The Layers of Love: Families Create Together with Vanessa Teodoro

Families and Vanessa Teodoro holding collaborative artworks inside the MOTHER exhibition in Lisbon. — Families and artist Vanessa Teodoro celebrate their finished collaborative artworks inside the MOTHER exhibition.

On Sunday 18 October, we welcomed children and their caregivers to The Layers of Love, a free family art workshop hosted by Portuguese artist Vanessa Teodoro within her exhibition MOTHER.

Surrounded by Vanessa’s artworks, families spent the morning drawing, cutting, layering and creating together. The workshop invited adults and children to consider how they see one another, before bringing their different ideas together within a shared work of art.

THE SETTING

Creating inside MOTHER

Before the workshop began, Vanessa welcomed the families into MOTHER: A Tribute to the Feminine and introduced some of the ideas, materials and collaborations behind the exhibition.

Exploring motherhood, memory, the natural world and the artisan’s hand, MOTHER brings together Vanessa’s distinctive visual language with beadwork created in Cape Town, Arraiolos embroidery from Portugal and natural and reclaimed materials.

Surrounded by Vanessa’s work, families were invited to consider their own relationships and memories before beginning the morning’s creative activity.

THE WORKSHOP

Drawing from connection

Families then gathered around two long tables to begin creating together. For the first activity, the children received thick white card while their accompanying adults worked on tracing paper.

“What comes to mind when you think about your parent, your child or the person who came with you today?”

Each participant responded through drawing, using personal memories, familiar objects, colours and symbols to represent the other person.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Bringing the layers together

Once the first drawings were complete, the families began combining their work. Elements from the adults’ tracing paper were carefully cut out and placed over the children’s drawings, allowing two individual perspectives to become one collaborative artwork.

THE RESULT

One artwork, two perspectives

As the different papers, drawings and textures came together, each piece became a visual conversation between two people. Rather than following a fixed outcome, every family found its own way to combine colours, shapes and ideas.

Each finished artwork carried two individual perspectives while celebrating the relationship between them.

The morning offered families time to slow down, experiment and make decisions together. Conversation, laughter and discovery became as important as the finished artworks themselves.

THE EXHIBITION

Visit MOTHER

Vanessa Teodoro’s exhibition MOTHER: A Tribute to the Feminine continues in Lisbon until 14 November. The exhibition reflects on motherhood, memory, the natural world and the many forms of feminine creativity.

Bringing together Vanessa’s own work with pieces created in collaboration with women artisans in Portugal and South Africa, MOTHER honours both inheritance and reinvention through layered forms, traditional techniques and reclaimed materials.

MOTHER: A Tribute to the Feminine

Until: 14 November

Location: Avenida 24 de Julho 8A, Lisbon

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