Octagon Center for the Arts

Beginning Scottish Country Dance, ages 16+ (OCT/NOV)
2019-10-18 19:00 - 2019-11-22 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Avenue, Ames, IA, 50010, United States
Beginning Scottish Country Dance
Ages: 16 years old and up
Day / Time / Dates: Fridays, 7 – 8 pm, October 18 – November 22 (6 weeks)

Cost: $45

Description: Learn the art of the very social and lively Scottish Country Dance with experienced Instructors. After your one hour session, you are welcome to stay and join in with the Scottish Country Dancers. A dance party will take place the last day of class. No experience or partner necessary.

Instructor: Linda Lewis Lieberman

Location: Dance Studio
Registration closes when the class fills or on at 6am on 10/16/19. Students cannot be added after the registration closes.

To register:

scroll down to the “Tickets” section near the bottom of this page
enter the number of “tickets” you want (one ticket per student)
click “add to cart”
complete the contact information form that appears after you add a ticket
complete the payment information
check your email for your receipt

Please note:

Students cannot be added after the registration closes.
Octagon members receive class discounts. Please login before registering for classes and your discount will be applied automatically.
If you are not a member, but would like to join, click here. Purchase your membership first. Then login and proceed as noted above to receive your discount. Your discount will not be applied unless you are logged in.

Please contact us with any registration questions or concerns. Click here to send a message. Thanks for supporting arts education at the Octagon!

Creative Explorations, ages older 3’s - 5 years (Wed. Session 3: NOV)
2019-10-30 09:15 - 2019-11-20 10:00
CREATIVE EXPLORATIONS: WEDNESDAYS, SESSION 3 (NOV)
Ages: older 3’s – 5 years
Day/Time: Wednesdays OR Thursdays, 9:15 – 10:00 am (Sign up for the day that suits you best!)
Cost: $60 for each 4 week session below.
WEDNESDAYS
Session 1: September 4 – 25
Session 2: October 2 – 23
Session 3: October 30 – November 20
THURSDAYS
Session 1: September 5 – 26
Session 2: October 3 – 24
Session 3: October 31 – November 21
THIS REGISTRATION IS FOR WEDNESDAY, SESSION 3 (NOV) ONLY. Check the class listing for additional sessions. Register for just one or all four; a separate registration is required for each session.
Description.This class is dedicated to the process of exploration through materials such as paint, charcoal, fabric, plastic, sculpture media, cardboard, paper, ink etc…Use of scissors and proper handling of materials will be covered. Practice of arranging materials, and basic color mixing projects will also be explored.
Class Limit: 6
Instructor: Beth Weninger
Location: Hunziker Studio
Registration closes when the class fills or on at 6am on 10/28/19. Students cannot be added after the registration closes.

To register:

scroll down to the “Tickets” section near the bottom of this page
enter the number of “tickets” you want (one ticket per student)
click “add to cart”
complete the contact information form that appears after you add a ticket
complete the payment information
check your email for your receipt

Please note:

Students cannot be added after the registration closes.
Octagon members receive class discounts. Please login before registering for classes and your discount will be applied automatically.
If you are not a member, but would like to join, click here. Purchase your membership first. Then login and proceed as noted above to receive your discount. Your discount will not be applied unless you are logged in.

Please contact us with any registration questions or concerns. Click here to send a message. Thanks for supporting arts education at the Octagon!

Creative Explorations, ages older 3’s - 5 years (Thurs. Session 3: NOV)
2019-10-31 09:15 - 2019-11-21 10:00
CREATIVE EXPLORATIONS: THURSDAYS, SESSION 3 (NOV)
Ages: older 3’s – 5 years
Day/Time: Wednesdays OR Thursdays, 9:15 – 10:00 am (Sign up for the day that suits you best!)
Cost: $60 for each 4 week session below.
WEDNESDAYS
Session 1: September 4 – 25
Session 2: October 2 – 23
Session 3: October 30 – November 20
THURSDAYS
Session 1: September 5 – 26
Session 2: October 3 – 24
Session 3: October 31 – November 21
THIS REGISTRATION IS FOR THURSDAY, SESSION 2 (OCT) ONLY. Check the class listing for additional sessions. Register for just one or all four; a separate registration is required for each session.
Description.This class is dedicated to the process of exploration through materials such as paint, charcoal, fabric, plastic, sculpture media, cardboard, paper, ink etc…Use of scissors and proper handling of materials will be covered. Practice of arranging materials, and basic color mixing projects will also be explored.
Class Limit: 6
Instructor: Beth Weninger
Location: Hunziker Studio
Registration closes when the class fills or on at 6am on 10/29/19. Students cannot be added after the registration closes.

To register:

scroll down to the “Tickets” section near the bottom of this page
enter the number of “tickets” you want (one ticket per student)
click “add to cart”
complete the contact information form that appears after you add a ticket
complete the payment information
check your email for your receipt

Please note:

Students cannot be added after the registration closes.
Octagon members receive class discounts. Please login before registering for classes and your discount will be applied automatically.
If you are not a member, but would like to join, click here. Purchase your membership first. Then login and proceed as noted above to receive your discount. Your discount will not be applied unless you are logged in.

Please contact us with any registration questions or concerns. Click here to send a message. Thanks for supporting arts education at the Octagon!

EMILY VERDOORN & JON KAMRATH
2019-11-02 - 2019-12-21
LOCATED IN SWEENEY GALLERY (3RD FLOOR)
Emily Verdoorn
Through drawing, I form vital relationships with the world of my everyday experience. My process often begins by drawing on location. I enjoy drawing places and spaces steeped in the personality of their inhabitants. My drawings develop in response to time spent observing places and things – their habits, personality, rituals, and the people that frequent them. I love discovering the mundane glory in the commonplace. From observational drawing, I often collect marks, textures, and patterns which I draw in with other findings in my daily life. This process is more about listening than telling, more about responding than initiating. For me, making is a process of discovery, a conversation, a way to experience life more deeply for the maker and the viewer alike.
Emily Verdoorn has loved drawing and making things for as long as she can remember. As a child, it was simply unselfconscious enjoyment which encouraged her to make. Gradually, she discovered drawing as a means to more deeply engage with the world around her. In 2017, Emily graduated from Belhaven University with a BFA in Visual Art. Currently, Emily is continuing to develop her drawing process alongside teaching art lessons to children in her hometown, Des Moines.
Jon Kamrath
My “Block House” series was initially inspired by watching my own kids play with a wooden block set. I began considering ways to incorporate the same visual vocabulary into my own work, and to combine the whimsy of children’s toys with the long history of modern architecture. I found clay and wood to be the perfect medium for this. The trompe l’oeil wooden block appearance allows opportunities to explore surface texture, layering and color. Additionally, the clay construction methods present an opportunity to experiment with form, and build sculptures that appear to sag and slump in ways impossible for wood. I greatly enjoy the unique dichotomy between permanence and fleeting, hard and soft, serious and fun.
I use bright colors to invoke a splash of fun, then subtly mute these to carefully draw out the rich texture and tie all the pieces together aesthetically. When combined with multiple forms each piece visually and conceptually transforms, referencing evolving landscapes, urban development, and architectural relationships. The next step with these pieces was the addition of welded steel scaffolding. This allows the sculptures to grow in size and complexity, bringing the pieces to the next level conceptually as well as aesthetically. Solid construction pushes the bounds of visual balance and stability, while offering great physical strength and support. I am calling this new series “Structures”, referring both to the physical objects, but also the societal structures that create the building blocks and precarious foundations that many of us build our lives on.
Jon Kamrath works out of his studio in Mahtomedi, MN where he lives with his wife and 3 young children. He received his BA in Art Education from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. After marrying his muse, Jon moved to Iowa to earn his MFA in Integrated Visual Arts (sculpture) from Iowa State University. He has taught art at Fergus Falls Middle School and Eagle Ridge Academy. After taking a break from teaching to focus on his sculpture career Jon is currently busy creating large scale outdoor sculptures for universities and corporations, as well as smaller intimate pieces for galleries, homes and private collections.
Jon inherited craftsmanship skills, love of tools, and architectural appreciation from working with his father as a finish carpenter for many summers. He now blends these skills with the playful inspiration of his kids and the artistic vocabulary he learned through studying and teaching art. You can find more of Jon’s work at various galleries in the greater Twin Cities region, outdoor parks in the Midwest, or online at his website or Instagram.
http://www.kamrathsculpture.com/

Inklings SARA MERRITT
2019-11-02 - 2019-11-30
LOCATED IN THE SMALL WALL GALLERY (3RD FLOOR)
I think of these works as inklings, for their humble beginnings as tiny ink doodles, and for those small, nagging ideas, fears, and behaviors that have the power to become reality – whether beautiful or monstrous in their realization. The earliest works date back to 1997, when my mother was diagnosed with Huntington’s
Disease. They represent the management of multiple internal struggles – first with my own body image and the desire to find perfection within asymmetrical, writhing color; then the quest to contain my body and mind as my mother slowly began losing control over hers.
My practice is sometimes an inquiry into the interaction and display of bodies – as physical forms, printable images, philosophical constructs; as patterns, collections; recognizable or hidden and refigured. Through transition from one form or material to another, I can define new bodies to explore concepts of inscription, concealment, authenticity, illusion, and decay in a carefully sutured experience where nothing is as it seems. Other times, I paint simply to release – a wordless outpouring of thought and emotion.
Ultimately, everything I make echoes that first movement of ink on paper. My time spent with that writhing color is sacred, laborious, my personal visual expression at its core, in its purest, most honest form. It is a dance in two dimensions – movement controlled, contained, and preserved.
I hope you enjoy.
I am a native Ames artist, arts and dance instructor, and currently work full-time developing educational programming for Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University. From a weird and winding career path and with over 20 years’ experience teaching everything from silk-screening, painting, and problem-solving, to martial arts, belly dance, and zendoodle, I am consistently drawn to the connections between things and people, the intricacies of visual patterning, and the spectrum of perception – especially as an exploration through distortion.
I started assisting my dad in teaching photography classes for Ames’ Super Summer TAG program when I was 15, and have been leading art classes of all kinds ever since – mostly in informal settings through community education. I discovered belly dance at 17 at the suggestion of my mom – who had been a dancer in the 60’s – and now dance professionally, performing with the Mirage Middle Eastern Dance Troupe and teaching dance in Ames and surrounding areas. As an adolescent like any other I struggled with self-esteem, body image, and the looming future of my tight-knit family as my mom was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease – a debilitating and rare degenerative genetic disease causing uncontrollable movements, memory loss, and dementia. To combat fear and loss of control I began transforming absent-minded doodles and sketches into meditative works on paper.
Throughout the last few decades while teaching I have worked as a hotel housekeeper, a bartender and waitress, a bookstore clerk, a hippie shop associate, a Renaissance festival commissioned artist, a commercial screen-printer, a Destination Imagination coach, and an educational associate for middle school Special Education. I have met and worked with students of all ages, abilities, and temperaments, and I am still unfailingly fascinated by all the nuances in individual perception that manifest through personal interaction. In short, I love teaching art – perhaps the oldest method of human expression built from the
desire to create and communicate.
As an introvert who habitually does extroverted things, I depend on solitude and time to myself in order to thrive. Movement through art and dance often helps me process my own thoughts and make personal decisions. After yet another somewhat twisted path through higher education, I ended up receiving a degree of my own design – a Bachelor of Arts in Art, Sexuality, & Aesthetic Perception from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2003. With the support of my amazing husband Matthew I obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2011, and quickly returned home to help care for my mother, who passed in 2013.
I believe absolutely in the power of visual expression and informal education; for me, it all begins with an inkling – a tickle of thought, a spark of energy, a compulsion to make a mark, express movement, or share something unspoken with others. I will continue to create, to dance, and to teach as long as I am able. And maybe after.
https://www.saramerritt.com/

ANGE ALTENHOFEN & JOSH SORRELL
2019-11-08 - 2019-12-27
LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY
Ange Altenhofen
“Metaphorical function” is a term I use to describe my work, dovetailing sculptural form with the innate potential for usefulness and interaction that every three-dimensional object possesses. In this scenario function follows form, recycling art into a prosaic, functional object that is activated through touch and let loose in the world. I tend to think that inanimate objects have “souls”, or at least earn something akin to a soul as they get used more and more frequently over time.
The “Braille Series” is an ongoing body of work that references metaphorical function and incorporates Braille as a surface texture, not only to deliver information through touch, but to suggest blemishes on the skin that invite a haptic experience not unlike apes have while grooming one another. I first began using Braille text in my work after I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition that could eventually lead to permanent blindness. At the time of diagnosis I panicked- how does a visual artist make art without sight? This question sent me searching for answers and eventually led to creative discoveries I may never have found otherwise: understanding and revelation through physical touch and interaction with the art object itself.
Ange Altenhofen was born and raised in Chariton, Iowa. She earned a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Northern Iowa, briefly attended the University of Iowa to study art history and Italian, and earned an MFA in Sculpture and Ceramics from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Living part-time in Florence, Italy, she worked as an apprentice to puppeteer Rocco Cosentino, and as the assistant director and student advisor for an international art academy, Arte Sotto un Tetto. Since 1993, Ange has lived predominantly in Chicago, exhibiting her artwork both nationally and internationally including galleries and museums in Tel Aviv, Vienna, Florence, Chicago, and New York. She is also an established costume designer and has worked for numerous theater companies in Chicago, co-founding the costume performance company DeCorps Costume Collective in 2001. Most recently she has worked as a published archaeological illustrator for the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, drawing artifacts from archaeological sites in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Israel. In 2015 Ange returned to Iowa to write and illustrate a
children’s book that she hopes to publish in 2019.
Josh Sorrell
I paint to explore human nature within our current social structures. The subjects of my work examine how our experiences affect our fragile identity.
Josh Sorrell, an Iowa native, produces representational artwork altered by abstract elements. Using oil or charcoal as the preferred medium, Josh examines themes of
personal and cultural significance while also attempting to draw a new perspective from accepted ideas. Subjects are often presented within a surreal atmosphere meant to strengthen its impact. This focus on combining both real and imaginary components allow the viewer to create their own unique interpretation.
http://joshsorrell.com/
