Workshops for Children, Teens, and Adults: June-August 2012
Each year, Ox-Bow offers a series of workshops for children, teens, and adults in a variety of media. These workshops are geared towards residents of Western Michigan and seasonal residents who may live nearby for the summer (on-campus residence is not offered for these courses from June through August). Classes are timed to give participants concentrated studio time, while still allowing for the flexibility that busy summer and year round schedules require.
Registration by Mail: Begins May 1st
Complete the registration form and return it with payment in full to:
Ox-Bow, PO Box 216, Saugatuck, MI 49453
Registration by Fax: Begins May 8th
Complete the registration form and fax it with payment information to: 269.857.5636
Registration by Phone: Begins May 8th
Call 269.857.5811
Ox-Bow accepts Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, as well as personal check or money order, made payable to Ox-Bow.
2012 Courses for Children
Nature as Muse with Ellen Sprouls
June 18-21, 10am-12:30pm
Ages 6-10, $135
The woodlands, dunes, and waterways of Oxbow are filled with creatures that delight young explorers. The birds, salamanders, turtles, and fish will serve to excite the creativity of children as we hike through the woods, climb the dunes, and glide across the waters of the lagoon. Along the way we will stop to look and listen. Learning to see and interpret our surroundings. Our observations will become the basis of drawings, paintings, and three-dimensional works of art. Children should come dressed to hike through the woods and otherwise make a creative mess.
Visual Storytelling: My Week at Ox-Bow with Kim Meyers Baas
July 16-19th, 10am-12:30pm
Ages 8-12, $135
Making some sort of record of our lives seems to be second nature to us all. We write, draw, paint, and take photographs that tell our stories. In this class, students will create a series of art that illustrates all of the adventures of their week at Ox-Bow. They will document their own experiences in the landscape of the natural dunes, woods, and water. Whether the young artist is a big-picture person or more drawn to the details, maybe somewhere in between, they will immerse themselves in the art making process within the Ox-Bow community to create paintings, hand-made books, and mixed media collages that reflect their adventurous week.
Wild Thing Camp for Boys and Girls with Jon Hook/scout and Lu Hook/wild boy
July 23-26, 10am-12:30pm
ages 9 – 13, $135
Spend 4 days in the woods learning how to set up a “wild thing” camp using survival skills such as shelter building, campfire making, rope making, first aid, and cooking. Create nature creatures using elements found around you. Jon and Lu will be instructing on how to use common sense and ingenuity for basic survival skills in the woods. First aid skills, hiking, plant and animal identification, and exploring the lagoon’s edge will be part of this wild woods adventure.
Painting and Drawing in the Landscape with Catherine Sky
August 6-9, 10am-12:30pm
Ages 7-11, $135
Get ready to romp around the dunes, woods and lagoon at ox-bow with your sketchbook in hand! We will explore the lines, shapes, and colors of the landscape through drawing and painting. Observational skills will be our starting point with plenty of room for imagination and creativity. Learn techniques for using charcoal, watercolor and acrylic paint while soaking in the natural beauty of ox-bow's environment!
Courses for Adults and Teens
Abstracting Objects: Form Based Abstraction in Paint with Michael Pfleghaar
June 11-14/ 10am-12:30pm
$135
The concept behind this workshop is to use still life objects as the starting point of abstraction. Through deletion, isolation and exaggeration of objects the painting becomes a new un-namable entity itself. Abstraction frees the painter’s mind to focus on composition, mark making, and material use without the goal of representational imagery. Acrylic or oil paint suggested. Other materials combined with the painting will be encouraged, for example: collage, wood, resin, and spray paint.
New Best Friends: Water Media / Mixed Media with David Baker
June 25-28/10am-12:30pm
$135
Transparent watercolor, gouache, water soluble colored pencil; you have already met one or more of these. Let’s introduce them to one another!
All three media have many outstanding characteristics, but each has some limitations. We’ll explore ways to expand your technical and expressive range by layering and combining each media with one or both the others. These hybrid techniques can be adapted for either sketching ‘en plein air’ or for creating finished studio pieces.
The Book as Landscape with Andrea Peterson
July 9 – 12 | 10am – 12:30pm
$155, bookbinding materials provided
Find the places at Ox-Bow that inspire us the most and replicate and record them in thoughtful and playful book structures. We will make books that structurally mimic Ox-Bow's landscape using a variety of techniques and materials, and then record the landscape through various drawing mediums and writing. These unusual books will enable us to recreate the experience of the environment through the book's structure and the recordings inside. These will become “one of a kind books” holding visual memories and thoughts portraying this enchanting place.
*Free lunch if students take both The Book as Landscape class and Unveiling the Surface!
Unveiling the Surface with Andrea Peterson
July 9 – 12 | 2:00pm-4:30pm *|
$175, all materials provided
Create unusual surface design and pattern on paper using different techniques each day. Each sheet of paper will stand alone as a unique finished piece of art. You will learn the art of Suminagashi in which one floats ink upon a surface of water and works in tandem with the natural elements to create fluid striking patterns that are then "kissed" off the surface onto a piece of paper. We will use Shibori techniques of compressing, twisting, and folding papers to create one of a kind indigo dyed patterns. Paste papers, a type of applied pigmented paste, and western marbling, an application of swirling pigments creating vibrant patterns, will also be part of this 4 day class of age old paper surface design. Each day you will make gorgeous sheets and learn processes that can easily be duplicated at home. This class will take place in Ox-Bow’s historic Clute studio!
*Special afternoon time- Lunch is not offered for this class unless it is taken in tandem with the book class…in which case lunch is FREE!
Object Object with Meridith Ridl
July 16-19/ 10am-12:30pm
$135
From our instinct to spontaneously carry treasures in our childhood pockets to curated adult collections, we can note a human instinct to gather. Even the most seemingly simple objects can suggest emotion, meaning, and stories beyond themselves. In this class we will use drawing, watercolor and collage to pay tribute to the evocative power of the singular object. Artists will be asked to bring along some of their own treasures and also have a chance to become collectors amid the Ox-Bow campus in search of overlooked objects that might become subjects in the work.
Color Basics with Dawn Stafford
July 23-26/ 10am-12:30pm
$165, all paints provided (Additional short supply list will be provided)
Have you spent wakeful hours in the dark of night wondering about harmony? Color harmony, that is. More specifically the difference between warm and cool, value and intensity, or why"light" does not lighten or darken without changing color and temperature, then this class may prove illuminating. Part science project and part play, in this hands-on workshop we will explore the mysterious behavior of light as it applies to oil painting through a series of small oil studies. A pre-selected palette of pure-pigment oil paints is included in the price of the class. Drawing skills not required, but always useful.
Puppetry Immersion with Michael Schwabe
July 30-August 2/ 10am-12:30pm
$155, all materials included
Participants of this course will make their own three-dimensional working puppet. Learn an amazing and clever method of creating hard cast sculptural puppet parts. Michael Schwabe has been teaching this wonderful method of puppet craft for over 25 years. The technique is spontaneous and produces successful results for everyone. Learn to sculpt, paint, decorate and costume a complete puppet of your own. Mr. Schwabe is a master at making things and the techniques you will learn have applications that reach beyond puppetry - valuable knowledge for anyone interested in creating dolls, props, models, sculptures and interesting objects of any kind. While discovering this sculptural technique, you will be immersed in the finer points of character design, puppet theory and stylization.
Glass Beadmaking with Jessica Bohus
August 13-16/ 2 sessions offered: 10:00am-12:30pm or 5:00pm-7:30pm
$175, materials included
Using a Hot Head torch, learn the basics of making, shaping, and decorating unique flame worked glass beads. Explore techniques in depth through demonstration, hands-on classroom time, and personalized instruction. Beginning students will learn how to make many shapes of beads, as well as pulling stringers and decorative cane. Advanced students can focus on decorative surface techniques, sculptural beads or individual
projects. Take this class in the morning, evening, or both!
Landscape Painting with James Brandess
Tuesdays evenings: July 17, July 24, July 31, August 7/ 6:30pm-8:30pm
$170 for 4 weeks, $50 per session
This evening series of 4 multi-level oil painting workshops at the Ox-Bow campus will provide students the opportunity to hone their painting skills and improve their power of observation. There will be individual critique as well as group demonstration. Classes can be taken individually or in series.
2012 Faculty Bios
Kimberly Meyers Baas holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Loyola University Chicago, a teaching certificate and MA in art education from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim is an arts educator who has worked in public and private settings in Chicago, Michigan and on the Mexican/Texas border cultivating youth, community workers and young artists since 1992. Currently, she teaches art & design at East Kentwood High School in Michigan.
David Baker M.F.A., Indiana State University; B.S., Western Michigan University.
Teaches: Southwestern Michigan College. Exhibitions: Vesuvius Gallery, Glenn, MI; Colfax Cultural Center, South Bend, IN; Carnegie Center for the Arts, Three Rivers, MI; Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI; and Goshen College, Goshen , IN. Awards: Painting award, John Blank Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN; Purchase award, St. Joseph Annual Art Competition.
Jessica Bohus has her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has taught at Fiasco glass, Saugatuck Center for the Arts, Ox-Bow, and Water Street Glassworks. She has exhibited at The Indianapolis Art Center, IN; Beacon Street Gallery in Chicago; Vesuvius Gallery, MI; Torpedo Factory, MD; Kalamazoo Institute of Art, MI; Lighthouse Glass, LA; Mindscape, IL; and Good Goods, MI. You can learn more about Jessica at blueroanstudio.com.
James Brandess is both a figurative and a landscape painter. He is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He maintains his studio in Saugatuck, Michigan, where he also conducts painting workshops.
Jon Hook is a wood fired ceramic artist living on 11 acres of land. As an Eagle and Life Scout – Jon teaches his two boys, Lu 12, and Ry 14, how to live with land and animals in harmony respect and gratitude.
Andrea Peterson has her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She co-operates Hook Pottery Paper: a paper, print, and pottery studio and gallery in northwest Indiana, with her husband Jon Hook. She teaches nationally and does instructional residencies and workshops from her studio. Andrea lectures and exhibits internationally.
Michael Pfleghaar has made Grand Rapids, MI his home since 1983 and is best known for his colorful drawings, paintings, and sculpture. In 2011 he returned to school to complete his MFA in visual arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Modern decorative objects such as furniture and lamps provide the beginning of Pfleghaar’s meticulous process of image making. While based in material references, the paintings depart from reality through abstraction and reduction to a visually rich state that is beyond recognition. During his career, Michael Pfleghaar has received numerous awards and honors for his work, both nationally and regionally. In addition to his artwork being featured in Studio Visit and American Craft magazines, Pfleghaar’s pieces are in the permanent art collections of the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Steelcase, Herman Miller, and the State of Michigan Governor’s Residence.
Meridith Ridl is an artist and an art teacher with a BA from the College of Wooster and MFA from the University of Michigan. She is represented by Lafontsee Galleries has exhibited her work at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the University of Toledo, the Butler Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Queretaro, Mexico.
Michael Schwabe is an internationally acclaimed puppeteer and puppet designer, rigger and builder who works on the children's television show Bunnytown as well as Jack's Big Music Show. Michael is the founder and artistic director of the famous puppet theater company known as Hystopolis Productions, Inc of Chicago, Illinois. Michael has been teaching puppetry since 1980 and he is considered one of the most innovative character and set designers in the field of puppetry today. Currently he is Master-puppeteer with the performing troupe in Douglas, Michigan called The Village Puppeteers.
Catherine Sky graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001 with a BFA in painting and art education. She is a practicing painter and has taught art in the Chicago Public Schools for the past eight years. Her paintings explore the intersection of landscape painting with digital technology and incorporate imagery from travels in Ecuador, Australia, and the Pacific Northwest. She has been part of the Ox-Bow family since her first encounter in 1998 and continues to be inspired by Ox-Bow and its magic.
Ellen Sprouls is currently the Curator of Education in Galleries and Collections at Grand Valley State University. She has exhibited work at the International Center at the Smithsonian Institution, the Kresge Museum of Art at Michigan State University, and the Michigan Women’s History Museum. She has enjoyed exploring art with children for many years at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution; Impression 5 Science Center; the Muskegon Museum of Art; and the Saugatuck Center for the Arts.
Dawn Stafford is a full time artist/who lives and paints in West Michigan. In 2005 she opened The Peachbelt Studio and Gallery (www.peachbeltstudiogallery.com) located in an iconic little red schoolhouse, ca 1867, in Fennville, MI which is also her private painting studio. Her compositions are an extension of her connection with rural environments and her personal family history. Originally from New York, she received her BFA from Swain School of Design in Massachusetts before moving to Michigan in 1992.
This activity is supported by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Allegan County Community Foundation.
