Unique workshop opportunity with Stephen Perkins
~ only two spots available

Stephen Perkins will be teaching an intensive course sharing his knowledge about the Construction, Structure and the Unifying concepts of the Human Figure.

This workshop is the First of a four-week long intensive class. Stephen will be returning throughout the year 2011-12 to teach the essential principles of Sculpture.

Join a dedicated group of Students and Artists in a great learning environment at the Janus Collaborative. These consecutive workshops are a "hands-on" opportunity for Sculptors to observe and work alongside Stephen Perkins.

First Session starts October 17 - 21, 2011
During this week we will center on the topic of figure structure. It is the unifying and simplifying concept of the figure. Instead of an anatomical approach, the forms are considered in their geometry, volume or masses, form patterns, rhythmic movement and hierarchy of form. Starting with the 3 great masses of head, rib cage and pelvis in their abstract shapes we will explore their movements and the subsequent balancing and animation of the figure. From there we begin to construct the figure in large volumes. After the large masses are established, work will proceed in a hierarchical manner from large to medium to small forms. Forms will be examined for their universal nature. If one knows the essential forms that all hands posses and the steps in creating them, then no hands are a mystery.

All work will be done in clay with lectures preceding the students work. Lectures will be short so that students can absorb the meaning and then create the forms in their own work thereby maximizing the retention of the information. A male model will be posing but only as a reference. The actual model will be the clay sketch of the more abstracted shapes. A special live size study of hands and feet will be undertaken due to their complexity.

In essence, the class represents a slow motion process that a sculptor would go through in modeling a figure. Thus, the students go through each stage of creating the forms of the figure but slowly and in an analytical mind rather than purely observational. This facilitates the creation of a 3d visual map of the forms for the student to retain. The act of physically creating the forms in 3d helps that process. We understand the world by the creation of mental models of it. With the figure, a mental model of the forms, in their essential truth or prototypical forms is what we draw on when we work from the figure. Observation alone is not enough, one needs to know what they are looking at and this visual map, like all maps, helps one to find their way.

Stephen Perkins will also be teaching a week in the months of December 2011, March 2012 and May 2012. Classes can be taken individually. Each week will focus on different aspects to understand and sculpt the human figure.

Please Register as soon as possible as there is only limited space available.
Tuition price per week: $ 600.00
Sign up for all four weeks - pay only $ 1600.00 (Students interested in attending the four week program will be given priority)

To Sign up for the class or to request any further information please email acigar203@gmail.com