Starting in January, I'll be leading a new mixed media workshop at Seattle Recreative.

This funky little Greenwood shop is a hidden treasure trove of (cheap!) second-use art materials: collage papers, assemblage odds and ends, previously unloved art supplies, and more. I'm excited to lead two four-week workshops on basic to intermediate assemblage and three-dimensional collage.

We'll work hands-on with:

elements of 3D design
theme, mood, and intent/function
assemblage techniques
textures and finishes
and more

Materials will be gleaned from Seattle Recreative's awesome hoard, but you're welcome to bring along some of your own if they're meaningful to you.

Classes will run Wednesdays from 6 to 8, January 6 to 27 and then again from February 3 to 24. Here's a link for more info and registration.

Oh, and Seattle Recreative accepts donations too....

I'll be leading two new poetry workshops for adults this fall at the Inscape Arts building in Seattle. Check these out...you can register through the Brown Paper Tickets links below or through me at laura@laurawaltonallen.com

Poetry & Art: Ekphrastic Beginnings

November 15, 1 - 4 p.m.

Inscape Arts, Seattle
$45 per person

"All art is sensual, and poetry particularly so," said William Carlos Williams. In ekphrastic poetry, writers turn their senses toward the work of other artists (think Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn" or Anne Carson's Hopper-inspired poems.) In this three-hour workshop, we'll encounter the work of poets inspired by physical artworks, and explore some of our own responses to the artists of Seattle's Inscape studios.

Make It Strange: Art Techniques for the Poet

November 22, 1 - 4 p.m.

$45 per person

"Art makes the familiar strange so that it can be freshly perceived. To do this it presents its material in unexpected, even outlandish ways: the shock of the new." Victor Shklovsky

Want to write like a Cubist? Layer meanings like collage? In this short afternoon writing workshop, we'll experiment with techniques usually associated with the visual arts, such as collage, assemblage, and abstraction. Held at one of Seattle's most vibrant arts communities, Inscape Arts, this workshop is sure to freshen your perspective. (P.S.- Prose writers are welcome, too!)

"Make It Strange: Art Techniques for the Poet" is led by artist, writer, and instructor Laura W. Allen. She has taught for the Writer's Garret of Dallas and McLennan Community College, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications and journals such as Bathtub Gin, S/tick, Strange Horizons, and Tinderbox. She is also a working visual artist, concentrating mainly on assemblage and mixed media.