Since we are a visual arts school, I thought that summing up 2011 with pictures would be a good way to end the year.  We have been  incredibly busy building our community program and I want to  thank  the teachers  for their passion and commitment. The students who have taken our classes continue to surprise and inspire us. Flicker Street is an exciting place for Memphis and I am so proud to see the high quality of work coming out of the studio. See you in 2012! – Nancy Cheairs

We had our first Open Studio today and it was a  fantastic session.  There really is nothing like working from a live model with a group of people who are focused in the same way. The directness  of graphite and charcoal on paper is immediate and gratifying for me  and I believe that drawing in this way adds confidence and strength to my painting.  We had several new faces  and the group was a great mix of men and women.    Spread the word and come to the studio and draw or paint with us on Friday mornings at 10am.  Nancy Cheairs

The studio is full of energy this Fall!  Nancy Cheairs is teaching a  Figure Drawing Class , Color Class  and a new offering called Studio Practice.  Kate Bradley is teaching  a class called Essential  Drawing that is geared toward the beginner but really and hopefully aren’t we all beginners at some level?   Kurt Meer came on board this month to teach Expressive Acrylic Painting and we are so happy to have him. He will also be monitoring the Life Drawing Sessions on Friday mornings.  Ed Rainey started his evening class called Mixed Media last night to a new group of students and Maysey Craddock starts her new class, Image and Story, Creating Meaningful Content this Wednesday.  Erin Harris and her delightful young students got down to work on self – portraits, and  Nancy Cheairs and Erin Wright worked with a group of children on a collaborative painting for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Elizabeth Alley had an incredibly successful exhibition in September at Flicker Street.   Our classes are full with new and eager students,  the teachers are excited about their classes and their personal work, and the vibe is energetic, thoughtful, and positive.  Here are a few pictures from September!

The number of students who have walked through the doors this summer at Flicker Street Studio is amazing.  Children, teenagers, adults, beginners, experienced dabblers, and professional artists have worked side by side to create a stimulating and fun environment.  Even though the instructors teach different subjects and have different approaches, we all seem to share one quality:  Over Prepare then Go With The Flow.   

We offered workshops taught by Maysey Craddock- Wire Sculpture, Elizabeth Alley-The Landscape, Nancy Cheairs – Watercolor, Melissa Dunn – Abstraction with Acrylic,  Kate Bradley – The Portrait, Laurie Nye – Stencil Art,  Erin Wright -  Encaustic Painting and Colleen Couch – Smith - Creative Journaling.

Our last Summer Workshop, Creative Journaling, is happening on Saturday, July 30 and  this  class is going to be a solid end for the series because  your journal / sketchbook is a bedrock for ideas.

Flicker Street”s Saturday Studios have been a great success!  Thanks to everyone who made the summer productive, creative and cool!

Encaustic paintings can be so seductive because of their luminosity, transparent layers, and inimitable surface. I have  bought several ” How To”  books on the subject but the medium and tools  always seemed so complicated that I never pursued it.  Erin Wright’s classes at Flicker Street have shown me that painting with wax is indeed a new frontier and needs a knowledgable teacher to demonstrate the techniques and explain the methods.   Like cooking there are safety issues involved because of the heat guns, hot plates and fumes and like cooking, it helps to have a teacher demonstrate how to use the materials and learn the vocabulary of the basic techniques.  I learned  more from watching Julia Child saute her mushrooms and fold in her egg whites to make a souffle, than I ever did from reading her words in a recipe.  Erin’s demonstrations were so informative but the way she encouraged the students was perhaps the most remarkable aspect of her class.  She has a zen approach to teaching where there is no lesson plan and everyone finds their own way with the materials.  Every question from the students regarding possibilities  for their painting was met with the answer “Absolutely you can do that, let me show you how.”   What a great day for everyone!

Stencil Art has lots of applications and boy did we learn a thing or two about it from Laurie Nye!  She conducted an eye opening workshop  which resulted in some amazing work.  Laurie showed slides of  Banksy and other well known street artists along with some personal shots that she took in her home town L.A. Discussions about our culture  included media bombardment and how street art began as a reaction to the hierarchy of the gallery / museum/ Rarified Art World system.

Laurie showed us how to develop “the touch” with an exacto knife and demonstrated how that tool can make very delicate curves,  lines, and  patterns.  Once you get the hang of it, you can cut directly onto your canvas.  She showed us how to use spray paint to utilize it’s full potential.  Lights, darks, mid-tones are vocabulary words that are fundamental to formalist drawing and painting and it was a surprise ( but not really)  to see that those formal elements are used to make compelling stencil art.  Laurie, thanks for the great workshop!

The past few weeks at the studio have been golden.   The classes are full and the beginning of summer has been so creative and fun. Erin Harris and her assistant, Emma Kate Rose, taught an incredible summer camp called Art From Around the World where the children studied the art  of Africa, India, Japan, Australia, and America.  This group of children was focused, talented and well-mannered and I was  sad to see them go.  The prints, quilts, batiks, paintings, and masks that they made were fantastic!

Elizabeth Alley and Maysey Craddock taught really great Saturday Studio Workshops.  Elizabeth came fully prepared with images, materials, clear and informative instruction, helpful comments and of course her wonderfully light touch and lovely sense of humor.  I loved this class!  

Maysey  had a fun group with a family celebrating a birthday.  The students made such whimsical work and I think that everyone went home with a new appreciation of how many muscles it takes to make what looks like a simple wire form!

The month of June has been packed full of great surprises and I know that there are more to come.  I’m really looking forward to teaching my Watercolor class this Saturday, June 25.   Laurie Nye’s,  Stencil Art Revolution  is coming up on June 30.  This workshop is for teenagers and  I’m sure the energy, ideas , and vibe  in this class is going to be  indescribable!

See you soon, Nancy Cheairs

Today was the first day of summer art classes for children and Mrs. Harris took them on an exciting journey to Africa.  They studied a map, talked a bit about the people and culture, and made some beautiful African Masks!  I’ve never seen a group of children so enthralled  and focused on their art work!  Tomorrow they are off to India to create batik with wax and fabric paint.  Can’t wait to see what happens!

Once again, the students at Flicker Street came up with an extraordinary variety of creative, well made objects!   By bending, joining, wrapping and weaving steel and copper wire, the class found ways to develop their ideas through linear expression and volumetric form. Maysey Craddock has a knack for explaining technique while encouraging the student to forge ahead with their own ideas.

What a great class to start off the new Saturday Studio Series!  I’m looking forward to Elizabeth Alley’s, Landscape Class next Saturday, June 18.

Maysey Craddock shows her students that images with astounding beauty can be painted on tiny pieces of paper with tiny tubes of paint.   The students in her miniature painting class start off  looking through examples of miniature paintings from all over the world  to get a sense of the powerful and imaginative possibilities of this genre.  After Maysey does a demonstration on how to use gouache,  the students start forming their own narrative, make discoveries with the materials, and finally they hunker down and paint.

Maysey is a soft spoken teacher who is able  to tap into her student’s thinking and emotional life by asking a few direct questions and making a few sensitive suggestions with gentle prodding along the way.   – Nancy Cheairs