Totem Sculpture
A totem is a symbol, spirit being or sacred object which serves as an emblem of spiritual significance to a person or group of people (perhaps a family, clan or tribe.) This workshop is an opportunity to consider and create your own totem using a range of materials including wood, concrete and paint. With Lou’s experienced guidance you’ll learn to use woodworking tools and simple concrete casting techniques over three days to create beautiful, meaningful totem poles for your garden.
Participants will begin by discussing and developing their ideas around connection to land and place. The totem pole is seen as a thread that connects land to sky. What are the symbols of nature that speak to you? Once the creative process is understood and problems solved, Louise will take you through a basic knowledge of the tools used, teach you woodwork and casting techniques and help you to select the appropriate materials to begin.
Next Sculpture Workshop
The All About Me Weekend with Louise McRae
March 15 – 17 2019
Off the back of Louise’s wildly successful exhibition ‘UnMonument’ comes a stay & play Sculpture Workshop.
Meet us on Friday night for a drink and light meal, Lou will talk and inspire you through the concept and drawing phase of the workshop and then you get to stay the night at the gorgeous Totem Retreat.
On Saturday after a breakfast on the verandah, we get stuck in to the power tools! Two days of cutting, splitting, carving, burning and creating. You’ll be fed and nurtured well. All meals, snacks and both nights accommodation included. We wind up on Sunday afternoon with a glass of wine and an exhibition of the works created by the group.
Price $1499 per person OR bring a friend and share a room for $1200 per person; includes all meals, snacks, drinks, 2 nights accommodation, all materials & tools.
Better than another boring weekend shopping in Sydney!
(But if you do need a little more luxury, talk to us about tacking on a massage at the end of your day on the tools!)
Meet Lou
Louise McRae has exhibited in galleries around New Zealand since 1998.
She paints demolition timber and then splits in by hand into shards and reassembles it into wall-hung works.
Colours are interspersed with metallics, and burning and charring wood is an important part of her process. Louise completed her Master of Fine Arts at Whitecliff College of Art and Design in 2016.
Her main galleries are Seed in Auckland and Gallery 33 in Wanaka.
She has been a finalist in the Wallace Arts award a number of times and has recently been a key speaker at the annual Decon and Re-use conference in Portland, Oregon.
