Enjoy a free workshop or live demo with a Torpedo Factory Art Center artist at the Waterfront entrance of the Art Center. There will be a different project every third Saturday of the month from April – September, 1 – 3pm.
In this workshop, Saya will show the quick and preliminary steps of getting inks from some plants and flowers and introduce some pigments and minerals to get their colors. She will prepare the primary colors such as Yellow (from the dried Weld), Red (from Brazilian wood tree bark), Blue (from Cobalt stone powder), and Purple (from Cochineal, which is an insect that grows on some cactus) and other colors. Attendees can observe her create these on paper.
Sayeh “Saya” Behnam (Studio 229) is an Iranian-American artist born in Tehran-Iran. Fleeing from war, turmoil, revolution, experiencing dictatorship, cultural and traditional barriers, all had a profound influence in her art and life. She believes her art is where she can easily find and establish a true identity that could very much have been lost and undefined. Her art deals with the core concepts of the human being; life, death, freedom, the now, time and more. She is very active in the social and humanitarian art space, working with NGO’s in the Middle East and the USA, especially with street children. She currently lives in northern Virginia, near the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.
