Light, Shadow, Chance: Teen Mixed Media Workshop w/ Artist Ashley Norman

Description

In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore mixed media through prompts, quick exercises, and collaborative experiments that blend drawing, collage, projection, and play. Using a range of materials and approaches, students will create layered works that pull from observation, imagination, and shared human experience. Some pieces may feel familiar, others unexpected.

Through short, low-pressure prompts and brainstorming exercises, participants will practice generating ideas, following unexpected turns, and building work through layering, transformation, and revision. Participants will also work with creative constraints and create their own approaches, using structure as a way to open up new possibilities. Sometimes the limit becomes the spark. All skill levels are welcome, from beginners to students looking to expand their materials, processes, and portfolios.

Inspired by the Exhibition

This workshop is inspired by the Artist Advancement Grant exhibition featuring Jihye Han, Cozette Russell, and Isabella Rotman. Across their practices, these artists explore identity, symbolism, and transformation through layered processes. Jihye Han draws from memory and Korean folk traditions to explore home, identity, and belonging. Cozette Russell works through cutting, layering, and rephotographing to stretch time and reframe the image. Isabella Rotman uses symbols and divination as tools for reflection, intuition, and meaning-making. Participants will take a similar approach, using materials, prompts, and chance-based systems to explore how images can shift, evolve, and carry meaning over time.