As part of the Nebraska Art Teachers Association fall conference this year, I got the opportunity to be part of a workshop with Sandy Skoglund–absolutely one of my favorite contemporary artists (she also attended the University of Iowa like I did, so bonus points there). About 30 teachers were invited to work on an installation involving pink paint and thousands of sticky notes, and under Skoglund’s direction, we created the piece in about two hours.
We began with the wall, putting layer after layer after layer of sticky notes until we had about 10 feet of Pepto-Bismol pink going up the gallery wall.
University students had prepped the floor and furniture by painting those surfaces pink. The art teachers added yellow sticky notes to contrast the pink, covering the floor and the furniture. From there, we photographed the piece on its own, then with all of our art teachers that worked on the piece:
That photograph meant the end of Skoglund’s work, but we were allowed to jump into the piece ourselves. My friend Crystal and I decided to go all out and cover ourselves with sticky notes as well. You know, to really be a part of the piece :)
The best part of the workshop, though, was being able to talk to Skoglund in an intimate setting (a small gallery with an audience of 30). She talked a lot about her process, her works, and everything that goes into her photographs and installations. I was fascinated to hear about how some of her pieces take over a year, and others are done in literally one day. I also was able to have a one-on-one conversation with her for a while, and a long talk with her and my student teacher. That’s always a fun time when you get an opportunity to talk with one of your artist heroes.
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