Skill Strengthening Workshop: Build it Strong!

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Sarah Wagner (John)

Sarah Wagner on a worksite

Armed with a hot glue gun and a utility knife participants will work in groups to build a fabulous looking structure out of flimsy cardboard that a person can stand on. We will explore the questions of how do you make stuff stand up? or how do you balance design with structure?

This basic skills workshop focuses on melding strength with aesthetics using basic

building principles including the engineering principle of triangulation. Triangulation is a tiny but important puzzle piece that can be the difference between something working or not. Posts and lintels, arches, trusses, and compression and tension will also be reviewed.

If you like to build but sometimes things don’t work this workshop may provide a

valuable key to structure and be fun.

Attendees are asked to bring the following (and more to share, if you have it):

- Glue guns

- Glue sticks

- Utility knives

- Utility blades

- Metal straightedge/ruler

Bio: Sarah Wagner is a sculptor and writer who has supported herself with her

construction and fabrication skills on and off for decades. Her technical expertise is in wet plaster but she does masonry, carpentry, roofs, drywall, decks, and has even been known to run plumbing. Her sculptural installation often whisper questions about complex issues through ephemeral-looking animals made of sewn fabric over wood or steel armatures. A new author, she recently completed a memoir with drawings titled “The Cancer Show”. She has shown and published her work nationally and internationally and has taught art at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago and Penland. She currently lives in a house on a hill, where the lumber was carried up 80 hand-made steps, she and her husband built themselves.