Cardboard and Coyotes: An Earth Month Celebration

Cardboard and Coyotes: An Earth Month Celebration, with Paula Pitman Brown and Jeffrey Nowlin

Sunday, April 16, 2023 (2:00-3:30 pm) at CAA @ Canal

650 E. Kendall Street Gallery, Cambridge MA

Presented in conjunction with Inspiring Change for the Climate Crisis (i3C) exhibit on view in April 

Come discover what cardboard and coyotes have to do with each other - and with the environment - in a creative and collaborative way. What a better day to celebrate Earth Month than learning an art process using sustainable practices! 

This hands-on workshop will include the theme of celebrating nature and the human connection to it, informing on a local fauna representative, the adaptable - and at times feared and even despised - coyote, and the adaptation they have to go through in the current evolving ecosystem due to climate change. In addition, the workshop will provide a learning opportunity to creatively reuse an everyday object, cardboard - a seemingly limiting material that offers endless possibilities - as repurposed material, while meditating on society's consumerism and waste. During this event, participants will build a 2D coyote using environmentally/sustainable and biodegradable materials. Leaders will provide stencils and models to inspire individual or group projects. Other i3C artists will build samples and facilitate participants’ creations.

Notes:

Participants should bring to the workshop 4 pieces of cardboard from boxes of favorite products (cereal, etc) that they generally consume, like or gravitate to, that is, that are relevant to their lives. This will make their creations more personal, like a self-portrait, with personal meaning.

Registration for this FREE event closes on Friday, April 14 at 5:00pm

About the instructors

Paula Pitman Brown is an artist who creates narrative paintings that communicate the complex relationship between people and animals in our urban world. She is passionate about the environment and the continued existence of a healthy wild animal population in our metro area. Paula is affiliated with several galleries and exhibits throughout The New England area. She has many publications and utubes. Paula’s art work is in many private collections. Currently, Paula teaches painting at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She also has a group of artists she teaches privately. As an art teacher for more than 40 years, Paula has taught in museums, privately and in many public schools. Paula has an Art Education degree from Suffolk University and Boston State College. She has a BFA with distinction from Massachusetts College of Art where her major was Painting and Art History.

Jeffrey Nowlin is fiber artist and sculptor whose work investigates the social systems which impact daily life. His sculptures, created with found fabrics, fibers and reclaimed objects, address the complex networks of human life. Nowlin uses weaving, sewing, assemblage, and carving as he considers the interwoven themes of mental and physical illness, queerness, race, and economic precarity. He utilizes formal elements to facilitate conversation on how visual culture and critical theory contribute to contemporary art. Nowlin works in Boston as a teacher of foundation studio art and art education. He graduated with an MFA in 3D arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2019 and a BFA in Sculpture from Boston University in 2010. His work has been part of numerous Boston area group shows. He is a board member of the Piano Craft Gallery, where he exhibited his first solo exhibition in 2020.

Note: This workshop was designed by the i3C Programming team: Steven Rudin, Paula Pitman Brown, Jeffrey Nowlin, Rebecca McGee Tuck, Luna Sconty & Adriana G. Prat