What is an Assemblage Workshop?
A look into what you’ll learn to do in a deMeng Assemblage Workshop.
What is “Assemblage Art?”
Instead of picking up the rusty spade from a broken child’s shovel in the yard and simply tossing it in the recycling bin, take a moment to pause and look it over. Instead of asking, “does this bring me joy?” ask, “will this work as the head of a character for that deMeng workshop I’m attending in October?” It’s amazing what a little sandpaper, a little paint, and a little E6000 can do to transform a piece of ‘garbage’ into a key element of an assemblage art piece.
It All Starts with a Thematic Project
Our workshops are planned up to a year in advance. Michael chooses a theme for each workshop that will help guide your creative process towards your own unique vision for a project. In May 2026, his workshop, “Shrine for the Haunted Tune” in New Orleans focused on using parts and pieces of musical instruments as a base to create a spooky new something altogether greater than the sum of its parts. Participants in his workshop for Dia de Muertos in Oaxaca, 2025 created shrines that embodied two halves of existence: dark/light, past/present, good/evil. The pieces you see on this page are from his Carnival workshop in Oaxaca in 2026. Participants created wild, wall-hanging puppets with fabric bodies, fashioned after the masked and costumed characters we saw in the Carnival parades during the tour.
What Do I Bring to an Assemblage Workshop?
In short, a little bit of everything that delights you! You’ll know the theme and the project when you sign up for the workshop. Michael sends out a supply list a few months before the workshop, including paints, brushes, adhesives, etc. You’ll have plenty of time to rescue objects with artistic potential from the rubbish and gather them into bags and boxes. There are thrift stores and junk shops and weird-lying-around-stuff just about everywhere you look. You might find yourself explaining to your significant other that it really is important to save all the sardine cans for the Nicho assemblage workshop you’re taking with Michael in October. Holly had had those plastic crabs lying around in her closet for years before their true purpose for existence came to light. Gathering materials for your assemblage art piece is a huge part of the fun.
What If I’ve Never Done This Before?
You’re in good company. Michael is a seasoned and generous teacher. Each workshop day will include demonstrations and instructions for painting and assembly techniques. You’ll learn when to use epoxy clay instead of glue. You’ll learn how to prep unusual surfaces to hold paint. You’ll learn how to layer colors and washes of paint to achieve the effects you’re after. Most helpfully, Michael will troubleshoot with you individually to figure out the best way to approach your particular project. You will work in a room full of other creatives who are also piecing oddball items together in fun ways to create something entirely one of a kind. You’ll share ideas and materials and a lot of laughter, and wonder, as you witness everyone’s imagination grow to fruition.
What if I Don’t Finish?
Taking home a piece of art that you completed feels pretty great, it’s true. It’s also fun to have something to finish when you get home. A little momentum goes a long way towards starting up on the next project. And the next one. The skills you will learn and the lifetime friendships you will forge will go home with you, as well. Once you start looking at so-called ‘useless things’ through the eyes of an assemblage artist, you’ll never see the world the same way again. Welcome to the fold!
ABOUT US: Meet Your Hosts
MICHAEL DEMENG
Michael is an assemblage artist from Vancouver, Canada who exhibits and teaches throughout the world. He has written three books exploring his methods, Secrets of Rusty Things, Dusty Diablos, and the Art Abandonment Project, published by NorthLight Books.
In his art, he addresses issues of transformation. Discarded materials find new and unexpected uses in his work; they are reassembled and conjoined with unlikely components, a form of rebirth from the ashes into new life and new meaning. Often using myths and legends as source material, Michael use his assemblages as metaphors for the evolutions and revolutions of existence: from life to death to rebirth. These forms are examinations of the world in perpetual flux, where meaning and function are ever-changing.
JON LABROUSSE and MIJA MATRIZ
Creativity flourishes with good company. And DEEP ENERGY.
Mija and Jon are creators and connectors. We are passionate about our potential for human expression and collaboration. We have a vision for a more connected world, a more celebratory world, a world that delights in the challenges and rewards of cooperation. A world we ALL want to live and participate in.
We’re both artists, ourselves. Mija is a mixed media visual artist. Jon is a poet and musician. And we have a gift for holding space for artistic exploratoin and development.
We’re striving to build an International Art Collective that honors every creative who is willing to bet on themselves, who feels moved to thrive in community.
Our tours offer a perfect balance of creative time, and exploration time. You’ll grow and learn, as an artist. We all will. Your Creative Community can expand with us.