It was an immense pleasure to work with skylark expert, Ian Ford, to present a science-art
workshop about skylarks. The combination of seeing skylarks in the morning at the Riverside
Nature Park and using this experience to make a text and image collage was great fun! The magic of seeing skylarks was a wonderful start for an afternoon of thinking, writing and creating artwork about skylarks. The afternoon kicked off with my spoken word performance and short film to provide inspiration and get participants in the mood. Deconstructing the poems of George Meredith and Percy Shelley and using them in word games helped participants their own ideas and create a collage expressing what skylarks meant to them.
I was amazed by the diverse personal and individual responses; for example one participant
focussed on nesting and family, another the swooping dancing flight of the skylark and another developed an artwork which was a memorial of words and image for a friend who had died. One young participant created an image and words about climate change – uppermost in her mind. Hers was a unique and exceptional response. – she had cut the flying skylark in half. It was such a strong and moving image reflecting the damage to nature and biodiversity from climate change.
The workshop was designed to be inclusive with no prior skills required, with lots of discussion throughout providing an productive and creative environment. I hope that there are many more science art events!
– Linda Kosciewicz, Collective Artist
“I liked the word play a lot, and enjoyed Linda’s performance. Lovely to hear/see how other creatives work, and form my point of view, interesting to experience the running of the workshop.” – Participant