12″x12″; digital media; 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
WORKSHOP AT KOLAJ FEST NEW ORLEANS 2024
Take Me to the Water: A Baptism in Collage
Friday, 14 June 2024, 3:15-4:30PM
New Orleans Healing Center
LaVonna Varnado-Brown
EVENT WEBSITE | REGISTER
Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, 12-16 June 2024. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend.
This workshop is a call to spell cast through collage. This workshop’s intention is to give honor to Mother Earth and the life-giving inspiration she brings by honoring the beauty of the elements, specifically water, and more specifically, the Mississippi River. Through collage, we will engage in intentional making that explores the dominant allure that is the spirit of the water. Curated like a guided meditation, we will hear the voices of the whales, engage in witness writing, and end with a collage in process. Witness writing is the process by which one free writes in response to artistic selection or performance. It is a record, in writing, of one’s reaction without parameter or prompt. Discussion and processing the process are essential and will be welcome as we consult the work of Alexis Pauline Gumbs and some of her ways to honor our relationship with the Earth and the water we coexist with. Alexis says, “May you taste the fresh and the saltwater of yourself and know what only you can know. May you live in the mouth of the river, meeting place of the tides, may all blessings flow through you.” We will meditate on how the creative flows through us and the power we have as artists to move information much like the river. Folks should come with some images already identified so we can end with the most complete “working” piece as possible.
24″x18″; oil pastel, acrylic paint, found images, ribbon/cord, gems, and fabric; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
ARTIST BIO
LaVonna Varnado-Brown holds a BA from Southeastern University Louisiana with a focus on Theatre and Liberal Arts, with studies in London and Paris. She has worked as an installation artist, artist advocate, teaching artist, and tutor in and around New Orleans. At Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023, LaVonna presented her collage workshop, “Uses of the Erotic”, and was a panelist for the symposium, “The Mystical, the Esoteric, & the Magical”. For 2022-2023, she was Artist in Residence at Longue Vue House & Gardens in New Orleans. The artist lives and works in New Orleans.
Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, 12-16 June 2024. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend.