America, Unfinished?! | Workshops with Filipe & Rose, and Jocelyn Vache

WaterFire Arts Center Main Hall

This is a free event where participants can learn new creative processes with artists from America, Unfinished?! Guests are welcome to join one or both workshops and will bring home a small piece of work they make during the session.

Cyanotype Workshop with Filipe Miguel @ 6:00 – 7:00 PM

Artists Filipe Miguel and C. Rose Bergeron invite the public to join them for an evening of cyanotype printmaking, created in connection with “Liberdade” an art installation, memorial, and monument to liberty that honors the immigrant experience in America.

Using carnations gathered from the Liberdade art installation, participants will learn a fun and easy cyanotype process ( a historic, sun-activated photographic printing technique that transforms light, water, and botanical forms into deep Prussian-blue images. ) The Carnation is a symbol of freedom and democracy in Portugal and you can see the motif throughout Liberdade.

No experience necessary; all materials and instruction will be provided.

Each participant will create their own cyanotype print on pre-sensitised fabric, which can become a prayer flag and be part of the art installation. Once complete, patrons are invited to write a message on their flag ( a word, a wish, a memory, expressing what liberty means to them today. They can take them home or leave these flags as part of a living, evolving piece: a collective reflection on freedom and belonging.

All are welcome. No prior art experience required.This beginner’s workshop teaches participants how to set up and print cyanotypes. Cyanotype is a simple photographic process in which a light-sensitive solution is coated onto paper or cloth, then exposed to ultraviolet light from the sun to produce an image. Participants will create one 8×10 inch cyanotype using objects provided by the instructor.

About Filipe Miguel:

Filipe has a studio at Hatch Street Studios in New Bedford. His drawings, paintings, sculptures, and installations weave folkloric narratives, personal connections, and current events into immersive art experiences. Filipe has taught fine arts at Bridgewater State University and other local institutions. He currently teaches Visual Arts at Barnstable High School and lives in Onset, MA.

Painting with Pigments Workshop with Jocelyn Vache @ 7:00 – 9:00 PM

Jocelyn Vache will teach participants how to make paint using homemade soy milk, binders, and pigment. She’ll begin with a demonstration on preparing soy milk and mixing it with pigment and binders, then guide participants as they paint or monoprint on prepared textile squares.

About Jocelyn Vache:

Jocelyn’s work focuses on sustainable materials and community engagement, confronting societal double standards while finding common ground through everyday acts of nature. Jocelyn currently lives and works between Boston and Providence, where she also teaches Fabrication Lab classes and supports urban gardening in Boston Public Schools.