BCA Family Art Saturday: Animated Stuffed Paintings

Animated Stuffed Paintings Get creative and make art together!

Explore the possibilities of materials and contemporary abstraction inspired by Meg Lipke’s innovative, colorful, shaped paintings featured in our BCA Center exhibition In the Making. Create a three-dimensional stuffed painting using everyday textiles, upcycled household items, and color application techniques that evoke Lipke’s animated soft paintings and sculptures.

Activity Age Range: The whole family!

Materials Needed: Sock, Household Recyclables such as clean containers, lids, cans, and packaging materials, Washable Tempera/Poster Paint, Paintbrush, and Water.

CONNECT This activity connects with our BCA Center winter/spring 2021 exhibition Meg Lipke: In the Making Meg Lipke questions traditional ideas about painting with her colorful, shaped abstractions.

Working directly on canvas or cloth, the artist may cut, stain, or sew her materials before filling their forms. Her soft, pliable paintings project from the wall or rest upon the floor imaginatively animated. Lipke draws inspiration for her artistic process from her family history, place, and memories of her mother and grandmother’s creative practice.

Featured artist: Meg Lipke How can Painting be reimagined?

How can everyday materials be used in innovative ways?

What would it look like to create a painting that moved beyond the traditional frame and became an object, seemingly animated?

Meg Lipke Slump, 2017-2018 Acrylic and beeswax on canvas with polyester fill and thread 87 x 72 x 13” Look closely at Meg Lipke’s, Slump.

Describe what you see.

What lines, shapes, colors, and patterns can you find?

What does this work of art remind you of?

How do you think the artist created this work?

If this painting came to life, what does it seem poised to do next?

To create her colorful, shaped abstractions, Lipke explores the limits and possibilities of her materials. Lipke moves her painting off of the stretcher and frame into stuffed forms that have their own structure. She begins with two pieces of canvas exactly the same size. She places the canvas on the floor and draws upon it with a sharpie, then, sews the pieces together. From that point, she may either paint and stain or dye the material first and make choices about cutting the material before she stuffs it with polyester fiber, or she may stuff the work first before painting.

Often, she embellishes with other fabric elements such as yarns or remnants of children’s clothes such as her children’s old puffy jackets.

Learn more about our BCA Center winter/spring 2021 exhibitions at burlingtoncityarts.org

CREATE Step 1: Gather your supplies

Step 2: Stuff a sock Begin stuffing a sock with recyclables that you find around the house such as clean containers, lids, cans, and packaging materials. Stuffing the sock with recyclables will stretch the sock into interesting shapes and forms. These new forms will grow and animate as you continue stuffing the sock. Play with the arrangement of recycled items until you are happy with your stretched form. *Stuff your sock tightly. You don’t need to close the top of the sock. The stretchiness of the sock should hold the items in place.

Step 3: Paint your stretched form Begin painting your stretched form. Add colors, shapes, and patterns that make your painting come alive and feel animated. Consider ways that you can highlight some of the stretched shapes within the composition with different colors. Experiment and think playfully.

Step 4: Let your painting dry

Sock material is very absorbent. You may need to apply multiple layers of paint to different areas. You will need to let your painting dry for several hours.

Step 5: Curate and Display Consider how your animated stuffed painting will interact with different spaces. Try out various positions and placements to display your work.

Happy Creating!