Storied Things
with Steve Parmelee
Spend 2 days at Black Barn immersed in the creative building process with a local master of assemblage art.
Steve Parmelee is an award-winning assemblage artist, and an obsessive collector who expresses narratives through found-object sculptural works. His work is regularly exhibited at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Seattle area galleries, and studio tours, and he is a member of the artist's cooperative Front Street Gallery in Poulsbo.
March 22nd & 23rd, 10:00am - 4:00pm
$350 + $40 material fee
(Material fee payable in cash or check to instructor at start of your workshop)
"Get Busy Living" - SOLD
"More Than Chemistry"
About your workshop with Steve:
Let’s tell a story using found objects! We’ll put together a narrative assemblage sculpture incorporating time-worn objects. The class with cover conceptualizing, collecting & curating, and creating a cohesive composition with clever construction.
A hammer head splayed by pounding, its handle worn smooth by sweat and grip. An old painter’s palate, dabbed at intuitively, frustratedly, playfully. A toy truck loved with abandon and then outgrown. The faded patinas can convey a universal concept or emotion, playing off the frailty or durability of these vintage objects. And often these objects hold specific metaphors - a key, an axe, a fuel tank, a sardine can, an ice pick. There is also a generational connection within these objects handled in lives past, and repurposing can honor and memorialize. There is often sacred in the discarded, and an impulse to find an afterlife for what might seem completely worn out.
In this two-day hands-on workshop, Steve will cover the fundamentals of assemblage from collecting to construction, through discussions, demonstrations and in-class projects. We will approach different design concepts using repurposed items and learn how to attach a wide variety of materials with applicable cold fastening techniques and adhesives. The class will also become familiar with appropriate tools to work with wood, metal, ceramic, organic and synthetic objects. Engineering solutions to construction challenges with screws, nuts & bolts, wire, threaded rod, and epoxy will be evaluated. And we’ll look at design principles including consistency, color and scale to make clean cohesive compositions, and discuss the inherent metaphors & stories embodied in certain objects when curating a project.
Supplies: Tools will be available. Basic objects, fasteners and adhesives will be included in the material fee. Students are also invited to bring their own found objects to incorporate if they wish.
About Steve Parmelee
Steve Parmelee is an award-winning assemblage artist, and an obsessive collector who expresses narratives through found-object sculptural artwork. His clever pieces are regularly exhibited at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, area galleries, and studio tours, and he is a member of the artist's cooperative Front Street Gallery in Poulsbo, WA.
Learn more about Steve at his website at SteveParmelee.com and also please follow him on Instagram to keep up with need work at @steve_parmelee
Steve Parmelee
Making Connections
What makes Steve Parmelee's work extraordinary is his ability to tell stories through his work. When you view his work, you realize it's saying something very special. Sometimes it can be open to interpretation, but the story is front and center. The power of the work is at the intersection of the stories of the individual objects, that when brought together, tell a whole new narrative.