Spending a Night with Sarratt
There’s a little-known treasure tucked away on Vanderbilt’s campus: Sarratt Art Studios. Open to all students, faculty, and native NashVillians over 16, Sarratt focuses on courses scheduled once a week during the semester, and a summer institute for youth. Full Disclosure: I’m a sucker for continuing education anyway, so I have to admit that Sarratt garners a special place in my heart for bringing art education and (importantly!) studio facilities to graduated artists, non-art majors, and the community at large.
Plus, they’re pretty cool people.
Pottery classes with Audrey Deal-McEver
As I’m also a sucker for purchasing pottery, Audrey Deal-McEver has been trying for ages to get me to visit her pottery class, and I was glad to finally have a chance earlier this month to stop in.
One of the students at the pottery wheel.
Good timing, too: the artists were in the middle of some really interesting projects…
This holiday season, we're handbuilding a turkey instead of stuffing one.
and I enjoyed being able to overhear student discussions about glazing and firing…
Glaze samples show you what you can expect from a particular jug, since the unfired glaze looks completely different!
and to sit in on a lecture showing different approaches to pottery.
...these are basic pots, but they're only the start to where ceramics can explore. Take a class and see for yourself!
While I was there, Audrey was kind enough to introduce me to the other classes happening that night. Our next stop was…
Jewelry, fused glass, and metalworking classes with Nancie Roark.
As my main interaction with metal as been on the sharp pointy end of speedball carving gougers, seeing the metalworking classes that Nancie Roark teaches is a whole new, beautiful side to a versatile medium. Instead of wound-inducing implements, Nancie’s class was fashioning some very appealing designs….
...such as these delicate, in process pieces.
Granted, it still looked kind of dangerous…
but also kind of cool.
It was a really fascinating look into the process of jewelrymaking. If you’ve got an appreciation for detail and tougher skin than I, you should check out their classes!
(Also, their tools are super neat and organized.)
Audrey also introduced me to Christopher Cheney, who teaches printmaking courses that also met that night.
A student silkscreening in class with Chris Cheney.
I love printmaking processes, and it’s always fun to see other printers in action…
...and how they get there, like with this rigged light set-up for exposing an image onto a screen.
I wish I could have gotten more shots of people working, but I have a bad habit of talking and drooling with envy instead of shooting photos sometimes when it comes to printshops. The studio is set up with a computer for creating screens, a whole bunch of example prints and tools, and two darkrooms (which also facilitate the photography area).
AND a giant worktable, which makes the studio artist in me go pitter-patter.
If you’ve been interested in screenprinting, Chris has a lot of great advice and recommendations for established printers…
...or if you're a beginner to the process, sign up to take a class next year and have access to all of the equipment.
Last was a visit with the watercolor class taught by Pam Francis.
Pam has been teaching at Sarratt since 1997, and when we arrived, her students were working on watercolor paintings based off of collage elements.
The students had gathered pieces of photographs, magazine clippings, and personal swatches to combine into a unique view. The hard part is imagining the different sections as a complete scene, and it was interesting watching people draw from pretty varied sources to create a unified view, lighting, and layout.
The level of detail and concentration was also welcome. I enjoyed seeing the care as each painter got into their work. Watercolor can be a tricky medium since it is so translucent, letting previous layers peek out when you lay down new color. Color-mixing and knowing your paint becomes important as different combinations can produce unexpected results.
Due to the quick drying nature of the work, watercolor is also one of the easiest painting methods for painting in the studio, just at home, or out in public. It’s a popular medium and very affordable…
...making it an ideal class for someone being introduced to painting.
Getting to see the process behind work changes your perspective and lets you see for yourself the value of a final product. And when it comes to value, there’s some great work being produced by Sarratt students and faculty. As I mentioned earlier, Audrey knows I’m a sucker for purchasing handcrafted works of art, so a few days ago she also invited me to see the annual Sarratt Holiday Arts Festival. This is the 21st anniversary of the Festival, and it’s going on RIGHT NOW until December 11th, 11 am-7pm. There’s work from the studios and professors, such as:
Ferocity jewelry by April Kaye Nikolaides
Beadcraft by The Women of Umoja, a safe haven for women and girls that also serves as a training center for human rights, economic empowerment, and preservation of traditional crafts.
Ukrainian Eggs by Karen Ozment, which are carefully dyed and varnished in an intensive process
Jennifer Knowles-McQuistion of Brown Dog Bindery
Remixed stationary from Juniper Berry Design
Prints and pillows by Julie Sola
and other works featuring ornaments by Terry Barrow, pottery by Laurie Box Graham, jewelry by Andi Davis, pottery by Audrey Deal-McEver, mixed media collage by Elizabeth Garlington, pottery and photography by David Heustess, pottery by Kelly Kessler, jewelry by JoEl Logiudice, jewelry by Susan Moody, textile arts by Lori Nichols, photography by Anna O’Conner, jewelry by Nancie Roark, birdhouses by Frank Saggus, blown glass by Jose Santiseban, cards by Eileen Tomson, and paper and botanicals from Thistle Farms.
Go take a look, and if you like what you see, it’s a great way to shop local for your holiday gifts. Don’t forget though that you can also choose the opportunity to learn these skills yourself: register for next year, and, as Sarratt would say, “get some class!”