8th Annual Art Car Weekend

The IUSARTCAR will b e featured during the art car weekend, August 6 - 8, including first Friday on the 7th, and parade on the 8th.  We'll have some exposure on WHAS this Saturday and throughout the next two weeks leading up to the weekend, and on August 6 on FOX 41. The IUSARTCAR book, created by Steve, has received attention from the KMAC and they have expressed interest in having the book for sale in the KMAC Gift Shop. Stay tuned for more info.

Summer Session I Portfolios

I have condensed all the remaining portfolios from Summer Session I into the drawing studio. There are several still to be picked up. That studio will be cleaned soon, so you'd better get your things before they become "examples" for the beginning classes, and free portfolios for the newby's .   

Summer Session I: Drawing (wrap-up)

Portfolios are ready to be picked up.  Make sure you also get your series.

It was good to look through the portfolios and see some of the surprises from our Cave Hill and Falls of the Ohio trips, especially since there had not been an opportunity to see some of them before.  The finished quality many of them possessed was, indeed, a welcome sight.

This was a fast, furious, and enjoyable six week session, and the dynamic I thought was inspiring. I appreciated the amount of sharing that went on with this blog and hope that you'll check back from time to time just to see what's happening with our drawing community.  I also hope that regardless of your concentration and/or major, that you'll continue to exercise the development of your skills, both manual and conceptual, in your sketchbooks.  And as Fine Arts majors, I hope you will continue to explore the contemporary world of art and become familiar with the vast range of contemporary theories and the artists who practice them. 

Be sure to check out the series post just below this one, and have a wonderful summer.  I hope to see you in the fall.

The Series:

Below are examples of the series project from the Summer I drawing class.  In some cases, because of scale or presentation, I was not able to include the entire series on a few.  This was a very involved project for a summer session, and there were many very rewarding results. The expectation of seven hours per week involvement is clearly evident in many of the groupings, and the uniqueness of each series made for an informative final critique.

Fran did a series based on dreams with beautifully drawn sleepers surrounded by very creative dream images that have a "concept art" influence. They are each roughly 22" x 30" with graphite and acrylic washes.

Aberlyn referred to herself as a "Jesus Hippie" in one of our critiques and based this series on her religious beliefs while at the same time allowing viewers to explore the abstract qualities in order to make their own associations. Each panel is about 30" x 21".

Sam explored clouds and their temporary amorphous shapes. They're about 4" x 7" done in graphite.

Trista developed a series also based on her response to the sky and it's contrast to landscape. These images are roughly 6" x 9".

Tiffany developed a group based on the gestation of a flower with the final image in full bloom. Each image is roughly 9" x 7".

Tatum continued her close up examination of flowers through oil pastels and mark making. Each image is approximately 15" x 20".

Shawn's series was four panels about 10" x 40" with mixed media.  It represents a traveling point of view to a metaphorical point of view.

These two panels are parts of Nate's series of four that explore contemporary Vanitas, a type of symbolic still life common during the 16th and 17th centuries.  The word, Vanitas, is latin, meaning emptiness, and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Each panel is roughly 40" x 60" done in charcoal.

Khara created a series about waves that was influenced by her participation in the surf culture. There are four different sized panels, about 16" x 10", in mixed media.

Katie did this three paneled series based on a project that she very much enjoyed from her experience in 2-D design, cubist influenced images of a guitar. Cubism was an art movement pioneered by Picasso and Braque in the early 20th century.  In cubist artworks, objects are broken up and reassembled in abstract form, depicting the subject from a multitude of viewpoints. Each panel is about 16" x 8" and done with chalk pastel.

Jessica developed a three paneled series of plant forms, these two are 11" x 9"' in mixed media.

Jerrye had a series of three drawings in graphite, about 18" x 24" also of plant forms in different containers.

Daphne did these nine small drawings of flowers with pastels, they're only a few inches by a few inches in dimension, and she mounted them as 'photos' like one would find in a scrapbook.

Connie did this large piece that incorporates her series of tents into a large piece made from an old tent.  She also drew the accoutrement of period reenactment encampments and essentially collaged those into the image. it's roughly 47" square in mixed media.

These are two of Beth's six panels that take the idea of postcards created about some of Louisville's landmarks, removing sections of the photographic images, and then draws those sections back into the image. They are each about 5" x 7" done with colored pencil. Around each image she has inscribed the latitude and longitude coordinates of each location and then mounted with onto a black surface with photo mounts.

Ashley did a series of nine, 9" x 12" Vogue magazine covers with prominent women in the covers.  They are mixed media and collage.

Sketchbooks

This was one of the pages from Jessica's sketchbook, and by the time she had exceeded the 20 page minimum, her approach and process with charcoal was starting to have a unified consistency and style.

This is one of Fran's pages, clearly showing a commitment to observation and mark making.

This page is from Aberlyn's sketchbook in which she explored a variety of approaches and media. This particular image was almost like a sustained gesture of a tea kettle sitting on a stove.

Daphne's sketchbook also had a variety of media explorations, and this collage was especially intricate in the way she assembled the page.

Katie had several pages of media and form explorations. This particular page (which I unfortunately had to crop on the scanner) did some interesting things with composition and design.

The examples above demonstrate "substantive pages" from those sketchbooks. In same cases there were 19 more pages of equal substance, in others there may have been only a few more. However, when the sketchbook was utilized to accelerate progress in drawing, I felt they were very successful.

This is from the syllabus:

Keeping a sketchbook can accelerate your progress in drawing, and given that this summer course is only six weeks long, use your sketchbook as often as possible. It will constitute, in part, 20% of your final grade. Your sketchbook should have at least 20 substantive pages by the end of the session. It can (and should) be used for practicing observational drawing outside the studio or for recording notes on ideas or visual observations in written form. It can function like a scrapbook or diary (provided you don’t mind me reading it) or a combination of all of the above. It is the best place to work out ideas visually because it is always at hand, but only if you make the commitment to carry it around with you.  Our Blog has a link to Artists’ Sketchbooks Online (Posted January 09) an amazing web site with hundreds of sketchbooks.  The site should be visited as frequently as possible.  There’s lots of inspiration there. The first page of your sketchbook should be used to catalogue your blog entry times and dates.

Sketchbook entries ranged from quick sketches to labored renderings, from collages to media experiements, from observational studies to imagination.  If they were "substantive", then they were awarded credit, if they weren't "substantive", then they didn't receive credit.  I looked for 20 substantive pages (I usually require 40 pages during a full semester).  20 pages = A, 19 pages = A-, 18 pages = B+, 17 pages = B, etc., etc., etc.  You get the picture.

See you Monday for individual critiques over your series.

Thursday at the Falls of the Ohio

It looks like we'll get another chance to be outside tomorrow, so I'll meet you at the railroad bridge. That is, of course, provided some freak storm doesn't roll in, in which case we'll be in the studio.  The forecast is very promising until about 5:00 in the afternoon.  See you in the morning. 

DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR SKETCHBOOKS.

Critiques/Portfolio

A recap of what was discussed this morning with a few extra things to think about. Everyone has signed up for an individual critique time on Monday, and then the final group critique will be Tuesday, from 9:00-12:00.  You'll be turning in your sketchbooks this Thursday, so if we're at the Falls of the Ohio again, be sure to bring your sketchbooks with you.

Final portfolios will be left in the studio after final critique. Your portfolio will contain 2 still life drawings, 2 Cave Hill drawings, 1 figure drawing, 1 or 2 Falls of the Ohio drawing(s), and your series (at least 3 drawings). Drawings in your portfolio should be leafed, that is placing a protective sheet between each drawing so as not to smear charcoals, pastels, or soft graphite. Any "spiral fuzz" needs to be trimmed off of the work and edges should be cleaned (think craftsmanship). Drawings should be presented in chronological order, first on top, last on the bottom, the series presented as one group at the very end.

A few more questions to consider about your series: Do you see jumpy or gradual changes in the series?  If jumpy, it may not feel like a series, what do you need to do to make the images more serial in resolution?  Are you familiar with artists' work that you can connect with?  What have you learned about your way of working, or even your classmates' ways of working? How has a sketchbook helped with in the series? Are the compositions, use of media, and ideas working together in a way that makes sense to you?