Summertime Studio Visits — At-Home Edition
Though this summer made it difficult for us to gather for our traditional Summertime Studio Visits, Big Medium is proud to team up with local artist Lydia Garcia to bring you a hands-on workshop and virtual artist talk that provides an inside look into her natural ink-making process.
The at-home edition of this member event consists of an ink-making kit assembled by Lydia herself, as well as the pre-recorded video below where she guides you through the process of extracting inks from natural materials. So get your kits out and follow along at your convenience as Lydia explores the color spectrum of nature!
Should you have workshop specific questions, or want to chat with the artist about her process, feel free to connect with her through her channels:
About the Artist
Lydia Garcia is a Central Texas-based visual artist whose works explore the character of organic materials and the human behaviors that alter their landscapes. Creating raw pigments, handmade colors, and layered textures through a process of experimentation, Garcia produces organic formations that break down, interact and shift. Using her training in painting, video, and light, she renders these abstract forms utilizing various substrates. In a larger sense, Garcia is interested in temporal limitations on organic materials such as plants, geological forms, and natural chemicals. Location is paramount in terms of ownership, care, and societal structures focused on land ownership.
Searching and collecting various ingredients is an important element to Garcia’s practice. From black walnut hulls in an Austin backyard, beets from local farmer’s markets, dirt off highway 71, or copper yen from Japan, Garcia’s selected materials range from local to international spaces and environments. This studio process has led to the establishment of Ochre & Iron, an evolving social practice in which Garcia shares and exchanges knowledge and services through interactive workshops, process-based exchanges, and community involvement, while generating working materials native to the Central Texas region.