Mark Making: Yayoi Kusama with Melanie Lan
Couldn't load pickup availability
Saturday, March 22, 11:00am - 12:30pm PST
This is an online workshop held via Zoom.
It's that time of year again...Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama's birthday! March 22nd is her actual birthday (she's turning 96!!), so we'll be celebrating this revolutionary artist by emulating her brilliant work 🎉Â
Kusama famously uses dots as a way to convey infinity—a concept that’s nearly impossible to grasp, let alone see. In 1968 she wrote, "Our Earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos." The repetition of endless dots can be as disorienting as it is intriguing, leaving viewers feeling as though they're a speck amongst something greater.
In this session, we’ll emulate Kusama’s signature way of making marks, by painting dots using both negative and positive space. We’ll learn about layering, brushstrokes, and color theory as well. Mark-making describes the different lines, dots, marks, patterns, and textures we create in an artwork. It can be loose and gestural, or controlled and neat. This class is appropriate for beginners and experienced artists alike—we each have our own unique way of mark-making, and discovering the limitless possibility of making marks is part of what makes art so immensely joyful!
Join Zoom 15 minutes early for an informal meet and greet with the instructor and class participants! Class will begin promptly at 5 minutes past the hour, so everyone has plenty of time to create!
SUGGESTED MATERIALS
These guidelines are here to help you gather supplies from home—feel free to use alternate options you love or have on hand!
- Your favorite Watercolor paints
- 2-3 pieces Watercolor paper – 5"x7" recommended, but this is flexible!
- Brushes – Larger sizes for washes, plus smaller ones for details
- Cup of Water
- Mixing palette
- Studio Cloth or Paper Towel
- Hard pencil - 2H/3H
- Scrap paper to swatch paints and warm up
- Optional: Washi, Artist's, or Nichiban masking tape
ABOUT INSTRUCTOR
Melanie Lan is an artist and illustrator based in NYC. She earned her MFA in painting at the Burren College of Art in Ireland, and has an interdisciplinary background in painting, cross-cultural studies, and somatic psychology. Her work explores the intersection of healing, meaning-making, and the natural world. In her free time Melanie is a selenophile who loves tide pools, stargazing, big trees, and long walks with good snacks.
melanielan.com / @melanie.lan
THINGS TO KNOW
Zoom links are emailed 24 hours prior, and again 15 minutes prior, to the workshop start time. Please check out using the email address to which you’d like the link sent. If you have not received the link within 24 hours of your class, please check your spam folder first, then email friends@caseformaking.com.
Workshop recordings are sent automatically the day after class to everyone who paid for a spot, and are available for 30 days after the date of the workshop.
If you need to cancel, please let us know as soon as possible so we can open up your spot! We are only able to refund if we’re notified at least 48 hours prior to the workshop.
If you are planning to teach in the future using anything you’ve learned from us, we kindly ask that you credit Case for Making + the individual instructor where applicable.
Thank you so much for taking our workshops!!
