Retracing our steps: Moving from Collage to Ephemeral Site Interventions (in the landscape) to Digital Documentation and onward into Semi-Permanent Installations Exploring Water Issues (in interior spaces)

We've covered so much ground that it seems important to provide a summary to help inform student blog entries. We completed the Collage unit (outlined below), which culminated in a show of student work that was timed with the opening of the Faculty Alumni Exhibit. The works developed by the students demonstrate their evolving awareness of artmaking strategies, and their expanding ability to imbue the visual with the conceptual and vice verse. Afterall, what is art without relevant content or effective form?

Our content this semester focuses on environmental and ecological themes, which we are deriving from Linda Weintraub's Indexes on Ecoart Strategies/Materials/Metaphors/Processes in her book To Life!  Through each unit/project, students have explored an ecoart theme (deforestation, power, nature, etc) and strategy (aesthetic, activist, formal, conceptual etc) as a means of exploring artmaking using a range of artistic mediums and processes (papermaking, photography, sculpture, mixed media, installation and more).

In the midst of our work (shown on the student blogs), Linda Weintraub visited our class and led a workshop called "World in a Peanut"through which the peanut is used as a metaphor for our relationship to planetary resources and methods of using and discarding those resources. Linda also presented two public lectures, one of which, EcoMentalities, provided new insights into some of the artists we have been discussing. This past Friday we visited the Carnegie International Exhibit, which has provided an opportunity to consider how the ideas of the ecoart movement are or are not playing out in the minds of contemporary curators focused on the international zeitgiest, and of course to also experience some really amazing works of contemporary art!

Through all of this we are working to integrate and internalize the 5C's of art making (composition, content, craftsmanship, creativity and commitment) and to gain experiential insights into the process of creativity and art making in the early 21st century. It's a tall order, but this group is totally up to it and doing some great work! What's especially exciting here is that the products that have resulted from our units and field studies are far more than simple encounters with process or skill building exercises. The works the students are generating demonstrate a commitment to an exploration of the very ground of art - what it is, why we make it, what it can 'do' and who we are as individual artists!

Our next step will be to take what we have learned to date, and integrate the knowledge into a collaborative project that will explore water issues and allow students to expand insights into site interventions and installations in a more permanent format in interior sites. Stay tuned for a blog entry outlining this next unit!

Next Steps ... Moving from Papermaking into Collage

Kurt Schwitters Collage

Review the powerpoint shared in class on Monday (found in our class Google Folder - it is called Composition & Collage). Using what you have learned to date about composition and space and integrating image, word/text, found materials develop a new composition that emphasizes a collage technique. Start by selecting a theme for your work from Linda Weintraub's list of Pioneering EcoArt Themes:

1. Desire
2. Newness
3. Power
4. Nature
5. Globalism
6. Diversity
7. Mercy
8. Death
9. Decay
10. Dirt

Gather images, text and materials that relate to your theme and use that to create a new work that explores composition and space as we have been discussing it. Consider new options for use of text and image. Consider your choices about placement and position and how you will lead your viewer through the composition/collage. You can do this in paper if you wish, or move to new materials as long as you still include at least image(s), text/words, and mixed media and concentrate on material integration and conveying your theme. Size is up to you as well.

Work to get as close to completion as possible so we can look at these on Monday. Don't work too large or it will require more time and materials and meeting the Monday goal may feel really hard. Please just do what you can but be sure to invest the required outside of class time!

Remember, "If you are dealing only with what you know, you may not be doing your job. When you discover something new, or surprise yourself, you are engaging in the process of discovery. Making art is an act of discovery. "

And, "The Studio is more than a place to work: it is a state of mind. It is a place where your practice is established, and the place where you experiment and meditate on the results. Whether it is a room or a computer, the studio is your locus as an artist." 

Both from: 101 Things I Learned in Art School, Kit White

Making Paper, Exploring Composition, Integrating image, text (words), and found materials + Deforestation ... Blog Reminder!

40 sheets of handmade paper by students in Art 156 Art-En

Last week began with an exploration of papermaking and consideration of how artists can use the power of art to explore environmental themes. We watched the film Chasing Ice and talked about how photographer James Balog's Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) resulted in amazingly gorgeous photographs that reveal the speed at which the ice caps are actually melting.

Following discussion of Balog's work, and the oals/parameters of our project,each student was asked to make 3 - 5 sheets of handmade paper using waste paper from the office of Campus Involvement. We discussed the papermaking process, general ideas about color (since our waste paper is colored paper), composition and space. Students were asked to explore the papermaking process and to integrate one image that relates to deforestation, one fact about deforestation (text) and one found material/object into each sheet of paper they made.

While not every student followed the directions explicitly (some forgot to use text or images or the found materials), the collective results are visually wonderful and troublingly provocative.

Once the paper was pinned up we began a more indepth conversation about composition and collage (including info on collage history and the impact on contemporary art)

Reminder to students: for your blog entry this week (due Sunday 9/15 by 9pm) - choose one sheet of paper made by one of your classmates and one sheet of paper that you made. Photograph both sheets and put them on the blog and do a compare/contrast critique of the two works. Please model this after the compare/contrast critique response found in Chapter 6: Critical Thinking, by Mary Stewart, which was our reading for Monday's class. Be sure to post images of your 3 - 5 sheets of paper too!

Welcome!

Dear Students,

A warm, and early, welcome to Art 156 Intro to Studio Art: Art & the Environment! 

As you pack for the semester I recommend bringing the following if possible. 

• a digital camera (a simple point and shoot or cell phone camera should suffice. Make sure you know how to get to the highest pixel ratio possible; 180 would be ideal)
• a laptop/desktop computer, iPad (or similar device) and inexpensive printer for your dorm room (for those moments when you'd rather not leave the sanctity of your room!)
• a photo editing program like photoshop

Please know that there are many computer labs for your use on campus, but many of these labs serve as classrooms, so access is often limited to evening hours. Also, the computers in the Library and other niche labs across campus generally do not have digital editing software on them. The art department computer studio does provide this, but you will not have 24-7 access to it.

The art department also runs a small art store where you will find most of the traditional artmaking materials that you may need (such as drawing paper, canvas, acrylic paint (primary and secondary colors plus black and white), brushes, gesso, acrylic mediums, pencils (B&W and colored), tape (clear - packing, scotch, masking), staples, utility knife and blades, erasers, markers, pastels, glues white glue; glue stick), wire (.020 gauge). If you already have some of these materials, I encourage you to bring them with you as this will save you both time and money! I recommend that you also have a utility box of some sort for storage of supplies.

In addition, if you have small hand tools such as needle nose pliers, wire cutters, scissors, ruler, utility knife and extra blades, screwdriver (flat and phillips head), small hammer, etc you might consider bringing as well. Lockers are available for storage of supplies, but you will need a lock (comb or key) if you want to secure your things.

Because we will be exploring ecoart issues (environmental themes and concerns) we will also explore use of upcycled materials, found objects and 'homemade' art materials (DIY such as papermaking, making our own charcoal and inks) please consider bringing things that will support this work as well.

In case you would like to purchase a copy of our book from Amazon, we will use the book, How to Be An Explorer of the World, by Keri Smith. It will be available to you at the campus bookstore when you arrive. We will also be doing some reading from To Life! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet, by Linda Weintraub, although this book will not be required. If you want to take a look at some examples of EcoArt please visit my Pinterest Board called Art for/about/of the Environment.

Feel free to email me if you have questions, and if not, enjoy the remainder of summer! I'm looking forward to meeting each of you and getting started!

Warmly,

Prof G

ageffen@allegheny.edu
www.amarageffenstudios.com