B20: Wiregrass Biennial showcases the region’s most talented contemporary artists, illustrating the South’s rich cultural heritage. The juried exhibition encourages innovative and progressive work that utilizes a variety of art forms and media and will feature paintings, sculptures as well as mixed media, new media and installation art. This year’s show features thirty-nine artists from eleven states.

#WMAFromHome Wednesday Art Challenge with work by April Wright

It’s Wacky Tactile Wednesday, and in preparation for this weekend’s First Saturday Family Day, we look to inspiration from an artist in our biennial exhibition, April Wright. Her piece “Uprooted” (header image) is a dramatic mixed media work that uses discarded, recycled materials including dry rotted cotton strips, white cording, yarn, other discarded threads and cotton strips, fake sinew, wooden reeds, dried moss, suture cotton thread, worn bed sheets, dipped in unfired red earthenware, patched with shellac and hung on a strip of wood.

Of her work, she says: “The materials that I primarily use are clay, paper, and fiber because they are easily accessible and are a part of everyday life. I also appreciate how elemental and easily overlooked they become as an everyday material.”

Materials for banner

Today’s challenge: create your own banner (image in header) with discarded and recycled materials. WMA’s art educator, Brook, used toilet paper rolls, some eco printed paper she had left over from another project, a cotton ribbon that was part of some packaging, and she used a paper towel to hang everything from. You could easily use junk mail or other cardboard packaging/boxes. Look around and see what you have available. Think of materials that you would normally overlook.

April Wright’s “Uprooted”

And once you’re finished, share your artwork with us! We LOVE to see what you create! Don’t forget to hang out with us on Facebook this Saturday for First Saturday Family Day! We will explore the work of three more biennial artists and, of course, make our own masterpieces!

Image to the left: April Wright, Uprooted, 2020, dry rotted cotton strips, white cording, yarn, other discarded threads and cotton strips, fake sinew, wooden reeds, dried moss, suture cotton thread, worn bed sheets, dipped in unfired red earthenware, patched with shellac and hung on a strip of wood