Artist Vera Vasek Leads Exploration in Four Week Installation Workshop at Fort East Martello
Saturday, January 9 marks the first of four consecutive Saturday sessions of Which Way Is Up?, a collaborative, multidisciplinary installation workshop offered by Vera Vasek in conjunction with Key West Art & Historical Society and their adolescent and adult education program, Outside The Lines.
The workshop will run January 9, 16, 21, and 30 from 10:00AM-12:00PM and will be held at Fort East Martello’s second floor citadel. The museum’s eclectic collection will provide inspiration for a collaborative piece under the guidance of Vasek, who will lead students through the creative process from idea to formulation to creation.
“The idea of this workshop is that one has to begin somewhere,” says Vasek. “My personal work begins with the elements of movements and influence, and I create from there.”
Vasek moved to the Keys in 1988 and became deeply inspired by the landscape around her, particularly that of the backcountry flats with their shifting sands, silence, and stillness. The colors and expanse found there “fed her sense of wonder” and led her towards creative explorations and collaborations with plaster, burlap, wind, weather, and time. She is an artist that embraces the poetry of process while creating work that “explores and balances surface phenomenon with what lies beneath and couples positive and negative images as part of a more complex and complete resolution,” says renowned critic Lilly Wei.
Vasek will offer participants a brief introduction and slide show of her work and process before the class begins the exploration of creating the cooperative group installation.
“We will begin by assembling the elements of the installation narrative by referencing the history and artifacts of Fort East Martello,” she says. “We will focus through our contemporary lens and make something happen. Anything goes!”
The workshop will culminate in a final exhibition with a reception on Friday, February 5 from 5:30PM-7:00PM, which is open and welcome to the public.
Reserve your spot in this limited-space workshop by registering online at KWAHS.ORG/Learn. For more information call Adele Williams, Director of Education, at 305-295-6616 x 15. Cost is $125 for KWAHS members or $150 for non-members. All supplies will be provided.
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