Screen printing SUCCESS!

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As of yesterday I have officially finished my screen printing adventures in Arica, Chile. (well. we'll see if i'm really really done; I still have a week here so who knows)

I came back from my trip wanting to have workshop style classes open to everyone. My previous classes were good and fun, but didn't seem to be the most advantageous to todos. I taught a select group of students and had really horrible attendance with the second group. So I talked to the dean and my supervising professor about having open workshops this week to whoever wanted to come. Now that the semester is over I can use the classrooms whenever I want. They were worried I wouldn't have any students, but a simple email and facebook message brought in more students in two days than I taught in the two weeks of classes before!

I led two workshops wed and thurs this week; from 10-12am and from 4-6pm. I used the first 20 minutes to explain why I came, about the scholarships that gave me this amazing opportunity, and about the screenprinting process itself. I was able to have classes of 2 hours instead of 4 because I brought my materials prepared with designs in advance. It was a bit of a sacrifice that they couldn't design their own, but for the sake of teaching many people and printing more designs, it turned out to be a really good decision.

I had students come from all over arica. Little siblings of my friends, parents of students at the university, former students, and friends at la UTA. I had a blast, we printed a bunch, and all in all, la pasamos super bien.

This experience has opened my eyes to many aspects/details of teaching screenprinting that I hadn't considered before. I'm working on journaling all the problems I encountered, mistakes I made, methods that worked well and what I would do differently next time I teach. Each class itself changed from day to day as I learned and modified what I was doing and explaining.

I am extremely grateful for the support I've had in this art education adventure; both here in arica from Dean Herrera and Profesor Omar Gonzalez pero tambien por el apoyo en Iowa. The scholarships from the Curris and Guillaume families were indeed live savers and I greatly appreciate the guidance from my professors Tim Dooley and Aaron Wilson at UNI. It's been an amazing ride. NOw I just have to determine what to do with my screens and the ink I have left (I overshot just a little; and I'm going to leave behind some supplies here with the enthusiasts, but I'm also already thinking about how to incorporate these workshops back in Iowa!)

Now I have one week left. wow. I can't believe I just typed that because I really have 8 days in Arica. Hope all is well wherever this finds you; I'm off for now, I'm going to pay $30 to jump off a cliff and go paragliding 😉 (I'm really nervous but I trust my pilot). Off I go!

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Photos

Profe Amy
My 10am class Wed morning...

vale and gustavo
I taught groups of all ages; ninos hasta senores...

don't cry over spilled..ink...
After all the messes I cleaned up from my students, I ended up dropping the container of red ink..which exploded...all over .. everything.. haha

success!!
morning class

afternoon class
I taught the CISP group from Iowa :) (in spanish of course)

Comments

[lisa k wells]

xoxo
You are going to be the most amazing teacher ever!