photographs and text by Jessica Stammen
painting reproduction by Sarah Mitchell

For the past few winters, during the weeks that are made of the dark cold days between holiday festivities and mud, I have been lucky enough to join a dozen or so eighth graders at the local middle school for a special class exploring color.

The final project is a choice.  Students can create a transparency study or attempt to reproduce a master painting using only Color Aid paper.  Both options are quite the challenge; they require an experiential and strategic color sense, as well as precise cutting and glueing skills in order to transform bits and pieces of opaque, evenly-colored paper into liquid, painterly, translucent, textured, and glowing compositions.  Here is one of the master reproductions in process – the making of a Mary Cassatt!  I will post the finished piece next week.