Art Classes at AC/SF
Artist Natasha Duwin Provides a Teaching Tapestry
Natasha Duwin explores the ideas of female-ness and womanhood through her art, using non-traditional materials in traditionally feminine techniques to construct a strong female identity. Through her weaving, embroidery, needlework – all viewed as women’s work – Duwin produces representations of the essence of women: strong, fragile, forceful, pliant, rigid, aggressive, inviting. Her pieces are constructed from metals and metallic mesh, natural fibers, paper, wood, feathers, twigs and branches, which are distressed, layered and painstakingly woven, sewn and embroidered together.
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Natasha has since lived in New York, Tokyo and Miami. She has shown extensively over the last couple of years and is included in several prominent collections. She holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Florida International University, and is an Artist-in-Residence at ArtCenter/South Florida.
This fall AC/SF is offering a free rope-making and weaving workshop, taught by Duwin for all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. On select Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings,
students can participate in the making of “Shedding the Shadows,” a tapestry woven out of discarded clothing donated by Lotus House, the only homeless shelter for women and infants in Miami-Dade County. This tapestry is being created to bring awareness to the transformation that occurs daily at Lotus House and countless other shelters, where people shed their “homeless” personas through hard work and introspection and transition into a new period in their lives. This process is mimicked in the artwork: seemingly useless objects are repurposed into a series of ropes, with their connotation of strength and usefulness, and this compilation of new objects, created through hard work and introspection, is transformed into an object of beauty. The tapestry will be exhibited in several locations around South Florida over the next year.
Class schedule: Saturdays – October 2 and November 13 – from 9 a.m. to noon; Wednesdays – September 22, October 27, November 17 and December 15 – from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Other classes taught by Natasha Duwin at ArtCenter/South Florida:
“Subversive Stitch – Self Portrait” – a Two-Day Workshop
For all skill levels
Two Wednesdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
September 29 and October 6 or October 27 and November 3
Take time to explore the age-old questions “who am I and why am I here” with an ageless technology that epitomizes the opposite of instant gratification. Take up the needle and thread and create. It’s not embroidering pillowcases for the hope chest or the drudgery of mending. It’s “bend-the-rules” needlework, it’s creative, it’s meditative, it lets you express all sorts of feelings from the sublime to the outrageous. . .all in the coziness of a fellowship of bravehearts who dare to brandish the mighty needle. Two-day workshop is $75 plus $15 for materials.
“Stitched Felt Brooches” – a One-DayWorkshop
For the Young, and Young-at-Heart (all skill levels)
Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon
September 25, November 6 or November 20
Create wearable art made of felt in the shapes of flowers, leaves and small animals. This workshop will set you on your path to making fun and unique brooches for yourself and your friends and family, in all colors, shapes and sizes. One-day workshop is $45, supplies included.
Natasha Duwin’s studio is at 800 Lincoln Road, Studio #107.
