Sandra Sitron. Over the Forests and Seas & Night Sky, 2008

OVER THE FORESTS AND SEAS

Pori Centre for Children's Culture / Network of Children's Culture in Satakunta, together with Raumars A-i-R and Pori Public Library – Regional Library of Satakunta organised a series of workshops and an art project for children. Sixth-grade pupils at Kallela special school in Pori worked with an American artist Sandra Sitron, and together they realized a textile work to reflect the visual worlds of Finnish and American culture. The work is placed on permanent display at Pori Public Library Children’s Department. The work also celebrated the 450th anniversary of the City of Pori and the 150th anniversary of the Pori Public Library – Regional Library of Satakunta. It was carried out as part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

The artist and pupils met in workshops called Together in Diversity for the first time on 17 September, after which they met regularly. The wax batik work Over the Forests and Seas reflects unification of two different cultures thru a bird-theme. More than two meters high bird is free to exceed borders of ideas, languages and cultures. Workshops followed an opening venue. The overall aim in organising the workshop series was to give local children, young people and their teachers' possibilities to come acquainted with international artists' work and to develop ways for intercultural and international dialogue.

NIGHT SKY

Visual artist Sandra Sitron from the United States taught batik techniques to teenagers in the textile course at the Rauma Art School. The students made individual batik works based on traditional plant motifs and created a collaborative batik painting “Night Sky.” These works are on view at the Pick‘n Pay grocery store December 4th 2008- December 29th 2008.

The plant motif project explores the process of abstraction from nature and introduced the batik technique. The batik process is a wax resist and fabric dying process, which allows for great variation in line and color. The students designed the compositions using a stylized approach based on traditional plant motifs.

The “Night Sky” project was a collaborative effort designed to further the students’ understanding of batik, the elements and principles of design, and abstraction from nature. The plan was to achieve a connected, yet varied composition using only the three primary dye colors in different combinations. The students explored the use of elements like line, shape, size and color, as well as the principles of balance, repetition, dominance, and unity. The abstraction lesson allowed the artwork to convey the common experience of the forest at night, touching upon themes like: the human connection with nature, and the long winter darkness.