TEXARKANA, Ark. - Usher in the new year with an art project that creates something memorable for parent and child.
Local artist and art teacher Shea Phillips brings ColorHype TXK to Zen Artists Emporium from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Jan. 11, for a Parent and Me Acrylic Pour at Zen.
Admission gets a setup for a parent and their child to create an acrylic pour artwork, an accessible type of work that needs no previous experience to make.
"This class is really fun. It's an acrylic pour class, which is a type of art that has become more popular on social media. The concept is basically you mix art with chemistry. It's kind of like a recipe," Phillips said. "You mix different mediums and chemicals together to get the paint to kind of flow out and create really interesting cells and patterns and stuff with the paint."
She did this class in Shreveport a couple months ago, the whole class consisting of kids with their parents. They had a great time. Most of her classes are geared to adults, so this is different.
"Parent and Me, it's a way for the adult and the child to bond together because they're sitting together, they're creating something unique together, so they have a good time and it's a great afternoon," Phillips said.
It's something different and gives parents and children a keepsake they can cherish forever. "Because you made it with your kid," Phillips said. "They actually look really cool, and the kids love it." It's like mixing baking with chemistry, she says.
"And of course you get this beautiful aesthetic thing in front of you that is just unpredictable, so it's a lot of excitement," Phillips said.
About Zen, a new venue for her work, Phillips said, "It's a brand new art gallery downtown. I think the vision for that place is that it's kind of a mixed-use creative space." A co-owner contacted her a month ago wanting to host a class, and since Phillips does many classes at breweries she thought it would be a good place for a kids' class.
The ease and accessibility of acrylic pour painting fits with the belief Phillips has about art.
"There's a lot of intimidation when it comes to creating art and doing it the right way. There's a lot of doubt that people that aren't artists have with themselves," Phillips said. "And I truly feel like art is for everybody and that anybody can make art and should make art."
As for acrylic pour painting, different methods are employed, such as dip pouring where the paint is placed in a tray and the canvas is dipped into it. There's strainer pouring where the paint moves through a strainer. Many techniques give the artist options.
This type of art is a great way to put your toes in it and work with paint in a different way, she believes. As well, the artists are not copying other works.
"You're creating something completely 100 percent unique every time," Phillips said, noting anyone can be successful at acrylic pour.
Her involvement with ColorHype, whose owner Chelsey Rogers organizes and operates ColorHype painting classes in Dallas, is an extension of the art parties this Texas High School art teacher started doing about a year-and-a-half ago. Phillips was asked to expand the ColorHype brand to Texarkana.
"I thought it was a really great opportunity for me to really shake things up in Texarkana and bring new, fresh projects because a lot of people love the painting, love the art project aspect of it," Phillips said. But people want something different to do, so ColorHype meets that desire.
Other classes coming up for Color Hype TXK in January include a Paint Your Pet at Redbone Magic Brewing and a Paint and Sip at Scottie's Grill.
(Tickets start at $40. More info and ticket purchase: Check out the Parent and Me Acrylic Pour at Zen event page on Facebook or the ColorHype TXK page. More info is also available at Paintwithcolorhype.com. Zen Artists Emporium is located at 205 E. Broad St.)