Lost and Found with MyDogSighs

Upcycler, recycling artist, street artist and can-man MyDogSighs worked with us today to help clear the streets around Winston Churchill Avenue and encouraged the students to create artwork from discarded items. Intrinsic to the workshop is the idea that the item is found - transformed and then left in-situ for anyone who wants to keep it.

In the spirit of Free Art Friday the students explored the techniques and concepts MyDogSighs employs and responded individually to the item they had found. These might be worth looking out for around the Eldon Building over the next day of two.

My Dog Sighs

Lost and Found workshop

Many thanks to My Dog Sighs, who joined us today for a workshop and tasked the first years with finding a discarded item which they could up cycle into a characterful animal.

They returned with a wide array of found items to transform into original artworks and then return to the original location, photograph and leave behind, to be found and possibly kept by a passer by. Inspired by artworks shown by My Dog Sighs the students were introduced to the concept behind Free Art Friday, a global community of artists creating work which is returned and left for any member of the public to take home and enjoy.

The weeks so far spent studying the characteristics of the animals is becoming more apparent in the pieces the students produced.

Tegan Meredith - My Dog Sighs Level 4 Workshop - Hedgehog

For this workshop we had visiting artist, My Dog Sighs, showing us how we can create a piece of artwork by up-cycling rubbish found around Pompey. We were shown examples of My Dog Sighs own work to give us inspiration to go out to find our own objects to transform into a personified piece of Free Art.  

I found a piece of wood with nails sticking out from it, which I thought would be perfect for creating a hedgehog to put towards my Research Methodology project.

After painting my hedgehog, I had to return it to the staircase I found it under in the city centre - this was difficult as I was quite attached to Mr Hedgey!