Upon the 20th of March, 2024, Holly McCulloch, co-MixMatched founder, ran a workshop upon mask making and the historic usages of masks.
Holly channelled her insight and passion for making weird and wonderful masks, and took us on a journey to discover the uniqueness of masks and how they can be used to express different aspects of the human psyche.
The workshop began with holly giving a short discussion of why masks have been used across culture some being; to hide, for ceremonies, for theatre, and to explore different elements of self. She then proceeded to show us some examples to give us inspiration for the next section of the workshop. Holly also introduced her own appreciation/love of archetypes, and shared her archetype cards with us ‘The Mother’, ‘The Joker’, ‘Fem Fatal’, ‘The Companion’ (which we tried not to cover in glue and feathers!) encouraging us to channel these strong themes into the creation of our masks. Within this intimate workshop I was able to connect to like-minded individuals, while being able to experiment with crafts, painting, collage and shape. This workshop was quite intimate, and was a space where participants were able to really get to know each other, while working on their mask. Holly stressed that, regarding her practice as an arts therapist, it was the fun/experience of making that was more important than final pieces… however, at the end of the workshop, it was wonderful to see the diversity of style, colour and innovation. We had all started with the same shape… but our end ‘face’ was uniquely our own creation.
Soon you’ll be able to see the creations upon our gallery!