Presenting at the SECAC conference

Off to the SECAC conference in Durham, NC this week! I'll be presenting on the "Fostering Civic Engagement" panel, and it's a real honor. Here's the abstract of what I'll be discussing:

*********

The Puppet Show: Collaboration and Community Engagement in Design Foundations

What do rapping Vikings, fluffy sea monsters, and two chatty mermaids from Jersey have to do with design foundations?  They are a few of the unlikely characters to unlock the concept of community engagement for freshmen at Columbus College of Art and Design. Working in teams, these students created a multi-act puppet show for patients and families at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Each team consisted of a production/budget manager, playwright, marketing and communications representative, actors, and character/set designers. The students selected their roles, allowing them to play to their strengths. A comprehensive six-week production schedule kept teams on task, and frequent in-progress critiques helped the overall class produce a cohesive performance. (On their course evaluations, many students cited “teamwork” as the most important lesson from the class.) Other learning objectives for this assignment included utilizing 2-D, 3-D and 4-D design skills developed throughout the year, managing all aspects of their production, documenting the process, and tailoring their engagement to a unique audience. Instead of creating artwork for themselves, their peers, or their instructor, these students had to consider the needs and interests of a very different “viewer.”  The results were so positive that Nationwide asked us to return again this year!

**********

I'm looking forward to seeing Durham and meeting all the conference attendees!

Great residency

In May, I had the fantastic pleasure of a two-week residency at the Anderson Center at Tower View. It was such an amazing experience - I'm hooked! During that time, I made thousands of small drawings that I posted around the studio. My fellow resident Norbert Marklin took this great photo:

This is just one wall that I covered, but it gives you the idea. We also had fun making this one:

When I got back to Columbus, I spent the next several weeks putting together pieces for a 9 x 12 foot collage/mural I made for a show at Oregon College of Art and Craft. (I'll be heading there soon to install it.) Here's the piece in process:

I'll be sure to post pictures of the finished work.

Awarded a residency at the Anderson Center

Boy, 2012 is my year so far!  I just learned that I was awarded a two-week residency at the Anderson Center at Tower View for May.  It could not come at a better time, as I prepare for my solo show at OCAC in August.  I'm going to eat up the opportunity to focus on my artwork for two uninterrupted weeks - sounds like a dream!  

Selected as a 2012-2013 USJLP delegate

In February, I was selected as a 2012-2013 USJLP delegate!  It is such an honor; only 14 Americans and 6 Japanese young leaders were chosen this year.  I will travel to Seattle this summer for a weeklong conference where delegates and fellows from both countries will gather for friendship and dialogue about issues affecting both countries.  It will be fascinating to see how fine art can be a part of this conversation.  And next summer, I will travel to Kyoto for the conference.  It will be my first time in Asia; I'm so grateful and excited!

http://www.usjlp.org/index.html

Two pieces on view in Lake Charles, LA

Untitled (Red Cells), 2010

Untitled (Black and Red), 2010

What's Happening in the Studio

After a long summer of moving to our first home, the studio is up and running.  Here are a few snapshots of what I'm currently working on.  There are two potential bodies of work starting now.  The first are what I'm calling "pennant drawings".  They're constructed from torn segments of other drawings and collage material. 

It takes a considerable amount of time to make the fragments.  I'm asking myself a lot of questions right now: do the fragments need to be hand drawn?  By me?  What content/effect does having collage material from old magazines offer?  How can I make these bigger?  Are they a timeline or record?  This idea started with a series of drawings from summer of 2008 that were combined.  Here's how they looked individually:

 

 And then when I put them all together:

The other thread I'm starting to explore is garish color and the power of repetition.  I think I'm drawn to pattern right now because of my constant exploration of fabrics and interior design for our home.  I especially like Amy Butler's designs; she is not afraid of color!  I fluctuate between natural and neutral colors and bright, almost primary colors in my compositions.  In learning about Amy's process--in which she designs the seed pattern or motif in paint, and then it is replicated--I wondered how hard it was to create my own.  This is my first attempt:

 

I'm going to scan it soon and see what it looks like replicated.  I was pretty shocked at my color choices as I went along.  I kept pushing myself out of my comfort zone whenever selecting the next color.  What I find intriguing is how repetition mitigates the discordance of the color.  This led me to really push it.  First I was looking for motifs...here's the first steps:

  And then here's where it went:

It's not complete yet, but whoa!  That's a whole lot of color for me.  We'll see where it goes...

There are some other directions starting to form, but these are the two most prominent.  Alongside them, here's what else is percolating...

My 2010-11 Freshman Class Profiled in IMAGE magazine

The final project for my freshman design students last year was profiled in CCAD's IMAGE magazine and blog.  Here's the online version. 

And here's an earlier entry on the CCAD news blog about the performance.  It was such a great experience!