Collage to Pastel Abstraction Project

My solo show is up, the work for my curated show is on the way, and all that is left is to write my curator's statement.  This gave me a chance to catch up with grading and get a really neat student project I developed posted here.

This was a particularly fun project to teach.  I had the chance to integrate collage, abstract compositional elements, color theory, and techniques with pastel.

In this project we explored collage as a vehicle to color abstraction.  Students were asked to find colorful source material from magazines and create a random assemblage of a diversity of images.  I asked that they make these with a multitude of shapes and sizes, and strong shifts in warm and cool colors throughout.  

Once completed we took our viewfinders and scanned the collaged images for an exciting abstract composition.  We tried vertical, horizontal, and diagonal views, and thin and wide aspect ratios.   Then they made small colored pencil sketches to collect dynamic and interesting possibilities.

Students then chose one image to recreate in a full-chroma pastel drawing.  They fixed their viewfinders over the final section on the collage, and recreated what they saw using their pastel kit.  They were asked to try a variety of mark-making methods, blending tools, and layering effects to make the final piece go beyond the photographic sources it draws from.  They were also asked to push contrasts in color temperature, value, and tactile texture- things pastel is especially effective at.

Overall there were many strong examples of the final products.  Here are a few, some with examples of the collage they were derived from. A very exciting and rich assignment!

Bust Drawing Project at the Detroit Institute of Arts

Recently I took one of my Drawing I classes to the Detroit Institute of Arts for a bust drawing project. While we usually do perspective drawing in there, this was later in the semester and we were working on portraits.  So I gave them a project to choose and draw one of the many busts the DIA is famous for.  Certainly one of the best collections in North America!

Given that there are so many busts made of so many different materials, I left the medium for the assignment open so they could match their chosen bust with the best possible combination of drawing tools and paper.  I helped them with these choices so they could best recreate marble, bronze, wood or any of the numerous materials they might find them in.  This offered the chance for several to experience completely new-to-them mediums.

It was a combination of field trip, studio and home work.  They were started from life in the museum to capture the gesture and create a strong composition.  The bulk of the project was handled from high-quality photographs, and we went back to the museum for final details and textures.  Here are a few highlights! Keep in mind, these are Drawing I students!!!!

 Pastel and charcoal on paper, 25"X19"

 Charcoal on paper, 19"X25"

Conte and pastel on paper, 25"X19"

15 artworks at 5 galleries around the country. Then the ones that don't sell come back around Mid-March and I hang a solo show and include some of my work in the drawing exhibition I am curating. What a fun ride this is....

An Exhibition Opening and Award Kind of Weekend!

Last weekend I had the chance to travel to Oregon and attend the opening of Au Naturel: The Nude in the 21st Century.  This is a wonderful international juried exhibition that I have had work in 7 of the last 8 years.  Last year, I won first place and they purchased my winning work, so I figured this should be the year I finally get out there to attend the opening.

Always a stunning show online, it was a pure pleasure to see this year's work at the very fine Royal Nebeker Gallery on the campus of Clatsop Community College.  I finally got to meet Kristin Shauck, the founder and director of Au Naturel, someone I have communicated with several times over the years.  I was surprised to be presented as the Second Place winner given the depth of the competition there.  But with this I have won a First, Second and Third place over the last three years in the competition.

I had the chance to thank Kristin in person for putting this show on, telling her this was one of the big inspirations that help drive me to make work!  She said that was one of the best compliments she has heard about the show.   I have been in numerous shows around the country over the last 8 years or so, and usually I am so busy teaching I had never had a chance to see one.  Glad this was my first!

My Curator's Statement for Drawn to Creating, A Survey of Contemporary Drawing. Opening Aprill 22nd in the Lore Degenstein Gallery, Pennsylvania.

Drawing is often our first exploration of creativity. This can be seen in the artist in the studio, children exploring expression, or humanity discovering self. It is the most immediate act of creation and expression, the most in-depth act of observation, and the most direct form of imaging. Spurred by technological revolutions that have their foundations from its methods, drawing has become incredibly diverse, and as relevant and important as ever. 

Drawn to Creating: A Survey of Contemporary Drawing is an exhibition seeking to show, as much as a single exhibition can, the depth of what is happening in the current discipline of drawing. Considering work from the most academic to the most experimental, and from the formal to the conceptual, it presents drawing as an independent and expanding discipline.

The curator, Nick Reszetar, has chosen the works from his own research into, and love of, drawing. He will give a talk to discuss the depth of the work at the opening reception.

Big News!

A great couple of days.  Last night I was offered another solo exhibition at the Spiral Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI.  Then this morning I heard that two of my drawings from my last exhibition were juried into a big show out in Oregon- Au Naturel!

April is looking very busy with my second solo show to hang in 7 months, and the opening of my curated exhibition of drawing from around the country.  This life is one fun ride!

Investigating the Portrait, an Exhibition of Student Work

If you've been keeping up with my occasional posts, you know I had an excellent Portrait Painting and Drawing class in the last spring/summer term.  They were such a great group that halfway through I proposed the idea of having an exhibition of their work!

Our local community puts on First Friday gallery walks every month and I loved the idea of linking what we were doing at the college to the greater arts community.  I wanted their show to be in the best venue- 22 North Gallery.  It is a very classy operation and was very receptive to the idea.  Their next open slot was this November, and even after 5 months since the end of the class I had tremendous energy from the students in getting it together.

All of the work represented was from that one class.  38 high-quality pieces from 20 students in 10 weeks!  We titled it Investigating The Portrait at Washtenaw Community College.

Not only did it give the students a chance to get their artwork out of the studio and connect to the wider community,  but it gave them the opportunity to learn how to prepare for and deliver to a show.  All of the artwork in the show was juried by them in the final day of the class, so they got to see much of the entire process of making, preparing and exhibiting the work, as well as some of the curatorial work involved in an exhibition like this.

This has gone so well I might try the same with my Studio Concepts class.  From the most representational subject to the most conceptual ones, I am stretching my teaching skills, and really getting my students involved in many aspects of the complex and diverse world of art!