Instructor: Michelle Marcuse

Medium: mixed-media

This workshop is designed to introduce beginners to the fundamentals of sculpting with cardboard and discarded materials and offers skill-enhancing projects for experienced artists. Participants will create small-scale sculptures, installations or wall pieces through creative experimentation with cardboard, wire, fabric, egg cartons, packing materials, and paint. Learn innovative techniques for working with and repurposing found objects and materials with teacher demonstrations of construction techniques, use of adhesives and ways of connecting surfaces, and project development.

This workshop will include a brief history of found object art and looking at notable artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, James Castle, Deborah Berger and Leonard Knight, among others. In addition to creating sculptural artworks, one of the goals is to raise awareness about environmental waste and encourage participants to see discarded items not as “junk” or “trash,” but as resources with the potential for repurposing and transformation into art.