The Oiseaux Sisters - Touring Workshops

We have a variety of workshop topics that we teach. A few descriptions are outlined below. Please contact us for a new list and descriptions.
oiseauxsisters@mindspring.com

To learn how you could bring a workshop to your community click here.

RISK LOVE RISK Love Medicine Alert

What the world needs now is love sweet love.
Why settle for a heart sized smaller or hopes eroded
as you wake each morning into an era of growing fear, paranoia, and distrust?
The time is right for Love Medicine;
a joyful, and thorough reconnecting with LOVE as a way to Be in the world.

We’ll take an evening slide trip through time and space,
traveling around the world looking at Love Medicine
as evidenced in the art of Africa, Haiti, Mexico, Egypt, Paris,
New York, Hollywood, and Alexandria, Virginia.
From gypsy charms to painted prayers, key chains to pin cushions,
from the sacred to the profane, and ; the sublime to the ridiculous.
We’ll examine talismans, amulets and charms crafted to protect, to enchant, to ensure.

The next day’s studio explorations will entail small labors of love.
We’ll use the most basic of materials and techniques –
Paper, words, twigs, leaves, stones, bones, buttons, coins, foil, beads, wax, string, souvenirs and stuff.
We’ll stitch and patch and stack and wrap and indulge our magpie instincts.

Our small object-poems will speak.
To the secret, and to the shared.
To the transformative, constant, urgent, forgiving and radiant aspects of love.
To body love, house love, animal love, plant love and love’s love.
Let our breath be our poems. Let our work be our prayers.

Altered Books
Of making many books there is no end;
Ecclesiastes

Add, subtract, invert, subvert. A day or two or three or more of play with the book form. Starting with existing books, we will saw, snip, fold, hammer, paint, stencil and stamp to enhance and extend, or subvert and replace the original communication. Librarians and bibliophiles are especially welcome to join us as we revise and reverence the book.

Daily: Strategies for Courting and Keeping the Muse

A variety of mixed media collage exercises to jump start and maintain creativity, continuity and change in the studio. A weekend workshop with The Oiseaux Sisters.

For many years we have been asking ourselves how artists become artists and stay artists. Wherever we meet artists we ask them what studio stratagems they employ to accrue momentum and ensure continuity in their work despite the inevitable interruptions inherent in the chaos of daily life. Is there a ritual to endorse the artist self? Is there a ritual making or marking performed on a regular basis upon entering the studio? How has the ritual evolved? Marking time? Commemorating passage? Or celebrating the artists' perseverance? The responses have been varied and engaging.

Our workshop begins with a slide show for inspiration. Then, together we will snip, fold, paint, print, stencil and stamp our way through a series of collage exercises, from the simple towards the complex, creating a sampler of strategies and techniques for daily use. Slides, examples, demonstrations and hands on practice. Sessions combine one on one and small group coaching with class exercises and critiques. Participants will be provided with a "must bring" and "optional" supply list upon registration.

Email us for more information and visit our "Booking Page"

© 2013 Oiseaux Sisters