Life Map, a performance/installation was designed, directed and created by students from the Clay Plus One Workshop during the 2011 Hays Summer Gallery Walk.
The production began with a blue field and mounds of clay. Artists cut slabs and pieced them together, then used their fingers to blend the clay into a chaotic whole, preserving the marks of each artist touch in a wild and unorganized, but beautiful chaos. The experience of concentrated, shared work was focused, relaxing and spiritual.
Next, the artists stretched and pulled the clay, smoothing it with their palms to create a blank slate representative of a new life.
Developing a pattern from concentric circles and lines radiating from the center, each artists textured and created patterns in one circle, creating a mandala.
In Phase 2, artists and models took their places. Artists assumed a role based on a stage of life: youth, reproductive age, maturity, and elderly. As the artists sculpted a clay head over the head of the model, characters began to appear. Once completed, the characters walked the path of life, then held hands and walked to the center of the mandala and raised their arms in celebration.
The masks were removed and mounted on the mandala. The clay was then removed and recyled completing the life cycle.
Artists:
Youth: Tina Hagley and Luke McCampbell
Reproductive: Stasya Berber and Debi Cox
Maturity: Richard Dillard and Linda Ganstrom
Age: Christy Kosmicki and Christina Lamoureaux
All photographs are courtesy of Martin and Christina Lamoureaux
Student Work from the Workshop
Photographs by Sheldon Ganstrom
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August 1, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Michaela Valli Groeblacher
Oh, how great it is to see some of the work that was created during summer class. What a wonderful class! How inspiring! Great teacher- great students – great work!