by Sarah Novio (MFA 2015)
Last week, Jess Leo (MFA 2015) and I taught our workshop: Painting/Collage and Woodcut Printmaking. Considering we only had a week to cover all of that, I think we did a pretty good job. The first half of the week I taught the students painting and collage, and Jess took over the second half of the week to teach them woodcut printmaking. The students worked really hard and were excited about learning about the new mediums.
After we finished the workshop, we were able to pick up the pace in art making again.
Working alongside Jess was great because I enjoyed seeing how her drawings develop over time and in many sessions.
Though our time in the studio was productive, we realized that we also needed to have fun and not take ourselves so seriously. During the last week of our residency, we set aside days to do what we wanted (Sight seeing in Santo Domingo, driving down to the beaches, hiking down the river, watch the sunrise, etc.)
Looking back at the last month, I’m happy with the way we spent our time here. I learned that if I wanted to continue to teach and paint, I have to find balance. Being in a different country made it easier and harder to achieve that, but it made this trip worthwhile.
