In the paper for the fifth time in six months.
The Voice, a student newspaper at WCC anyway. And like all projects at this college, it is a pretty good production. Too many people discount Community Colleges, but this one is special. I can say that I have found some of my most promising and dedicated students here.
Between two authors who carried a keen interest in what The WCC Academic Drawing Club has been up to, Maria Rigou, and David Fitch, they have really helped promote the hard work we have been doing in our little art program. From starting our Drawing Club, to jurying and hosting the Annual Student Exhibition, to our live Drawing on Jazz collaboration, and our visits to draw and study in the college's Cadaver Labs. It's always fun to get any recognition for what you work on, and their articles have helped create additional excitement around our activities at the college.
So when Maria found out I had started this series of 100 portraits she contacted me right away to find out more. She stopped in to the studio at this early stage of the project and I, in my usual fashion, talked her ear off. As with all articles I've been included and quoted in, it feels to me much too concise and simplified, but that is part of a reporter's job, anyway. This blog can attempt to fill the gaps in between.
She also put a lot of emphasis on my use of some of my students as portrait models, but it makes sense given the paper's audience. Besides, she's right on two counts: I have easy access to work with them, and this is where most of the diversity I encounter in the average day will be found. That and my students seem to love working with me, and being a part of this project has been exciting for many of them. Word of what I am doing seems to have gone viral around the college... But to get this project done I will have to branch out beyond the studios here. And as for the title, well, I guess I can't control everything in life.......
She did get one thing right on; my love and passion for teaching art. I feel so lucky to be able to do what I do, and I know there is so much more I have yet to achieve as an artist/teacher. (Shameless plug for my Workshop at Cincinnati's Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center in late June) But this has been a great place to start, in more than one way.
So it was nice to have the paper stop in at this early stage of a huge project, and though Maria will not be around by the time it is done (have fun out in Seattle!) she has told those that may remain to document the eventual exhibition. That will be a nice set of bookends...
http://www.washtenawvoice.com/2014/04/artist-beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Testing, Testing... Is This Thing On?..... Testing....
Firing up my art blog after awhile. I have been teaching over full time since leaving grad school, leaving surprisingly little studio time. But with the current semester winding down and a huge new project started, I see the opportunity to get back at it.
A few weeks ago I conceived of a series of portraits. As a figurative artist I have been teaching Life Drawing extensively, and even when teaching more basic drawing classes I can't help but to introduce Life Drawing principles (hands, portraits in particular) Also, working at the colleges here in Southeast Michigan, I have been directly engaged with the tremendous diversity of people that live here.
So recently when another artist friend of mine proposed that we do a show together I was freshly inspired. Nancy Flanagan (http://www.nancy-flanagan.com/mi_et_al.html) is a recent transplant to the area and has been working on a series of urban landscapes, commenting on the nature of place. I thought that if she can document the spaces, then I can document the people (which sounds a lot like the way we've run our collaborative Drawing Marathons). So with this new idea I began doing research; looking at contemporary and historical artists working with portraiture, mapping out just what I could use and say to make this my own, and beginning the early stages of material and scale exploration, which is where I find myself now.
The goal is to create 100 drawn portraits of the people that live, work and study around me within the next year. What I know is that this series must attempt to be representative of the people I meet, that the drawings must represent the proper physiognomy and acute identities of them, and that it must be large in scale to become a regiment of the full range of them. What I do not know yet is what scale they must be (or even if they have to all be the same scale), what materials I want to use (I work with drawing because I feel it is the most expansive media an artist may choose to work in), and how they will be presented (mounted, framed, hung). I'm not even entirely certain they will remain 2D (there is always 3D and 4D, again, the beauty of being a drawing artist).
The scale of the project does not intimidate me, my last major drawing was 27-feet in length and 3 months in the making. I think the scale will have to be significant for this project to become whatever it will. I know that mediums and conceptual concerns will shift as this series develops, and that is part of the meaning behind it. Something in me, and in my work, is bound to be different by the time those 100 or so portraits are done.
So here is a peak in my studio in the early stages. Not all of my visual research is here, but what you can see is intuitive experimentation with media, surfaces, scale, poses, and abstraction. I'll make an attempt to document the progress along the way. Who is my next model?
A few weeks ago I conceived of a series of portraits. As a figurative artist I have been teaching Life Drawing extensively, and even when teaching more basic drawing classes I can't help but to introduce Life Drawing principles (hands, portraits in particular) Also, working at the colleges here in Southeast Michigan, I have been directly engaged with the tremendous diversity of people that live here.
So recently when another artist friend of mine proposed that we do a show together I was freshly inspired. Nancy Flanagan (http://www.nancy-flanagan.com/mi_et_al.html) is a recent transplant to the area and has been working on a series of urban landscapes, commenting on the nature of place. I thought that if she can document the spaces, then I can document the people (which sounds a lot like the way we've run our collaborative Drawing Marathons). So with this new idea I began doing research; looking at contemporary and historical artists working with portraiture, mapping out just what I could use and say to make this my own, and beginning the early stages of material and scale exploration, which is where I find myself now.
The goal is to create 100 drawn portraits of the people that live, work and study around me within the next year. What I know is that this series must attempt to be representative of the people I meet, that the drawings must represent the proper physiognomy and acute identities of them, and that it must be large in scale to become a regiment of the full range of them. What I do not know yet is what scale they must be (or even if they have to all be the same scale), what materials I want to use (I work with drawing because I feel it is the most expansive media an artist may choose to work in), and how they will be presented (mounted, framed, hung). I'm not even entirely certain they will remain 2D (there is always 3D and 4D, again, the beauty of being a drawing artist).
The scale of the project does not intimidate me, my last major drawing was 27-feet in length and 3 months in the making. I think the scale will have to be significant for this project to become whatever it will. I know that mediums and conceptual concerns will shift as this series develops, and that is part of the meaning behind it. Something in me, and in my work, is bound to be different by the time those 100 or so portraits are done.
So here is a peak in my studio in the early stages. Not all of my visual research is here, but what you can see is intuitive experimentation with media, surfaces, scale, poses, and abstraction. I'll make an attempt to document the progress along the way. Who is my next model?
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