OPEN DRAWING SESSIONS @ VisArts

Open Figure Drawing

All Levels

No instruction

Need an opportunity to draw from a live model, but don’t want to commit to a full 6, 8 or 10 week class? There is no need to pre-register for our Open Figure Drawing class. Come as you can, as often or infrequently as you please, and gain experience drawing from a live, nude model. Please note that students under the age of 18 must have written permission from a parent or guardian, and that this class provides no instruction, only the opportunity to draw from a model.

Models vary each Friday evening, and are chosen at the discretion of the instructor moderating the drawing session. The instructors will provide students with male and female models of all shapes and sizes, but please understand that as the Visual Arts Center does not take responsibility for the booking of the models, and out of respect for our model’s privacy, we will be unable to provide students with the names of the model prior to the start of each session.

$6 per session

13 Fridays

September 16 – December 16 (No class November 25)

6:30 – 9:00 PM

Grades and Transcripts

Visit this link to retrieve your documentation / transcript for the Drawing and Mixed Media Summer Intensive. (or click on the VCU policies in the column on the right) Scroll down until you find the heading GRADES AND TRANSCRIPTS after clicking on either link.

An overall assessment and comments on your work will be emailed to you this week.

Your research and the resulting creative work and is evidence of your success. Bravo!

AO

Annelise Mayer

visit the link below to learn more about Lise's work:

http://annelise-annelisemmayer.blogspot.com/

Andrew Sherogan / Artist Statement / Blog

Why do we dream? Are dreams a message from a parallel world? Are they the residue of our waking life formed into abstract skits collaged into our subconscious? What is the rational for something that is sometimes irrational, involuntary and occurs when we are at our most susceptible? 

My work is intuitive and exploratory. My collages, like dreams, form from some prior experience or notion. Layers are added and subtracted, blurred and highlighted, creating paths for the eye to navigate. My use of imagery is only to enhance the surface and expand on the idea of dreams and give the surreal some form. Color, line and texture add an ethereal yet concrete ground for these dreams to exist on making this idea of a dream something tangible. 

For more info on Andrew's work visit this link.

Sherogan / Mixed Media Field Trips

Anderson Gallery Visit: Felting Workshop

 

I thought the artist workshop was fun and enlightening. I have never worked with felt before and the process was fun. As an art teacher I’m always looking for new ideas and exposure to new materials. Hope was smart and witty and made a packed crowed comfortable and fully integrated into the experience. The playful atmosphere around the buckets brought strangers together around a common thread, no pun intended.

 

 

Virginia Center for Architecture

 

What can someone who is so in love with the process and patience of cutting paper for collage say about Kirsten Kindler’s work. The beauty and dedication as well and the conceptual basis for her work collide to create a body of work that references architecture and whimsy. It harkens back to childhood memories of ramshackle forts built in haste with available material but align to create a thing of beauty.

 

Andrew / Creativity and the Brain

The source of creativity and the ability to be creative are topics that often puzzle me. Are some people uniquely gifted and creative or does it take a focused brain, space and discipline to find creativity. As a teacher I often discount that creativity is a gift bestowed on some. I do believe that "talent" comes easier to some than other but creativity is accessible by everyone but like talent, may be easier for some to access. At one point Richard Serra says, "To make something unfamiliar is to make something new." This was interesting as hundreds of years earlier, da Vinci said, "...because the mind is stimulated to new inventions by obscure things." The creation of art is a shared experience between the artist and then the viewer.  I don't think many artists make art for the sole purpose of it to be viewed because for many, creation is a necessity not an obligation to others. What is recognized in this video is that it is a gift that requires dedication and recognition and to not use or share that ability is a waste to humanity. Creativity can exist in a vaccum but it's evolution would be much slower without the catalyst of different and dynamic personal experience. It is always a pleasure to hear artists talk about their work and a gift to listen to them philosophize.

Julie's Artist Statement and Final Series

Rock Harbor, MA - 8/2/11 - 21x13in - Wood filler paste, wood crayons, stain markers, charcoal, and polycrylic on oak

Landscapes and wildlife have been a great inspiration in my photography. Trees in particular have provided me with a direct connection to nature and have motivated my explorations with the many uses of wood. This material is the support for my work. My color palette remains within the tones of wood, which I create using a variety of wood fillers and stains. The images are chosen from my nature library based on my reaction to each wood surface. The scenes are chosen based on the flow and divisions of space in the wood's grain. Each piece is an experiment with different applications of the media. The effects range from very thick and impasto to very thin and transparent. Although the original photographic compositions inform the work, each one evolves in its own unique way. The movement in the wood grain enlivens the scenes, transcending the impact of the still image alone. The works on wood provide a unique visual experience for what it is like to be motionless in the middle of a natural world that is constantly moving.

Julie Withers Fisher Blog - Summer 2011 Mixed Media

Julie / Media Experiments and Proposal

8x4in

Handmade paper, mat board, wood filler, chalk, oil pastel, acrylic paint, and watercolor on artist board

8x4in

Handmade paper,watercolor, acrylic paint, and charcoal on artist board

6x5in

Wood filler, oil pastel, and sharpie on pine

6x5in

Wood filler on pine

To view the artwork created with the above materials visit this link.

PROPOSAL: In the four media experiments shown, the delicate textures, sense of movement, soft values and warm tones invite the eye to thoroughly take in each landscape. A variety of textured papers and wood surfaces were used as grounds for these experiments. The media varied from pastels to wood filler. The invitingly warm values and deliberate textures built up on paper give the scenes added visual interest. The wood enlivens each landscape with intricately flowing patterns of grain. These experiments are capable of evoking much more than a printed photograph could. The desired result for the body of work to follow is an intimate view of a landscape. Studying the grain on each wood surface will allow me to select fitting images from my nature library. The size of each wood support ranges from 18x12 to 28x28 in the shape of rectangles, a circle, and square. The varieties are pine, oak, and birch. The subjects will be rendered using wood fillers and stains to stay within a wood tone palette.

Kathy C / Mixed Media

Artist Statement

Images of seeds, leaves, and rocks are used to depict the different life cycle stages in many of the pieces in this series. I see seeds and buildings as both containers and incubators of potential. The foliage as the fulfillment of that potential, while rocks stand as the fossilized remains (or achievements). My own adventures in gardening, child rearing, eldercare, and travels have led me to explore the universal life cycle of ideas, tangible things and all living creatures. Hidden portraits of my own children and father within these many layers make this work carry a very personal meaning.

Several methods are used to highlights these stages or transitions. I have also used collage, spraying, washes, resists and glazing techniques so that images from beneath can still be seen, to show a sense of layering that is also part of this cycle, the new on top of the old.

For more info visit my blog link.

Kathy C.

Summer 2011

Buchanan / Blog

Mary Buchanan-Mixed Media Drawing

Thoughts on Drawing- Summer 2011

How do we distinguish ourselves within our surroundings? What makes a person unique is not usually a common points of reference. It is often our afflictions that create meaningful relationships and visible change.

Working on either paper or fabric I create a ground using iconographic silhouettes of the human form. Direct and offset printing, stenciling and masking are used to produce duplicate shapes. Additional forms are subsequently added. This information accumulates and informs both the subject and the viewer. The content I address is often intimate in origination but public in its context within art. The symbolism can be as direct as capitol letters, a walker, hand tools, or the human head. Mood is suggested by rugged texture, translucent color and quality of line.

Mary Buchanan

Julie's Gallery Notes

LINDEN ROW INN

Genesis Chapman has proven to possess a great understanding of all the wonderful characteristics of water.  He replicates the fluid textures so masterfully with such a wide array of values.  I really enjoy how this water is trapped within this organic shape that makes it appears to spread out from the center and overflows off the piece.  Rather than filling the entire space, the viewer's eye has a break surrounding this area so they can better attune to every finite detail.  In my work, the wood grain flows very much like these rough waters.  I also desire to control the viewer's attention by putting emphasis on only a small part of wood grain, rather than the entire pattern across the wood surface.

VA CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE

One thing that stuck with me from Kirsten Kindler's discussion was the quote she shared, "Don't always think your work is too precious."  This really made me think about how I feel about my own work.  If I ever want my work to evolve, I can't be too afraid to make a move.  In the end, it really takes a certain amount of disassociation from the work so that you don't get wrapped up in worrying about what other people think and even being too critical yourself.  Art is human made and it's not always perfect.

VISUAL ARTS CENTER

Annie Campbell's work at the Visual Arts Center had such a presence in that space that I couldn't help but be drawn to it.  The height, the flow of the clay surface, the wonderful display of textures, the repetition of form, and the stunning natural palette of glazes gave my eyes a visual thrill.  Working with wood of so many different varieties in my own work has given my an acute sensitivity to its unique qualities.  To see it reproduced so skillfully in another material is so inspiring.  It is obvious that the knowledge gained in working and re-working one material has transferred to a totally new material.  This artist, like myself, has to share the same wonderment and passion for nature that is necessary to create such a flawless rendering of the subject.

REYNOLDS GALLERY

Seeing Sally Mann's work from her "Deep South" series helped me to understand the motivations behind her process.  The wet collodian plate prints are astonishingly beautiful in themselves.  The technique produces a dark vignetting that alludes to a mysterious sense of space full of imperfection and unpredictability.  Yet is also has this magically soft glow that gives it a sense of calmness and awe.  The process enlivens the environment with a push and pull of emotions.  I feel connected to this artist because my work is also largely driven by how the process in which the image is rendered reaches the viewer in a more dramatic way than a traditionally printed image could.  People may not be connected to a photograph of a particular place because they can't imagine the same wonderment that possessed you when you were there with your camera.  By putting our hand in the process of producing our images, both Sally Mann and I give the viewer an idea of what it FELT like to be there, not just what it looked like.

Kathy / Media Experiments / Blogging / Revisions

Many different techniques will be used to build up surface and take it away. Some of these will include; resists, collage, printing, tearing, and spraying. Some materials that will be used include but not limited to: found papers, paint (gouache and acrylic), oil pastels, salt, colored pencil, stencils, and spray bottles.

I propose to create a series of horizontally formatted pieces on paper that show many layers and techniques. One goal is for the viewer to have a sense of stratification and layering. While imagery that have been in my work (seeds, rocks and foliage) will be present, they will not dominate or be the focal point for each piece. Another challenge or goal I have is to work loosely and successfully on larger scale than I ever have before.

Blog Link:

http://cluwatermedia.blogspot.com/

There are links to relevant artist for not only this series of work, but others that I have done while in graduate school. They are under the header "Artists that Inspire"

Four Pieces From Experiments Series

I tried to include my photos from my samples but they may have been too big and this did not post at all. The examples however, did upload to my blog

The dimensions are either 6x6", 6"x6", 6"x81/2" 6"x18" I displayed them with the rare earth magnets and tacks underneath. Materials include; colored pencil, markers, gouache, acrylic, oil pastel and chalk. I believe that the first three display successfully on a vertical.

Kathy / MIS Field Trips and Video responses

Virginia Center of Architecture

Kirsten Kindler's talk was delightful. I especially enjoyed the way the audience could walk around as a group while she discussed particular pieces. I was impressed with the fact that she has the confidence to let the materials dictate her subject matter. I am also amazed that she does all that intricate cutting not once, but twice.

Linden Row

It was great timing that allowed us to see two shows at this venue during our short class time. Since a historical B&B is a unique environment in which to see contemporary art, I am glad we got to see two installations. I was especially taken with the railroad themed poetry, the artists' intentions for it and the tragic backstory involving Yardsale. I am really looking forward to displaying some of it in my home.

Anderson Gallery

Hope Ginsburg's presentation was a fun time. The beach theme, her quick wit, the cold beer and the beach bucket comraderie. My felt "earth ball" has been quite the discussion piece in my household. Everyone who sees it, has commented on it, questioned it and (of course) tossed it around. My compliments to Hope for creating such stimulating discussion on aesthetics in my sports obsessed household

VMFA

21 Century Gallery

Modern Masters: Sean Sculley and John Walker

What a small world, Kristen Kindler, the artist at the VCA mentions she studied under one of the artists in this show, Sean Sculley. I found their palettes, textures, and scale of work really complimented each other.

Tristin Lowe: Mocha Dick

Again another correlation to another field trip…I am sure that Hope Ginsburg will really enjoy this one. I certainly did and was glad I saw it after her felting workshop. It gave me a much deeper appreciation of the enormous whale and the construction of it. I do not see my guys throwing this one around but perhaps climbing it if they thought they could get away with it...

"Creativity and the Brain"

I enjoyed watching this twice now. Close and Serra have a life long respect and banter that I think really enhanced the discussion. I was impressed with the way both men emphasized their art making as problem solving, that their heightened visual perception may be due to an underdeveloped area of the brain, and the need to constantly be questioning. Finally I must say Close's comment on inspiration was, to me, very funny and true. "Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work."

Kathy / Professional Practices

Sally's talk last week was dense with great information. I took about 15 pages of notes. I have heard her talk along these lines before not just about galleries. I can tell she has been at work organizing and getting some source material together. I really hope that this does fly as a class. It is very much needed in the community and not just MIS students

Kathy