UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Sustainable Studio, an art-making, educational and experimental visual art space that foregrounds reuse, repair and ecological thinking as generative artistic strategies, will host workshops on May 14 and 16 at The Dock, a gallery located in County Leitrim, Ireland.
Led by Penn State School of Visual Arts faculty members Helen O’Leary, professor of art, and Kim Flick, adjunct assistant teaching professor, the workshops will employ Sustainable Studio practices that showcase how the studio has become a sustained, hands-on model of practice that is slow, resourceful and rooted in repair and interdependence.
“The process will be there in the open — handled, shared, worked through, rather than simply presented as finished work,” O’Leary said. “Within the Sustainable Studio, we aim to bring an awareness back into making — where materials come from, what they carry and what they ask of us.”
The Colours of Sliabh an Iarainn, an eco-print workshop, May 14 from 6-8 p.m.
O’Leary and Flick will lead an evening eco-printing workshop for artists and communities at The Dock, working directly with the materials of Sliabh an Iarann — its plants, waters and iron-rich soils. This is an evening session focusing on eco-printing, working more closely with leaves and plant forms to make direct impressions on cloth and paper, offering a quieter, more intimate way of engaging with the materials.
No experience is required. Tickets are required and can be booked on the workshop webpage.
The Colour of the Mountain, a dye workshop, May 16 from 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Join O’Leary and Flick for an all-day dyeing workshop for artists, working directly with the materials of Sliabh an Iarainn — its plants, waters and iron-rich soils. This is a full day of making — slow, physical and grounded in the place itself.
Tickets are required and can be booked on the workshop webpage.
The workshops are in support of O’Leary’s exhibition “Soft Spot,” on display at The Dock through May 30, which features her own work within Sustainable Studio. The acclaimed visual artist, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, situates painting as a site of rupture and restoration. Through circular processes of reuse and repair, she aligns artistic method with regenerative thinking and ethical making.