Summer Series

Another summer session is finished, and now the assessing of six weeks of development in the practice of drawing, seeing, interpreting, expressing, and feeling is well under way. Still a few more hours of considering the surprises, decisions, expectations, and directions that have manifested before I have to get on line and send in final grades.

Again, similar to last summer, I think there were some amazing things that happened in this short period of time, and many of those amazing things came in the form of the series projects. I'm including examples from each below. In cases where it was logistically easy given the time element of when I have to have my work completed, and the work was small enough in scale to shoot the entire series, I did so. However, in many cases, I have only included one of the series to at least allow a glimpse of the varied directions everyone took in the process.

Allison did a series of eyes, each one confronting the viewer with a gaze of confidence and subtle expressions. They were executed in graphite and colored pencil.

Will's series was a four panel segmented Macaw, the head, then the torso and wings, and then the feet. Done in pastels, charcoal, and colored pencil. He called upon his experience in Florida when his family raised these beautiful birds.

Sue completed three mixed media quilts, in which she drew with thread and colored markers, exploring some of the plants from her garden.

Shawn explored a variety of ideas but then settled on landscape. This one, done from direct observation in Cave Hill, was the cream of the crop. Not only was I in that particular place, but I can imagine being back there just by looking at this drawing.

Randilyn created four exquisite pastel drawings inspired from her own experience with the "sounds of silence". Each panel is loaded with color, texture, and maturity of expression.

Miri created four large scaled graphite drawings expressing the abnormalities in the perception and expression of reality.

Michelle's series of five panels looked at the vegetables that are in her garden that are, in part, based on her personal experience in the food industry.

Louise continued the series she began in the spring with water and how light reflects and refracts in combination with the figure, perhaps moving a little more toward the abstraction of the inspiration.

Kim took a cathartic journey through a tough part of her past with three large scaled graphite drawings.

Katie was a bit lighter in subject with a series of four dog portraits, with each showing the unique personality of each puppy.

Greg did four bugs, each in tight detail and beautifully rendered. You could feel the prickly crustiness of each one. He worked in Water color, charcoal, colored pencil.

Elle took the political route with her three panels, exploring the predominance of media representation of Bush, Clinton, and Obama.

Connie was in her garden and inspired by the flowers and the element of nostalgia inherent in polaroid photographs.

Brittany captures the personalities of three friends from Facebook photos, using charcoal and pastel.

Aberlyn had three panels that explored the relationship dynamic that exists between she and her parents. Functioning both as triptych and as individual pieces, they are loaded with content, expressed with a variety of media, iconography, and construction.