Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone. I hope that your Thanksgiving weekend went well and that you were able to enjoy the company of family and friends. If travel wasn't possible for you, I hope that at least you were able to make the most of your time during what I am sure was a much-need break from the grind if nothing else.

We are truly down to the wire now. We have only two more weeks of class before you turn in your portfolios on December 14. THAT'S IT! Where has the semester gone? Doesn't it seem like just yesterday you were staring at white boxes, spheres, cones, and cylinders, trying to figure out how the hell this linear perspective stuff works, and having nightmares of ellipses in your sleep? Compare what you are accomplishing now to what you were doing then. I should hope that you feel your work is far more confident now. And hopefully you see why it was important to START there before moving on to more advanced drawings rather than diving straight in without any scuba gear.

So, then, allow me to give you a few quick reminders here so you can be ready for what's coming up:

1. Don't forget that December 7 is the final day to turn in any assignments you have reworked for the possibility of a better grade. I will accept any reworked assignment from any point in the semester, but I will NOT accept late drawings that weren't turned in on the date they were originally due. I don't have the time nor patience to grade, in addition to the reworked assignments, a bunch of drawings that were due weeks ago that you never turned in. This isn't make-up time. This is a final-shot chance to improve your grade through good, honest hard work. I will have them graded and returned to you on Monday so you can add them to your portfolio.

2. Make sure to have your Bristol, 4H drawing pencil, and M- and F-tip BLACK ink pens ready to go for this week. Bring along a second sheet of Bristol if you think you may finish your first drawing early. PLEASE DO NOT RAID THE STORE RIGHT BEFORE CLASS. If you come unprepared in these last few classes I will request that you just leave the classroom so that you will not disrupt the class nor waste our time.

3. Don't forget that this is "Bring Your Own Music Week." On your assigned day, just bring a burned CD of 5-6 songs or, if you have an MP3 player and a cord that will connect it to my radio's auxiliary jack, you can make a short playlist.

4. Here is what you need to do in preparation for your portfolio on December 14:

Don't wait until the night before!

Build your portfolio: Before you do anything else, gather all your work and make sure that everything is fixed and will therefore not get smudged or transfer onto other drawings. Place everything you have done in this class (both in-class assignments and homework) in chronological order into your portfolio. Find a way of organizing the work (dividers that separate assignments, techniques, or homework/classwork, etc.). The way you organize your portfolio is up to you, but it needs to be easily understood. EVERYTHING from the semester (homework AND classwork) should be inside the portfolio. On the outside of your portfolio HAVE YOUR NAME PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED.

Prepare your sketchbook: Make sure that YOUR NAME IS PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED ON YOUR SKETCHBOOK. I had a few at midterm that I had to guess by a process of elimination. You wouldn't want me to accidentally put your grade down by someone else's name, would you? Make sure that your syllabus and any handouts, articles, or research given to you or obtained on your own are in that pocket in the back. Hopefully your sketchbook is already in very good shape right now, but if you are one of those last-minute procrastinators, you have two weeks to make it look like you DIDN'T procrastinate until the last minute. Remember everything I wrote in your sketchbook at midterm and everything was said to you at the last sketchbook review and make sure it is well-designed, shows your progress and research, and is reflective of an entire semester's worth of diligent WORK.

Submit your final portfolio and sketchbook: You have until 9:30 AM on December 14 to bring your portfolio and sketchbook to the studio. After 9:30 I will lock the door and accept nothing later. There will be designated areas to place each item. Simply place your portfolio and sketchbook in their areas and you will be free to go. Return at 4:00 PM to pick everything up again. Inside your sketchbook I will write a sketchbook grade. This grade is for the sketchbook only and is not necessarily reflective of your final grade for the course, which will be averaged together just as I outlined in your syllabus and submitted to the dean. You will receive all of your final grades at some point over the winter break. I will grade your portfolio based on how well it is organized, craftsmanship, and whether or not everything is actually in it. Due to time limitations, and the amount of portfolios I need to go through that day, I won't write an actual grade on your portfolios. If you really want to know your portfolio grade, you can e-mail me after you pick up your portfolio and sketchbook. I will more than likely be too busy when you come into the studio to actually answer questions then. I will also be taking images of work that day, and I will leave a note in your portfolio to let you know if I used any of your work. If you are at all uncomfortable with this, let me know and I will not use them.

And that's all, folks! We are so near the end of the semester I can hear it squeak. (I don't know, it's something I used to hear oldtimers say and I always found it funny.) Good luck with all your academic endeavors for these last few weeks!

Line Into Value: Cross Hatching

Ridiculously Huge-Ass Post of Artists You May Not Know But Should

Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville is a personal favorite of mine. Her work is very much concerned with the ways in which women--particularly plus-sized women--view their bodies and, as a result, their self-worth. She has an uncanny ability to capture flesh in paint that rivals that of the great masters of old.

Claes Oldenburg (Drawings)

You may know Claes Oldenburg already as the famous Pop-era craftsman of large-scale sculptures of everyday items constructed out of soft materials. What you may be less familiar with are his drawings, which are superb. This man was a master draftsman whose drawings (most of which were illustrations accompanying proposals for sculptures) are deceptively simple.

Chuck Close

Chuck close was an early pioneer of the Photorealism movement. After a tragic accident in the early 80s which left him mostly paralyzed, his attention shifted to large scale portraits that focus on the use of the grid and take advantage of the limited motion he has in his hand. All of his work, even to this day, is mainly concerned with the ways in which photography, though perceived as a reproduction of "reality," are actually a means of abstraction.

Fernando Bryce

Fernando Bryce is a Brazilian artist whose small-scale drawings are all based on photographs, pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines from by-gone eras. Through his particular process of translating these images into ink drawings, Bryce attempts to bring to the forefront the issues of racism, nationalism, and political division that plagued the world in the past and still do in the present.

Eric Fischl

Eric Fischl is an interesting guy. His paintings are enigmatic. His subject, for the most part, seems to be white, suburban, middle-class Americans doing things in private that they would never admit to in public. I've never actually read an artist's statement by Fischl, so I'm not entirely certain what his goal is with these paintings, but their sense of humor and moral ambiguities fascinate me.

Controlled Contour: Self Portraits

I'm sure at this point these are no help to anyone, but Blogger or my computer (or both) was acting really weird this weekend when I tried to upload them.

Just For The Fun Of It: Vik Muniz

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Vik Muniz, get ready for a treat. All of the recent activity amongst you guys learning to master different and new materials and techniques put me in mind of Muniz. This man makes drawings working with materials that one generally would never use to make drawings. Particularly, he has created series of drawings using wire, sugar, dirt, garbage, and (the work he is most famous for) chocalate. In each case he makes the drawing than then photographs it. Since he is using materials that are not archival and sometimes even perishable, the photograph becomes the only evidence of the work. Essentially, the photograph IS the artwork. Below I have examples of a few of his "Pictures of Chocolate" and a video in which he talks about his work. However, since most of Muniz's work is difficult to find online anywhere other that his own website, you should also visit vikmuniz.net and specifically check out his "Pictures of Wire" and "Pictures of String". Those series are particularly appropriate, since you will essentially see drawings very reminicent to what we do in class, only done with very odd materials. Have fun checking him out. His websit is particularly fun to navigate.

Controlled Contour: Plants