A StoryFaces program from Christopher Agostino

Talking Art Performances and Workshops

Arts-In-Education programs connecting students to some essential questions: Why art? How does art work?

In my Talking Art programs I bring students right into the creative process behind my StoryFaces performances. I leverage the fascination with my painted faces and stories to fully engage students in the real work of an artist: the research and inspirations I draw from; my driving interest in the stories behind the artwork; how research adds depth to my work; and, especially, the excitement I experience in the process of creating art. My goal is to encourage students to take on the creative process as an adventure.

My programs combine visual and language arts, exemplifying the use of multiple strategies to communicate a story and giving students multiple avenues into their own creative process. The traditional sources I draw on for my stories and mask art demonstrate the power of art to convey social information, to retain and synthesize cultural wisdom, and to inspire.

Talking Art programs are also fun presentations which introduce students to art history and concepts in an entertaining way. For years I have used my art to tell stories, now I’m using stories to talk about art, including:

Picasso the Thief and the Birth of Modern Art — or How Art Got Ugly (Primitivism, Cultural Appropriation, how artists find inspiration and why did Picasso paint all those weird faces?)

Monet’s Ghost… (Cézanne didn’t sell, Rembrandt died poor, and Van Gogh… famous artists often struggled — for an artist, what is success?)

The Legend of the Haunted Bridge — Samurai vs. Demons, ’nuff said (a 1,000 year old legend brought to life through images from Japanese prints and “emaki” the storytelling scrolls that were the original comic books)

————— and —————

From Cave Walls to Warhol — A History of Western Art* on 4 Faces A kaleidoscopic exploration of the traditions and purpose of Art through a history of Western Art (*including it’s universal human origins), featuring my ArtStory Painting, acrylic on canvas, 8′ x 5′

Talking Art Workshops

Classroom workshop programs give students their own experience creating transformational art, including mask design workshops and programs combining ELA, Visual Arts and Social Studies, including “Create Your Personal Superhero” Mask Design and the “My Amazing StoryFace” Writing/Drawing Workshop in which students create original stories.

“Art is Visual Thinking” — Joseph Beuys (though I really wish I’d said that). 

My focus in workshops is on process and critical thinking, the work that goes into a work of art  — concept, research, experimentation, self-critique (very important), and then improvement through more experimentation, critique and presentation, always developing the process further, learning from each attempt. The adventure of art.

“Men had made those masks and other objects for a sacred purpose, as a kind of meditation between themselves and the unknown hostile forces that surround them….At that moment I realized that this is what painting was all about. Painting isn’t an aesthetic operation: it’s a form of magic…a way of seizing power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires. When I came to this realization, I knew I had found my way.” — attributed to Picasso about his reaction to seeing African and Pacific art at the Trocadero Museum in 1907

learn about all we do at: agostinoarts.com

Related articles

• Christopher Agostino’s StoryFaces

• Artist In Residence at Carol Morgan International School
• Art On Your Face — Gallery 

• Why Body Painting? – 3A: Origins – Why did we start painting ourselves? Ancient bodypainting kit discovered at Blombos Cave (thestorybehindthefaces.com)

• Kumadori – Japanese Kabuki Theatre Makeup (thestorybehindthefaces.com)