Lift the Lid 3 Moving Insect Portraits Sunday April 3rd

Moving Bug Portaits......

For this third session the theme was to identify a favourite insect, and then create a portrait of yourself as this insect which would be able to move: a moving bug portrait!

Here is Angelica holding her selection of bees and butterflies

Whilst her brother Vinnie shows off his caterpillar...

The above caterpillar is clearly in full motion and a lively collaboration between mother and daughter.

The afternoon was less busy than usual as it was Mother's day and in between exhibitions, but everyone who came to the session quickly identified with their favourite insect, such as the multi-dimensional butterfly by Caoimhe seen below, and went straight into action.

Ladybirds and bees were very popular and some very focused concentration on making them move was inspiring to witness in participants of all ages. Below are companion dragonflies created by a sister and brother:

This last image was of a wonderful insect created by a gentleman called David who deftly used pipe-cleaners to make his 3-D artwork and sums up the imaginative approach towards the final selection of Moving Portraits...

Lift the Lid 2: Shoe Portraits March 5th

It could be said that a shoe give all kinds of insights into the unique personality of any individual, the tiny detail of a type of stitching, colour, traditional style, eccentric etc all indicate sometimes unconscious facets of the wearer. By creating a shoe as a portrait, what kind of information would be passed on to a viewer?

With a lovely group of intrepid workshop participants much activity was spent creating shoes in widely varying forms from 2 dimensional as below:

To these sculptural creations... So what does a shoe portray about its owner?

The workshop drew upon the work from the preceding Lift the Lid, where portraits were created in the form of a story, drawing and or collage as reinterpretations of a selection of the Moving Portraits exhibition. From 5 instructions family groups could identify key aspects of a portrait and then eventually create their own which may or may not correspond to the way that others would perceive the same portrait.

The choice was then offered to the participants of this session to either create a shoe which they thought that the person in one of the portraits might wear, or one for themselves, taking into consideration the exhibition and own likes and dislikes.

So a fabulously colourful range of footwear emerged, and one pair of friends taking up the invitation to create a dance with their shoes, which turned one corner of the space into a dance area, see below.

The result was to create a new version of moving portraits, as the shoe portraits became alive and were danced and moved around the space before being taken home. Thank you to all those who participated so imaginatively.