PAINT CAN PRESS


• JANUARY 2025 •

January, Part ii


This second edition of the month features all the workshops you can handle, an eagerly-awaited introduction to our grant-funded series ¡Arte Juntos!, a peek at our upcoming collab with IU Auditorium, and a behind-the-scenes editorial on shop management and hiring perspectives by yours truly.

Upcoming Events

Oil Painting 101

Wed. 1/28

6-8pm


This ultra-beginner-friendly intro to oil painting comes complete with everything you need to tackle your very first still-life!

SOLD OUT

Collage Collective Kick-Off

Thurs. 1/30

5-7pm


Help us kick-off of our newest monthly meetup with a pizza party! Cut it up with other creatives and enjoy free supplies.

SEE FULL LISTING

Oil Painting 102 Series

Fri. 1/31, 6–8:30pm

Sat. 2/1, 9am–3:30pm


If you've completed OP-101 or have previous experience, this class explores the Zorn palette & completes a still life study.

SEE FULL LISTING

Reflective Bookmaking Series

Fri. 1/31, 10am–12pm

Sat. 2/1, 2–4pm


Using a variety of mediums and simple book construction techniques, create a journal to store memories and mementos.

SOLD OUT

Intro to Zentangle

Sat. 2/1

10am-12pm


Unwind with the relaxing magic of Zentangle! Learn to create meditative patterns, no experience required. All supplies included!

SEE FULL LISTING

Zentangle: Hearts

Sat. 2/8

10am-12pm


If you're crushing on Zentangle, come create playful, heart-inspired designs with our Certified Zentangle Instructor Kris Heeter!

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Movimiento en la Cuidad, Sesíon 1 de 3

Sun. 2/9 • 1-2:30pm


¡Arte Juntos! es nuestra serie de talleres gratuitos ofrecida exclusivamente en español para hablantes de nivel intermedio, avanzado y nativos.

MÁS INFORMACIÓN

Art Club • February

Thurs. 2/13

5-7pm



Bring a buddy for bilateral mirror drawing! Art club is our free, all-ages creative meetup on the 2nd Thurs. of each month.

SEE FULL LISTING

Movimiento en la Cuidad, Sesíon 2 de 3

Sun. 2/16 • 1-2:30pm


¡Arte Juntos! es nuestra serie de talleres gratuitos ofrecida exclusivamente en español para hablantes de nivel intermedio, avanzado y nativos.

MÁS INFORMACIÓN

Block Carving Level 1

Sat. 2/22

10am-12pm


Join printmaker and illustrator Fern Salvaggio to learn all the tools, tips, and tricks you need to begin carving and printing your own designs by hand!

SEE FULL LISTING

Presentamos: ¡Arte Juntos!

¡Arte Juntos! es nuestra serie de talleres semanales para todas las edades, impartidos en español para hablantes de nivel intermedio, avanzado y nativos. Con la guía de la instructora (y artista española) Gloria Manzanares Romero, los participantes explorarán un nuevo medio artístico cada mes.


¡La entrada y todos los materiales para nuestra serie de primavera 2025 son gratuitos gracias a una beca de proyecto artístico del Bloomington Arts Council!

MÁS INFORMACIÓN

TRANSLATION


Introducing: ¡Arte Juntos!

¡Arte Juntos! is our all-ages weekly workshop series taught in Spanish for intermediate, advanced, and native Spanish speakers. With guidance from Instructor (and Spanish artist) Gloria Manzanares Romero, participants will explore a new artistic medium each month.


Admission and all materials for our spring 2025 series are available free of charge through an Arts Project Grant from the Bloomington Arts Council!


Community Collab: IU Auditorium


The evenings of February 4 and 5, you'll find us in the Grand Foyer of IU Auditorium! Starting at 6:30pm, before each night's Hadestown performance, we'll be on-site facilitating an activity for ticketholders to create a paper keepsake to commemorate their visit, inspired by the show's major themes. In an era where physical ticket stubs are themselves the stuff of myth, this is perhaps all the more worth stopping to enjoy. I'm especially excited to reconnect with you in this venue––it's a bit of a full-circle moment, having previously worked at 'the Aud' for several years myself!

Ready Player 1

Hi friends! Your pal + shop owner Heather Farmer here. As I've done more than usual in this issue, I'm going to again remove my We hat, and put on my I hat to give you a more personal point of view. Maybe I should do this more.


The number of inquiries I receive about hiring at the shop has been enormously humbling. It means a lot to get feedback that bfa.supply is a place people are willing to support with their time and energy. And, as someone who has been in the position of looking for work in Bloomington plenty before, I appreciate the bandwidth it takes to approach the counter and ask.


While the answer to the hiring question has been "Not yet," up to this point, I always take time (and want) to hear about the individual's experience and artistic pursuits. I mean it when I say every single person I've engaged with on this topic has some sort of meaningful practice that they're making time for––and you really bring the receipts! You always have actually-recent phone pics of your work, printed business cards for your art sites, sketchbooks tucked under your arm, or specific anecdotes on local art shows you recently stopped in to see.


These conversations have been beautiful and astonishing and funny as hell and are maybe the very best part of this job: getting to meet you, hearing about what you're up to, learning about what sparks your curiosity, and rising to the occasion of supporting whatever that is. Let's talk about the other parts of the job, though.

I invite you to step behind The Proverbial Counter and take the controller for Player 1. After walking your newly hired Sim around the shop and exploring whether or not the game allows you to resolve the stack of papers on the back counter (it doesn't) or jump on the tables (it does), you'll start to notice a pattern in job-inquiry conversations. About 60% of the time, they take a turn toward wistful visions of endlessly organizing a glittering spectrum of crisp, shiny new supplies by category and color. Iced coffee on the sorting cart, lo-fi beats floating through the air. Who wouldn't want to play a few hours of Art Supply Shop every week?


There certainly are moments like this that pepper the landscape, but a much larger proportion of the day-to-day is spent doing other necessary work, including answering the phone, breaking down boxes, general cleanup, price-stickering, conducting transactions, fielding customer questions, and preparing for/restoring order after a class. (And remember that stack of papers the game doesn't allow you to resolve? I hate to say that it doesn't allow you to ignore it, either.)


Don't mistake any of this for a complaint. I adore this work! The only thing more satisfying than the Creative Commons being clean and tidy is seeing it wrecked by folks trying something new and having a ball doing it. The mess of exploration is what this place is about.


If working at bfa.supply is something you have even remotely considered, thank you! And, as a leg up in preparation, I invite you to envision surrendering your place in front of an easel to someone else for an afternoon; providing the tools or materials they need to more fully engage their own creativity, remembering their name, and being prepared to weigh in with solutions when asked. Then, all at once, a delivery truck rolls up with 20 boxes, the phone rings for more, and the sun shines in. Welcome to Level 1 of Art Supply Shop!


It looks like reading this many paragraphs has you low on HP, so here's some of mine. ❤️❤️❤️+ Keep an eye out for the official job app early/mid Feb, and as always, thank you for all the big and small ways you make every level a good one at the shop. Your Neighbor,

Heather


See you in the next edition!