Poured Ink Experiments with Vesna Jovanovic | October 25

$130.00 
Saturday, October 25
1:00-5:00 PM

Vesna Jovanovic’s creative process begins with an act of chance: pouring diluted ink on paper. As the colorful puddles dry, Vesna discovers unforeseen textures and shapes that initiate new works of art. This method of working imposes a limitation that paradoxically also opens up new possibilities.

We have invited Vesna to bring this fluid technique to our studio, to share how her materials and processes balance chance and control—ways of working that can manifest intuition, trust, and curiosity within a creative practice.

In the spirit of the surrealists, as well as her own teacher, the late Barbara Rossi, this workshop encourages setting aside preconceptions in favor of happenstance, observation, and responsiveness. Vesna will speak about her practice—one that conceptualizes the human body through poured ink drawings that, in the words of Claudine Isé, are “wholly subjective, tinged with a sublime sense of corporeal horror... without ever losing sight of the body’s essential beauty and wonder.“

Participants will then learn Vesna’s process for mixing and pouring ink, documenting the results, and developing new work through experimentation with variables. Considering what the form, color, and the animate traces of the evaporation process evoke, participants will select a favorite “pour” to continue developing with additional painting and drawing materials. The workshop will include a collaborative element with group discussion around the images and forms that appear in the ink pours.

“There is excitement in not knowing. I am happiest with finished work when it surprises me, when it opens up a new connection or question, revealing something that I didn’t already know.” - Vesna Jovanovic 

All materials will be provided with participants encouraged to bring their favorite drawing materials (colored pencils, ink pens, markers, and crayons, etc.) to supplement what is on hand at the studio.

Saturday, October 25
1:00-5:00 PM

Vesna Jovanovic’s creative process begins with an act of chance: pouring diluted ink on paper. As the colorful puddles dry, Vesna discovers unforeseen textures and shapes that initiate new works of art. This method of working imposes a limitation that paradoxically also opens up new possibilities.

We have invited Vesna to bring this fluid technique to our studio, to share how her materials and processes balance chance and control—ways of working that can manifest intuition, trust, and curiosity within a creative practice.

In the spirit of the surrealists, as well as her own teacher, the late Barbara Rossi, this workshop encourages setting aside preconceptions in favor of happenstance, observation, and responsiveness. Vesna will speak about her practice—one that conceptualizes the human body through poured ink drawings that, in the words of Claudine Isé, are “wholly subjective, tinged with a sublime sense of corporeal horror... without ever losing sight of the body’s essential beauty and wonder.“

Participants will then learn Vesna’s process for mixing and pouring ink, documenting the results, and developing new work through experimentation with variables. Considering what the form, color, and the animate traces of the evaporation process evoke, participants will select a favorite “pour” to continue developing with additional painting and drawing materials. The workshop will include a collaborative element with group discussion around the images and forms that appear in the ink pours.

“There is excitement in not knowing. I am happiest with finished work when it surprises me, when it opens up a new connection or question, revealing something that I didn’t already know.” - Vesna Jovanovic 

All materials will be provided with participants encouraged to bring their favorite drawing materials (colored pencils, ink pens, markers, and crayons, etc.) to supplement what is on hand at the studio.

Bio

Vesna Jovanovic is an artist from Chicago whose work focuses on how we experience the world through our bodies and how society shapes these experiences. She has worked in various disciplines over the course of her career, including ceramics and photography, and is currently concentrating on works on paper that feature poured ink set against precise painting and drawing.

Born in Chicago, IL (1976) to working-class immigrant parents, Jovanovic spent most of her early childhood with disabilities from Polyarticular JIA. Her family moved to a coastal spa town in communist Yugoslavia to mitigate the illness, only to flee back to the United States during the Yugoslav wars. She enrolled in a Chicago public high school and became fluent in English while adapting to the new culture. The first in her family to attend college, Jovanovic pursued a BA in Fine Arts (Ceramics) and later an additional BS degree in Chemistry, both at Loyola University Chicago. After graduation she worked in a laboratory while attending The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she received a BFA in Studio Art. She also holds an MFA in Visual Arts with a concentration in Photography from The Ohio State University.

Jovanovic is a recipient of numerous artist residency fellowships including The Studios at MASS MoCA, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VCCA France, Ucross Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute, and a long-term studio residency at the International Museum of Surgical Science. Her artwork has been exhibited at The Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), The Delaware Contemporary (Wilmington), Spartanburg Art Museum, CoCA (Seattle), OSU Urban Art Space (Columbus), Metro Gallery at Reno City Hall, Haggerty Gallery at University of Dallas (Irving), and the International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago) among many other venues, and is included in permanent collections at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, International Museum of Surgical Science, and the Koehnline Museum of Art.

Photo Credits:
  • Headshot © 2023 Carolina Porras Monroy / The Studios at MASS MoCA
  • Hanky Streamer, 2023, 48″x36″, Ink and Acrylic Pen on Polypropylene
  • Process image courtesy of the artist