#OSU MFA

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: the under story by Broderick Eaton – NWVS #179

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-under-story-by-broderick-eaton-nwvs-179/

Oregon poet and author Broderick Eaton is the recipient of the Sixfold Poetry Prize, the Orison Books Anthology Prize in Non-Fiction, the Scribes Valley Fiction Prize, The Source/OSU Cascades MFA poetry prize, and a Book Fest Award. She holds degrees from Sweet Briar College and Lindenwood University and lives in the high desert of Oregon with her family. #nature #poetry

PRAISE FOR the under story by Broderick Eaton – NWVS #179

“In language as regal as the forests and woodlands she explores, Eaton’s poems offer thought-provoking contemplations on personal loss, love and purpose framed by keen observations of the natural world.”

–Ellen Waterston, author of Hotel Domilocos: Poems

“This is a stunning collection that would leave Mary Oliver breathless. The celebration of the natural order is magnified by powerful images and compelling narratives. The poet moves the reader to a greater acceptance of death and loss through her discovery of birth and rebirth in the shifting gifts from sky, tree, bird and earth. Throughout, her attention to sound and touch enables strong visual passages to ring out with a clear bell and a deft sense of presence. The contemplative bent of this work is lightened by the poet’s humor, as in “this is a pilfered poem.” Broderick Eaton embraces the many gifts of nature in startlingly restorative language, guiding us with a sincerely humble lead. So much to savor!”

–Carol Barrett, Ph.D.,author of Pansies and Reading Wind

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #nature

[cityonlinementor]

Mentor Message 3.23.23

Everybody’s got SDCCD email after 3/27!

1. Student and Employee Primary Emails

Primary emails are switching over for all to SDCCD email on 3/27.  All SDCCD information from the colleges/myportal will be automatically sent to the SDCCD emails.

·         Please remind students to make sure they can access their student emails accounts.

Students received their SDCCD student email info when they registered for classes. This informational email was sent to the address they used to register for classes. Directions for students to access their SDCCD email and setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Don’t want to use a SDCCD email account? People can set up forwarding  from their SDCCD Outlook account.

👩🏽‍🔧Faculty Workaround: If you haven’t done so already, consider copying your students’ primary emails from your myportal rosters BEFORE 3/27 so you can still easily contact & help them with student email. After 3/27, the student.sdccd.edu emails will replace what the students were using as primary emails. This will be the same for Canvas shortly after.

Student Help:  support@student.sdccd.edu

Call     619-388-1140

Why bother? Our District is moving to single sign-on. This means SDCCD email for everyone will become the new login for Canvas, certain resources, and official communication from the college. This is also what gives people access to Office 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Cloud Storage, etc.

2. Help provide some socio-economic equity in your classroom

Help alleviate some of the financial barriers for students by implementing Online Educational Resources (OER) or Zero Cost Texts (ZTC) in your classes. Not sure where to get started? Check out some of the sessions from OER Week 2023 Sessions:

OER Week Recorded Sessions:

H5P &     ADAPT Overview with Maddie Button

Common misconceptions about switching to OER: Are     you ready to ditch the textbook?

Using OER to improve the student’s experience and     success in my classes

Where To Find OER and Grants. Get Some Help, Too

SDCCE Canvas OER Resources

 Before you leave…

Spring cleaning! Consider clearing your desks & securing personal property in your office if your office computer is out of warranty & scheduled for replacement. Dell workers are in the process of taking away old equipment & putting in new computers. Many thanks to Dean Tyler & Jen Foxley for the heads up that this is currently in process for AH. Be sure to save your data either in the cloud or an external drive.

*How do I know if my office computer is getting replaced? If your computer is still on Windows 7 or XP, it will be going…

3. Grading papers over the break? Concerned about getting AI-written papers?

Faculty have been reporting success with using the following free resources to scan for AI generated work:

Chat GPTZero 

ZeroGPT 

Some Possible Teaching Recommendations:

Put addendum language into syllabi about what AI use (if any)     is acceptable: Sample syllabus language from OSU’s     Creative Commons

Use AI to model how you     might want students to use it as a classroom tool 

Have discussion before     assignments are due & expectations: Samples     of language/resources from UCLA

Use or     require info 2021 and newer: ChatGPT can't scan (yet) for anything from     2021-present

Use multi-tier prompts that elicit critical thinking or     personal judgement. AI can't "think" critically, so if the     prompt is requiring students to write about something that requires     evaluation that is subjective, emotional, or requires specific contextual     information, it can't do it. It also doesn’t always process the     entire prompt if there are multiple parts. For ideas/verbs see a digital     “update” to Bloom’s Taxonomy in Tech and Learning or ASU’s     graphic linking digital tools to each level

Have a good Spring Break! I’ll be checking email periodically through the break, so feel free to reach out if you have questions or need help.

[angelameleca]

@osu_art MFA students installing for tomorrow’s one night exhibition. All 40 #OSU MFA Graduate Students donated work. Come help support future grad studies programming. Everything priced $100. (6pm , Friday April 13, 2018) #angelamelecagallery @osuceramics @osusculpture @osuphotography @osupainting #sculpture #printmaking #painitng&drawing #photography #ceramics #glass #art&technology #downtowncbusglleries (at Angela Meleca Gallery)

[evoldir]

Postdoc: OklahomaStateU.EvolutionaryBiology

(Note: the ad below ad does not specify subfield but includes evolutionary biology in multiple potential academic departments) Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellowships Fellowship Description The College of Arts and Sciences of Oklahoma State University seeks scholars who are committed to supporting the learning needs of students from diverse backgrounds and to engaging communities underrepresented in higher education. These fellowships will support the early development of scholars who show promise for successful academic careers in the Fine Arts, Humanities, Mathematics, Sciences, or Social Sciences. The two-year fellowships (one in Fine Arts or Humanities, one in Social Sciences, and two in Mathematics or Sciences) with competitive salaries will begin in August 2018 and may be renewed for a third year. There is the possibility of a tenure-track appointment at the completion of the post-doctoral fellowship. Post-docs will carry a teaching load of one course per semester and will receive institutional support for their research/creative activities and their professional development in instruction. They will be closely mentored by faculty and housed in one or more of the following departments: • Art, Graphic Design, and Art History • Chemistry • Computer Science • English • Foreign Languages and Literatures • Geography • Geology • History • Integrative Biology • Mathematics • Media and Strategic Communications • Microbiology and Molecular Genetics • Music • Philosophy • Physics • Plant Biology, Ecology, and Evolution • Political Science • Psychology • Sociology • Statistics • Theatre Preferred Qualifications: Candidates who have completed their terminal degree within the discipline (PhD, MFA, or DMA) no more than three years before the August 2018 start date and who have not yet had a tenure-track faculty position are preferred. To apply, please submit by 1 October 2017 the following in a single PDF file: Letter of application – please indicate department(s) with which you would seek affiliation if selected for a post-doctoral fellowship. • CV Statement outlining commitment to integrating multicultural experiences into instructional methods and engaging students underrepresented in the academy. • Statement outlining two-year plan for research/creative activity. • Names of three professional references. Applications should be submitted to one of the following email address: Fine Arts or Humanities: DiversityPostDoc-fah@okstate.edu Social Sciences: DiversityPostDoc-ss@okstate.edu Mathematics or Sciences: DiversityPostDoc-ms@okstate.edu Additional questions should be directed to: Dr. Bruce Crauder, Associate Dean College of Arts and Sciences 201 LSE Stillwater, OK 74078 bruce.crauder@okstate.edu 405-744-5663 Positions are contingent upon available funding. Oklahoma State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/E-verify employer committed to diversity and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other protected category. OSU is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and desires priority referrals of protected veterans for its openings. OSU will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c) Daniel Moen via Gmail

[storyquarterly]

Fourth Annual Nonfiction Prize Awarded!

We are very happy to announce the winners of StoryQuarterly’s Fourth Annual Nonfiction Prize.

First place ($1000) is awarded to Katherine Zlabek of Washington DC for “Academic Dialogue.” Zlabek’s story collection, WHEN, winner of The Journal’s 2018 Non/Fiction Collection Prize, is forthcoming from the OSU Press in Fall 2019. Her stories and essays have appeared in Boulevard, The Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, and other journals. Ricochet Editions published her chapbook, LET THE RIVERS CLAP THEIR HANDS, in 2015. She currently teaches writing and literature in Washington, DC.

First Runner-up is awarded to Anjoli Roy of Honolulu, Hawaii for “Little Red BMW.” Roy is a writer and high school English teacher with a PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Her work has appeared in online and print literary journals and edited collections, including Entropy, Waxwing, The Asian American Literary Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Kweli, and River Teeth. She is a VONA alum and has received the 2017-2018 COG Page to Screen Award judged by Gish Jen, as well as a third-place win in the 2016 Ian MacMillan Writing Awards for Creative Nonfiction.

Second Runner-up is awarded to Jeremiah Barker of Chicago, IL for “Laundry.” Barker is an MA and MFA candidate in Northwestern University’s Litowitz Creative Writing Graduate Program.

All three winning submissions will appear in StoryQuarterly 52, which will be out in summer of 2019. Our judge for this year’s competition was Brian Blanchfield, author of three books of prose and poetry, including Proxies: Essays Near Knowing.

[dawnajaynes32]

From the Outside In

From the Outside In

By Tom Wachunas

    “ Your life is a book, and every day is a page…”  – Elijah Pierce

    “…Elijah Pierce the artist and Elijah Pierce the citizen were one and the same. His carving bears witness to this fact. It provides us with palpable new text for the study and appreciation of art as a cultural production indelibly and dynamically marked by the singular hands of a maker…”  - Timothy Keny

   EXHIBIT: Elijah Pierce: An American Journey, at the Canton Museum of Art / Curated by Timothy C. Keny, Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, and Dr. John F. Moe, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio / On view THROUGH MARCH 4, 2018 / 1001 Market Avenue North, Canton, Ohio / 330.453.7666

  www.cantonart.org  

   Video:  https://vimeo.com/17675902

     Pierce biography:  https://www.cscc.edu/ElijahPierce/bio.htm 

   DOWNLOAD HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES VIA THIS LINK

   https://goo.gl/V4oUua

   From 1969 to 1975, pursuing my BFA and MFA degrees at The Ohio State University (OSU) was an intensely cathartic experience. I remember those years as a protracted baptism - an immersion in the paradox that was Postmodernism. In both the contemporary art world and the microcosm of the Hopkins Hall Fine Arts Dept. at OSU, it was a period of crossing boundaries or shattering them altogether, of conflating so-called high and low cultures, of re-examining traditional definitions and terminology, of embracing old materials and methods while passionately exploring and establishing new ones. 

   In 1971, caught up in this heady milieu of multimedia experimentation, along came a fascinating one-man show mounted in  Hopkins Hall Gallery – painted wood relief carvings by Elijah Pierce (b. 1892 – d.1984), then a 79 year-old African American lay minister and barber based in Columbus. The exhibit was organized by one of my former instructors, Boris Gruenwald, a sculptor and OSU graduate teaching assistant who had seen Pierce’s work exhibited at a local YMCA. So thank you, Boris Gruenwald, wherever you are, for befriending Elijah Pierce and introducing him to the world at large. The rest is a matter of history (click on the biography link above).

    I still remember being mesmerized by that 1971 exhibit. The visceral simplicity and raw immediacy of Pierce’s figural compositions in bas-relief (i.e., sculptural relief in which the modeled forms’ projection from the surrounding or background surface is relatively slight or low) had an illustrative clarity and child-like boldness of palette that would affect my own art for years to come. I was favorably smitten then – as I am now - by what continues to be rightly hailed as Pierce’s uniquely visionary Folk Art.

    Viewing this beautifully assembled CMA exhibit brings to mind traditionally held notions about Folk Art and some characteristics associated with the genre, such as primitive, self-taught, untrained, and ‘low brow.’  Those same descriptors could just as well be associated with another, arguably more useful term for the kind of art we see here, namely “outsider art.”  Critic Roger Cardinal originated the term in 1972 as an English equivalent to what Jean Dubuffet called “art brut” (“rough art”) – art created outside the norms of established cultural systems or the mainstream art world. In any case, the directness of Pierce’s pictorial language is enthralling and otherwise unpretentious in its refined unrefinement.

    A palpable aura of agelessness surrounds many of these pieces. They often possess an intuitive harkening to stylistic elements found in ancient Egyptian or Mesopotamian iconography, as well as religious imagery from European Middle Ages. They include hieratic scale, or continuous narratives, such as in “Elijah Escapes the Mob,” or twisted spatial perspectives - what historians have labeled “composite view” - as in “Jesus Calming the Storm.”

   Other visions are infused with a salt-of-the-earth charm and even a cartoonish humor. Among those are  “Straining at a Gnat, Swallowing a Camel,” a literal rendering of Jesus’s words berating the hypocrisy of Pharisees,  and the wry “Three Ways to Send a Message: Telephone, Telegram, Tell-a- Woman.”  

   Elijah Pierce – a barber, a preacher, a woodcarver, an unassuming outsider probing our innermost responses to being alive. Collectively, his works are truly significant modern aesthetic touchstones of a life carved out in loving, tangible attention to God, tempered with a concern and compassion for the sociopolitical urgencies of not only his era but, prophetically enough, our own as well. Viewing them is to be immersed in a poignant conjoining of the banal and the Biblical, a bridging of the secular and Sacred,  the human and Divine. All told… a compelling baptism by wood.

   PHOTOS, from top: 1. Your Life is a Book and Every Day is a Page / 2. Jesus Calming the Storm / 3. Elijah Escapes the Mob / 4. Straining at a Gnat, Swallowing a Camel / 5. Three Ways to Send a Message: Telephone, Telegram, Tell-A-Woman / 6. Watergate / 7. Barber Shop and the Fight Against Evil    

From the Outside In syndicated post

[zachwhitworth]

Where are the art students?

Social media has proven to be a fantastic set of tools for artists in this past decade. I’ve personally grown attached to Instagram, as the image-oriented structure yields a platform prime for arts exploration. I love being able to look into art schools and university art departments around the country, something which normally required travel prior to the Internet’s widespread usage. Connecting with other young creators and students is invaluable; ideas and creative methods can be shared between urban and rural communities, (or rural with rural, urban with urban,) allowing for distance-bridging friendships and mutual corroboration.

Since I’ve been living on my own in a rural southern Oregon town with a (sadly) laughable arts scene, Instagram has been my main link to other working artists. Conversing with students my age living in Oregon’s larger cities has resulted in the exchange of show cards and zines via snail mail, and the positive feedback that comes out of each new relationship only reinforces why we’re all on this career path.

However, building these connections can be difficult when one can’t find others online. When looking for fellow students, our educational institutions are the gatekeepers, since the social media accounts of art schools and universities can be the most direct routes to discovering one another––the youngest, most up-and-coming, emerging artists. Official school accounts have a significantly higher reach than most individuals too, meaning even a single-post promotion of a student’s work may be one of the more supportive and elevating acts an institution can do for someone these days. Even if a school is relatively small, highlighting student artists is a valuable boost, and it ultimately shows that an institution cares and is invested in helping people succeed. Student promotions on college Instagram profiles allow for those outside the institutions or immediate areas to gain some insight as to what these other schools are brewing. It shows what sorts of artwork are being produced and sometimes gives a preview of what styles or methods one would expect to be geared toward while attending, (or perhaps what programs are more popular).

It is fascinating then that many schools don’t promote their younger students. When students are shown off, they will almost exclusively be MFA candidates, (graduate students,) while ignoring or obscuring undergraduates. This does vary by school, and some colleges are doing far better than others, but the trend of seeing art department Instagrams with select or no art students is far too concerning to disregard.

I’ve noticed this from numerous colleges in the Pacific Northwest, (being that it’s my most local region,) but in seeking out a number of art schools and departments elsewhere, I’ve seen disheartening similarities. It is somewhat common to find studio-specific accounts managed by students, but they are typically more hidden from standard searches, and most are limited to only a few people working in a single medium, i.e. ceramics or painting. Many of those accounts tend to be abandoned or rarely updated after a while.

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) is the biggest name on the west coast guilty of this; for example, their Design & Media Arts account (@ucla_dma) features only nine posts in total, last updated nearly three years ago. Their art department’s main account (@uclaarts) remains active, but it focuses most heavily on non-student events and faculty promotion, occasionally showing work by alumni or MFA students, while undergraduates seem to be featured only once in a blue moon. They claim in their bio that the UCLA arts program is the “#1 Public Arts School in the US,” yet there seem to be next to no undergraduate art majors according to their Instagram feed.

Going further north is another example, University of California Berkeley. Their arts department account (@berkeleyartsdesign) is also focused on non-student events, and half the posts serve only as an extension for their art museum, BAMPFA. What hurt me the most was digging around to find the art department geotag, only to find a plethora of students having documented their own work and classes. The art majors at UC Berkeley seem to be wildly active, sharing paintings, ceramic sculptures, colorful installations, illustrations, and even large-scale collaborative murals, all while their school appears to be giving them little to no attention, at least as indicated by their Instagram.

It’s both better and worse in my home state of Oregon. Both Eastern Oregon in La Grande (EOU) and Oregon State in Corvallis (OSU) do show some student art, but nearly all are class projects. While OSU (@oregonstate.art) does attribute the classwork to individual students, EOU (@eou_art) bunches several pieces into single posts, typically excluding the names of students. There is then Southern Oregon (SOU) in Ashland, whose social media management is arguably the messiest on the west coast. Searching for the most straightforward “sou art” leads to an empty account under an official name (@art_souashland), though the art department has a second account with actual content, started just this April. This second account uses a title and acronym completely obscure to someone who hasn’t attended the university, and there is no work by an individual student, (there is a single piece made by a group, but not even at the school itself). Once again, there is more focus on non-student events rather than students, functioning primarily as an extension of the school admissions account.

Why is there little to no focus on art students on these college accounts? Boiling it down, this would indicate either a lack of enrollment in art programs or actual apathy on the part of these art departments, as posting an image to Instagram is––let’s face it––not tough in the slightest. In fact, all these schools have art students. These schools are not unique in their avoidance of their own students; too many colleges across the country, from California to New York, are culprits of keeping their students invisible in an age where visibility comes at the touch of a screen.

It becomes even more shameful when placed in contrast to college art departments that put more thought and effort in their Instagram curation. University of Washington Seattle (UW) is a prime sample of adequate social media management; their Instagram feed (@uwsoa) features student artwork regularly, and it does give undergraduate BFA students some good love, all while incorporating faculty art, alumni features, well-spaced event announcements, and an account takeover by a student every once and a while.

Full-on art schools are also hit-or-miss. The Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland (PNCA) has one of the most student-oriented approaches on Instagram, with their account (@p_n_c_a) given over to individual students for short periods of time as digital residencies. While this model is fairly experimental, visitors can view the entire spectrum of artwork coming out of PNCA through Instagram, and all student residents of the account are linked back to their own personal accounts, allowing for people to be easily contacted and connected with. Other schools like the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle have struggled in social media execution. Cornish finally has a visual arts department-specific Instagram account exclusively featuring their BFA students (@art_cornish), but it was only started this last week. Nothing prior.

Why are numerous university art departments with established Instagram presences so uninterested in their undergraduates? Instagram specifically has been out in the world for over six years, so finally hopping on the train at this point is a bit sad, but it is nonetheless needed. For every institution doing a crap job with their social media, there’s another that’s been using it successfully and in full support of their budding art students. Do these department administrations not pay attention to what others are doing well? Are they flat-out opposed to using social media as such? Are they embarrassed by their student body?

These days, plenty hopefuls are risking a lot by seeking a career path in the arts. Wealth can become a cruelly determining factor in acquiring arts jobs, and university tuition prices seriously hurt art students even before wandering into the job desert. Promoting student work is the very least a school can do, and even those small gestures can open up avenues for young artists who are just hoping to be given a chance and be noticed.

My last school’s ignorance of most of its art students left my peers and I in the cold without any real visibility or connection to the outside world. In begging for a change in approach to social media, I was met with uncaring attitudes and a total lack of recognition, even when nearly all of the dedicated, core art majors had transferred away within a year due to dysfunctional relationships with partisan faculty and department administration. In finding the absence of undergraduates in the Instagram posts of other college art departments, I am genuinely concerned that these issues of disconnection are not unique to my previous university.

I implore arts institutions to be generous in providing promotional boosts to students. I praise those like the University of Oregon in Eugene (UO) for finding a solid balance in online presentation. UO (@uoart) is no stranger to problems, but its Instagram serves as a virtually ideal model; students frequently rotate managing the account and can provide real pictures of both people and the artwork they create. They regularly share a balance of classwork, studios, some alumni, and faculty, but they most importantly create a fluid feed between undergraduates and MFA students; they are presented equally side-by-side, never favoring one over the other, and credit is satisfactorily given.

It is through fair and ungrudging reinforcement of young art students through school social media accounts, especially Instagram, which can help bolster better relationships between students and administration. It is vital in the modern age for allowing students to interact with those from outside schools and to be discovered in turn. I know from my own experience on the platform that priceless ties can be fostered between young artists in this way, and it could prove to form bonds between institutions themselves.

We do not deserve to be abandoned by our schools. Please support your art students.

__________

•Give attention to students of all ages, class standings, and working media •Credit individual artwork and link to the artist’s own account •Show studio spaces and classwork, but not as an alternative to more serious student projects •Acknowledge alumni on occasion, as they deserve continued love •Hand off the account to students on a regular basis •An art department account is not an extension of a university museum or school admissions account

[historicalsp17-blog]

Interview with Heather Wetzel

MM: I noticed you attended the Visual Studies Workshop, and was wondering if you wouldn't mind talking a little about your experience there and how that colors your work today. I'm thinking I'm drawing parallels between the VSW curriculum (on their website, they talk about 'combining disciplines and techniques') and an interview of yours where you discussed your attraction towards combining the historic processes with newer digital processes. Even if that's off base, I'm still interested to know how your time there affected your skill sets and creative development, and if, or how sharply, it affects your contemporary work.

HW: I think my inclination to cross disciplines goes back into my childhood. I was fortunate enough to have very supportive parents, and I grew up taking ceramics, painting, and drawing classes at a local arts center. This interest in various mediums continued through undergrad, where I began school thinking I would be a ceramics major; I ended up majoring in metals and jewelry, while taking every printmaking class offered. I didn't take my first photo class until the spring semester of my senior year. I previously had no interest in photography, but the newly hired photography professor, Judith Taylor, introduced the class to large format cameras and early photographic processes. (Not that we did any historic photo processes in our classes, but just the introduction of these objects and knowing that photography wasn't always the film we were accustomed to at the time, and that images were made on all sorts of different materials, was enough to get me hooked.) I worked as a jeweler for a few years after graduating with my bachelors degree, and then decided to go back to school for my Master's in Art Ed and, concurrently, my Master's in Humanities. I quickly dropped the Art Ed - I just didn't connect with the program. But I was very interested in the Humanities program - loved it! - and continued to study art and the humanities while as many photo classes as I could. Once I graduated, I was employed by a non-profit arts center outside of Philadelphia. There was a ceramics, painting and drawing focus there, so I continued to explore and mix media. (I had, by this time, set up my own darkroom in my house.) I even took a hand papermaking workshop while there. It was because of this interest in cross disciplinary work that I chose to attend VSW for my MFA. (That, and it operated as a non-profit as well.) I liked that the program was very small and intimate, that it focussed on three related media - photo, books, and film - and that it was located in a place rich with photographic history. The more independent nature of the program also appealed to me, having been through one Master's program already, and having an, albeit young, studio practice, I was drawn to the opportunity to have more of a say in the direction of my studies, as compared to some other programs that are a bit more structured. I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, working part time at the Eastman Museum, to be able to work with the Osterman's, as France's assistant, for the duration of my degree program. Also, being at the Eastman Museum afforded ample access to the collections and library, people, and exhibitions, which was tantamount to my interests and growth as an artist. For example, when I came to VSW, I had been attempting to make images on thing hand-made porcelain tiles I had made before leaving Philadelphia. The liquid emulsion I was experimenting with was not providing the results I desired. My boss in the museum shop suggested I speak with Grant Romer, who in turn, pointed me towards, Mark Osterman. It was he who suggested I explore wet plate, and informed me his wife was looking for an assistant, which I became and worked with her and Mark for the duration of my MFA. That is how my journey into wet plate and other historic process began. Of course, I also became interested in books and book structures while at VSW. Joan Lyons was a great influence - not only did she introduce me to books, but she had worked extensively with a variety of historic processes in the 60s and 70s. Not to mention, all the amazing artists who would come through VSW teaching workshops, like Scott McCarney and Keith Smith (who actually live in Rochester). Douglas Buebe was very influential in my interest in the book as object and sculptural form. Learning from other artists, like Judy Natal, and of course, Nathan Lyons, has also helped formed the way I think about images and object. I continued to work at Eastman Museum full time after graduating until I was offered a full time temporary teaching position at Edinboro University of PA. Here, I was afforded the opportunity to take classes at not charge other than the studio fee, so I took the wood furniture class, since I had already been delving into building structures to house images and create interactive experiences for viewers. I also took advantage of my time at the Penland Artist and Educators retreat in 2011 to work primarily in the woodshop there, continuing my interest in working with wood. In 2008, when the financial collapse occurred, my course load was reduced and I took the opportunity to apply to the University of Iowa Center for the Book after meeting Julie Leonard while we were both teaching at Penland School of Crafts that summer. She encouraged me to apply to the program, I was very interested, so I did. I was accepted and was awarded a stipend to attend. I relocated to Iowa City in January of 2009 and began a more intense study of all things book related - bookbinding, structures, printing, history, and another love, hand papermaking. Again, being in the right place at the right time, I was fortunate enough to work for and study under Timothy Barrett, gaining a very strong understanding (though not compared to him!) of both eastern and western styles of papermaking. After finishing the certificate program with 45 credits, I was awarded the Fergus Family Post MFA Fellowship in Photography here at OSU and moved to Columbus in 2011. Since being here, I have continued my exploration of melding different media and techniques in my work. In fact, I am currently beginning research and tests incorporating wet plate collodion and enameled surfaces, an old process not commonly used in the late 19th C. Of course, I continue to work with paper, book structure, photographic processes, wood - really whatever material is going to best allow me to convey my ideas. I am very much drawn to working with my hands. The sounds, textures, smells - all the senses that are engaged when working with materials is, in tandem with wanting to share something with the world, what keeps me working. I do incorporate digital media in the working process when it seems to be appropriate, and I am interested in finding more ways in which I can engage with these newer platforms in my personal work. The honest truth is, however, that I find it very difficult to spend many hours at the computer and find the work there to be personally unfulfilling thus far. I am still seeking an avenue in which I perhaps I will find a more satisfactory experience working digitally, but I very much doubt that will become my main method of working. I do feel strongly that there is some import to keeping traditional and historic processes alive and working in today's technological society, something rather wonderful about slowing down to work at a different pace, especially now, when we are becoming so accustomed to nearly instant access to information. It is, at the very least, a good reminder for me.

MM: I was interested to know what your initial exploration process is for yourself when you embark on learning a new discipline. Do you decide to work on one specific one, or do you just know you want to learn something new?

HW: Oh, this can be motivated in many different ways. Sometimes I am interested in a certain process, material, or technique and that inspires me to go about learning it, which leads to conceptual ideas that incorporate that process, material or technique. Other times, it is the other way around. I have an idea, and need to learn a new process, material or technique in order to have it come to be the way I envision it. And sometimes, it is just because I want to learn something new and whatever it is has caught my interest somehow! 

MM: Do you stumble upon them, or is it conscious? 

HW: It is definitely a mix of both. Sometimes I am inspired by a visiting artist at the University, or something I see in a museum, or a class that is offered at the Cultural Arts Center, where I also teach. Or it may be something I see or someone I meet while teaching at Penland. Or a friend may introduce me to someone or someone's work that they think I would find interesting. And sometimes it is from reading or browsing though old publications or books. Or simply playing around in my studio. 

MM: And once you decide on a new discipline, when you don't have a mentee (or get to work as an assistant) for the discipline, how do you go about that self-education? Do you have a process for that type of thing, or is it different for you every time? I guess this is in reference to your 'research and tests' comment, both on a conceptual level but also on a practical level.

HW: I would say it is different every time and depends on the circumstances and process. If it is a new photographic process, I now feel well experienced to explore and figure it out myself. I love taking workshops, so if there is one that appeals to me and is supportive of either process, technique, or will support a concept I have for a piece - and I can afford to take it, and make it work in my schedule, then I will take a workshop to get my feet wet. For example, a few summers ago, I applied for a Greater Columbus Arts Council professional development grant so that I could go take a two week, off the grid workshop with Jim Croft on old ways of book making. While I have book binding, paper making, and tool making skills, this was a wonderful opportunity to work with Jim, and deepen my understanding and appreciation of old techniques, from start to finish. I learned new skills there too, like processing and spinning flax for thread and cord. And, since being at the Cultural Art Center, I have taken advantage of a few of the classes there too. Like enameling, where I then have easy access to the materials and kilns, that wouldn't be as easy to set up at home at the moment. This way, I can continue my exploration, with the added bonus of having someone well versed in the medium there to answer any questions about the enameling side of things. Sometimes it is simply talking to people I know who have experience in whatever it is I am learning, just asking for tips and pointers. To summarize, it is really different every time, depending on circumstances, but involves a variety of approaches - self learning and experimentation, classes, and workshops. 

MM: Also I'm interested in how the different disciplines you work with speak to you - do you feel they tend to stick to conceptual themes across your work, or do they take on different applications and meanings from work to work?

HW: Different disciplines speak to me on multiple levels - the feel of the material, the tools that are used, the smell or sound of working with them, and of course, how the use of those materials supports any conceptual ideas, which certainly takes on different meanings from work to work. Here's an example of how all these pieces fit together for a specific work. In Salvage, I use recycled can lids to create camera-less ferrotypes to talk about the environment. (I believe you read the SRO interview about that work.) Since that interview, there is another component of Salvage, a grid of 3" square photo litho plates. These are a repeating series of 30 images that were digitally captured. I turned those digital images into fine half-tone screens and output the film using an imagesetter (something used in the letterpress print world to make films for photopolymer plates.) I then contact printed these on the aluminum photo litho plates.I liked the connection between the history of the medium I am using and the parallels that can be made to our farming practices. Specifically, photo litho is a process historically used to easily replicate an image many times and disseminate to the public more easily. The halftone screen references images in newspapers, something that is also used to disseminate information to large numbers of people for mass consumption. Using the same 30 images repeatedly to make up this large grid that represents big ag farming practices, where we farm one product (in this case, corn) on mass scale, and consume corn in so many ways - feed for animal feed lots, fuel, food filler, high fructose corn syrup that finds its way into everything - makes a nice connection between the history of the processes I am using and the issue at hand. These plates contrast in color and shape to the ferrotypes. First, they are made on recycled materials. Each one is unique, even when using the same botanical specimens as the image source. The materials used in making ferrotypes come from the earth - metal for the lids; asphaltum, mineral spirits, canada balsam for the japanning lacquer; collodion is made from cotton; developer is an iron developer; varnish is made from the gum of the sandarac tree, grain alcohol, and oil of lavender. Where those two contrasting shapes intermingle in the installation, the image on the ferrotypes is disappearing, indicating big ag and GMO's propensity for crowding out the indigenous flora and fauna.In another body of work, Mapping | Mending | Missing Memory, the process of making the work is supportive of the concept. Like I write in my statement:Memories are fragile, fleeting, incomplete, inaccurate. Like this broken glass, memories are held together by delicate threads while other aspects are hazy and indecipherable. Easily broken and sometimes irretrievable, memories become fragmented with time. We seek to fill in the missing pieces with fabricated information, working to keep those fragments together, to keep our memories whole. In an effort to put the pieces back together, maps must be made, so we can know how the remnants fit back together as we go about mending them and filling in the holes. Perhaps the missing pieces are there, simply inaccessible, stored in some other part of the brain with no pathways to connect and make them complete once again.

This is as much about mending memories as it is about mending broken relationships.These images are made using old family slides taken by my grandparents. Every summer, my granddaddy would put on a slide show for my sister and I after some enthusiastic nagging. All of the images depict my sister and I. We had been going through a rough patch in our relationship and and weren't on the greatest of terms. The act of smashing the glass and then tenderly mapping it out, drilling thousands of holes, making the images in each fragmented piece one at a time, painstakingly hand tinting each one, sewing it back together and knitting patches using sewing needles in place of knitting needles, was symbolic of what was going on between the two of us, and I think, something many people can relate to. I could go on and talk about Gravity, or (in)security & exchange, or Impractical Library, but I think you get the idea. I do think through the materials, process, and techniques, and how they connect to the concept of the work. 

http://www.heatherfwetzel.com

[ryrepko-blog]

Designer Interview

         My first interview with a graphic designer working in the field was with the brand ambassador and an in-designer for the YMCA in Columbus, Ohio. I was interested in what it was like making designs for an already established brand/company. I’ve heard of it before, I knew someone had to be making all the promotional posters and advertisements for these companies, but I wasn’t sure who was making them and what their job title would be. I thought that a design agency could be making them, or maybe one person had the job of designing all of the ads. Through my interviews, I learned what actually goes in to designing for a well-established brand.

         My interviewees names are Becky Ludt, a brand ambassador, and Alison Colvin a brand specialists and graphic designer for the YMCA in Columbus, Ohio. My first question for them was how they got their jobs doing design at the YMCA. Becky told me how she had graduated from YSU with a bachelor’s degree in arts, and moved to Columbus with the plans of going to OSU for her MFA. She stumbled into the position/promotion while working part-time at the YMCA as a Membership Director at a small branch. She told me she just ended up being the person with the most knowledge of design, advertising, graphics, and logo-usage so she adopted those as her responsibilities. Her job title is office manager/brand ambassador. Alison got her job when she found a job listing online and applied, after two rounds of interviews she was hired.

         As for what kind of work Becky and Alison do for the YMCA, they told me about the brand revitalization that the YMCA has been going through since 2007. A lot of their work was following the brand standards outlined by YUSA. In order to keep brand integrity, at each person there is someone who knows the most about correct pantone colors, and guidelines for logo design. At their Columbus branch, that is Becky’s job. She also makes flyers for her branch and events, along with teaching her staff how to use templates from their marketing staff. She is the one who ensures that every web and print design that they produce meets the criteria. Another challenge for them is that besides the revitalization of the brand, the YMCA brand stays basically consistent, and they expressed to me how it can be challenging to be creative under the same standards. In addition to that, the YMCA serves people of all ages, income levels, and religions. So, they have to have a design that attracts all kinds of people to their facility.

         Becky also helps out with the social media aspect of the YMCA. Her and her husband have a side business doing real estate photography, which has helped them be able to take great photos, videos, even drone footage of the facility. She also has experience with doing voice over work which can also be helpful with advertising the YMCA.  

         Since the YMCA is a community facility that holds a lot of events, I was wondering how the YMCA went about designing for those events or if they brought their own posters, banners, etc. If there’s an event coming to the YMCA that they need to produce, they work with marketing way in advance to ensure it’ll be ready in time for the event. If there is a group or company using the Y for an event, they must follow the branding guidelines of the YMCA. An example Becky gave me was when she allowed a group of OSU students to use the Y building to host a health screening event. The group put the YMCA logo on the flyers without permission, using it wrong, color on top of color, with the wrong pantone colors. She had to tell her to cease distribution of the flyer and have it re-made.

         I was curious about what their deadlines for projects were, and typically how much time is allotted for each project. I was told that for Becky, since she is also in charge of many office duties, it takes her a bit longer to complete designs because of her other responsibilities. Typically, they’ll ask her a week or a month in advance. If she requests something from the marketing team to be designed, they make a detailed project work list and shuffle the work between themselves. It can range anywhere from one week to six months, depending on the project. I also asked them if they’d ever had issues with time and deadlines, and what they did when that happens. Becky told me, ‘work faster!’, she doesn’t allow herself to get behind and do things late. If the delay is with the marketing department, she will finish the project up herself. As for Alison, she told me she’s great with deadlines because she used to work in newspaper. She told me that the key to meeting deadlines is communication and work expectations should be set in the beginning, and kept up throughout the project.

         Something else I’ve always been curious about was how many people were there working on all this stuff behind the scenes. For myself personally, it was always a concern that I might end up being the only designer, sitting in a room alone designing stuff by myself. So, I was happy to learn that there’s at least two in-house designers, and more than that, about fourteen people working on the marketing team. I learned that the two work together on many projects.  

         I wondered how creative they could be within their job at the YMCA. I was told that they mainly use templates for their designs that their marketing team comes up with. However, they are allowed some creative freedom. If they have a design they think would work well for the branch, they can do that, they just have to get final approval from the marketing team before they distribute it. Although typically with how busy things can get, it’s just one person will come up with the design.

         One of my final questions for them was to tell me what a typical day working at the YMCA is like. Becky told me that most days it’s chaotic, with very little time to sit an actually work on projects. She said there’s about two days out of the week that she’s about to sit down and really get stuff done. Since she’s also an office manager, she also has other office duties throughout the day that aren’t design related. For Alison, she told me that typically she doesn’t expect the day to go as planned. Every day is something new, with new obstacles to overcome for her and her team.

         The last question I wanted to ask them was if, in general, they liked their job. I think it’s important to have a job you actually like and enjoy, if not you’ll end up miserable. I also asked about their best and worst experiences, and surprisingly, neither of them had anything to say for their worst experience. They both consider themselves very lucky and happy in their current job. I was happy to learn that both of the ladies I interviewed loved their job, and said they enjoyed it and felt lucky. They said they enjoyed how every day is something new to see and do, they seemed genuinely happy.

         Before I was done with my interviews, I wanted to see if there was anything I didn’t cover that they wanted to tell me. Becky told me her thoughts on the future of graphic design. She said me that she foreseen drone work taking off in the future, which I definitely agree with. I have seen it used more and more recently especially in commercials. She believes people are going more for the creative designers and less for the cookie cutter example of what a graphic designer should be. Alison’s message to me was to not discount in-house work. She told me how great it can be to be passionate about the design work done where you’re going to be spending so much time. After having these two interviews I feel like I’ve learned a lot about the inside workings of an already well-established company and how they design for it.

[osusss]

Terresa Hardaway is coming to OSU!

Ms. Hardaway has a MFA in Graphic Design and is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Minnesota.  Her website is http://terresahardaway.com/

 She will give a public lecture on "Project Naptural: Using Design Research to Celebrate the Beauty of Black Natural Hair" on Wed Feb 8 at 6pm in rm 109 of the Bartlett Center. 

[osuenglish-blog]

I spent my first six months of graduate school being stalked and sexually harassed, verbally and physically, by another student. I didn’t tell anyone—at all—about the situation at first. I had j

OSU MFA alum Ann Glaviano in Antigravity.

[angelameleca]

Tonight! Join us for the first fundraiser to support the OSU Graduate Student Art Club. Work donated by all 40 MFA students $100. Preview starts 6pm. @osu_art @osusculpture @osuceramics @osuphotography @osuartssciences #angelamelecagallery #osumfa (at Angela Meleca Gallery)

[noella]

Summer Artists' Residency - Indy Convergence

Summer Artists’ Residency – Indy Convergence

Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of working and performing with some of my graduate cohorts in a project led by the fearless Stephanie Nugent.  This piece, currently titled Migrations, was a part of a larger project called the Indy Convergence.  For over two weeks, Owen David, Sabrina Lumbert, Brandon Whited and myself (from the OSU MFA program) worked with Stephanie, and Natalie Cohen (of…

[dawnajaynes32]

From the Outside In

From the Outside In

By Tom Wachunas

    “ Your life is a book, and every day is a page…”  – Elijah Pierce

    “…Elijah Pierce the artist and Elijah Pierce the citizen were one and the same. His carving bears witness to this fact. It provides us with palpable new text for the study and appreciation of art as a cultural production indelibly and dynamically marked by the singular hands of a maker…”  - Timothy Keny

   EXHIBIT: Elijah Pierce: An American Journey, at the Canton Museum of Art / Curated by Timothy C. Keny, Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, and Dr. John F. Moe, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio / On view THROUGH MARCH 4, 2018 / 1001 Market Avenue North, Canton, Ohio / 330.453.7666

  www.cantonart.org  

   Video:  https://vimeo.com/17675902

     Pierce biography:  https://www.cscc.edu/ElijahPierce/bio.htm 

   DOWNLOAD HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES VIA THIS LINK

   https://goo.gl/V4oUua

   From 1969 to 1975, pursuing my BFA and MFA degrees at The Ohio State University (OSU) was an intensely cathartic experience. I remember those years as a protracted baptism - an immersion in the paradox that was Postmodernism. In both the contemporary art world and the microcosm of the Hopkins Hall Fine Arts Dept. at OSU, it was a period of crossing boundaries or shattering them altogether, of conflating so-called high and low cultures, of re-examining traditional definitions and terminology, of embracing old materials and methods while passionately exploring and establishing new ones. 

   In 1971, caught up in this heady milieu of multimedia experimentation, along came a fascinating one-man show mounted in  Hopkins Hall Gallery – painted wood relief carvings by Elijah Pierce (b. 1892 – d.1984), then a 79 year-old African American lay minister and barber based in Columbus. The exhibit was organized by one of my former instructors, Boris Gruenwald, a sculptor and OSU graduate teaching assistant who had seen Pierce’s work exhibited at a local YMCA. So thank you, Boris Gruenwald, wherever you are, for befriending Elijah Pierce and introducing him to the world at large. The rest is a matter of history (click on the biography link above).

    I still remember being mesmerized by that 1971 exhibit. The visceral simplicity and raw immediacy of Pierce’s figural compositions in bas-relief (i.e., sculptural relief in which the modeled forms’ projection from the surrounding or background surface is relatively slight or low) had an illustrative clarity and child-like boldness of palette that would affect my own art for years to come. I was favorably smitten then – as I am now - by what continues to be rightly hailed as Pierce’s uniquely visionary Folk Art.

    Viewing this beautifully assembled CMA exhibit brings to mind traditionally held notions about Folk Art and some characteristics associated with the genre, such as primitive, self-taught, untrained, and ‘low brow.’  Those same descriptors could just as well be associated with another, arguably more useful term for the kind of art we see here, namely “outsider art.”  Critic Roger Cardinal originated the term in 1972 as an English equivalent to what Jean Dubuffet called “art brut” (“rough art”) – art created outside the norms of established cultural systems or the mainstream art world. In any case, the directness of Pierce’s pictorial language is enthralling and otherwise unpretentious in its refined unrefinement.

    A palpable aura of agelessness surrounds many of these pieces. They often possess an intuitive harkening to stylistic elements found in ancient Egyptian or Mesopotamian iconography, as well as religious imagery from European Middle Ages. They include hieratic scale, or continuous narratives, such as in “Elijah Escapes the Mob,” or twisted spatial perspectives - what historians have labeled “composite view” - as in “Jesus Calming the Storm.”

   Other visions are infused with a salt-of-the-earth charm and even a cartoonish humor. Among those are  “Straining at a Gnat, Swallowing a Camel,” a literal rendering of Jesus’s words berating the hypocrisy of Pharisees,  and the wry “Three Ways to Send a Message: Telephone, Telegram, Tell-a- Woman.”  

   Elijah Pierce – a barber, a preacher, a woodcarver, an unassuming outsider probing our innermost responses to being alive. Collectively, his works are truly significant modern aesthetic touchstones of a life carved out in loving, tangible attention to God, tempered with a concern and compassion for the sociopolitical urgencies of not only his era but, prophetically enough, our own as well. Viewing them is to be immersed in a poignant conjoining of the banal and the Biblical, a bridging of the secular and Sacred,  the human and Divine. All told… a compelling baptism by wood.

   PHOTOS, from top: 1. Your Life is a Book and Every Day is a Page / 2. Jesus Calming the Storm / 3. Elijah Escapes the Mob / 4. Straining at a Gnat, Swallowing a Camel / 5. Three Ways to Send a Message: Telephone, Telegram, Tell-A-Woman / 6. Watergate / 7. Barber Shop and the Fight Against Evil    

From the Outside In syndicated post

[noella]

between us...let's start at the beginning

[vimeo 85114935 w=584 h=329]

It’s a new semester! Time for a new journey! The adventure begins with six fabulous freshmen from the OSU undergraduate program. Here is a clip from the beginnings of a duet, improvised by Claire Moore and Charlotte Stickles.…

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