Workshop Art: Ken Kewley’s Looking and Inventing
“Separation of the observer from the phenomenon
to be observed is no longer possible.”
— Werner Heisenberg, 1927
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Participating in a Ken Kewley collage workshop has become a nearly annual event for me since 2015. The quantity and scope of work produced is hard to equal elsewhere. The pace is fast. Each set of instructions builds upon previous steps. From line to shape, from black and white to color, from flat to 3D, from still to animation—the sequence shifts from invention to observation back to invention. It’s a giddy experience enriched by working along side a group of diversely talented artists.
Ken has taught at Three Pines Studio in remote northern Michigan for many years. The tiny town of Cross Village is renowned for its excellent food and welcoming community. A compact, limited supply list made it easy to fly from Boston to Pellston Regional Airport with connecting flights through Detroit. Without a car on site, I was dependent for transportation on friends of the studio and other workshop attendees which posed no problems. A rented cottage with kitchen, reserved by the studio, provided comfortable private housing.
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Above: Figure from Life, Clara Reading — 5.5×3.25 inch, acrylic-painted paper collage, color & drawing over print of previous state, June 2022
Werner Heisenberg, theoretical physicist, mathematician (1901–1976): Uncertainty/Indeterminacy Principle, regarding sub-atomic particles, 1927.
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Above: a short list of supplies made it easy to fly to northern Michigan:
glue, scissors, masking tape, acrylic paint.
Above: my work occupies center 3 columns of
8.5×11 inch archival printer paper.
Above: workroom is in a former school house;
artwork on 8.5×11 inch archival printer paper is taped to blackboard.
Above: Stage Set, acrylic-painted cardboard and masking tape.
Above: Three Views of Stage Set, acrylic-painted paper collage.
Above & below: gardens and farm cottage housing.
Above: Lake Michigan at Cross Village, Michigan.
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