Master Your Craft: At-Home Access to a New Class of Cool
Let’s get creative, together in spirit. Now presenting a collection of DIY activities and online classes led by local artists and galleries to inspire all.
Native New Yorker Lexie Smith shares the art of baking—in the most compelling and genuine way. With many of us taking the time to master new recipes at home, bread baking has been at the forefront of interest and Smith is here to help. The artist-baker is not only taking email requests (please@bread-on.earth) for sourdough starter but also sharing her knowledge for how to build your own sourdough starter in a step-by-step guide published on her Bread on Earth website.
For anyone interested in learning about modern and contemporary art in an in-depth, hands-on way, these free courses from one of the world’s leading art galleries is a very good place to start. Lovers of fashion have the chance to take a closer look at what we wear, why we wear it, how it’s made, and what it means in the Fashion as Design course. What is Contemporary Art? will take you into artist’s studios and neighborhoods allowing for a deeper understanding of how artists work today. Other courses include In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting; Modern Art and Ideas, and Seeing Through Photography.
Driven by the power of music to connect us, Fender is offering three months of free online guitar, bass, and ukulele lessons to the first one million new players who sign up for Fender Play. Tune in.
Creative Writing with Michael Leviton
Writer, musician, photographer, and GrandLife local Michael Leviton has written a memoir that will be released by Abrams Books in June. In the meantime, you can catch him on Zoom each Saturday teaching Word Of Mouth Creative Writing Classes (pay what you want) from 1pm to 3.30pm. Follow Michael on Instagram for updates and for the updated Zoom link. You can also DM to join the email list.
Between 1983 and 1994, television’s master of DIY painting, Bob Ross, shared his love of the art form—expressed mostly in the form of trees, mountains, lakes, and skies—and homespun approach in his iconic show The Joy of Painting. For both the uninitiated and those eager to revisit Ross’s blissful tutorials, every episode (there are some 400 in total) is now available to stream for free on YouTube.