Drawing and Painting

In this course, students explore the possibility of image and text to interrelate, interpret, discombobulate, and extend each other into new dimensions of meaning and visual impact. Working in drawing and painting, students use image and text to tell a story or a poem, text as visual information, and calligraphy as a visual form of language. Students may work with a variety of surfaces, formats, and series work. Projects include course assignments and student proposals. Visual lectures covering historical and contemporary art, research, responsive writing, and field trips round out the course.

This course utilizes chance, prompts, conceptual diagramming, collaboration, transcriptions, and other generative processes to develop and question abstract modes of expression. The course translates 3D model building into drawing and then back again. Projects include site-specific drawing and collaborative design teams for installations. Visual lectures, contemporary readings, discussions, artist films about process, and critiques support course material.

In this course, students create paintings that exist both as image and as a deliberately produced 3D object, including low relief to sculptural form. Topics include experimental and mixed-media painting, sculptural and shaped supports, and process and presentation as they relate to content. Materials include stretched canvas; wood constructions; natural, found and commercial objects for assemblage; and handmade and other papers. Drawing, composition, surface, and scale are discussed continuously within the context of the painted object. Projects include course assignments and student-proposed bodies of work. Visual lectures covering historical and contemporary art, research, responsive writing, and field trips round out the course.

This course is an exploration of drawing and mark-making through the versatile method of monotype. By directly drawing or painting on a plate that is then printed, students create imagery with a great deal of spontaneity. The course includes direct-trace drawing and additive and subtractive studies as well as chine colle (a process of pasting/collaging other papers into the print). Instruction includes lectures, visual lectures, technical demonstrations, and critiques.

This course provides a contemporary context for working in a representational manner, including connections between invented and described space, realism and imagination, and understanding implied narratives and symbolism. Students use photographic and observed source material as well as live models. Projects are both classroom- and proposal-based. Instruction includes visual lectures, museum visits, critiques, and readings.

Students explore a variety of textures, mark-making, and image techniques in the direct and versatile medium of relief printmaking. Media include linoleum and wood block, collographs, pressure printing, stenciling masks, and wood type. Technical information on cutting techniques, printing by hand and press, reduction and multi-block prints, overprinting, and color layering are also covered. Demonstrations, lectures, and field trips support course material.

Screenprinting is a direct printmaking technique that builds images from layers of color. Students will explore photographic, computer-generated, hand drawn and painted stencil techniques. Through field trips, slide lectures, print samples, and critiques, the course will provide an overview of the wide range of historical and contemporary approaches. Students will complete a portfolio of editioned and non-editioned prints. Nontoxic, water-based inks will be used.

Through experimentation with process and practice, including the editioning of copper plates, students use different grounds, aquatints, acids, and dry-point techniques to gain an understanding of the intaglio process. Line work, halftones, Xerox transfers, chine colle, color printing and photo etching are all possibilities. Both historical and contemporary applications are explored.

The process of lithography allows the artist to draw directly on grained lithographic limestone and aluminum plates to create printable matrices. Students experience both the graphic capacity and painterly possibilities of this medium through a wide range of dry and wet lithographic drawing material. Students develop a portfolio of print-based work emphasizing personal imagery using primarily plate lithography while incorporating Xerox transfer, traditional stone lithography, and photo and digital processes. Historical and contemporary contexts are explored through lectures and field trips to museums and/or print studios.

Students gain working knowledge of a variety of printmaking techniques that involve photographic and digitally generated images. Students explore photo-plate processes such as Z-Acryl etching, photo litho, pronto, and photo-polymer plates. Techniques include contact printing, halftones and four-color separations. Students are encouraged to experiment within a wide range of possibilities while exploring the conceptual and aesthetic exchange between printmaking and photography.

This course introduces students to contemporary printmaking trends in digital technology. The emphasis is on experimentation and discovery through various techniques including the inkjet printer as painting tool, the scanner as camera, the production of oversize prints, and repeat pattern printing. Through screenprinting, relief, and digital output, this course considers the shift and overlap of old and new techniques as a vital investigation in contemporary visual culture. Contemporary artists working in digital and print-based media are discussed.

This course investigates print-based concepts and strategies through installation, intervention and site-specificity. Students are introduced to oversize printing techniques, repeat imagery for large- scale works, and unconventional printing surfaces. The context for studio investigations ranges from gallery to public domain, encouraging a variety of perspectives on site engagement while expanding the definition of print.

This course introduces a mixed-media approach to printmaking through drawing, collage, and unconventional mark-making. Rubbings, resists, and transfers can be combined with found printed fabric and paper, wood, canvas or other working surfaces. The course investigates printed color and viscosity or built up surfaces achieved in printmaking but defined through a drawing context. Students are encouraged to develop a personal direction through process and play. Demonstrations, field trips, and artists’ talks round out the course.

Traditional and sculptural books provide exciting options for artistic expression. This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of art in the book form, ranging from one-of-a-kind books to printed multiples and sculptural works. Individual projects focus on the relationship of form and content and employ a wide range of media and materials for text and/or images. Contemporary and historical artists’ books will be explored through critique, samples, slide lectures and field trips.

Students explore the materials and techniques of book construction through a variety of forms, from simple pamphlets for editions to hardcover multiple-section books. Adhesive and non-adhesive bindings and covers, folded and sewn structures, and Japanese and Western styles are included. Additional projects include presentation cases, envelopes, and box-making. Integration of contents to outer wrapping is discussed, from self-promotion to client presentations. Demonstrations, material exploration, and class discussions complement student projects.

This course explores the internal structure and content of the book form. Topics include the relationships between image/text, caption/illustration, and truth/lies. The development of voice, rhythm, and timing is examined as components of narrative structure. Although simple bookbinding is incorporated, the course concentrates on developing subject matter and ways of telling. Assignments include small editions and collaborative and student-proposed projects. Work may be produced using the medium of students’ choice, including photo, illustration, digital, printmaking, and drawing. Lectures, films, and readings complement course material.

This course examines the traditional forms and contemporary possibilities of the printed book. From one-page poetry and political broadsides to multi-paged books, students explore a range of printing and distribution methods. Text and image, page layout, and overall book design are covered. Print technologies covered include letterpress with handset type and photo-polymer plate, relief and collograph techniques, and the wood-type poster press. Projects may be one-of-a-kind, editioned, or collaborative. Basic bookbinding as appropriate to the projects will be covered.

In this course, students learn how to make artwork with handmade paper from recycled materials, botanical fibers, and imported fiber. The course covers sheet formation for drawing, painting, and printmaking purposes, as well as 3D applications in sculpture or lighting projects. Work in related areas such as bookbinding, surface applications, and paper uses in other disciplines are encouraged. Students are expected to experiment with the technical information presented and develop new work.

Students are introduced to Western and Eastern fiber techniques and make 3D work with and without armatures. Fibers include cotton, abaca, and flax for work with plaster molds, vacuum table, and pulp sprayer. Four-foot by eight-foot paper and flexible molds are used with strong, translucent Eastern fiber. Students are encouraged to investigate experimental methods of production in order to develop their own working methods.