Rooted in RED workshop!

Today was the first Rooted in RED workshop!  

So excited to be able to put into action all that I have found red ochre.  I held the workshop in my studio, which is a basement studio on Santa Fe Street in Denver, Colorado.   I had 12 people from ages 18 months to 50 years old.    The diversity in age, was exciting as everyone worked together on the activities. 

The first thing we did was Egyptian kraters out of air-drying terra cotta clay.  Using the red clay was to symbolize the usage of red ochre in Egyptian pottery.   We did not finish the kraters, as they were not dry yet, but next month we intend on painting them all black and using scraffito to document out own story out of symbols.  Everyone is really excited about continuing! 

 Before we had a break for lunch (which was good  ol' Noa Noa, great Mexican cuisine across the street), we started on the mural.  I used dry, French, red ochre pigment and water and also Liquitex red ochre acrylic paint diluted with water.  Each of these red ochres, were available in trays to place hands in and hand paint.  As the hand prints of all sizes started to build up the red ochres started to blend.   This was something that I did not plan nor expect.  The cave art from Altamira was the inspiration for this mural.  

When we returned from lunch we continued on our mural.  We painted the Rooted in RED symbol in bear oil and red ochre pigment. I painted one and then people started to make their own.  Varying the symbol was inevitable and turned out to be an interesting interpretations.

Mia brilliantly noticed that when I was painting the symbol, I began it the same way she spells her name:)

ROOTED IN RED POWER!!!!  

Everyone loves the tattoos and since they were all on their wrists, it was an easy guide to paint the symbol on the mural!  The overall workshop was a lot of fun and thank you to all who participated!  You guys were amazing, breathing new life in Rooted in RED!