ART 216: Sewn Construction (2021)

at Portland State University in Portland, OR

Format: Remote Learning

In this course, I taught students introductory sewing construction online during the Covid-19 pandemic. They came with a variety of experience levels and with diverse academic focus — many outside the school’s art program. The class is project-based and includes specific skills that individuals could build on if they wished. I ordered several texts to be available online through PSU’s library, which remain available to future students of this class who might have difficulty accessing the library’s in-person resources.

Quilt Project: Experimenting with layers, textures, and the behavior of different fabrics

“Napkin Sketch” Project: becoming familiar with common hand stitches and free-form stitching on the  surface of a cloth napkin

3-D Form Project (Cylinder + Zipper):  Students started with a basic shape and built projects from there

Garment Project: Students used the same pattern in different sizes to customize their own shirt/jacket with buttons, pockets, a collar, and hems/cuffs 

High-Vizibility (2022)

at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Portland, OR, with support from the King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA)

Format: Series of workshops, I collaborated with artist Becca Kauffman to make a new set of uniforms and parade choreography with the Martin Luther King Jr. School 5th Grade Safety Patrol team. In the workshops, we discussed the visusal symbology of street signs, physical pedestrian guidance, the importancce of communicating in public, and the value of visibility as an individual and member of a group. The students designed their layouts and then cut out shapes and patterns to adorn their vests, inspired by the world of signage and their own imaginations. In the flagging and movement workshops, we worked with the students to recall motions used in traffic guidance. Our learning together culminated in the debut of the personalized uniforms and handprint flags in a patricipatory pedestrian parade at the school’s crosswalk, and a home for the new vests at the entrance to the school. 

Shards and the Process of Letting Go (2022)

at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA

In this workshop, I collaborated with Laura Glazer and Luz Blumenfeld-Honea to develop a workshop for Proessor Amanda Leigh Evans’ ceramics class at Whitman College. We gathered the students to learn the process of recycling clay, in an act of visibilizing their instructor’s behind-the-scenes labor. Starting with broken shards of bone-dry pottery, we used the example of ancient ostracons to invite the students to inscribe something they want to the “let go.” We discussed the ephemerality of unfired clay and its ability to hold memory, shape shift, and return to it elemental origins by enacting the simple and common and process of re-hydration.

Scores for Rest (2021)

at the Dickinson College Farm in Boiling Springs, PA

In this workshop, I worked with apprentices and student farm workers to consider the ways site-specificity in art can be related to agricultural labor. After sharing some backgound about the history of performance scores, I asked them to write their own brief scores that describe personal habits of rest and short breaks from work on the farm. They wrote their scores onto the surface of handerchiefs I made from an old bedsheet, which were divided into 3 sections with stitching for ease of brainstorming. This workshop became a simple way to begin a conversation about complex, and often difficult, relationships to rest. After the compositions were completed, several scores were performed, and then we all traded handkerchiefs with each other to perform the scores during the next week of work.