contemporary drawing blog for a rad drawing class.

Time Tells a Story

2011-04-04T22:17:00.003-04:00

A NARRATIVE tells a story.

Stories unfold in TIME, or tell of events or experiences that happen in TIME.

LIGHT illuminates, obscures, veils, infuses memories and dreams, or creates drama.

Create a narrative through a sequence of no less than 10 drawings. Time and depictions should be an intimate part of the development of this work. Use light in some form as a player in your narrative, whether it’s color, atmosphere, mood, drama, symbolism, etc.

To help solve this problem, generate ideas through both written methods, (lists, short-stories, stream of consciousness, brainstorming diagrams, etc.) and visual methods, (sketches, story boards, comic pages, animation, etc.). You may choose to readdress a subject that you have already encountered earlier this semester.

Your strategy in this assignment should take into account all 3 of the above elements and integrate them effectively in your drawings. Your choices of surface, media, scale, format and presentation should support you solution. Be clear about how you interpret and plan to use each.

The quantity of 10 drawings is meant to enhance the investigation of time and not to create an excessive workload.

You might consider the following:

Will there be any factors that will be more important than others in trying to depict a cohesive narrative? (i.e. will representation take precedence over expression?)

Be aware of materials and how well they communicate with each other, don’t let you narrative get ‘muddy’.

Be sure to consult the syllabus to see if there are any requirements that you still need to fulfill.

nar-ra-tive [nar-uh-tiv] –noun

A story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.

TIME [TAHYM] –NOUN

The system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.

light [lahyt] –noun

1. Something that makes things visible or affords illumination.

2. The aspect in which a thing appears or is regarded.

Time to Interact . . . with the Abstract.

2011-04-04T17:32:00.007-04:00

there are many working definitions of ‘abstraction’; in the dictionary, it is listed as “state of being lost in thought”, but as it is applied to visual art, the definition can fall almost anywhere in the wide range between direct representation and non-objective imagery. But, at the root, ‘abstraction’, as a process, searches for an underlying structure; an essence, a unity, a reality beyond surface appearance. it uses distortion, simplification, unification, geometrical and formal means to reach its goal…

Here is a list of artists with works on display in the Cincinnati Art Museum; Picasso, Roberto Matta, Joan Miro, Matisse, Georges Braque, Oskar Kokoshka, Jean Arp, Philip Guston, Jim Dine. After exploring each artist, choose one to examine further.

Pick three paintings by that artist, and analyze them in terms of:

-Subject matter

-Formal language

-Intent of the artist

-Means of abstraction

Finally, choose one of the following themes or concepts to investigate in a series of three abstraction-based drawings:

Empathy Transformation Identity

Chaos Sound Public vs. Private

Refer to the four elements from above, as well as what you learned from your analyses in the CAM, to aid you in solving this problem. At the critique, be prepared to discuss not only your work, but also the role that your research from the Cincinnati Art Museum played.

*Avoid depending on objects as the primary elements in your solution.

*The final three drawings should read as a cohesive series, or a set of related explorations.

This exercise encourages you to move away from a purely observational diet, and to explore abstraction as an option or means of problem-solving in drawing.

You might consider the following:

What are some other words used to describe the 3 themes or concepts you have chosen?

Aside from whom you observed in the CAM, is there another artist whose abstractions impress you? Perplex you? How could you incorporate that into your three drawings?

As an artist yourself, what else could you possibly get from working this way? Is this a comfortable or uncomfortable experience for you?

Twenty-five States of Being . . .

2011-04-04T14:48:00.003-04:00

in this exercise, the class created 25 state-of-being self-portraits. They looked beyond the surface; felt, and reacted spontaneously. using gesture and instinct, they looked inside themselves in order to explore.

We all live in and out of a string of emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical states. Our day-to-day expressions, or lack thereof, emphasize these states. We wear our lives on our faces. We share and discuss our state of mind and being with our friends and significant others, and all together, the help to shape who we are. These ‘states’ are our self-portraits, and a good artist can pull them out of the surface skin that others see.

To complete the 25 drawings, you will need to work at a relatively quick pace. You will need to be able to suspend judgment and critique, and allow yourself some freedom to work instinctively and expressively.

Experiment with materials and surfaces so that you feel that you are building a broader drawing vocabulary. Collect a variety of materials and media, drawing surfaces and other miscellaneous ‘stuff’. You may want to bring in significant objects or images to serve as source material. Stretch your limits and be experimental.

You might consider the following:

What constitutes a drawing? A self-portrait?

What can be used to create a drawing? What about surfaces, and shapes?

Try varying scale and the amount of time you spend from piece to piece. Perhaps one takes one hour and the other take 1 day.

Consider the issues/course goals you identified in your Personal Assessment as you strategize your approach.

Don’t forget about the list of required drawing media and approaches in the syllabus, review it and try to incorporate some into this activity.

Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Brainstorm.

The Newest in Petimenti

2011-04-04T14:32:00.004-04:00

As an artist struggles to develop a drawing which he or she wants to be “right”, a record is left of the drawing’s visual history: it’s changes, adjustments, corrections, layers, reassessments, addtions, subtractions¾it’s overall evolution. In a broader sense, pentimento is the name for this record, or history, which is found in its archeaological layers. More precisely, pentimento refers to the emergences of certain strokes or images from previous LAYERS, WHICH were subsequently altered in a layer of paint.

In this assignment with the figure, your task is to move away from direct representation as a starting point and toward an alternate response to the figure and its surroundings or context¾structural, emotional, psychological, narrative, conceptual, formal. You must build a drawing that will reveal its own history, in the sense that a series of marks and layers will be responsive with one another, as opposed to completely canceling each other out. Undoubtedly, working this way will track the evolution of your ideas, thought process, and decisions.

Work both additively and subtractively on a large format piece of paper or board, approximately 30-35 in. x 45-50 in. Use color if you like, and use any combination of media that will work to support your intent or objective in the drawing. You may consider gessoing your drawing surface first.

Allow yourself to be physical, vigorous and tough with the surface when the drawing requires it, and gentle, attentive and meticulous when necessary as well. Be flexible and responsive as the drawing progresses…Listen to it, make decisions according to what it’s saying to you. Allow this work to remain open and organic for as long as possible. Let the process be a visually evident and celebrated part of the drawing.

pen-ti-men-to [pen-tuh-men-toh]

–noun, plural –ti,

(1) The presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over.

(2) An underlying image in a painting, as an earlier painting, part of a painting, or original draft, that shows through, usually when the top layer of paint has become transparent with age.

/-ti/

From Italian- pentirsi- "to repent"

In art, the reappearance in an oil painting of original elements of drawing or painting that the artist tried to obliterate by over-painting. If the covering pigment becomes transparent, as may happen over the years, the ghostly remains of earlier marks may show through. Pentimenti most commonly occur due to slight re-positioning by the artist of the outlines of figures or of their clothing. Many signs of such "repentances," or pentimenti, are found among the thinly painted Dutch panels of the 17th century.

UPDATES AND INFOS.

2010-03-24T10:26:00.000-04:00

please don't forget, our crit has been moved from monday the 29th to wednesday the 31st.
also, if you're interested in coming to the ballet, the date is April 6th, and we will be meeting in S664 at 9am.

in the meantime, feel free to read this interesting interview on artist, 'Banksy', by Shepard Fairey:

BANKSY by Shepard Fairey

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND THIS WEEK...

2010-03-08T21:55:00.000-05:00

the studio-research project is an attempt to shift drawing from being viewed primarily as an end product to being seen as a tool for research, investigation, and problem-solving. so as everyone has their topic questions they've been researching, remember that the drawings created as a result of the research process do NOT have to answer the question, they simply have to be generated from/because of it.

let the drawings guide you just as much as the factual information you find. perhaps one image you create takes you down another path, different from your original question or topic....

as we reconvene after spring break, and critique the work, some of the things that we will be looking for are:

were a range of research techniques utilized? (i.e. Internet sources, field sketches, related book sources, observations, previous knowledge, etc.)
does the work read as a related 'series' of drawings? (did the research culminate into a cohesive body or not)
is the original topic question evident in the work? (will viewers be able to decipher the original problem, or at least an idea related to it, or does the work seem somewhat more ambiguous?)
are the final drawings appropriate given the context of the research?
were surfaces and media considered in relation to the research? (for example, if one's topic was "what factors caused the current economic and financial crisis?", it may be appropriate to create drawings or sketches on accounting paper, or to create bubble drawings on receipt tape or dollar bills)

so as you continue through this process, ask yourself these questions, and perhaps make adjustments in the work derived from your answers. in the end, this assignment is meant to introduce you to another strategy that can aid the artistic process...

strategy-a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result.

Erased Lynching Series (2003-present) - artist Ken Gonzales-Day

feel free to check out the link above to research-based artist Ken Gonzales-Day.

from his website:

"The images on this page are part of a series entitled, Searching for California's Hang Trees, or just Hang Trees for short. They were taken over a six-year period. The series extended across other distances as well, and in photographing these sites, Gonzales-Day traveled to nearly every county in the state of California. All of the images were taken with an old wooden Deardorff 8 x 10 camera.

Searching for California's Hang Trees derived from Gonzales-Day's own research into the history of lynching in California. He explains, "I began this project by trying to assemble the most complete record of lynching in California that I could, and I was particularly interested in discovering how nineteenth century conceptions of difference (race, creed, color, national origin, and even gender) might have obscured the fact that, when taken collectively, Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese immigrants, and Latinos, fell victim to the mob's anger more often than persons of Anglo or European descent."

Using historical records, he spent many long hours and multiple expeditions wandering in the California landscape looking for clues to the little know history. As overwhelming as the undertaking was, he summarized his motivation when he stated that, "I set out to look for, to witness, as many of the sites as I could - even knowing that many could never be found."

Hang Trees - Ken Gonzales-Day

JUST IN TIME FOR SPRING BREAK.....

2010-03-07T22:06:00.000-05:00

the long awaited results of our experimentation with pentimento:

julio labra

fahrudin omerovic

donald brown

kathryn dimartino

tyler hilton

sydney wise

graham vogel

lydia collins

scott bunge

kayla sorenson

steven adkins (extreme close-up)

david canny

jessica burkhart

nathanael green

ART & RESEARCH!

2010-03-06T19:33:00.000-05:00

art & research: a journal of ideas, contexts, and methods

would you believe that someone thought to create a magazine about research in art?

i was pretty excited too. ;)

STUDIO RESEARCH:

2010-02-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

Angela Di Fronzo, Light Installation in Confessional, St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, 2008

Taking Art Seriously: Understanding Studio Research

Bernard Hoffert

Importance of the Visual
The degree to which art is integral to our way of life is scarcely worth noting. Most of us accept without question that access to art, both historic and contemporary, is part of any community and the diversity of contemporary art practice touches almost every aspect of our lives-public, commercial, creative and social. Experimental and media Arts reflect, enhance and influence culture and enrich our daily experience, while individual art choices provide a source of personal fulfillment and satisfaction. At a broader level it is the products of visual culture—the art, design and architecture—which direct our travels; it is the museums, galleries, buildings and spaces of past as well as present visual culture, which shape much of our holiday itinerary and our purpose in traveling. At a panoramic level it is not too extravagant to claim that it is the visual which shapes our experience of the world; every building we enter, every object we use and every image we enjoy is the product of a creative visual impulse, every city is the outcome of conscious aesthetic decisions, some good some bad, some motivated by function not excellence, but all in part visual.

The visual environment is so fundamental that we do not think about it. We accept the outcomes of art, design, architecture and the proliferation of visual forms, but we fail to acknowledge their status. We appreciate and enjoy the individual example, but as a category of learning with its own academic integrity, we do not accord it an equivalent recognition to the sciences, humanities or technologies.
As this paper explains, it is time we took art seriously, accepted it as a domain of knowledge and integrated it and its associated visual forms into the broader context of our knowledge culture.

Art and the Knowledge Environment
Research has become an increasingly important concept in the visual arts. Encouraged by government policy, universities place increased emphasis on research output. Artists and art educators describe art making in terms of research and academic art staff apply for grants as a source of research income. Disciplines known for their creativity are now equally acknowledged for their research. ‘Practice-led’ or ‘practice based’ research is becoming an aspect of research discussion, in part to establish the prestige of academic institutions, but also to link with the push for innovation and new outcomes from research knowledge, as government policies attempt to justify expenditure on research.

The UK tertiary sector has undergone a series of Research Assessment Exercises which evaluated the research outputs nationally. These mechanisms for quality assurance required the demonstration of research outcomes and accountability for research. An academic hierarchy of institutions has resulted from these Exercises along with a system of institutional funding based on research excellence. New Zealand has performed a similar exercise, Australia is about to do the same and other nations may well follow. Integral to this research data gathering is the inclusion of research in visual culture, not research about the visual, undertaken through the humanities, but research in the visual-Art as Research. This discussion contends that research in art and the visual contributes to knowledge in the same way as all disciplines do - research results in new knowledge and the final test of new knowledge is what it contributes to the human condition.

Research and Culture
Consider the relationship between the development of knowledge and its contribution to culture in the following disciplines:

New knowledge in science contributes to new technological development
Benjamin Franklin is well known for his experiments with electricity. In 1746, while watching a summer storm, it occurred to him that lightening looked like an electrical phenomenon, resembling the spark generated from an electrified body in his experiments. His research showed that a pointed object, like a finger or an electrified body attracted electrical discharges. Applying this discovery in nature, he found that lightning was attracted to such objects, confirming his suspicion it was electrical. He then invented the lightning rod - a simple, but effective device to dispel the destructive energy of these electrical impulses. He wrote: “may not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships and cont, from the stroke of lighting, by directing us to fix on the highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle…”. The lightning conductor is now integral to technologies associated with building, navigation and the environment (Koestler, 1970).

New knowledge in medicine results in improved health care
In 1879, Louis Pasteur was working on a cure for chicken cholera, a devastating poultry disease that was the nineteenth century version of bird flu. He was injecting healthy chickens with laboratory cultures of the disease and then attempting to treat the infected birds. During the summer his work was delayed for several months, and when he returned to his experiments, he found that chickens injected with the culture which had stood in his laboratory unused through the hot summer months, did not develop all the symptoms of the cholera, but contracted what appeared to be a very mild dose of the disease. Further testing confirmed that the weak culture had vaccinated the chickens against the cholera. Extrapolating from this example, Pasteur initiated a system of preventative medicine which has been integral to healthcare ever since (Koestler, 1970).

New knowledge in microbiology results in improved medical treatment
In 1922 Alexander Fleming was working at St Mary’s hospital in London when by chance he discovered that an active ingredient in nasal mucus, what he identified as lysozyme, had the ability to destroy bacteria. Although it was not a powerful germ killer, it pointed the way for his future research until seven years later he discovered penicillin. This laid the foundations of microbiology and the revolutionary impact antibiotics have had on improved health care ever since (Koestler, 1970).

New knowledge in engineering contributes to better structures and machines
In December 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright mounted an engine onto a glider they had built and flew for 59 seconds, covering a distance of about 260 metres they effectively launched the aeronautical industry. What was revolutionary about the Wright brothers’ work was neither the glider nor the engine, although each was a significant development on existing technology; it was the shaping and structure of the wing which allowed a pilot to manipulate the aerodynamic impact on the structure while in flight; it was an issue of structural design. The whole aircraft industry reflects the innovations which flowed from their research. (Mc Farland, 1953).
Each of the above developments contributed to the betterment of the human condition; they also contribute within their disciplinary domain to culture. As a result culture improves in intellectual and material terms and we have an enhanced quality of life. Similarly, art produces new knowledge by a parallel contribution to culture, in which new art directly adds to the quality of cultural experience.

Art and Culture
Consider the following examples of developments in art that have contributed to cultural quality and experience:

New knowledge in environmental art contributes to a richer experience of nature
In the early 1840s a number of painters interested in recording the landscape were working in the small village of Barbizon, on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, near Paris. Although not a formal group they are often collectively called the Barbizon painters, due to the similar themes their work conveys in the celebrating of nature and recording the beauty of the landscape. Different artists produced work that fluctuated between realism and romanticism, but each was inspired by working directly from nature. One of the foremost artists associated with Barbizon was Theadore Rousseau, whose painting fell at the more realistic end of the scale. He recognized that the expansion of industry in Paris, the growth of the city beyond its walls and the popular indifference to nature, was devastating the forest. He sucessfully petitioned the Emperor of France, Napoleon III to establish a protected park in the forest and in 1863, 1,097 hectares of the Fontainebleau forest was set aside as a réserve artistique, which could not be exploited commercially. This was the first protected nature reserve and began a world wide movement to preserve the environment, still gaining momentum today. Rousseau and the Barbizon painters had considerable impact in the USA, reflecting the impact of the Hudson River Painters. This celebration of the land contributed, in 1864, to Abraham Lincoln signing a declaration of protection for the Yosemite Valley. In 1872 the American Congress established Yosemite National Park - the world’s first protected wild life reserve and forest. The Barbizon and Hudson River artists succeeded in awakening cultural sensibilities to the pleasures of nature (Chagnon-Burke, 2004).

New knowledge in populist art contributes to a richer experience of popular culture
In Paris in the second half of the nineteenth century a number of artists emerged who celebrated the Parisian nightlife and popular society. Linked mostly with the Impressionists and Post Impressionists, they used cafes, bars, dance halls and theatres as their subjects, shaping some of the most memorable images of early Modernism. Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1881) and the Moulin Rouge paintings of Lautrec introduce popular entertainment as the subject of art; the scenes of ballet and opera by Degas show us the world of the Parisian elite as they enjoy the pleasures of the new Garnier Opera House; the paintings by Berthe Morisot provide insights into the more restricted female world, the domestic environment, family and entertainments of the upper middle class. These artists and many others of the period, bring us the everyday world as the content of art, the entertainments, celebrations, private moments and debaucheries, the contemptuous underbelly of polite society which had previously been eschewed by art. This opened the door to popular culture and the richness and diversity of art which deals with the world around us, culminating in the Pop Art of the 1960s and its celebration of modern life. It spawned the vast use of ‘the popular’ as content in advertising, media, films and all of the other offshoot entertainments which enrich our lives; these 19th century artistic insights turned cultural awareness away from high art to the enjoyment of popular culture which is integral to modern living.

New knowledge in art and design contributes to beautifying our surroundings
In 1861 the firm of Marshall, Morris, Faulkner and Co. was formed in London to craft furniture based on truth to materials, celebrating their natural beauty; and simplicity of design, rather than overlays of decoration. Reacting to the excesses of Victorian abundance and poor quality industrial production, William Morris and his friends began what turned into the Arts and Crafts Movement. Their inspiration came from nature and a romanticized notion of Mediaeval times when happy craftsman celebrated their skills in the creation of beauty. The ideal led to a revolution in both art and design with major artists and designers working together to beautify and refine furnishings, revive historic ideals and improve the quality of life. While the social ambitions of the Movement might have fallen short, their aesthetic ideals influenced generations of artists and designers and are integral to craft design today.

New knowledge in perception contributes to richer personal experience
In 1910 in the village of Murnau in the Bavarian Alps, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky painted the first intentionally abstract painting, a small watercolour that set him on the pursuit of abstract imagery as the subject matter of art. His book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, outlines his theories, explaining how abstract colours and forms carried meaning that could enrich our experience. Through the work of Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich and the work of other abstract artists, the expressive and communicative power of colour, line, texture and form became evident to a broader audience. Aspects of image construction, previously regarded as the building blocks of meaning, were recognized as having expressive meaning of their own. It was as if a new sensibility had been unleashed as artists, architects and designers of all types adopted the power of colour and simple, direct form to enliven their creations. Abstraction has since become an integral aspect of all visual communication, in which the components of making any image - shape, colour, tone and texture - are as least as important for the message as the image itself. The whole visual spectrum has developed using the perceptual innovations of the early abstractionists (Kandinsky, 1977).

New knowledge in the scope of art contributes to a broader appreciation of culture
The creative excitement of Russia in the early twentieth century is best evidenced through two major design movements, the Suprematists, founded by the painter and designer, Kasimir Malevich and the Constructivists, who are linked most closely with the designer for social needs, Vladimir Tatlin. A major figure who spanned both movements was Isador El Lissitsky, an engineer, architect and designer who, fascinated by the discoveries of science, sought to represent these movements’ inspirational ideas in geometric shapes and composite lines. Lissitsky’s drawings and designs, inspired by speculations on a fourth dimension, provided a conceptual leap into a new way of considering space and introduced visual forms that suggested the interplay of science and life, paralleling the innovations of Kandinsky and Mondrian in their impact on visual culture expressed through typography, architecture and industrial design (Hoffert, 1995).

New knowledge in the application of art contributes to a richer quality of human experience
In 1916 the Expressionist, then Cubist and eventually abstract painter, Piet Mondrian, joined the Dutch group De Stijl, which combined artists and designers in a search for a style that represented the needs of the twentieth century. Influenced by the Theosophical teachings of Madam Blavatsky and using the terminology of the philosopher, H J M Schoenmaekers, Mondrian refined his visual language to the artists’ primaries, red, yellow and blue and the tones, black grey and white. This was the language of his art for the remainder of his life, used in different formal relationships and always built around a formal geometric basis. Mondrian and his colleagues defined a style of design which has permeated the last 80 years, applied through architecture and interiors, furniture and fabrics. Who has not walked on Mondrian linoleum or worn a Mondrian jumper? So strong was the impact of De Stijl that its characteristic design is better known today than it was when it was begun in the 1920s (Hoffert, 1995).

The list of additions to art knowledge is almost endless, the innovations of Russolo’s noise music in the development of pop; the impact of Futurist theatre on modern performance, both as theatre and as art; the insights of Surrealist and Pop Artists which have fed advertising, media and now multimedia imagery. All demonstrate the vast contribution that research in art has made to culture; new knowledge has been developed in art and this has led to development, enrichment, diversification and expansion in culture at large.
These examples demonstrate that while art contributes to culture, within the domain of its discipline, it also creates new knowledge which enables/inspires other disciplines to contribute to culture within their domains. Both functions are research developments, evolving from art practice. In recognizing this, the challenge becomes to establish the academic infrastructure and a research methodology through which art can be undertaken as research in university degrees; to allow practice based research the same recognition and status accorded other research. To achieve this is a major task of art education.

A Proposal for Research Degrees in Art
As mentioned earlier, increasingly art schools are addressing the research potential of visual culture; in the UK research in art was integral to the Research Assessment exercises and the same will be the case in Australia.
Research degrees in art practice have been established at Master’s level since the 1980s and studio-based PhD degrees emerged during the 1990s in the UK and Australia, attracting major artists and artist-academics as well as younger artists using the university context, with its seminars, critiques and interrogative engagement, as a means of further their practice.

The Faculty of Art & Design at Monash University has been developing formats for research degrees in art and design for the last fifteen years. Monash is one of Australia’s major research universities and all its academic disciplines are required to contribute to the university’s research objectives. The Faculty addressed this demand by developing an approach to visual research which has developed into the largest, practice based research degree program in the country and one of the largest in the world. The problem was to recognize the quality and achievement of professional visual production and to reformulate art production as research without compromising its quality as art.

The Monash research degree program is structured around an exhibition, which is the outcome of the research process. This is supported by a dissertation which bridges the expectations of professional art practice and university expectations of PhD degrees, to contextualize the visual research. Coursework components facilitate the integration of practice and theory, but the dominant emphasis is on the development of a body of studio research, for examination. With over 250 candidates at Masters and PhD level, the program’s success has been as a result of the support system developed to translate the expectations of professional art practice into research. The methodology coursework subjects explore issues of terminology and ways for visual research to be contextualized, to demonstrate its innovation. They also develop a theoretical context by which professional production can be taken further into the realms of research and cultural production. Seminars and critiques underpin the creative interaction within the program. The outcome has been a community of artist-scholars who create, discuss and critique each other’s art as part of the process of enhancing their visual output. They are art professionals who use their visual exploration to inspire visual research, using the academic experience to build and enhance their understanding of and contribution to visual culture. Art becomes an equal partner in the academic disciplines of the academy as a bastion of research and innovation within society.

‘Taking Art Seriously’ means we understand not just its creative potential, but how we can use its research knowledge to contribute, parallel to other disciplines, in the development of culture.

Bernard Hoffert is associate dean for graduate studies in the faculty of art and design at Monash University, Australia, and vice-president of Monash’s Academic Board. His paintings, installations and art presentations have been shown in international art events, including the Second Asian Art Symposium, India; the Fourth Asia and Pacific Art Exhibition, Japan; Seoul 600, Korea and adjunct exhibitions to the Sao Paolo and Venice Biennales. He is the author of four books, 19 catalogue essays, 26 conference publications, 32 articles on art, 23 articles/conference papers on art education, 400 plus art reviews. He is honorary president of the International Association of Art-UNESCO and is research coordinator of Art Education Australia.

Bibliography

Koestler, A. ‘The Act of Creation’, Pan, p. 203
Koestler, A. ibid p. 112
Koestler, A. ibid p.194
Mc Farland, M. W. (ed), The Papers of Wilbur and OrvilleWright, McGraw-Hill, 1953
Chagnon-Burke, V. Preserving the Oak Tree: The Fontainebleau Forest and the School of Barbizon, http//sc.gc.cuny.edu/part/part10/article/chagnonburke.html
MacCarthy, F. 1972 All Things Bright and Beautiful. George Allen and Unwin. p36.
Kandinsky, W. Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Dover
Hoffert, B. et al. 1995. Art in Diversity. Longman. p. 115
Hoffert, B. et al. 1995. Art in Diversity. Longman. p. 132

PENTIMENTO INSTRUCTIONS

2010-02-09T23:08:00.000-05:00

instructions for continuing the drawings we started on monday:

rotate your drawing 90 degrees
again, fill approximately 1/3 of your composition with a value
erase the last thing you did in class
draw the figure from memory
establish some sort of pattern on your page, in specific areas, or all over
use wet media for 5 minutes
continue to resolve your drawings throughout the week

we will meet again on wednesday, 2/17. perhaps these drawings can influence/inform/educate your accumulation drawings, remember those? wednesday we will welcome another model, and wrap up working on our pentimentos.

i look forward to receiving everyone's emailed reflection by 5pm tomorrow! here's a small sampling of what i've heard so far about the process:

"It kind of got irritating becasue it all stated to blend together alike after a while, but I think im going to enjoy the challenge of fixing this. Also i learned that i kind of like finger painting now for some reason lol."

happy history-making/revealing/creating!!!

OUR WORLD IN PENTIMENTI.

2010-02-05T19:13:00.000-05:00

RE: MONDAY'S CLASS

2010-01-28T21:02:00.001-05:00

hello, hello.
monday should prove to informative. i would like everyone to bring the 3 images they have selected to analyze by their respective artists. color images are ideal. in addition, be prepared to discuss with the class what you have discovered, as well as bringing your in-progress work you have created for INTERACTION ABSTRACTION.

please stay tuned for additional information!

in the meantime, check out fellow student kathryn d.'s contemporary drawing journal, lots of interesting things going on in there!
http://drawingiv.blogspot.com/

FEATURED ARTIST: JEREMY FLICK

2010-01-26T17:24:00.000-05:00

deliciously abstract work by artist jeremy flick:
www.jeremyflick.com

You Seem Not To Be Listening, 2008
Digital pigment print on canvas
40 x 32 inches

jeremy in his own words:
"My recent works are premised on the dull impulse of relating to the artistic investigation of the found patterns of tinted security envelopes. The works are not mere formal, reductionist exercises, but very self-conscious investigations of abstraction that signal both its history and poetic possibilities. Most of the envelope patterns I have collected (I believe it is close to 400 different patterns) allude to ‘painting’ in both their geometric and gestural aspects. Many of the patterns seem to reference specific modes of abstraction typically associated with High Modernism, though the envelope itself, the site of the pattern, is banal and nothing more than ephemera—transitory, mechanical, mass-produced, and not intended to be retained. I am currently interested in the idea that when removed from their common, everyday usage these patterns could be mistaken for serious critical investigations of abstraction. Through works ranging from traditional drawings and paintings, to meticulous, serial installation, the displacement of the patterns is one of mindful fragmentation, redirecting the attention focused on the pattern away from the context of the envelope to reposition it in the rubric of abstraction. By combining mechanical and digital methods with other painterly processes, I transform pieces of ephemera into works capable of symbolic and communicative exchange as a way to offer the understanding that even the most banal or trivial, and the most marginalized patterns and decorative motifs can become symbolically, even poetically, vested with meaning."

LET THE INTERACTION WITH ABSTRACTION BEGIN!

2010-01-25T22:24:00.000-05:00

in the spirit of our new assignment, "interaction / abstraction", read this compelling article on the resurgence of artists working abstractly...

new abstract art.

wednesday should offer some interesting discussion, (hint-hint, wink-wink).

IN-PROGRESS CRIT ACTION

2010-01-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

25 states of being in an in-progress state of being:

THE BODY AS SUBJECT.

2010-01-18T10:25:00.001-05:00

here's a link to a fanstastic interview with artist kiki smith... well known for using the body as a visual communicator...read her thoughts on the work, and see how this can inform you in the process of exploring your 25 states of being.

Kiki Smith

"Lying with the Wolf"
2001
Ink and pencil on paper, 72 1/4 x 88 inches
Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate
Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

ANOTHER INTERESTING CALL TO ARTISTS.

2010-01-18T10:18:00.000-05:00

this call is interested in artists dealing with the issue of time, perhaps you could submit your accumulation drawings, even though they are works in progress until mid-april, you could submit an image of it, and explain that you will continue working on it until it enters the gallery, perhaps even the work continues after its up on the gallery wall...oh the possibilities...

T E M P O : An International Competitive Exhibit of Works Exploring Time

A CALL TO ARTISTS....OR SEVERAL CALLS...

2010-01-18T09:56:00.001-05:00

first, an oppurtunity to show your work and build your resume:

PAINT An International Competitive Exhibit of Works of Contemporary Painting

and through the Art Academy community:

We are launching auditions for The Art Test which is our new YouTube

reality series.  We are going to select 4 students to focus on in the 6

episode video (throughout the semester).  Their challenge will be to use one

of their existing art assignments from this semester and demonstrate how

their art makes a difference (in keeping with the new theme, "Make

Art, Make a Difference").

Selection Criteria:



Submit a 90-second YouTube video of yourself including: 

Name 

Hometown 

Major 

Year in School 

Communicate Talent(s) 

Explain Why You should be in the Series 

Feel free to be creative!

Please participate.

Post Your Audition Video on YouTube and

email the link to:





kendall@kendallbruns.com





 

DEADLINE: 

January 22!

25 STATES OF BEING INSIRADO CONT.

2010-01-13T23:52:00.000-05:00

also if you're feeling a bit uninspired, here's a jaw-dropping collection of self-portraits to examine. in-progress crit on wednesday, the 20th...

a collection of self-portraits

who's this?

FACE FOR THOUGHT.

2010-01-13T23:45:00.000-05:00

p.s....this last one is by a 12th grader...

SEE WHAT WE LIKE.

2010-01-13T13:04:00.002-05:00

the following are new sites to inspect, mull over, digest, etc...thoughtfully donated by several students:

kristy recommends: personalized children's books

julio: the illustration & design of zach johnsen

steve: bunk news

tyler: the art of shawn barber

12ozPROPHET

and last but not least, scott suggests: fecal face dot com

thanks for the links guys, i look forward to seeing more from all of you.

to continue exploring, see the links listed under, 'some of our favorite things'.

wednesday out.

DAY 2!

2010-01-13T12:52:00.002-05:00

WITH THAT SAID...

2010-01-12T23:23:00.000-05:00

here's the first of many entries to come...
LOOK I DREW YOU

in the spirit of making 25 self-portraits, check out how artist nicole legault handles portraiture in a contemporary, fresh way. her inspiration comes from stalking out the masses on myspace, 'stealing' their candid and often thought-provoking narcissistic photographic "self-portraits"; when she peeps what she likes, she draws the portraits, adding a mysterious and whimsy feel to the individual persons that she's attempting to depict.

OUR FIRST BLOG...

2010-01-12T23:08:00.007-05:00

this will be the place where we (sarah francis hollis' drawing iv class), will collect together our visual ideas, sketches, in-progress work, and overall contemporary inspirado for our class, so that its available for discussion, (in relation to our work and progress).

as an assignment in this class, students are asked to maintain a
'contemporary drawing journal', where they must collect a minimum
of 50 images of contemporary drawings (made 1970 or after) in
some organized format, (i.e. sketchbook, blog, website, video
journal, etc.). this blog will be a collection of our ongoing
findings, as well as documentation of our investigations
throughout this semester. with this, we hope to figure out
what we like and admire; what confuses us, what attracts us,
(and so on), in contemporary drawing. the resolution of this
effort will be some kind of conclusion/commentary on the
questions:

what makes a drawing, a drawing?

what makes contemporary drawing, contemporary?