Is your Wild Thing cute and cuddly? Or scary and creepy? Or my favorite cute and creepy?
Come play Dr. Frankenstein with me and create creatures that have never existed before.
Starting with cute cuddly stuffed animals found in abundance at thrift stores, we will perform some creative surgery and transplantation. By incorporating doll heads, arms, legs and other found objects into our stuffed animal we will be well on our way to developing a new species. We will use gesso and acrylic paint to create a unique ancient looking effect on the hard surfaces and then paint an expressive face on our new creature. Further embellishment with feather and fur and found objects will unify and finish.
This is a project-based class with tons of room for exploration and variation. I really encourage everyone to go where their muse is leading them. I will be spending lots of one on one time consulting and helping you create your special Wild Thing. We will be learning lots of fun easy techniques that produce quick, dramatic results. You’ll find that these newly learned skills can be applied to many different kinds of mixed media work. I look forward to playing with you.
Supply List:
- Several smaller stuffed animals from a thrift store
- An assortment of doll heads, legs, and arms (porcelain is my first choice but plastic or composite is acceptable also.) Size roughly proportional to stuffed animal.
- Exacto knife
- Takeout wooden chopsticks or popsicle sticks
- Fabric glue-- sm bottle ( I prefer Beacon Adhesives Fabri-tac Permanent Fabric Adhesive )
- An assortment of acrylic paint for face painting make sure to include a white and a black
- A palette and water container
- Paintbrushes including a tiny detail brush
- Embroidery needles and embroidery thread in a dark and light color
- Sm container of gesso
- Scissors
- Found objects for limbs, torsos, horns, or embellishment
Optional:
- Feathers
- Recycled fur coat pieces
- Faux fur
Teacher will provide:
- Walnut ink
- Liquid Nails Adhesive
- Extra tools to share
- Sm torches and butane
P.S. No stressing allowed, it is about the creative process, not the specific supplies.
A Little About ME
Clarissa Callesen is a former Rodeo Princess that left behind her cowboy boots and tiara
for the wild adventure of life as an artist. She has been fortunate enough to work all of her adult
life as a self employed artist, exploring many different artistic roles including tattoo artist,
gallery owner, production potter, and currently assemblage artist and teacher
’Brien’s book, Who’s Your DADA? Written a feature article for Art Doll Quarterly, and has been published multiple times in Somerset Studio.
