Telling a Visual Story- Collage NEW! In-Store Class
Saturday, Nov 2, 12:30-4pm
Instructor: Teresa Cribelli
Limit: 6 students. All participants must be 15 years or older.

Class Details

Learn the subtleties of telling a story through collage in this unique workshop with local artist Teresa Cribelli. Choose a person important to you as the subject – an ancestor, a historical figure, a key person in your life, or someone who’s usually in the background but deserves to be celebrated. Then use vintage paper, second-hand books, magazines, and ephemera to create a striking collage that invites the viewer to think about the story behind your image. We like how a story is suggested, not told literally, in Teresa’s collages, and how they cause us to pause and think more deeply about what we’re seeing.

Teresa made portraits as the samples for the class, but your college doesn’t have to be. The one she made of her son captures in color and mood some of the ways she sees him. For the Greek-themed collage, she came across an image of an ancient statue that looked like her good friend and used the image as the central piece. A third portrait is of Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron; she was also an accomplished mathematician. To give you an idea of how Teresa thinks about a collage, she shares what was on her mind when she created the collage for Ada Lovelace.

"She [Ada] was one of the first people to conceptualize what has become the modern computer and she developed some early algorithms. I like the contrast of her frilly dress and the binary code behind her. There are two reasons for this. We don't think of fashionable women being math visionaries. Number two is that weaving textiles - the complexities of the warp and the weft - are based on a complex counting system that is very similar to code - bringing the traditional work of women into alignment with modern coding and the computer revolution."

(You might guess that Teresa is a college professor by day . . .)

Teresa provides basic collage instruction and shares her techniques, but the majority of class time is devoted to creating your own personal collage. The cutting and pasting is ancillary, though, to a thought-provoking discussion about the people we choose to honor and remember. Teresa brings materials from her collection for you to work with but she encourages you to bring in personal items, paper or otherwise. Enjoy telling your story!

An email will be sent to participants the Monday before the class. Classes with homework may receive pre-class info earlier. No email? Double check the email address you entered when you registered and your SPAM folder. Due to SPAM filters and inbox settings, we cannot guarantee you will see, read, or open these emails. Two Hands Paperie assumes no responsibility for non-attendance of a class. Contact twohandsclasses@gmail.com with any class questions and see our Class Policies page for more information.

Class Materials

Please bring the following materials:

Favorite pair of scissors for fine cutting
Optional: X-acto knife with extra blades if you enjoy using one
Optional: apron
Optional: A few collage items you want to include: old photos, ribbon, scraps of material or paper, thin metal pieces, ephemera, old books, magazines, letters, etc. – anything that seems relevant to the story you want to tell! The items can be textures or surfaces and not just images.
Optional: water and bag lunch for the lunch break

Class Materials Include:

Inspiration handouts + cutting/gluing technique info
Collage materials (paper scraps, ephemera, vintage paper, book pages, etc)
Image transfer materials and tools
Cardstock, watercolor paper, glue sticks, + other small tools

Class Refund/Cancellation Policy

Cancellations made up to 14 days prior to the first class meeting will be refunded or, at the participant's option, used to pay for another class. Two Hands Paperie will retain a $10 processing fee for EACH class cancelled by a participant. After 14 days, there is no refund or credit. In addition, the fee for a class cancelled within this 14-day timeframe by a participant cannot be transferred to pay for another class. These policies are to ensure that teachers are compensated for their investment in materials and in time spent preparing for the class. We reserve the right to cancel a class if fewer than 3 students enroll 48 hours prior to the scheduled class time. If for any reason Two Hands Paperie cancels a class, students will be called at the phone number on file and refunded the FULL class fee.

Instructor Bio

Art meets history in the striking work of Teresa Cribelli, a native Coloradan who’s a collage artist as well as a college history professor. She says, “Through disassembling and reassembling vintage illustrations, figures, colors, and textures, I reuse historical materials to disrupt and recreate contemporary understandings of these themes.”

Teresa’s work ranges from small-scale collages to large street murals. Internationally, her murals can be seen in São Luís, Brazil, and in Barcelona, Spain. Nationally, they appear in Denver, Colorado, and in both Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama. The underlying theme is always history. For example, her River City Mural in Tuscaloosa draws upon images and illustrations from vintage books on Alabama to show how the relationship between the Black Warrior River and various groups of inhabitants has changed over time. Her objective? To have viewers think about the river in new ways.

Teresa is active in the international collage community, and was awarded the Doug & Laurie Kanyer Art Collection Purchase Award in 2019 at Kolaj Fest New Orleans. The Kanyers established their collection to support artists and advance a deeper understanding of collage as art. Their criteria for choosing the winners were the overall practice of the artist, the historical value/critical context of the work, and how the work demonstrates a use of the medium. The Kanyers also considered the artist’s broader role in collage to identify artists whose impact goes beyond their immediate community. One of Teresa’s small works is now part of the Kayner’s permanent collection at the Yakima Valley Museum in Oregon.

To sum up, Teresa’s works, which exist at the intersection of history and art, cause viewers to see collage with fresh eyes. To her history and art are inseparable. We doubt any other history professor would have accepted a 3D collage on slavery and emancipation for a student's final!

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Telling a Visual Story - Collage NEW! In-Store Class Nov 2