“We have to get Laurie to the Barn”! Karen Montanaro and I agreed when we both met Laurie Carlos as part of a workshop for the Cassandra Project festival last spring. An Obie and Bessie award winner artist, she is a powerhouse provocateur. An original player in the New York Avant-Garde Performance scene, Laurie brings with her over 30 years experience. Last week, I talked with her about her upcoming Barn workshop, In the Bones of Your Experience, which runs July 21-25.
Amanda Huotari: Who is this workshop for?
Laurie Carlos: Everybody. It applies to anyone who has an interest in artistic expression. Anybody who draws, speaks, dances…it’s for puppet makers, puppeteers, musicians, paper-mache makers, light designers.
The deal with this workshop is that I am not very result oriented in it. The value of it is cumulative. On many levels you won’t even know what transpired until you walk away. Constantly, you are being asked to evaluate your experience and ask, “how does it apply to your work?” This workshop heights and deepens your artistic intention.
AH: How does the workshop title, In the Bones of Your Experience, relate to the work you do?
LC: In every artist’s body there is a memory. You carry your mother’s memory in your genes. You carry historical memory in your body. A lot of times, the artist is not even aware of it, but its in the way you hold your head, walk through space, and the tone of your voice. Your purpose as an artist is sometimes not known to you because you are not paying attention to what information your body is telling you. Your body not only holds your dreams, but it also holds your intention. Part of the excavation in this work exists to expose, examine and realize what that intention is.
What we are talking about is very practical, it is not mysterious. It is even the most obvious component of your physical, artistic life.
AH: How do you see your role in the workshop setting?
LC: I’m a midwife and shape-changer. I am the person in the room with the most questions.
AH: How do you see the workshop environment useful for creative artists?
Workshops allow you the opportunity to observe your energy and the energies of who ever in the room. There are always opportunities for a deeper understanding of your personal artistic objectives.
In these workshops we want to explore dream and memory, and how that affects the telling of a story. The entire environment is shaped to support this kind of investigation. Everything is really set up for you to have an experience that is fraught with possibilities for change. I want everyone to be able to get dirty. Art is messy.
AH: Is this workshop intended for beginners, experienced artists or both?
LC: The workshops is for beginners and professionals, long-term and mid-term
Beginners will get opportunity and an incite to what it means to have an artistic life.
Professionals always need a place they can reexamine what they are doing, but don’t always have the opportunity to do that. They get locked into selling their professional product. As an artist you really owe it to yourself to continuously examine what you are doing and to create as many opportunities as you can to examine all of the methods that have worked for you, those that need to be let go of, and always be able to ask yourself hard questions about your craft. Many times, the most well crafted artists are the ones who require this kind of opportunity.
One thing I have heard a couple of times in the past few months from professional students is the idea that the workshops always allow them a chance to “come in and get clean.”
AH: What can students do to prepare for your workshop?
Observe, purposefully, your own resistance. Breathe and come along.
Early registration is strongly encouraged! Click here for more information about In the Bones of Your Experience http://www.celebrationbarn.com/workshop/work/w.bones.html
