Museum Studio Spaces VIII – The Woodshed

I have been visiting and writing about museum studio spaces, but I’ve also been reading about the concept of facilitating art experiences in museum galleries rather than in a separate art studio. At the Hyde Park Art Center, I recently had the opportunity to observe a small studio space and participate in a workshop right in the middle of the exhibition, “The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige.”

The Woodshed (from the title of a book by abstract painter Jack Whittier) is a structure in the center of the gallery which includes some drop in art materials for people visiting the exhibition and is also used for hands-on public art workshops once a week during the exhibition.

I was at the museum to take part in one of the hands-on workshops, which was a collaboration with Intuit: “Notes from The Woodshed Workshop: Materiality & Technique: How do materials shape the process?”

The workshop started with a tour of the gallery led by Hyde Park Art Center Community Engagement Fellow, Keny De La Peña who talked about Robert Earl Paige’s career and several of his techniques. We then went over to the tables that were set up in the gallery to learn more about Batik and the process we would be using. Robert Earl Paige joined us and showed us some more of his pieces as he told us a little more about his technique. (Unfortunately, I didn’t snap a picture of him, but here is one I found online.)

And then surrounded by his art, we began to explore the materials. After we sketched out our designs we went into The Woodshed to apply the wax, which was melting in an electric pot sold for salons – a big upgrade from the electric frying pan and tin can method I used many years ago when I did batik with melted crayons. Then, we returned to the tables for the dying process. The expectation was that we would apply the dye with foam brushes in a method similar to the ones Paige uses.

I had been thinking about what I wanted to make for days, which turned out to be a mistake. I envisioned an indigo design that I could make into a pillow that would complement the ones that I made from a piece of African fabric I had been given when I was high school (I had originally made it into a dress). Unfortunately, because the dye we were using was sold for tie dye, the blue was not indigo but turquoise, and because I was only using one color, we dunked it rather than using the applied brush method.

While I’m not going to be making a pillow, it was fun to try Batik again and to think about how ” materials shape the process.” It is always fun to make art with others, although this time it was a bit intimidating.

But as always, their designs sparked some ideas, and I think there will be more batik experimenting in my future!