Wednesday, May 2, 4:15 p.m., Beam Classroom, VAC

An artist's talk by

Mary Hart

Candidate for the one-year sabbatical replacement position in printmaking and drawing

Coleman Burke opening, Friday

Friday, at Fort Andross! Our own Carrie Scanga, and Lauren Fensterstock, one of our Blitz Crit visitors!


A THICKENING RHYTHM
Lauren Fensterstock, Carrie Scanga, Julie Poitras Santos, Ling-Wen Tsai, and Deborah Wing-Sproul
March 30 – May 19, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, March 30, 5:30-7:30 pm

Nancy Blum

Reminder: Nancy Blum artist talk, Monday, March 26, 4:15pm, Beam classroom.

Lenka Clayton

Reminder: Lenka Clayton artist talk, Tuesday March 27, 4:15pm.

LUNCH WITH YOU! Tuesday, 11:30 - 1, in a reserved room TBA in Thorne.

Blitz Crit

Monday, 6:30-9, BLITZ CRIT!
Please have your studios and the work you want to show presentable and ready by 6:30.

Our visiting critics are:

Joe Kievitt

Gideon Bok

Lauren Fensterstock

Daniel Fuller, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at MECA

Critique

Thanks for a good critique on Wednesday. I hope it was helpful to have a moment to react to each other's work and thought processes. On Monday we will look at Zoe, Aaron, and Tom's work, and spend the rest of the evening working.

Brief re-cap of schedule of next few weeks:

M (20th): Finish critique, work
W (22d): Meg in LA. Work.

M (27th): work
W (29th): work

M (5 Mar): BLITZ CRIT
W (7 Mar): Crit debrief; professional practices

On writing fiction

Here is an interview with Philip Roth, where he discusses some of the challenging of starting his books. It struck me as very similar to the processes that many of you are struggling with now.

Beginning a book is unpleasant. I’m entirely uncertain about the character and the predicament, and a character in his predicament is what I have to begin with. Worse than not knowing your subject is not knowing how to treat it, because that’s finally everything. I type out beginnings and they’re awful, more of an unconscious parody of my previous book than the breakaway from it that I want. I need something driving down the center of a book, a magnet to draw everything to it—that’s what I look for during the first months of writing something new. I often have to write a hundred pages or more before there’s a paragraph that’s alive. Okay, I say to myself, that’s your beginning, start there; that’s the first paragraph of the book. I’ll go over the first six months of work and underline in red a paragraph, a sentence, sometimes no more than a phrase, that has some life in it, and then I’ll type all these out on one page. Usually it doesn’t come to more than one page, but if I’m lucky, that’s the start of page one. I look for the liveliness to set the tone. After the awful beginning come the months of freewheeling play, and after the play come the crises, turning against your material and hating the book.

Lecture: Kristen Martincic, Thursday 9 Feb, 4:15pm

The Marvin Bileck Printmaking Project at Bowdoin College presents an artist's talk by:

Kristen Martincic
Thursday, Feb 9th, 2012
Beam Classroom, VAC
4:15 PM

Schedule

Reminder:

Our first critique as a class will take place next Wednesday (Feb. 15). Between now and then, mission=work!

Fictional Artists

Not in Order of Appearance from Max Pinckers on Vimeo.

Max Pinckers in collaboration with Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin took up a challenge posed by the artist Setareh Shahbazi to make a film composed of all the fictional artists that have ever appeared in fictional films.

Pinterest

Here is link to my Pinterest board that I have been using lately to curate/collect ideas of interest to me. I find it very useful in that one can quickly and intuitively keep track of artists via link, name, and visual:

http://pinterest.com/meggangould/collecting/

Invisible Gorilla

As per mention last night:

http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html

Welcome back

Hi all - Welcome back!

Meg here. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow evening.

Below is Google Calendar for the semester, with anticipated lecture, etc. dates that I am currently aware of.

Preparing for the PechaKucha

Description from pecha-kucha.org:

"PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace."

Each of you will need to create a PowerPoint presentation that is 20 slides long. You should set an automatic advance on the slides so that each one stays on the screen for exactly 20 seconds (do this by going to Slideshow -> Transitions -> Options -> Advance Slide -> Automatically after 20 seconds). In the end, your presentation will be exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds long.

What should you include in your 20 slides?
1. A title slide that states your name, with an image or some other teaser that shows us what's to come.
2. Images of the work you made this semester, including images of work in progress, or images of projects you consider failures. Show and describe your process!
3. Images of other artwork that inspires you (contemporary art or images from art history). Put your work in a larger context!
4. Quotes, video clips, or images from other walks of life. Are you inspired by science, literature, archaeology, etc.? Tell us about it!

Slide Design
Make sure your images are large, but leave enough space to include captions that tell us a little about them. For example, finished works of art should include information about the work's title, media, and artist's name (if the work wasn't made by you).

Oral Presentation
Your oral presentation can take one of these forms, or be a combination of the two:

1. Your talk is written in short blurbs, and your dialogue is planned to directly relate to the slide that's showing at the time.
*Pro: Your presentation will seem very straightforward and easy to understand. We see A on the screen, and you are talking about A.
*Con: If you say to little about a given slide, there will be a lot of awkward silence as we wait for the slides to advance. If you say too much, you will have to cut yourself off when the next slide appears.

2. Your talk is written more like a monologue, and the slides are a background visual element that we can look at as we listen.
*Pro: Each slide does not necessarily have to be directly related to what you're saying at the time it is shown, so there will be no awkward silences or cut-off dialogue when the slides advance. The presentation will feel more natural.
*Con: Monologues are difficult to memorize. You may have to improvise a little more.

Rehearsal
This is a must! Make notes under each slide to be sure you stay on track. And rehearse, rehearse, rehearse to get the timing right.

See this link for great tips about designing your slides and rehearsing your presentation.
Watch a PechaKucha presentation here.

On Friday
Please email me your presentation by Friday at noon, and meet at Beam Classroom at 2:45pm. We will begin right at 3pm, so DON'T BE LATE!

Pictures of the exhibition

I just finished editing and uploading images of the exhibition to Flickr. Check them out at this link. Congratulations! It was a great show!

Pecha Kucha Night - Mark your calendars! Invite your friends!

If you don't have it on your calendar already, please mark down the date and time for our Pecha Kucha night:

Friday, December 9th
3:00 - 4:30pm
Beam Classroom, VAC

And it begins...

Marlo Pascual, "Untitled", 2011

I plan to drive to Portland a little early tomorrow so I can arrive by about 6pm. Please try to arrive as close to 6:30 as possible so that we can curate the show as a class. Bring all of your work with you so we can lay it on the ground in front of the wall and figure out where everything should go. Please coordinate rides by emailing the class list (vart390). Carpooling is strongly encouraged! If anyone needs me to reserve a Bowdoin car or van, please email me ASAP.

Also, please consider titles for your work, because I will be collecting that information from you as you install tomorrow. And don't forget to bring your own special tools or hardware if you require them.

Kate Doody - Visiting artist lecture on Monday, 11/28

Don't miss the last visiting artist lecture of the semester! Kate Doody is a talented young artist and an excellent public speaker. I know you are all extremely busy and overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done for the exhibition, but this event should not be missed.

Kate will be visiting our class later that night to do studio visits and help you all troubleshoot for the exhibition. Let's show her some respect by showing up to her lecture. Unless you have a prior obligation, I expect to see you there. (In other words, PLEASE COME!)

Exhibition publicity materials, check!

The postcards have been ordered! We should receive them on Tuesday morning. And the posters will be sent to press on Monday, so if anyone notices any errors or would like to request any changes, please email me ASAP. Thanks again to Chelee for her hard work!

(Postcard Front) 

(Postcard Back)

(Poster)

Thinking ahead...

In preparation for a discussion at the beginning of class on Monday, please have a good look at this floor plan and at the pictures below, and think about the following questions:

- If your work is going to be site-specific (Nick, Sadie, Tariq... anyone else?), where were you thinking it would go?
- How much floor or wall space will you occupy?
- Should we intersperse the work, or allocate space for each of you individually?
- Should we purchase vinyl lettering so we can put the exhibition title and your names up on the wall? If we want that text to take up wall space, which wall would be best suited for it? The wall directly to the left of the front door (which is about 4 feet wide), or something larger?
- Where should wine and refreshments go?

Please let me know if you plan to work in class, in Portland, or elsewhere during class time on Monday. Kate Doody, who is giving a visiting artist lecture on Monday at 4:15, will be in class to do studio visits  with those of you who are interested.

Entrance

View of space from front door

View of front door from center of space

Back of large column

Back left corner (bathroom not shown on floor plan)

Back right corner (back door)