Spring 2020 Semester is Over

Final grades have been submitted to KeanWise.  When they distribute them to you I have no idea.  This was an unusual semester.  The range of grades was from A to F, which is normal enough.  Failures were mostly for not turning in work. Out of 31 students, 11 never submitted a paper, and missing those 25% of points digs a big hole.  13 students didn't complete one or more of the two major projects, worth 20% each. Most did some of the portfolio, but some submitted nothing.  It all adds up.  At the request from above, all late and absence penalties were eliminated, which boosted some grades. 

The university's solution to the corvid problem was to create a Pass/Fail option for students- you may invoke it for up to two classes from the spring, and the grades on your transcript will be changed to Pass or Fail and the class will be removed from your GPA.  Not a complete solution, but it may benefit some students.  This has to be done through your academic advisor, so they are the ones to ask about it.  I don't know if this is the final decision of the university, so keep your eyes open for future changes.

From my point of view, one of the biggest disappointments of this semester is that the students don't get to see all the final projects, some of which are quite good.  As the professor I got to see everything that was submitted to me. I'm going to share some with you now.   These are ones that I particularly liked, and ones that also allowed me to download them.  They do show the possibilities of the assignment and found materials.  I've included the phrase that inspired them.

Some examples of Final Projects

Delicate Wilderness

In from the dreams

Crazy for desires

Isle of Love

Coincidental Wilderness

Perhaps there will be more images later, or maybe some of the other projects.  Depends on the time.  (during the last week of the semester I received over 300 student emails, most of which had attached images or papers to be gone through) Grades are in, so now it's time for assessments.  Luckily for students this has nothing to do with grades, just some fun we teachers get.  Each student has to be evaluated in 10 different categories, given one of 4 or 5 levels achieved.  Maybe it's due in a few days, maybe in a week. 

Enjoy your summer, and good luck with the fall.

5/8/20 Introduction to Art

Today's Class- Our last meeting of the semester.  Also the last day to turn in any work. I'll be accepting work up to 11:59 pm on Friday, May 8, 2020.  This blog can let you know about everything we've done this semester.  

How to make this up- Nothing new today to make up, and if you haven't made up old stuff by the end of the day today, you may have problems.  I'll be sending a mass email today on the topic of Kean's new Pass/fail option.  If you did well in this class (and some students did), you don't need it here.

Homework- Nothing for class, unless you still owe something.  I believe the faculty evaluation system remains active through May 10th.

For next class-  None. After today we are done with classes.  You want to make more art at Kean, you need to sign up for another class.  You want to make more art on your own, nothing is stopping you.  

5/5/20 Introduction to Art

Today's Class- Kean University has decided that today will be a Friday so you can have 15 class meetings. If you had some other commitment on Tuesdays, you'd be out of luck, if we were meeting in the classroom. Since I can't actually take attendance, I won't know if you are present or not, just the number of people who stopped by the website.  Even in Vaughn-Eames we wouldn't be starting anything new and nothing would be due today, so just another day when you could come in, turn in classwork, get feedback on your work, and have some space to work on your art. However, we are still banned from campus, so you get to work from home.  Watch out for younger siblings and pets.

How to make this up- We start nothing new today, so the information about last week's project is still what we are doing, the 3D final. Rules, suggestions, relevant images to look at, and examples from past students can all be found on the blog from last week.

Homework- Everything from this semester is due by the end of Friday.  Some of you have actually turned in everything by this point, but for most of you that effort is in progress.  No problem, as nothing is due until Friday.

Since the last email, we have received two more reminders from the software company that they really want those faculty evaluations to be done, bringing the total up to six. Seems pretty straightforward.  There's even an answer option that can be applied to questions that have no relation to our class, things like textbooks, exams.

For next class May 8, 2020- Our last meeting of the semester, and everything is due. If I haven't received it by the end of the day, I can't grade it, and the only way I can receive things is by email.  What I need to see is all the portfolio items, the 3D Final, and if I haven't seen and graded them yet, the semester portfolio and the Final paper. Details about all these things can be found on the blog, though you can send more questions if you have them.  You can send images of class work any time this week, but I must have them by Friday.

5/1/20 Introduction to Art

Today's Class- We have 3 remaining meetings on our semester schedule, over the next 8 days.  Some of you are all caught up on the work we are doing, some not so much.  But we press on. With only 3 meetings left, we have to begin our final project, the major 3D project for this class.  More on that below.  This is the last new thing we are doing this semester.

How to make this up- All the information and details for this last project can be found on a posting dedicated just to it, which I posted last night, but can also be linked to right here. Back on April 9th I sent out 4 randomly generated phrases to each student on the roster, with students being instructed to choose one phrase for the mixed media collage piece from 4/17/20.  You now need to choose a second phrase to be the subject of this last piece of art. The last two phrases, do whatever you want with them; we won't need them for this class, but this way everyone had some to choose from for this project.  

This is a found object assemblage, which means you can use any material you can get your hands on to make it, any process you like, as long as you address one of the phrases I sent you.  The resulting piece must be three dimensional, so something that occupies space. After that, we are wide open.  

Homework- This major 3D assemblage sculpture is our last assignment of the semester, and is due on May 8, 2020.  Normally everyone would be presenting their piece to the class on our last day, but that can't happen now, so you'll just have to send me a photograph of your final piece.  In the email, include the phrase you are adapting for your piece, and share anything about the materials or process that you can.  I will reply with the grade for this particular project.  These are the factors I will consider in grading it: being three dimensional,  use of the chosen topic, creative use of materials, and how it works as art. You can turn it in any time before the due date, but I must have it by the end of the day on May 8, 2020.  It's worth 20% of the whole semester grade so you want to get it in.

That is also the last day to submit the final version of your museum or research paper.  Several of you have done it already, but most haven't yet.  It's another 20% of your grade, so worth doing.

The semester portfolio is also due by then, another 25% of your final grade.  Since I can't check those in person, that will also have to be submitted by email.  This is generally the stuff we did in class, plus ungraded exercises through the semester. Information about this was posted to the blog early in the week. 

For next class 5/5/20- Hope you had no special plans for Cinco de Mayo, because Kean has decided that next Tuesday is really Friday.  The academic calendar on the website will verify all this. Nothing will be due that day, and we won't be starting anything new.  If we were still having classroom meetings, it would be a day you could turn in back projects, and have some space to work on your final project.  In our distance learning lifestyle, it's just another Tuesday, but I will be online all day to answer any immediate questions, although you can send them any other day during the week as well. 

3D Final Project

Sculpture is a catch all term for artworks created as three dimensional objects, generally with no practical function.  Traditionally, there were three main approaches.  Carving is a subtractive process, where material is removed from a hard substance to reveal a desired size and shape.  Sculptures made in stone or wood are typically carved. Another traditional process was casting, where a soft substance is put into a mold, and when it hardens, the finished sculpture can come out.  This was the common way bronze sculpture was done.  Modeling is where the artist takes a soft substance and works it by hand (or simple hand held tools) to create a sculpture.  This is how clay works, though often the soft clay is later kiln fired to make it hard.  A modeled clay piece can be also used to create a mold for casting metal, or as a reference for a larger stone carving.  Molten glass can be modeled by hand (with tools- at 1700 degrees Fahrenheit it is too dangerous for bare hands) or shaped in molds.  

Then came the 20th century, and all the rules changed.   All those old processes are still done, traditional processes and materials, for those who want to learn them.  However, many artists turned to new ideas and materials.  One such change was assemblage, sculptures created by adding things together.  Didn't even have to be traditional sculpture material. but could be what are commonly called "found objects", or just stuff that is around.  Many of the earliest cave sculptures appear to have been inspired by the object used to make it- the shape of the original piece of wood, stone, or bone probably looked like the object being represented by the artist.  This new form of sculpture didn't have to be marble or bronze, but scrap metal, plastic, or just existing manufactured objects could be turned into art. Shore area artist Lisa Bagwell made this egret from mostly plastic utensils and wooden pencils.  She has also done wonders with things found as part of beach clean-ups, but I'm not going to talk about those here.

Build a whole environment to hold that piece, and you have what is commonly called an installation. 

Slide Show-
Donatello A carved wooden sculpture, Mary Magdalene
Michelangelo A carved stone sculpture
Picasso a found object sculpture made from bicycle parts
Duane Hanson- A cast sculpture (plastics)
Joseph Cornell- Known for wall mounted box sculptures
Duchamp- Famous for developing the "ready-made" concept
Edward Keinholz -A classic installation sculpture

Our project is built on this idea of found object assemblage, which works well in our pandemic era, but I've been having students make things out of inexpensive or found objects since well before this, as in these student examples from past semesters.  Back on April 9, 2020, everyone was sent a list of randomly generated phrases, right to your Kean mailbox, phrases from words drawn from hats. One was to be used for a mixed media collage. Choose a different one for this project, your 3D Final project.

As with the mixed media collage, it is up to you to interpret the phrase you are using.  Choice of materials is completely up to you. Processes are completely up to you.  Just a few rules-

1) The piece must be three dimensional, occupying space. Can be free standing, on a pedestal, or contained in a box. There are examples of all these options shown below.

2) The finished piece must depict your chosen topic in some way.  (it's your interpretation)

3) You may use manufactured items that already exist, but your final piece must be unique to you, something you made yourself.

And that's pretty much it.  It's due on May 8, 2020, our final class meeting.  When you send in the photo, include your inspiring phrase, a list of materials, what it is about.  I've attached a number of student examples here, so you can see how others have handled it, maybe get a few ideas of your own.

"Chicken Story"
Cut magazine images, hard rubber, etc.

"Against College"
Computer generated images, foam rubber, etc

"Sting Despair"

Clay, leaves, paint, cardboard box top

"Apetite for Distraction"
various found objects, clay

"Fallen Merchant"
Various found objects

"Planet Gone Wild"
styrofoam, wires, various found objects

"Plowing through the Nation"
wood, computer generated images, found objects

"Impasse Changed"
Existing cardboard boxes, paper, found objects

"Let's Get Hearts"
Existing cardboard box, paper, paint, found objects

Semester Final Portfolio

Lately I've had a number of inquiries regarding the semester portfolio, perhaps because the semester is coming to an end in a few weeks. So this seems a good time to post something about it.

If you look at the syllabus, there is a breakdown on the 3rd page for Assessment, which covers how the grades are calculated.  There are three individually graded items (2D,3D, and Museum assignment), and everything else we do is part of the semester portfolio. This is worth 25% of your semester grade.  These are all the things we do in the classroom, the art exercises, usually done in the 18"x24" pad.  The last few months you have had to do them at home.  It's pretty much a completion grade- you complete the assignments and you get all the points.  Normally on the last meeting day, after we have all looked at the 3D final projects, I quickly look through all the big pads, and use a check sheet to see what people have done.  If all the items are complete, that student gets an A for the semester portfolio.  If some items are missing or incomplete, the final grade for this item is lower, based on a system I have.  In either case, it is calculated into the final class grade that I have to submit through KeanWise a few days after the semester ends.

Unfortunately, this year we can't have a final meeting in the classroom, so you will have to send me images of what you have done through the email system.  Some of you have been doing this all along, and if so, I have my check sheet and mark them down.  Some of you have sent me your comic strips that way.  I don't know if there is a limit to how many items can be attached- if so you may have to do it in batches.  No problem- that's why I have the check sheet.  Once I have things written down, I send acknowledgement, so you know and you don't have to send them again.  Excused absences cover penalties for missed classes, but all portfolio exercises have to be made up and completed, whether the absence is excused or not. 

The good news is that everything this class does is kept on this blog, so week by week there is a record of what the class is doing. Early in the semester when we were meeting in the classroom, if you did the work in class, then the exercise is complete.  I still want to see it again in May so I can give you a grade, but you at least have it done.   Work done since we switched to distance learning will have to be sent digitally.  If you are not sure what any of this is, it's all on this blog, but here I will provide a list of dates we did these exercises.  The last several postings are on the home page, and after that, everything can be found by clicking on "older posts" or going into the archive function, which covers everything going back to 2007.  This is not an ideal system; I much prefer to see art in person and judge it that way, but this is what the pandemic circumstances requires.  

Jan 31- Contour line (exterior, cross, blind).  The shoe drawings, 4 varieties.
Feb 7-  Scale, Proportion, and negative space (the chair, and the bottles, two exercises)  
Feb 14-  Value drawing.  Charcoal drawings of white painted objects
Feb 21-  Monumental art (mosaic collage with magazine paper)
Feb 28-  Basic color theory (the color wheel and the complement color mix, two exercises)
March 6- Photography- take home assignment
April 3-  Rhythm- abstract art influenced by musical rhythms, four paintings.
April 17-  Mixed media collage- adapting a randomly generated phrase through use of collage, drawing, painting
Apr 24-  Perspective in drawing- a 2 point perspective drawing of the corner of a room

That is the whole portfolio.  Details about each exercise can be found on the blog under the above dates for each, and if you have further questions, you can email me.  To count, I must see the work by midnight on May 8, 2020, our last class meeting. None of these items are individually graded, so if they are all done, you get an A for the portfolio.

4/24/20 Introduction to Art

Today's class- The idea of drawing in perspective has existed throughout the history of art.  Drawings are two dimensional artworks, and when they depict things that exist in the real world, which is three dimensional, there are going to be problems.  When I showed the slide of that ancient cave drawing on a wall, everyone quickly identified the subject as a horse, a bit of success for a 15,000 year old drawing with no title, no artist statement. That's a lot of power for a line made with soot. Yet I doubt anyone in the room believed it was a real horse- it was a series of lines on a rock wall. One thing our unknown artist(s) did was indicate the two legs on the far side of the body with implied lines, technically not connected to the exterior contour of the horse as drawn, but put in about the right place so the viewer's brain can make the connection, and complete the image. 

One of the inherent flaws of drawn images is that they can only approximate a three dimensional object or space, sacrificing reality in favor of communication.  But they can communicate quite a lot, and during the renaissance, artists learned how to communicate a lot through drawing.  Toward this end they developed perspective systems, applying advances in mathematics and physics to art, using a set of rules and standardized distortions to account for the missing third dimension in a two dimensional drawing.  Today we will use a common perspective system to render a viewable three dimensional space and structure.

Slide Show-
giotto we saw this example last time, a skilled artist showing an understanding of space, but lacking a perspective system.
Raphael a painting done with one point perspective, to depict an imaginary piece of classical architecture suitable for this tribute to logic and order.


How to make this up- The assignment for this exercise is to draw the interior corner of a room.  Normally we do this in the classroom in two point perspective, and there is a student example at the top of this blog post, a typical Vaughn-Eames classroom.  Since we can't be there this semester, you'll have to choose a room wherever you are sheltering. 

Back when I first leaned two point perspective drawing, we covered the basics for showing an exterior corner (two point works very well with architecture), then were taken outside to render the outside of a cantilevered campus building in that system.   While still sitting there in the field, we were given a weekend homework assignment to draw an interior corner in two point perspective, but no further instruction.  That Sunday there were a lot of desperate first year art students trying to figure it out, calling each other, not easy in the age before cell phones had been invented (or the internet) and most dorms did not permit land lines in the rooms, leaving us just rotary dialed extensions in the hallways.  (if you don't know how a rotary dial works, ask an older relative- they may know) I decided that if renaissance Italians could figure it out, this 20th century Italian could look at drawings, look at rooms, and figure it out.  And eventually I did, spread the word on our phones, and we all got through the assignment.  I'm going to make it a little easier for you.

Start with a piece of blank paper.  A page from your 18"x24" pad works well, but whatever you got. Choose a pencil that you like- you may need to erase, so pencil is better than pen. You will also need some kind of straight edge, larger is better.  In class I bring in an assortment of yard sticks for the class to share, inherited from my hardware store owning grandfather. Some are even printed with the name of the store, the products, and the phone number- CAstle 3-3464.  (how do you dial that? ask that same older relative)

First step is to draw in a horizon line, also known as eye level.  To make it simpler, put it near the center of the paper.  Near each end mark points that will function as vanishing points (VP in my diagram) If it helps, look at all the images first and see where you are going.

The next step is to put in a vertical line to represent the corner of your drawn room, which should be perpendicular to your horizon/eye level line.  The top and bottom ends of the line represent the ceiling and floor corners, so you can estimate how far it extends above and below your eye level.  Leave room around it for the eventual wall lines.

To create the lines that represent the top and bottom of the wall itself, place your straight edge so that it rests on one of the vanishing points, continues across to one of the top or bottom ends of your wall corner vertical line, then use the pencil to mark how that line continues across the page past that wall corner.  Do the same at the other end, then move your straight edge to the other vanishing point and complete the ceiling and floor lines of the opposite wall. Keep in mind that all horizontal lines that make up a wall, and anything parallel to that wall, must point to a vanishing point on the other side of the paper. The V shapes at the top and bottom are because of how things are perceived to diminish. (I left out the floor line on the right to leave room for furniture I'll be drawing in later) In most rooms the ceilings are parallel to the floor, and the wall height should be identical along its length, but in viewing the corner, it is the farthest thing from you in the room, so the wall feels smaller there, thus you show it as smaller.

Your drawing must include a door, so choose a room that has one.  Remember that any horizontal line on a wall must vanish to the same point used to make the wall itself.  Lay your straight edge down so it is along the opposite vanishing point, crosses the corner line, and then use it to mark the top of your doorway.  Estimate by observation how far it is from the corner to the door, the width of the door, and the space between the door top and ceiling, and draw in that line.  (these are all negative space, but you are drawing the lines of architecture) Then draw the two verticals that join the top of the door to the floor.

You must show something on the opposite wall.  Can be a framed object, a poster, a window- whatever you got.  Since it is on the wall, you use the vanishing point on the other side of the paper as your starting point.  Probably doesn't go all the way to the floor, so you'll have to draw a bottom edge as well, but otherwise it's the same process as drawing a door.

Making a piece of furniture (dresser, desk, book case, table, or whatever you have) on one wall is a little more complicated, but by now you are a pro and can handle it.  Estimate where it will go, and put in the line that shows where it sits against the wall.  Anything on that wall must vanish to the point on the opposite wall.  Edges that are perpendicular to that edge along the wall (and thus parallel to the opposite wall) must vanish to the other vanishing point, the one on the same wall.  A straight edge that connects the left side vanishing point to the first line out from the wall shows where to put the front edge of the furniture.  Draw that line in.

Last step is to finish the furniture.  Vertical lines connect the top corners of the furniture to the floor, and the two vanishing points that made each top edge will show you where to put the bottom edges.  And that is all you have to do, and now you know how to render the inside of a room in two point perspective. 

My example is imaginary but yours should be real.  I won't be there to see the room itself, so I will have to trust your estimates for sizes and locations.  Your drawing must include the corner, ceiling and floor lines, a doorway, something on the wall, and a piece of furniture.  This is a portfolio exercise, due by the last day of class, just a few weeks away.  This is the last portfolio exercise of the semester. 

Homework- Nothing new, but if you are past due on your paper or the comic strip, you should get moving.  Our last class is on May 8, 2020, so that ends the semester.

For next class May 1, 2020- We will be starting the final project, a 3D assemblage sculpture, making use of another one of those 4 phrases you were sent a few weeks ago. Examples will go up during the week.  Details and more images to be posted that day.

Drawing in Perspective

On Friday we will have a lesson in drawing in perspective and complete an exercise where you have to do it.  What is here today is just background, but it may explain what the goals are better.

One of the biggest problems faced in drawing from objects, is that we live in a three dimensional world, and drawing is done on two dimensional surfaces.  Rendering a single object on such a surface isn't too difficult. You've seen the example in class of a horse drawn on a cave wall, and had the experience of drawing a shoe on paper. Putting a few bottles on paper, while still showing their relative position and size is a little more work, but use of negative space and keen observation can make that possible, too.  Same case with white painted objects in our charcoal drawings.  No one would be fooled into thinking they were seeing the actual objects, but if properly done, a typical viewer would have a good understanding of what the artist had seen and rendered.  

Make the space depicted much bigger, increase the number of objects, and it becomes more of a challenge.  Luckily most artists like a good challenge. Through the ages, and around the world, any society that valued accurate rendering of objects and place, artists tried to step in and solve the problem. Some artists had good instincts, and were able to deal with some of this in their own style. Some relied on perspective systems, logical organized standardized systems for rendering what we see, while accounting for that missing third dimension.  Oblique perspective, isometric projection, and many other systems were tried, and all contributed to viewer understanding, even if they didn't completely solve the problem. 

A few years ago one of my college friends hit me with a problem via email. Doug had recently seen an exhibition of Raphael's work and was very impressed with his paintings of halos, which were the ring type that hovers over the head.  The question was how had he made these perfect ellipses.  (the proper term for a circle seen from the side- think of the bottoms of bottles that we drew in class)  I knew this guy originally from freshman year when we took advanced calculus together.  He did well, majored in math, and eventually earned his PhD in math and now teaches at a college down south.  (online of course, as schools down there are going through the same thing we are) I did not do so well, became an art major, earned my terminal degree in that field and teach art at Kean.  His assumption was that they were conic sections, a mathematician's solution to this perspective question.  My reply was that I didn't have a definitive answer, but I knew that Raphael was even better at drawing than painting (Doug's recent viewing of his work caused him to agree with this), and he probably could freehand a perfect ellipse.  And if not, perspective could be used to find it.  In the renaissance era, parents with the means to educate their children got them lessons in perspective.  It was the key to employment in many fields, ranging from firing artillery to cartography, navigation, architecture, engineering, city planning, and of course, art.  Knowledge of perspective was the key to getting an apprenticeship, which was the first step in employment.  Not knowing more than that, I did a little research into the matter.  A few hundred years earlier, the master of art in Italy was Giotto, who had no formula, just good instincts for indicating three dimensional space.  The style of halo that was favored in this era was a golden disc that sat behind the head of the honored person.  No problem if everyone is facing the viewer and nothing is behind them, but as Giotto was introducing more three dimensional space into his paintings, problems arose, as in this example from around 1300.  Individuals facing away from the viewer had a face full of halo.  The ring style ellipse hovering over the head was a solution by the time Raphael was painting.

Meanwhile, math and science were also evolving, as humanity struggled to figure all this out.  Through the course of history, usually it is the artists who get there first. If the goal of a particular style of art is to render with accuracy, careful observation and reproducing the results, this is an area where artists have a distinct advantage.  (halos are an abstract concept, so nothing to observe, just good guessing) They knew how to see the shapes of things.  They learned how to use the negative spaces to put them in locations relative to each other.  They learned how light and shadows in the image could be used to focus attention, and to indicate times of day, as in the examples you saw from Edward Hopper paintings during our lesson on value. They learned how distance can affect color, what became known as atmospheric perspective, where the accumulation of air makes distant objects seem more faded, and colors cooler (dark brown and gray mountains appear blue and purple in the distance because otherwise invisible air does refract a small amount of blue, and put enough of it between a viewer and the thing being seen, the objects being viewed take on some of that hue).  Just became another part in the artist toolbox, which could be used to depict the world.  We looked at it in our talk about color theory.  So artists used what they knew, and (usually within a generation or two) scientists figured out why it was happening.  

The need to depict detailed and complex spaces and show them as three dimensional on a two dimensional surface resulted in the development of perspective drawing in Italy during the renaissance, and it quickly spread throughout the world.  One point, two point, and three point systems were developed, each better for different purposes.  All had in common the idea of a horizon line, which is also commonly called eye level.  The points are actually vanishing points, places that horizontal lines all seem to point to.  One point perspective is that classic design of looking down railroad tracks disappearing into the distance. Logically we know that the two rails must be the same distance from each other over the whole length, but as they get further away, we perceive them as coming together. (physics tells us that things diminish with regularity as distance grows, which is the key to all perspective systems) Works best with singular items shown in the center of the image.

Piero Della Francesca one point example

For multiple objects in view, at similar levels to the viewer, we often use a two point system.  Two vanishing points are placed on the horizon line, at either end.  All vertical lines remain vertical, but any line that would be horizontal has to point back to one of the vanishing points. The down side of this is that the further we move from the center of the image, the greater the distortion becomes. We will cover this in the portfolio exercise this coming Friday.

There is also a three point system, which is employed when the depicted object or scene extends far above or far below the horizon line, but we are going to skip that- not needed for this assignment. 

4/17/20 Introduction to Art

The original plan for the next assignment was a multipart collagraph project. On your syllabus, this is listed on March 27th and April 17th, and you would complete it on your own as part of the semester portfolio. The process is creating a printmaking plate through collage, then applying black relief ink and printing in a traditional print process, and there are many options for doing that. Here's a student example of what we used to do those first two days, the original plate and the resulting print: (notice the mirror reversal effect and that the original colors of the plate have no effect on the black printing ink)

Then the school put more emphasis on projects involving texture and collage, and coloring the piece went from being an option to a requirement, by use of collage and/or hand coloring with pastels, watercolors, or whatever students found. This one below was done with highlighter markers, which added color without hiding the original texture captured by the printing ink.

Unfortunately, most of the materials and all of the tools and process knowledge came from me (I am a printmaker by training and practice) and we are all banned from campus right now.  The process is not that difficult, and you can probably find out how somewhere on the internet, but the acquisition of materials and tools can be a challenge and expense, so it's gone for this semester and is replaced with a mixed media collage that can be done with things you have.


Today's Class- mixed media collage-

Last week everyone was sent by email a list of phrases created by random, nouns and modifying words picked out of hats and combined to make a new one.  Choose one for this project, save one for the 3D final.  The others are yours to do with whatever you want.  We don't need them here. 

How to make this up-

Take one of the new phrases you received in the email and use it as the subject of a new artwork, which will be a mixed media collage.  How you interpret that phrase is up to you- be as literal as you want to be, whatever the word(s) mean to you.  Here are some examples of the assignment done by past students, along with the random phrase that inspired it.  Shows approaches that students have taken with this assignment and what is possible and permitted.

dangerous roots

 city of zoo

 seeds of dreamers

 untamable deluge

melancholy moment

 give us the pragmatic

tangled men

As you can see, this assignment gives a lot of possibilities.  We do have a few rules to follow.

1) The final piece must address your topic in some way. As I wrote above, how you interpret is up to you.  

2) The piece must make use of some collaged materials (from newspapers, magazines, photocopies, internet, wherever you can find things), some drawn marks (can be pencil, charcoal, pens, markers, pastels, crayons or whatever you can find, images or abstract marks) and paint (your watercolors, or whatever equivalent you can find- shoe polish, nail polish, etc.)  In all cases, use these things to create images, fill backgrounds, add color, whatever makes sense to you, but all should be present in some form.

3) You may draw or paint on top of collaged images, either to alter the image or just as part of your overall design.

Flat lightweight things are easier to work with in the collage format.  We have a true 3D sculpture project scheduled for May.

This is a portfolio exercise, due as part of the semester portfolio by the end of the semester, though you can complete it any time.

Homework- Some of you are all caught up on the graded assignments, and we don't have another new one due until the end of the semester.  Some of you still owe things.  I'll post a list of what is in the semester portfolio next week, but if you can't wait until then, just go through the blog for this semester and see what we did.


For next class, Apr 24  The last portfolio exercise of the semester, an assignment in perspective drawing. You will need paper, pencil, and some kind of straight edge.

4/10/20 Introduction to Art

Normally we would have class today, but according to the official academic calendar on the website, today is the first day of the Easter Recess, aka Good Friday. And that means no classes right now, in person, or online, so we get the day off.  If you are here looking for a new assignment for today you won't find one.  Next Friday, April 17th, there will be something new to do. Meanwhile, if you are here, maybe you want to scroll down, see if there is anything you missed.  Less than half of the registered students emailed me their completed comic strip project, our 2D final, and if I don't see it, I can't grade it.  I do accept work late (some points is always better than no points) up to the last day of class, and after that we are done.  Work older than what is shown on the home page can be seen by using the archive function.  So enjoy the day off, and be ready to make more art next week.

Dada and Randomness

An odd art movement got started early in the 20th century and spread throughout the western world. One thing that made it odd was that no one was sure what it was, or what it should be. It was called Dada, and they weren't even sure why that.  Maybe the name was randomly chosen from a book.  Maybe it was the name of a child's toy. Maybe it was a random sound and meant nothing.  All these ideas relate to it and are part of it.  It has sometimes been called an "anti-art" movement and that also seems at least partly true. One common characteristic was randomness, making artistic decisions by random action, rather than traditional aesthetics or formal issues.  Here is an example of a more recent related activity:

Years ago I had a co-worker who had training in both ceramics and photography.  One thing she liked to do was print her photographs as postcards, and any time she ran across an address, she would send an anonymous postcard. Found mine on an old envelope, which resulted in this showing up in my mailbox a few weeks later.  The original Dada movement is long gone, but aspects and activities live on in art today.  

For example, the Dada movement was big on collage. Could be a photo collage, where the whole image is made from cut up pieces of photographs, assembled to make a new image. Could be a chance collage, where small elements (any medium) are dropped on a surface and glued in place wherever they landed. In three dimensional terms, there was assemblage, where the artist would gather a bunch of things, either already made, or sculpted by the artist, or both, and build it into an artwork.  

One thing that is still common today, is using random chance as a way of creativity, leading the artist to something that otherwise wouldn't happen.  We will use it some ourselves for some of our planned artwork. I have taken dozens of words from the headlines of Book Reviews in the Sunday New York Times, cut then out, attached them to paper, grouped as nouns or modifying words/phrases.  I have several of these pages. 

Made a bunch of photocopies of these pages, then cut out the words again, placed them (grouped as before) into hats. 

In class, I would typically have students pick slips of paper from each hat, the two bits would be joined together, to result in a new randomly created phrase, noun and modifier. These phrases will be the subject of two of your assignments.  You will receive four such randomly created phrases in email today. No one else in the class will have the same ones. The attached letter explains further.  Hold on to them for now.  The first assignment they are for will happen a week from tomorrow.