Artist at Work

Lynden is offering Artist at Work, a series of video diaries by artists who have participated in our school residencies. In them, each artist uses their own practice as a way to explore problem solving, cultural context, and the process of making. Feel free to share these videos with your students, or in your own lesson planning–and let us know what works!

Artist at Work #1: LaNia Sproles
In this first video, LaNia Sproles introduces us to a painting she is making for her upcoming Nohl Fellowship exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art.

Artist at Work #2: LaNia Sproles
LaNia Sproles continues to work on her painting and talks about some technical challenges: painting skin tones and convincingly representing something that isn’t real.

Artist at Work #3: LaNia Sproles
LaNia Sproles checks in after two good painting days. She introduces us to her favorite plant, talks about working on more than one project at a time, and ponders how to push herself when creating work in isolation.

Artist at Work #4: Molly Hassler
In her first video diary, Molly Hassler revisits In Good Company, a fibers work she made in 2018 to commemorate the people who were important to her.

Artist at Work #5: LaNia Sproles
LaNia Sproles discusses the importance of patience as she approaches the end of her painting. With ideas swirling and a clear view of the image in mind, it can be hard to take time for the details. As a printmaker new to painting, Sproles is learning the difference between finishing a print and finishing a painting.

Artist at Work #6: Molly Hassler
Molly Hassler revisits Sighing Deep, a piece she made in 2019, and explains the screen printing process she used alongside more traditional quilting techniques.

Artist at Work #7: LaNia Sproles

LaNia Sproles takes a final look at Naker’s Continental, a piece she has been working on as she prepares for her Nohl Fellowship exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art. The artist, who is a printmaker new to painting, reflects on how she knows she is done, and what she has learned about painting—and how she paints—in the process of making this painting.

Artist at Work #8: Molly Hassler
With Smallie Fish Plaque (2019)Molly Hassler begins to move into three-dimensions to create an object that once again memorializes people who have been important to her—this time of the extended family at the bowling alley where her mother worked and she spent much of her childhood.

Artist at Work #9: LaNia Sproles
LaNia Sproles moves on to a new piece, a large cut-out, for her Nohl Fellowship exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art. She starts by telling us about her preparatory drawing and the people in it.

Artist at Work #10: Molly Hassler
Molly Hassler shows us how she learned to weave by revisiting three of her earliest experiments in hand- and loom-weaving.

Artist at Work #11: LaNia Sproles
LaNia Sproles continues to work on a large cut-out for her Nohl Fellowship exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art. In this episode, she talks about the process of working big: using a projector, pacing herself, and making a large piece from many smaller pieces.

Artist at Work #12: Molly Hassler
Traditionally, quilting is a social or collective activity that requires the piecing together of many parts.  For Molly Hassler, quilting is a metaphor for a supportive community, a world, populated by friends, family, and mentors. In one of her latest projects, she juxtaposes a quilt inspired by the quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend with a drawing on silk of a friend and their dog.