Dates: Sundays, Feb. 13, Feb 20, Feb 27, March 6, March 13, March 20 (Six weeks)

Time: 2-4:30 Eastern Time (11:00 - 1:30 Pacific time)
Note: Last half hour is shared studio time

All classes will be recorded for those unable to attend for whatever reason

Art is a conversation, with yourself and others. Since death can be hard to talk about, making art is a way to move through, understand, and express what is happening in and around you when you are confronted with death or thinking about your life’s journey.

Much of the world’s art expresses hopes and fears about death and possible afterlives: from pyramids to gravestones, in paintings and movies, with poetry and memoirs - and so much more - we celebrate those who die and imagine our own passing.

In this class we will use specific art forms to “talk” about death. It is my hope that something will inspire you now and other ideas will linger for when they may come alive in the future.

Class one: Bookmaking and Paper Patterns. Let’s begin by making small books - I’ll guide you through the making. Then we will look at a variety of ways artists explore bookmaking and sequence to tell stories. I will show you how different book forms can emphasize content. We can make a few quick collages that may incorporate sewing, crumpling, stamping and other ways to create interesting papers. We will consider scrapbooks as containers for memory and family history/storytelling, and how old pictures and letters are evocative for creating backgrounds and collages.

Class two: Writing. Memoir writing is a flourishing field right now. I will talk about different kinds, including short ones from the burgeoning field of flash fiction. Using our books from week one, we will write an epitaph, eulogy, and obituary; try blackout poetry, ransom note poems,100 noun lists, and a six-word history. We will take a look at concrete poetry: how shaping text adds to meaning. What we explored in week one will help you design unique pieces where the writing and the book structure augment each other.

Class three: Assemblage, Mixed Media, and Small Sculptures. The first part of this class is about making small figures: psychopomps (guides for the soul) is one way to think of them. Using air-dry clay or paper mâché we will make figures or faces; using sticks and bits of cloth we will fashion dolls/puppets and let them speak. In the second part we will find a home for our figures by exploring altars, boxes, dioramas, miniatures and Joseph-Cornell-like art that use objects in a poetic way.

Class four: Social Practice and Performance are ways to bring art into the world. We will look at how artists use their media to express soul, reverence, dying, burial. How other artists talk about hard subjects, like lynching, through art. We will look at death memorials - ephemeral, political, and those motivated by social change. Through this lens we can understand the current rise in interest in mediumship, reincarnation, and life-after-death. We’ll talk about virtual death: cancel culture and what it means to be hurt, shunned or die in a digital arena. This is a jumping-off place to consider if or what kind of public-facing project you might like to create someday.

Class five: Drawing. Drawing is a language you speak even if you don’t think you do. You know universal symbols and you have personal marks. We will make these and look at how to develop your way of “speaking” in line and experimental writing. We will draw on paper and cloth, talk about pigments, pigment hunters, the growing passion around using plants and earth to mark paper/cloth. Then we will turn 180 degrees and look at digital drawing you can do on pads and phones.

Class six: Bring it together. Work done during Zoom calls is intended to be a wind-up key. Work between classes is for greater exploration and depth. Looking at your work across the weeks will help you see what you like, are interested in, and want to do more of. As we get to know each other we will see what feels right for presentations in this last class. It is Halloween -let the spirits guide you

Jill Littlewood studied art history at the University of Chicago and got her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Graduating with a degree in drawing, she illustrated science fiction for the Del Rey imprint. In the following decade, she worked as a calligrapher for the County of Los Angeles, an illustrator for National Geographic and the L. A. Natural History Museum, and taught at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles.

Leaving Los Angeles for the Sierra Mountains, Jill studied hand papermaking, eventually becoming the president of the North American Hand Papermakers. Her room-size installation of hand-made paper, “Death and Other Lives,” toured America from 2005 to 2009.

From her studio in Santa Barbara, CA, Jill teaches and practices social practice art. She works collaboratively with book and textile artists all over the globe. You will find her most recent project, “Big Bad Beautiful Brown,” on her website www.littlewoodart.com and Instagram @littlewoodart

All artworks shown are by the instructor.