Creative Projects at work!

Today I'd like to share some of the projects I've been working on at the Dorothy C. Benson Center . It's been a bit busy the past few months and I've had a great time teaching art classes there. For example the collage piece which was done as a sample demonstrating several techniques in my Mixed Media Class or the vase which I made in my Hand-Building Class.

Collage

Hand-built Vase


I've been teaching oil painting, drawing, clay hand-building and mixed media classes which have given me the opportunity to explore and work in areas I haven't for some time now. Teaching gives me the chance to get outside my normal realm of painting and stretch myself into areas not often traveled. I've just completed my second session of classes at the center and people are finally coming around after seeing some of the work being produced in my classes. The students are great to work with and recently the center had sign-ups for the next session, where I filled all of the 6 classes I'm teaching. I'll be teaching 2 painting classes, one in oils from life and the other in acrylics. I'll also continue my mixed media class as well as drawing. Two new classes I'll be teaching are sculpting in clay which will cover both representational as well as contemporary abstract sculpture techniques and an open studio class on Fridays where I can help students on a more personal level with their class projects. I'm looking forward to the start of the new session which begins on October 5th.


The following photos are of a scarecrow in progress being entered into a competition at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. I uploaded the drawing yesterday so wanted to add the following shots so you could see the real thing. It was delivered to the Atlanta Botanical Garden on Friday of the week.


At last he came together, time for a well deserved beer at the Botanical Gardens! This is Judy who helped sew the hair pieces together and myself


He stands about 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Not a small undertaking! The project took about two months to complete with the participants working on him about 6 hours a week. In total about 30 people added there hearts and hands into the making of this fellow.

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This photo shows the participants and staff who contributed to the project. I'm the rather large fellow dressed in black with the hat on to the right side of the photo.


This is a composite of several photos showing parts of the project.



The happy fellow above is a concept for a scarecrow I'm helping to create with my students at the Adult Day Care facility. One of the students came up with the concept which the group then took and developed further. We are calling this a psychodelic scarecrow but the theme is really more about the 60's and the peace and love movements which were so much a part of that time. The scarecrow will be part of a display at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens starting next week. I look forward to seeing him there and would encourage you to go and check out the gardens before the weather cools off.



Above is a wall graphic I developed for the Benson Centers 10th Anniversary. It provides a map of the facility and an outline of the responsibilities of the three entities who share the complex. I designed, photographed and produced the piece using Adobe software on my mac laptop. This was pretty run of the mill stuff in my past advertising life but seems well appreciated with the people I'm working with currently.