld your colors."
Schneider and Gordon became friends outside of School of the Arts. When Gordon showed her encaustics, she became intrigued.
"I'm thrilled and excited to share this medium with so many people," Gordon said.
Schneider also took the native flute class this year.
She said her favorite thing about School of the Arts is the bonds she makes with people and the freedom she has to create, to break away from her normal routine.
"The School of the Arts is such a great platform and I love getting together with all these like-minded people and this whole connective consciousness of creativity that happens over this week," she said.
Her students have contacted her outside of class for tips and advice and Gordon has been happy to guide them, she said.
"All the teachers that I've run into are very good at their craft and they're very good at teaching and making you feel comfortable when you're trying something absolutely new," said Barbara Kazmierczak, a second-year attendee.
Her instructor for the "watercolor and getting started" class, Mary Ann Inman, has been a teacher at SOA for a dozen years and has a bachelor's degree in fine arts she earned at the age of 50.
"The idea that you can come (to SOA) and paint and act and sing or dance is wonderful," Inman said. "I would like people to come and try it and I think you'll find something that you'll love."
Kazmierczak was in her beginner watercolor class where students traced an image of a flower and painted it.
She said she took previous botanical drawing class and loved the way the many colors and patterns were in flowers. She selected an image that had those traits to paint in this class.
"(Art) keeps you very mindful because you have to concentrate on what you're doing right, you can't be thinking of fixing dinner and all this other stuff so it's very relaxing and very rewarding," Kazmierczak said.
She loved the space that the students had to work with and found the area beautiful.
The other class she took this year was "writing from what you know."
"It's really focusing on memoirs and autobiographys and things from your own life," Kazmierczak said.
She said she only took two classes so she could focus all of her attention on her two areas of greatest interest.
"I like the ease of registering for this, the good information I got about the teachers so I kind of knew which areas I wanted to focus on before I signed up," she said.
SOA got its start when a UW-Madison professor received a grant from the federal government. He created the program in community partnership with the Rhinelander School District and the Northern Arts Council, according to Tarnoff.
"My favorite thing is actually being here," Tarnoff said. "It takes all year to plan but we get here and the best part is visiting classrooms and seeing everyone so happy creating together, rejoicing seeing one another and being in this artist-supported community."
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.