Darkroom Fundamentals with Konrad Eek

This workshop is an ideal opportunity for an absolute beginner to master the basics of photography. More experienced students will learn about the latest innovations in film, paper, and chemistry while reviewing the basics of exposure, metering, processing and printing.

Beginning Ballroom for the Classroom with Kate Linkous

This ballroom dance workshop teaches educators, administrators, and community leaders how to establish DanceSport programs in their schools and communities. Participants will learn social dancing basics and curricula for rhumba, cha-cha, meringue, salsa, swing, tango, waltz and fox trot. The workshop began several years ago with the help of Andrew Smart and the World Dance Foundation. DanceSport is currently taught in select Oklahoma schools, allowing educators to teach not only physical movement, but also manners and respect. This workshop is appropriate for true beginners.

Intermediate/Advanced Ballroom for the Classroom with John Swick

This workshop is intended for those who took an OFAI ballroom workshop in previous years. The workshop will expand upon participants' knowledge and help them advance the DanceSport programs in their schools.

The Amateur Naturalist's Sketchbook: Field Drawing & Nature Journaling with Debby Kaspari

This workshop focuses on experiencing nature as an engaged observer and creating a visual diary of the world around us. Participants will learn methods of field sketching and seeing as a naturalist. Our subject matter will be the plants, birds, and rock formations of the beautiful Quartz Mountains. We’ll sit comfortably along the easier trails and explore techniques used to describe natural forms in pencil or pen and ink. Beginners and experienced sketchers alike can use this course as a way to develop drawing and observation skills, and to connect with the environment in a hands-on way. Prior to the workshop, those at the beginning drawing level are highly recommended to explore Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

Improvisational Theater with Regina Saisi

When we were young, we learned about our world - its landscape, language, emotions and social behaviors – through play. Because the things we encountered were new to us, it was possible to experience the world with a fresh perspective and great clarity. As we grow older, our pre-conceived notions and assumptions make us overlook some things, ignore others, and generally experience a world that functions – for the most part – according to our expectations. Through exercises and improvised scene work, we’ll study everything from risk-taking and trust, to spontaneity, listening, teamwork, narrative, and idea generation. You’ll learn to improve your self-confidence and concentration, and practice commitment and focus. Most importantly, in this class, we’ll have fun.

Weekend Two: October 25-28, 2007

Monotype Extravaganza with Marwin Begaye

The Monotype Extravaganza is an intensive and "punny" workshop, exploring the wide range of techniques of the monotype process using oil based and water based mediums. Through the experimentation, trial and error, participants will be encouraged to explore the modifying, layering, mixing and use of inks, and abuse of mark-making tools, exploring the limits of paper, collage, chine colle and built up surface. Several techniques including chine colle, mixed media, the use of multiple plate monotypes, viscosity monotypes and stencils will be encouraged. The course is designed for the novice as well as those more experienced with the medium. Emphasis is given to helping each participant match their vision to the medium and building a personal knowledge of the process. Though the medium can be very technical, this class will be an experience in the magic and pun of printmaking.

From Study to Studio: Landscape Oil Painting with Rick McClure

Throughout his thirty years of teaching painting, Rick McClure has seen the discipline of "working from life" sadly ignored. The photograph has become the mainstay of creative reference, thus crippling the artist in terms of spontaneous value, color, and light. The process of working from life should be used in all facets of creative expression, from art in the public school classroom to the professional artists’ studio. This oil painting workshop is designed for all levels, from beginning to advanced. Students will explore the process of creating “on location – plein-air” landscape studies which will be taken into the studio as reference for larger, exhibition-quality paintings. Instructional emphasis will be placed on materials, composition, drawing, 4-value planes, color harmony, nature’s light, and controlling edges.

Sculpting in Stone with Jesús Moroles
*Please note: educator scholarships are NOT available for this workshop.

Participants will explore all the steps necessary in the creation of limestone, marble and granite sculpture, beginning with the selection of stone. Participants will learn to use all the tools utilized in stone sculpture, including the basics of carving, cutting, grinding and polishing with pneumatic air tools.

Writing for Children and Teenagers with Anna Myers

Discussion begins with a brief survey of the types of children’s books. Participants who do not have a project in mind will be guided to develop an idea. The schedule includes time to write. During sessions with an informal tone, attendees will gain knowledge about plotting, character development, and the all-important first sentence and page. Anna Myers will share her “building the walls” approach to writing the rough draft. Lessons will also cover dialogue, editing, critiques, the business of writing, and marketing. Myers believes that writing is a craft that can be learned, and anyone interested in that learning is encouraged to join the class, whether beginners or advanced writers.

Watercolor with Michael Crespo

The aim of this workshop is to consider personal themes as they apply to a series of large-scale watercolors. Participants are asked to bring sources (sketches, photographs, written journals) for potential themes. The instructor will offer demonstrations of techniques, both conventional and radical, including paper absorbency, under and over painting, image formation, mergers of images into field, the excavation of densely painted surfaces, pouring, staining, and innovative brushing. Rigorous studio activity will facilitate the exploration of theme and technique and their merger into a painting. Participants should have a working knowledge of watercolor techniques, although not necessarily at an advanced level.

Digital Photography with Ben Long

Adobe Photoshop is the cornerstone of many photographers’ digital workflows. Whether you work with the Photoshop Creative Suite or Photoshop Elements, this class will cover all of your essential digital photography concerns. After a lecture/presentation on shooting on Thursday night, we’ll get up Friday morning for a shooting expedition around Quartz Mountain. The rest of the classes will center around post-production, including importing, organizing, and keywording your images using Adobe Bridge; tonal and color corrections in Photoshop; localized editing using selections and layer masks; simple compositing; raw format shooting and workflow; batch processing and automation; and printing. Students must have basic computer skills, and prior experience with Photoshop is highly recommended. Students must bring their own digital camera, either digital SLR or point-and-shoot. A laptop with Photoshop is highly recommended, but not required. Even if you don’t regularly use Photoshop, the concepts presented in this class will still be valuable, and will translate easily to other programs such as Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture, Nikon Capture NX and others.

Weekend Three: November 1-4, 2007

Unique Prints: Monotypes & More with John Hitchcock

Explore the limits of conceptual and technical possibilities through safe and easy printmaking techniques. You will learn the basics of reduction and additive oil-based monotype and relief cut printmaking. You will be exposed to a variety of procedures including: monotype, monoprints, hand cut stencils, photo stencils and three color reduction printing on paper. We will discuss safe methods of printmaking that can be produced with oil-based inks and a variety of texturized monotype and woodcut methods. No previous experience in printmaking required.

Show, Don't Tell: Illustration with Kim Doner

Successful authors use words to construct spaces for readers to enter and actively experience a story; successful illustrators do so visually. How? My favorite tools will be demonstrated. Participants will apply what appeals to their level of interest and experience. ALL LEVELS ARE WELCOME – rank beginners to jaded pros! Our topics include:

Interpretation: Audiences, themes, arcs, plots; timing, keyframes
Math and science: how we know what we know and why we know it
Setting a scene: perspective, relativity, psychology
Creating a character: anthropology, anatomy
Permissions: to explore, experiment, fail and succeed
Down and dirty: getting started, laying down the bones
Draw, draw, draw: the core so often missing
Playtime: fast and furious sketching, combining media; styles, ideas, brainstorming
"Everyone knows what a dragon looks like." Right?
Critiques, clay pigeon concepts, feedback, networking, optimism
Time to share: hints, tips, how-to's, and the biz of marketing, money, chaos and creativity

Conducting High School Voices with Jerry McCoy

Every day your jobs get a little more demanding and a little more pressurized. Every day seems to bring you a new form to complete, a new fire to put out. So, how do you cope? Take this workshop! Over the course of just a few days we’ll reinvigorate your ears, your interpretive skills, your conducting skills and, most importantly, your heart. The classes will deal with practical issues concerning Renaissance and Baroque performance practice, seating arrangements (why certain arrangements don’t work and what are the solutions), developing a tone model, developing rhythmic synchronicity and tempo integrity in a choir, and how our conducting gesture can support air flow and engender a more beautiful singing line.

Here are our course titles:
Why doesn’t my choir sound like that?
If it’s Baroque, fix it!
In a Word… (Madrigals and chansons)
Developing an Interpretive Analysis – A Few Hundred Decisions That Really Matter!
Where is the line?
Defining the Physical metaphor
Warming-Up the Brain and the Voice
Where E’er You Sit!
How Do I Remember All That?(a recap of the week)

Come to the sessions intending to sing, conduct, and maybe even dance a bit.

Poetry with David Biespiel

This workshop will concentrate on unfinished and new poems. Students should bring a six-poem manuscript with no more than one poem per page. We’ll look at some of these poems in class and consider ways that they succeed and move us, and also ways that they invite ideas for further versions and variations. Discussion will range from technical issues (lines, stanzas, forms, and structures) to questions about the imagination and the art of poetry in the world. The workshop will also devote time to discussion of the work of other poets and how the relationship between reading and writing poetry. Students will also have several poetry assignments throughout the workshop to stimulate new writing and new thinking about the art. The instructor will offer suggestions for further reading and publication ideas geared to a student’s individual needs.

A Sense of Place: Digital Photography with Jack Kotz

How do we express what we feel about a certain place with the camera?
Can we describe how a places smells with an image? How the air feels on our skin, the sunlight on our faces, the touch of the earth beneath our feet? What does it feel like to be right here right now, and how do we communicate that with the camera. In this workshop we will explore various locations in the Quartz Mountain area, as a group and individually. By using the camera as a tool for discovery and exploration, we will achieve a deeper understanding of certain places. We will also explore how we and others interact within various places and what can be expressed visually about those relationships. We may even surprise our selves with the sorts of images that we come up with during the workshop. We will photograph landscapes, people, interiors, and objects all with the intention of communicating what it feels like to be at a certain place at a certain time. With the cool objective eye of the camera lens we will learn to communicate strong emotional content through our images.

Weekend Four: November 8 – 11, 2007

Monotype with Benjamin Harjo, Jr.

Each student will produce at least two complete monotypes using a back and forth, masking and printing technique. With this process, participants will learn how to embellish their work with textural effects and blending of colors as they form the printed image. They will be able to experiment and incorporate a variety of techniques such as stamped images, scraped surfaces and wet over wet inks. Participants will have a fun and enjoyable experience learning that the world of printmaking has no boundaries when it comes to creating art, and it doesn't require a lot of equipment other than a person's imagination and openness to be creative.

Oklahoma Storytelling with Tim Tingle & Doc Moore

Designed for teachers and speakers at every level, our workshop will focus on the tasks of selecting, learning, and performing the story for the classroom, the boardroom, or the public venue. Stories will be available through handouts and selected stories will be lively and easy-to-learn. We will explore the gestures and word rhythms of effective storytelling and the techniques of making the magic happen. We will also discuss historical stories, including Native American storytelling for the non-Indian, creating stories from interviews, and creative writing from an oral approach. Doc Moore and Tim Tingle will perform examples stories throughout the workshop. Participants will be given the resources to begin a lifelong study of the art of storytelling.

Ceramics with Brandon Reese

This workshop will focus on form, pattern, and the use of texture to create sculpture and the vessel in nontraditional methods. Emphasis will be placed on construction techniques that build strong forms in new and unique ways. We will explore the pottery wheel as a tool for producing additional pieces and parts to use and manipulate within the sculpture or vessel. There will also be demonstrations on the use of slabs, coils, and other techniques to minimize cracks and warping. The instructor will demonstrate his own techniques and show images of his work, explaining the processes that go into their creation. This workshop will be a hands-on experience. Participants will build the work and be able to take it home at the completion of the session. Although we will not have time to fire the work, there will be discussion on kilns and firing processes. This workshop is open to all ability levels.

Arts Integration with Christina Pickard, Patrick Riley, Cindy Scarberry, and Sharon McColl

Tapping into buried creativity is essential for the working artist, but it can be essential for school-age children as well. As artists who integrate our art forms into school curricula on a regular basis, we work with children of all ages and abilities who possess an intense curiosity about the world, a desire to learn, and a genuine need to communicate their own ideas and beliefs in a creative way. When we are able to integrate the academic with the artistic and surround our children with creative and divergent thinking, we remind them that often, in learning as in life, there is more than one approach to a problem and certainly more than one answer. This workshop will focus on creating connections—both academic and artistic—through music, creative movement and dance, two-dimensional art, and three-dimensional art. Core-curriculum teachers are encouraged to attend!

Intermediate Darkroom with Luther Smith

This class is for people who have taken a beginning darkroom photography course and are familiar with the operations of the camera, film development and printing. The workshop will extend your knowledge of image making, including photographing with the camera, film development, fine art printing, and creative toning of black and white paper. The class will be geared to the individual. Please bring five examples of your previous work.