"Not every act of art creates something special, but it does create something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman
On the last Friday of each month, I teach a free art class for the West Jordan Cultural Arts Society called Exploring Art. It is designed for tweens, teens, and adults, and is a time when we come together to experiment and commit acts of art.
In the last half century, the city of West Jordan has grown from a small rural community in the Salt Lake Valley to being the third-largest city in population in the State of Utah. While the city has kept its rural, western attitude with its PRCA Western Stampede Rodeo every Fourth of July week and demolition derbies in August, the city also vigorously supports through the Cultural Arts Society a community symphony, a jazz band, a concert band, The Sugar Factory Playhouse, The West Jordan Youth Theatre, a literary arts guild, and the visual arts. The visual arts sponsors a spring Arts in the Park festival each year and oversees an art gallery housed at West Jordan City Hall.
The Exploring Art series is not a continuing, in-depth art class. It was designed to introduce participants to a different art form each month, give them some time to practice, and send them home with a few supplies to continue creating on their own. In the first three classes, we explored Op Art, Neurographic Art, and Zendoodle. In August, the class will explore origami folded books and zines. Future classes will explore reverse piano-hinge art journals, gelli plate monoprinting, mail art, and Artist Trading Cards.
I made a few samples for the participants to see as I gave the introduction. Here is one of the Neurographic samples I made, with copies of it decorated various ways.
After showing the samples, I put them away so the participants would not try to copy them while working on their pieces. Here are some in-progress works by some of the participants in the Neurographic Art class:
