I’ve been teaching a small group of very highly motivated students. Abstract painting. Today’s class was a paint-and-pass study. I had about four different exercises in mind, centering around collaboration, and the group suggested new ways to do some of these. The first exercise was to start a painting, leave it and go to the next persons setup and work there some and then move on, moving around the room. And then variations from that. What we didn’t have time for today was to have two people work together at the same time on one painting.
One of the most interesting parts of this process was students using materials they hadn’t used before. Then too they found themselves respecting the original artist’s work and adapting their process to that. So overall it was a strong lesson in openness and awareness.
Coincidentally, Aaron just sent me an interesting clip of Geoff Crinean talking about collaboration, how it brings you to places you couldn’t have gone without it. I think each student learned from seeing what others had done with the same materials and ideas. I was so impressed with the work today, I wish I had had my camera with me.
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