Art in the Garden: Silk-Screening with Natural Pigments

How can we make traditional printmaking less toxic, less expensive, and more connected to our lived environment? In this workshop, participants will explore silkscreen printmaking techniques adapted for home use, with a special focus on the use of plant-based inks. By replacing costly, hard-to-find supplies with everyday household items and natural materials, participants will learn to print their own artwork using accessible objects from their own kitchens and local green spaces. Participants will be able to silkscreen on paper or are welcome to bring their own t-shirts/garments from home!

Basia Kurlender is an artist, graphic designer, art director, curator, art educator, concert booker, chain stitch embroiderer, and a lot of other things. Her work is medium-agnostic and is always guided by the message.Basia owns and operates GREAT BETTER BEST, a New York State-certified Woman-Owned design and fabrication studio. Clients include Snapchat, Nike, McDonald’s, Venmo, Peloton, Nasdaq, and Vans. She holds a BFA in Communications Design (Summa cum laude) from Pratt Institute.

Header Image and Headshot courtesey of the artist.

Find Basia at Find Basia at www.basiakurlender.com and on instgram at @bshawww .

Grounded in the garden, join us to critically and creatively engage in a diversity of artmaking techniques that open us up to deeper dialogue on place, our relationships to our lived environments, ecological concerns, and contemporary culture. Learn meditative and mindful drawing, printmaking and sculptural techniques, scientific observation with plant portraiture, nature-inspired intuitive artmaking and mixed media exploration, and other various practices from botanical and ecologically-focused contemporary artists to create works of art to nurture your relationship to the garden.

Immerse yourself in the learning garden, greenhouse, and across Riverbank State Park's green roof overlooking the Hudson River to create artwork that is rooted in place and in partnership with plants.

Workshops are rain or shine.

When inside the greenhouse and kitchen we will open our double-doors and windows to vent the space and encourage masking and social distancing when in more closed-in spaces.

Accessibility: Our kitchen/classroom space is wheelchair accessible. With prior planning, we can add a few small mats onto the pebbled ground of greenhouse to make a small wheel-chair accessible path. Our learning garden has grass paths, and the entrance is through a gate with a small, raised entrance. Our tables can be lowered/raised, and we have several backless benches or stools. Our kitchen is in regular use, and while we try to cook without peanuts, much of our cookware is shared and we cannot guarantee a nut-free environment. We have a first aid kit, and the closest AED is in another building several yards away. Drinking water is made available in refillable pitchers.

Our closest bathrooms are a building away, about a one-minute walk. A gender neutral bathroom is also available, and this is accessible by key which you can request from staff. We are not a scent-free zone, and because herbalism classes take place here, cannot guarantee that the site will be clear of any essential oil smells. If you have needs not addressed here, please reach out to Mallory Craig at [email protected].

Host or Publisher The Horticultural Society of New York