Artist-in-Residence is a program where an artist comes into an environment to develop, create, and produce an artistic project. In the past, I’ve focused my residencies within schools in France and more recently in the United States.
For the children of L’Enfant International Preschool in Bethesda, MD, their art project’s theme needed to focus on friendship and textiles. I developed multiple workshops tailored to their needs and adapted the themes specifically to the age group of the students with whom I’d be working.
The project unfolded over 4 sessions spread across 4 weeks and focused on patterns and storytelling loosely inspired by the beautiful ancestral Native American textile art. By painting a character, through their own choice of colours and textures, the students were able to express their very own identity while simultaneously being open to differences. Using paint, fabric, and beads, students created their own textured artworks while learning to appreciate new craftsmanships, creativity, and community.
For the children of L’Enfant International Preschool in Bethesda, MD, their art project’s theme needed to focus on friendship and textiles. I developed multiple workshops tailored to their needs and adapted the themes specifically to the age group of the students with whom I’d be working.
The project unfolded over 4 sessions spread across 4 weeks and focused on patterns and storytelling loosely inspired by the beautiful ancestral Native American textile art. By painting a character, through their own choice of colours and textures, the students were able to express their very own identity while simultaneously being open to differences. Using paint, fabric, and beads, students created their own textured artworks while learning to appreciate new craftsmanships, creativity, and community.
Session 1: The students painted on fabric their character and animal through cut-out stencils.
Session 2: The children carried on building their characters by adding features such as a face, hair (mustache for some), and making a decorative frieze with various shapes of stamps.
Session 3: Having created a beautiful frieze around their character composed of different shapes and colours, the students glued textiles of various textures on top of the stamped shapes.
Session 4: The final decorative phase of the project! The students finalized the embellishment of their character by adding pieces of felt, pompoms and for certain age groups even hand sewed beads.
Session 2: The children carried on building their characters by adding features such as a face, hair (mustache for some), and making a decorative frieze with various shapes of stamps.
Session 3: Having created a beautiful frieze around their character composed of different shapes and colours, the students glued textiles of various textures on top of the stamped shapes.
Session 4: The final decorative phase of the project! The students finalized the embellishment of their character by adding pieces of felt, pompoms and for certain age groups even hand sewed beads.