Vanderbilt Alternative Spring Break, Pt.2

Eager to *get at it*, the volunteers exhibited good cheer and enthusiasm for whatever Imagine Art had in store for them. Pictured from left to right: Gigi Bruns, Xinyi Bian, Bobby Li, Areli Zuniga, Kayla Nguyen, Sona Dixit (holding John Molina’s coloring book)

After a Lacey Richter orientation, the next Vanderbilt cohort was ready for action. A full day was planned, with extra little bonuses.

Block Print Workshop

On Thursday after the students switched locations, the St. Luke group began by designing and carving linoleum tiles to make block prints. The block print workshop was led by Anthony Robinson, whose calm direction made a seemingly difficult task, safe and easy. The volunteers had fun expressing themselves. Shown in the images below is a first draft print of an orange Chinese dragon (it just needed a little more ink) and a green turtle swimming in grass. Other designs included a giraffe and plant (not shown). Even Dani got in on the act by carving then printing her name in Elvish on a Neverland map.

Carving a swimming turtle image into a linoleum block.

Lunch Bonus: Without Walls

AmeriCorps artist-in-residence Fidencio Duran is a renowned Texas regional painter whose murals are displayed throughout the central Texas area. His paintings are prominently shown in galleries and museums in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, El Paso and places in between. At the Bob Bullock Museum last Thursday, where Fidencio was conducting a mural workshop for high school students, he agreed to be available for Imagine Art’s weekly Without Walls field trip at around noon. He guided a tour of the upstairs art galleries.

Journal Making

Dani Bailey, the mixed-media expert, planned for the volunteers to make journals. A donation was made a month prior— two boxes of nothing but book covers. All the pages had been torn out. It was eerie. After that, IA assumed that any donations out of the the ordinary probably belonged to mixed media.

Students diligently stitched together the set of pages with needle and twine, then taped the sets onto the recycled book covers.

Stretching Canvas

On their last day, Friday, the students assembled in Imagine Art’s easel studio to take part in a canvas stretching demonstration. Professional artist and experienced canvas stretcher Fidencio Duran, demonstrated how it is done. He also showed how to gesso the raw canvas in order to prepare it for paint.

Once the demonstration ended, the students follow suit. They stretched seven canvases and applied two coats of gesso to each canvas.

St. Paddy’s Day Send-off

As sometimes happens during Spring Breaks, Friday was also St. Patrick’s Day. Dani arranged for snacks and a movie in the drawing room. Some watched the entertainment and enjoyed the snacks, but most continued finishing their projects: adding the second coat of gesso to a stretched canvas, taking group selfies, and getting to know the AmeriCorps members a little better before driving back to Nashville on Saturday.

The Vanderbilt students over-all response to their week long experiences was a joyous thumbs up! As Bobby Li commented, “I would love to work in a place like this!”

Imagine Art was thrilled to host the Vanderbilt ASB program and can’t wait for their return.