Art, Myth & the Inner Life: Symbolism, Stories, and the Unseen
Explore art through collage! Registrations due by February 1st.
Class Description
Drawing inspiration from the Museum’s current exhibition, Monsters, Beloveds and Invisible Whales: Patricia Bellan-Gillen, this three-week course explores the ways art can help us think about stories, symbols, beliefs, and the world around us.
Led by artist and instructor Ellen Paquette, the course will draw on her interest in Renaissance portraiture and the stories that can exist beneath the surface of an image. Through discussion, close looking, and hands-on collage-making, participants will explore how artists use images and symbols to express ideas, emotions, and experiences that can be difficult to put into words.
The course will introduce a range of artists, thinkers, scientists, and movements, including William Morris, Hilma af Klint, Leonora Carrington, Carl Jung, Rupert Sheldrake, Sharon Blackie, Theosophy, and Transcendentalism, while exploring ideas around mythology, spirituality, connection to the natural world, personal symbolism, and the unseen.
No prior art experience is required. Participants will create their own collage work throughout the course as a way to explore and respond to these ideas.
Course Themes Include
Art, myth, and symbolism
The unseen and hidden dimensions of human experience
Renaissance portraiture and the story behind the person
Personal and cultural mythology
Shadow work and the hidden self
Creativity as a way of exploring inner experience
Wintering as a period of reflection, transition, transformation, and renewal
Exploring connections to the natural world
How artists use symbols and imagery to communicate experiences that are difficult to express directly
Collage as a tool for reflection, meaning-making, and exploring personal imagery
Price
95$ for members, 115$ for non-members. Members use the code MEMBER for your discount!
Dates & Times
This class will meet Sunday, February 7th, 21st, and 28th from 2:30 – 5:00 pm
Materials
Materials included, but participants are encouraged to bring their own interesting collage materials.
About the Instructor - Ellen Paquette
Ellen Paquette is a northwestern Pennsylvania-based artist and musician working out of her studio on the edge of the sublime Allegheny National Forest. Her acrylic paintings feature animals in Renaissance-style portraits, as well as mythic and folkloric subject matter. Over the last few years, Ellen's work has come to focus primarily on vulnerable and endangered species.
Along with earning a BA in Art, she spent time studying anthropology and archaeology. Her skill as a painter and designer has been especially showcased in unique portraiture, interior decorative painting and trompe l'oeil projects, spot illustration, and theatrical scenic and costume design.
Ellen is also a professional Celtic harpist, volunteer therapeutic harpist for Hospice, nature lover, avid enjoyer of the outdoors, and fabric artist who designs and creates whimsical soft sculpture creatures and art dolls inspired by wildlife, mythology and cryptozoology.