Colette Wright Adams – May 6-8
Colette Wright Adams received a BFA in visual art from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, then moved to Chicago where she completed a MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in painting. She has worked professionally for 40 years in Chicago primarily as a painter and drawer. Colette has an active practice as a curator and is the founder and former director of the Uptown Arts Center. She has also created a number of art & community projects.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
My artistic journey is deeply rooted in exploring the relationship between humans, the natural world and the profound connection between them.
“We are immersed in a field of undifferentiated matter from which our senses gather bits of information…” serves as a philosophical foundation for me as an observational artist. Focusing on trees and botanicals, my perception of the world is a selective process, where I filter and interpret the sensory information around me. Often, I unearth patterns in nature. Some are obvious and others are hidden. A regular part of my art practice is meditation and meditative walking.
IN-PERSON and VIRTUAL LECTURE: May 6: 9:30 am (CT):The Observational Artist: Approach, Practice and Tools
From Representational to Abstract painting, artists have interpreted what they see, feel and experience in the world around them and within themselves.
Someone once asked Colette Wright Adams, “What inspires you as an artist?” She looked out at the clouds that were forming that day and said, “The sky…” and then added, “and everything between it and me.” It was then Colette realized she would call herself an observational artist.
In this lecture, Colette will discuss her journey as an observational artist. She will share how she uses meditation and mindfulness in her art practice and how focusing on being present and aware in the moment has heightened her observational skills.
IN-PERSON Workshop: Meditation & Drawing: Looking, to Seeing, to Creating
Tues, May 6: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Wed, May 7: 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Thurs, May 8: 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
A series of workshops will use meditation, visioning, drawing, collage, and watercolor. Based in part on observation and part on intuition, our activities will stimulate and cultivate our innate sense of creativity. Although you may work in another medium, these workshops can help you release images, approaches and ideas that are unique to you.
• Approaching Drawing: A group meditation featuring exercises with a variety of mark-marking tools and materials.
• Visioning and Intuitive Collage: A long visioning meditation with music and story.
• Approaching Drawing 2: An engaging process incorporating meditation, hand-relaxing techniques and traditional observational skills. Black and white drawing from life and from photos emphasizing composition, using pencil, charcoal, marker, and ink.
• Transcending Still Life with Watercolor: We will abstract a set-up still life by choosing geometric forms: circle, square, triangle, etc, to represent the objects and paint with a limited palette of yellow, red and blue watercolor.
• Folded Book: Participants will create small, folded books using imagery based on the art created during our time together in Intuitive Collage and Approaching Drawing.