Week 15 (April 23-29, 2018)

Perpich residency, six hours

This week was my second to last week, and last full week at Perpich for practicum.  The senior retrospective work was finished, so all students were back in their final classes for the semester.  Thus I got to observe and work with Jeremy in a couple of new classes; an advanced drawing class and a papermaking/independent study printmaking class.  We started on Monday with a critique of some of the junior students projects, while seniors in the class were beginning a self directed project.  Jeremy opened the critique as usual by breaking down his critique protocol, which is based off Liz Lerman's VTS (visual thinking strategies) protocols.  I've definitely learned a lot from him and how he runs critiques, in terms of stressing observation and looking at what is there, rather than beginning with asking questions.  It's something that can be hard to do, especially as artists when we are so used to looking at and analyzing things (especially in academic environments where that sort of thing is stressed).  Forcing oneself to do this, though, breaks down the preconceived notions we often carry as artists and gets us to look at the work on its own terms, which leads to a truer conversation about the work.  This is something I've definitely had trouble with as an artist and viewer, but observing and working with Jeremy through this process, and leading it during my lessons at MIA has really deepened my appreciation for it.

After the drawing class, we headed upstairs to the print studio for the papermaking class.  On Monday, Jeremy gave a demo on blending pulp, and the students spent much of the day shredding and accumulating pulp that was then made into paper over the next couple of days.  Papermaking isn't something I use regularly in my practice, but I have done it a lot and have a great appreciation for it, and it was a fun process to go through with the students.  Most of them had not made paper by hand before, and its something that I think is really valuable to do for any visual artist or maker, but especially those concerned with craft and construction.  Going through the process of hand-making a commodity object like a sheet of paper is eye opening and enlightening, especially given the accessibility of the tools one uses.  The students were blending pulp in standard kitchen blenders and creating the sheets using frames that could easily be built at home with inexpensive materials.  Outside of strictly teaching the students how to make handmade paper, I feel that processes like this one go a long way in showing students what they can do as artists even with potentially limited means and materials.

Perpich has Monday off next week, so I'll only be in Wednesday, which will also be my last day of practicum.  Its been a busy semester with practicum, but also an extremely enlightening and fulfilling one, and I'm excited to wrap things up with Jeremy and the students there in the coming week.

Week 14 (April 16-22, 2018)

Perpich residency, 3 hours.  MIA residency, 3 hours

Due to the massive and absurd snowstorm last weekend, Perpich and many other schools around the metro area were closed on Monday.  Thus I was only in on Wednesday, but it ended up being a fairly productive and busy day over there.  The senior show/retrospective opened the following Thursday, and it was pretty amazing to see how much progress the students had made in the week since I had last been there.  Almost every installation had gone from a rough idea or pile of work sitting in front of a half painted wall, to a full fledged, finished and actualized work.  Jeremy, Rosie (Perpich's gallery coordinator) and myself spent the afternoon overseeing the work and helping out where it was needed, with install, lighting or any other needs and concerns.  I helped one student install a number of paintings and drawings on their wall, and it brought a bit of an interesting realization about how much I've grown as an artist or maker outside of purely making "artwork".  This student was a very talented painter and drawer, but less confident in the hanging, measuring, spacing and installing (using a drill) of their work.  Due to a couple of jobs I've had in the past few years, I've become pretty confident with this sort of thing, but these peripheral skills are sometimes forgotten or unnoticed at the expense of progressing ones more focused creative practice.  At any rate, it was a pleasure to help them realize their vision for the show, and an interesting unintended lesson or affirmation.

Saturday, then, was my last session at MIA with Witt for the Creative Saturdays program.  This session was done in collaboration with the Minnesota Zoo, and the focus was on creating watercolor landscapes based off of Minnesota wetlands, populated with drawings of local animals or insects.  As usual, there was a gallery tour, which was in part conducted by the representative from the zoo.  She and Witt played well off of each other, with Witt providing art historical context to the pieces and the zoo rep relating them to local fauna (all works were based off animals and insects).  After the tour, we brought the students back to the classroom for a combined work time and viewing session of live animals.  The zoo rep brought a hissing cockroach, a toad, a turtle and small python for the students to observe, draw from and lightly interact with.  Having the "draw" of live animals was immediately and obviously captivating for the students, and it really seemed to catalyze their drawing and painting.  It provided an exciting experiential hook that they were eager to translate into something creative of their own, and was a cool insight on my part.  I've been thinking a bit lately about interactions between experience, looking and seeing and creating, but without direct intention.  Basically, I'm interested in being open to experience and aesthetics, and sitting with it to see where it comes up in work (for myself and for others).  This instance was pretty immediate in terms of how much time we gave the students, but it was amazing to see how the animals as stimuli had such an intense creative effect.

Lastly, as it was my last session at MIA, I'd like to say thanks to Witt, Victoria, and the rest of the staff that I met and worked with there.  The Creative Saturdays program is a great model of intensive art making and creative process for young students that tries (and I think succeeds) to expose them to new processes, things and ideas, and it was truly invigorating and a pleasure to be a part of over the past few months.

Week 13 (April 9-15, 2018)

Perpich residency, 3 hours

Though it's not part of my residency per se, advising and registration day was this past Monday at MCAD, and I had the opportunity to work at the Teaching Artist Minor table, alongside the professors that run the other minor programs.  I was with Nancy Hicks, another teaching artist minor who went through Practicum last year.  While there was plenty of stuff going on and people around for advising, not too many people ended up coming up to ask about the minor program.  A few people came up with questions though, and it was great to talk to them about what they were interested in or curious about regarding the minor.  It was also nice to be able to talk to Nancy a bit again, both as another teaching artist and artist engaged in community (through the Peoples Library) and as someone I hadn't been able to talk to in a little bit.  

On Wednesday, I was back at Perpich and the senior students there were (and are) in the midst of setting up their senior shows.  This program happens every year, and while it was initially set up as a retrospective show for students to exhibit their work and growth during their time at Perpich, around the time I was there it began to shift more towards being a self directed project or exhibition.  Students can now choose whether they create a retrospective or a more singular or concept oriented installation.  Each student gets a space on a wall or out in the gallery area and writes a proposal for what they plan to create.  Jeremy was out Wednesday, so I helped the gallery coordinator there with a couple of different tasks.  I assisted some students with setup of their spaces and gave advice on how to tackle certain challenges, from making a sculpture look more weathered to how to hang lights in a spaces.  I also reorganized the (very densely packed) gallery tool cart, which sounds small but was pretty visibly helpful for the students.  I'm excited to continue observing and working with them on this process this coming week, and to see what they end up with when all is said and done.

Week 12 (April 2-8, 2018)

Perpich residency, zero hours.

This was another week off of my residency at Perpich, for their spring break.  With the time off, I was able to get in plenty of studio time, which was useful for the many projects I've currently got going.  That said though, theres not a ton to report on or show yet, as everything is so in progress.  For public art, I've continued working on my installation/pieces that will be going out in the sculpture garden.  I demolded my concrete cube, which (to my slight surprise and excitement) actually worked.  I didn't fill the mold to its full height, as I was unable to put any reinforcements into the relatively thin walls, but it's still a pretty big chunk - about 2'x18"x18".  I also began bending and welding tubing to support a tiled "wall" that I'll be building, the pictures below can hopefully help illustrate this.  

For one of my other classes, Art in Community, I've been making as many plaster casts as I can manage from molds of parts of my parents house.  I'm working on using the casts to fill a space and create an environment (floor and wall elements) in which I'll facilitate a discussion about comfort, its limits and place in our lives.  In addition, I'll be leaving the installation up for a few days, and people will be able to remove pieces of the installation to take with them, if they leave a story or note in it's place about comfort, home, or their memories around it.  I've been looking at some of Felix Gonzales-Torres' work and its transactional nature and how that mechanic plays into the meaning of the work.  While my work is somewhat different in it's intention and concept, he's always been an artist I've admired and I'm excited to realize this project soon.

Week 11 (March 24-April 1, 2018)

Zero residency hours

This week was the last week before spring break over at Perpich, and it was the beginning of their "interim" period in which the students de-install the current gallery show and the senior students begin work on their retrospectives, which is like a collection of mini galleries where each student can show work from their time at Perpich.  Perpich stresses student involvement and engagement in the gallery and show process, and being that I was a student at Perpich a few years ago and have seen the process, Jeremy told me I could take a couple weeks off for interim and spring break, as there wouldn't be much for teachers to do.  

This came at a pretty fortuitous time, as we're starting to get into the actual "making" portion of most of my studio classes this semester.  My current studio classes are Public Art, Art in Community and Working with the Collection (in which we are "in residency" at the MIA).  All of the classes have been amazing so far, but all have been pretty discussion, reading and research focused to this point; Public Art has had us creating mock responses to calls for work, Art in Community has centered around discussion, community meetings and workshops, and Working with the Collection is structured like a grad seminar and has involved lots of meetings, research and exploration.  A big draw for me in taking Public Art, though, was the chance to build stuff that would go out in the world somewhere, in this case a piece for MCADs sculpture garden.

Thus I commenced building this week with the casting of a large concrete cube.  Its one of a number of objects I'll be installing in the garden as part of a multi-piece installation that abstracts objects from my fathers photography studio.  In my work, I'm interested generally in structures that people create that allow us to (re)tell or (re)create stories, experiences, images or things.  I think that a lot of this interest comes from observing my fathers studio practice as a commercial photographer; he will build massive, elaborate room size sets and props to perfectly rig and take an image of a shoe, for instance.  I'm interested in how these objects and tools allow him to create things, and additionally I am interested in them as purely aesthetic objects; they serve a dual purpose.  By taking these creative tools out of the studio and into a public environment, and abstracting them to a point of ambiguity, I want the viewer to have a similar experience to my own; they can begin to create their own relations, narratives and assignments between and for the objects.  

All of that is basically a long winded way of getting to the cube, which will be one of three concrete casts based off prop boxes found in his studio.  I had never cast concrete before this week, and though I have a good deal of experience and comfort with casting processes, it was honestly a bit frightening (in a good way).  I built a roughly 2'x2'x2' box mold, which sounds small but really takes up a pretty decent amount of space.  The process of mixing and pouring the concrete is also excitingly messy, as well as being material and labor intensive.  I've attached some pictures below; the mold is about three quarters or three 60LB bags of concrete full, and I'm not sure that I want to fill it all the way.  The object is monolithic already and the added six inches of height don't seem totally necessary.  

Week 10 (March 18-23, 2018)

Perpich residency, 3 hours.

This week was a bit more low key, which was nice coming off of a pretty hectic and busy spring break.  I wasn't at Perpich on Monday, as I had an opportunity to work at my dads studio to make a little extra money, which was nice.  He's a commercial and product photographer and runs his own business, and occasionally brings me on as an assistant for shoots or projects; my brother works for him full time.  I'm not necessarily interested in commercial photography, but it's always enjoyable and a nice way to do something a bit different every now and again.

I was back at Perpich on Wednesday, and students were in the midst of working on their second project to wrap it up before spring break and semester interim.  Excitingly, a number of students were working with the four color process technique I had demoed the week prior.  Some images are visible in the gallery below; one student was working from a photograph they had taken in Thailand of someone on a motorcycle, while another student was using the technique with polyester plate lithography and a more abstracted image.  The student working on the motorcycle screen print was feeling a bit skeptical about how the image would turn out after printing the yellow and cyan layers, but I encouraged them to keep working and see where it went.  After printing the magenta layer, the image started to come into focus more, which got them sparked to continue working with the image.  Not only was I glad to see my lesson being put into practice, but it felt good to work through the image with the student and push them to a spot where they felt excited and invigorated about their piece again.  I was also super excited by the polyester plate image the other student was working on; this sort of visual and technique based experimentation is something I really value in my own practice, and it was exciting to se it come out naturally in their work.

Week 9 (March 12-March 18, 2018)

Perpich residency, 6 hours, MIA residency, 6 hours

This week was MCADs spring break, and due to a couple of prior scheduling conflicts (snowstorms!) I ended up doing both my Perpich and MIA lessons this week.  Along with some other work I had going over break, it made for a full week but was nonetheless very fulfilling, invigorating and exciting, and a good reminder of why I really want to do this work.

I started the week with my lesson on CMYK color separations for screen printing at Perpich on Monday.  To provide some visual and textual aids for my lesson, I had done a series of four process prints, in which each print had another successive CMYK layer printed on it.  I also wrote up a pretty extensive packet with an introduction on CMYK screen printing, step by step instructions on what I demoed, and various other tips and info.  I printed a number of copies and distributed them to the students, as what I was demoing is a pretty technical and involved process.  We started class that day with the demo after Jeremy gave a general intro, and it went better than I could have even hope for.  I ended up with about 10 students in total (all of the media arts students in the class) along with Lynda and Jeremy in the computer lab to give my demo.  I ran through the process for splitting images into CMYK files and then converting these files into halftone patterns to allow them to be screen printed.  The process itself can be a little bit dry or tedious, but all of the students seemed to find the demo pretty compelling.  They found ways to relate what I was talking about to their personal practices, asked inquisitive questions about ways to experiment with the technique and generally seemed excited and compelled by the content I was presenting.  After the demo, I worked with one of the students to guide him through the process for a photo he wanted to screen print as well.  This lesson was maybe a bit unusual in that I was just presenting a technique; there was no actual making or immediate physical outcome involved, it's something they could use for their final projects.  A number of the students we worked with were talking about using the technique already though, so I am excited to see their work in the coming weeks.

At the other end of the week, on Saturday I gave the lesson I had been working on with Witt for MIA's Creative Saturdays classes.  We had been kind of co-planning the lesson based on themes established by the museum, and settled on having the students build dioramas with painted backdrops, and populate them with fantastical creatures or figures made from cardboard and similar materials.  We also switched up the format for the lesson a little bit.  We started the students off with a look at a couple of impressionist paintings (Monet and Van Gogh) in the galleries in order to talk about atmosphere, color, and scene-setting.  After that, we went back down to the studio for the students to paint the backdrops for their dioramas.  Their use of color and technique made it immediately obvious that they had absorbed and paid attention to what we'd looked at; many were using a variety of colors with one overriding tone, like in Monets Haystack paintings, while others imitated impressionistic brush techniques with watercolor.  After some work time, we went back into the galleries where I gave a tour of some sculptural works to talk about form, scale, material and content.  In working with Witt, I had decided to look at Yuji Honbori's Eleven Headed Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, Alexander Calder's Ahab, William Hunt Dietrich's Cock or Chanticleer and Sowah Kwei's Fantasy Coffin.  Honbori's work was key in that it was a realistic figurative piece made from cardboard and recycled materials and thus somewhat connected to what the students would be making.  The other three works all focus on animals or fantasy creatures, and allowed me to discuss scale, manipulation of raw materials and stylistic choices.  After the tour, we brought the students back down to the classroom to create figures to populate their scenes.  Each student was given a sheet of cardboard and a variety of drawing materials.  They could draw creatures or characters on the cardboard, and myself, Witt or one of the other adults in the room would help them cut it out and engineer a way for it to stand up in their scene.

The double tour setup and high volume of materials used definitely made for a fast paced class, and we had students working up to the very end of of the class.  However, we all agreed that the fast pacing and two tour setup actually worked pretty well.  The standard format for these classes is an introduction, tour and then work time, which although nice and relaxed does sometimes get a bit tricky when you have antsy young artists or students finishing at different times.  This format kept everyone moving and engaged, as we were constantly moving, looking at or making something.  Nothing felt rushed, but there wasn't any time to spare either.  The only thing I (and this was echoed by Witt) maybe would have changed was being a bit more definite with the materials we used; we had a general idea and lots of stuff set out, but we could've been a bit more specific or focused and probably have been even more successful.

Week 8 (March 5-March 11, 2018)

Perpich residency, 3 hours

This week was cut a little bit short, due to a big snowstorm that came through the city on Sunday and Monday.  As a result, Perpich cancelled classes and my teaching date was moved back a week to MCAD's spring break.  All of which was fine by me, as it gave me a bit of extra time to prep and make sure I had things settled.  When I was interning at Highpoint a couple of years ago, I gave a number of demos for a variety of printmaking methods to students of varying ages, so I do feel like I have a bit of solid experience giving demos and presentations to students.  The full time staff there was always super encouraging and supportive to me and the other interns.  As prepared as I am for the lesson though, and given my past experience, I am still a bit nervous for the lesson.  It's been a long time since I've really given any sort of formal instruction, and I've never given a lesson this technical.  I know the students at Perpich are understanding and more than capable of what I'll be showing, but it's something I'm keeping in mind.

Beyond that, classes at Perpich were fairly mellow this week.  Students in both the screen printing and intaglio classes were in the midst of work time for projects, so I help out where needed but the students tend to be fairly autonomous.  This is great and exciting to see, and we do discuss work generally, or I offer comments or encouragement.  However, I'm used to working in a much more hands on environment (places like Highpoint), so this has been a bit of an adjustment for me.  Neither way is necessarily better, and it's great to work with students that are so dedicated to their work.

Week 7 (Feb 26-Mar 4, 2018)

Perpich residency, 6 hours

Much of this week was really a big push for me in terms of getting my lesson prep finalized for a demo at Perpich.  As previously mentioned, I'll be doing a demo on CMYK color separations for screen printing, as well as some "as needed" demos on the printing process itself.  In addition to the planning backwards model for the lesson plan, I've prepared a leave behind packet that gives background and step by step instructions on the entire photoshop color separation process.  I've done a fair amount of teaching demos and instruction in the past when I worked at Highpoint, but I've never written up a teaching document or handout like this, so it was kind of a cool experience.  It was also personally beneficial, in that it raised some questions about the idiosyncrasies of my practice or process with this technique; I realized that I do some things that are actually kind of redundant or unnecessary to create the images.  The packet has a lot of information, but I think it's presented in an engaging and easy to understand manner, and will hopefully be helpful as a follow along guide for my demo, and as a leave behind document afterwards.

In addition to the lesson plans and documents, I prepared a step by step CMYK print, to show how the layering works in succession.  It's basically a set of four prints, with the first one containing only the yellow layer, then yellow and cyan, then yellow, cyan and magenta and finally all four colors.  The image itself is of some recent work in my studio that uses gradients and intense colors, so hopefully it'll be a good visual aid as well as a demonstration of what a wide variety of colors can be achieved with this technique.

Things went well actually being at Perpich this week as well.  Monday was primarily a work day for the students, as they critiqued on Wednesday.  There was some pretty exciting work going on though, and the students were generous enough to let me take some pictures.  The first image is of a single layer relief print over collaged elements; the student was interested in the construction of identity, self and idealized images.  The next image, of the blue flowers is actually an intaglio plate, but the student used shellacked cardboard instead of a copper plate, as they wanted to work larger than the 4x6" plates Perpich offers.  The prints were beautiful as well, but I was most intrigued and excited by the ingenuity of the substrate, along with how refined the image is for being carved into cardboard.  Lastly is an image of drypoint print combining three small plates, all around 2x4.5".  The student was interested in space, gravitational fields and landscapes, as well as combining multiple prints onto a single substrate.  I was impressed again with how refined their technique was and how nuanced the images are, but also that they created a series of images that dances around a theme without being explicit; nothing is didactic and the narrative connections are there, but are not immediately obvious or over the top.

Week 6

Perpich residency, 3 hours (no class Monday, Drew Peterson/Juxtaposition shadowing, 3 hours

This week was somewhat low key at Perpich, as the school was off Monday for Presidents day, and the students had a work day in both classes Wednesday.  They're in the midst of their projects and tend to be pretty autonomous, but it was nice to get a look at some of their work, see how projects are going and what stage they are at in the process.  What did end up happening this week, though, was a good deal of planning for my lessons at both Perpich and MIA in the coming weeks.  My lesson plan for Perpich is currently to do a demo on color separations for CMYK/4 color process screen printing to the screen print class, as it's something I've taught myself and used a lot in my personal work.  As the students third project is essentially self directed in terms of what students want to work with, Jeremy and I agreed that I can probably work with whatever group of students is interested, but I may also give the demo to the class as a whole.  Most students have a good amount of screen printing experience at this point in the semester, so I'll primarily be showing how to do layer separations in Photoshop, as its a somewhat involved process for newcomers.  To that end, I've been preparing a Planning Backwards model as well as a leave-behind process packet; students can use this packet to follow along as I'm doing the demo, and later on as a troubleshooting guide when I'm not around.  I'll also be preparing a couple of demo screens and prints, to help show how CMYK printing looks in process.

Over at MIA, I'll be leading a couple of the gallery tours for the Creative Saturdays classes and contributing a bit to the overall lesson planning with Witt for the next course in March.  That class is centered around creating fantastical creatures from cardboard, so I've been scanning the MIA's digital archives for works that could be presented on the tour.  I've been thinking a lot about planes and working from a planar analysis sort of perspective, as well as abstract or simplified sculptures that are more ambiguous or evocative of multiple images.  In paying attention to both Witt and Michael Gaughan's tour presentation styles over the past couple weeks, I definitely want to strike a balance between giving the students information, and having them draw it out of the work.  We've discussed Liz Lerman and VTS (visual thinking strategies) and how much to "give" the students and how much to sort of draw out of them.  Nothing is super concrete yet, but things are ramping up.

This past Saturday was also my last day shadowing Drew Peterson over at Juxtaposition Arts' VALT program.  The students were using the day as a general work day, as they were all at slightly different spots in a couple of projects.  Some were working on a still life value study, while others were drawing from photos taken by St Paul photographer Gordon Parks.  Drew invited me to draw with the students for the day, so I worked from a Gordon Parks photo for a bit and checked in with the students if they needed help.  Drew read to the class a bit from Gordon Parks' autobiography, which was kind of an amazing story; I'll definitely be buying or renting it from a library to finish soon.  And maybe more importantly, reading to the class was a really powerful gesture and a great way to end my time at Juxta.  I was and am super impressed with Drew's demeanor and attitude as a teacher.  He truly connects with every student and can joke and have fun with them, but at the same time he is serious and rigorous and expects hard work from his students; he knows they can do well and pushes them to do so.  The way he and Leslie handled the classroom and students definitely rubbed off on me, and I'm going to continue coming to Juxta for shows and events whenever I can.

Week 5 (Feb 12-Feb 18, 2018)

Perpich residency - 6 hours  MIA residency - 6 hours

This week at Perpich, the students in the screenprinting class were beginning to work on their second project for the semester.  For the visual arts area students, this was another chance to work with photo emulsion and begin to create more complex prints.  For the media area students in the class, they were beginning or working on prints using drawing fluid and screen filler to create images on the screens.  Since most of the media students in the class haven't worked with screen printing or printmaking techniques in general, Jeremy has been easing them in with simpler techniques to prepare for a photo emulsion print for the final project.  Drawing fluid can allow for some pretty interesting and engaging images though.  One student has been creating simplified, semi abstracted images of bodily organs throughout the course, and was working on a print of a heart when I was in the class Wednesday.  I'm excited to see students working with a singular idea or concept throughout different projects, with the potential to create a larger body of work. 

In addition to working with the students, Jeremy and I began talking about what sort of lessons I could teach coming up in the semester.  Currently, I'm thinking about teaching interested students how to do four color process screenprints.  It's a technique I've taught myself and have a good deal of experience in, and it can be interesting in print work as it allows one to reproduce photographic images or images using the full color spectrum.  It's a somewhat involved process, so it'll probably become a multi day lesson with a leave behind process document to help guide students, but I'm excited to get this part of the course going.

On Saturday, I was back at the MIA to help out with their Creative Saturdays program again.  Witt brought in Michael Gaughan as the guest artist again, and the students were working with acrylic paint this session.  The students were all given palettes containing the primary colors plus purple and white.  They began the class by mixing as many colors as they could to paint into a grid we gave them, with some students in the older class (8-12) mixing around 50 colors by my count.  After the color exercise, we headed up into the galleries to look at paintings.  Witt and Michael led the students through some of the modern and contemporary galleries to look at different examples of painting technique from Chuck Close, Van Gogh and works in the portrait gallery.  They both emphasized breaking the images down into their mark making and paint handling, as well as use of blending (or lack thereof) and color.  While all students were pretty attentive and engaged, I did notice a couple of students that were absorbed in a Gauguin painting of a Tahitian landscape next to the Van Gogh Witt was discussing.  After the tour, we went back to the class for the students to have free painting time.  I wasn't able to get any pictures unfortunately, but the students that looked at the Gauguin painted similar scenes featuring a mountain and a sunny, glowing sky.  I was extremely impressed with how they synthesized what they saw and how quickly they managed to complete their paintings.  In addition, I was impressed at the sophistication of their paint handling, using a variety of sort of impressionistic, brushy methods.

Week 4 (Feb 5-Feb 11, 2018)

Perpich residency - 3 hours, Shadowing Drew Peterson (Juxtaposition Arts) - 3 hours

This week ended up being pretty busy, between studio classes ramping up and being scheduled at work a bit more than the previous weeks, so I had to skip my Perpich residency on Monday to make up some studio time.  I was in on Wednesday though, and the students were in the thick of their projects at that point, which made for an interesting and dynamic day.  

In the screen printing class I help out with for the first half of the block, Jeremy was facilitating a critique for all of the Media Arts students in the class.  This class is within the Visual Arts area at Perpich, but because screenprinting intersects a lot with "Media" techniques, students from the Media Arts area can take it if they desire.  About eight students make up the media section of the class, and this critique was focused on their first projects, which were open in terms of subject but had to be done using cut paper stencils.  I've been in plenty of critiques as a student, both at Perpich and of course at MCAD, but this was my first time really being around one as a non-student or participant.  Getting to see how Jeremy facilitated the critique was interesting as well; In many ways I felt like he ran it similarly to a college critique.  He framed it by allowing the artist to introduce their work or choose a "cold read"; the rest of the students would avoid asking questions in order to focus on what was in the work.  He wasn't heavy handed in facilitation, either; the students were meant to discuss the work and really guide the discussion themselves, and he really gave them plenty of time to do so.

In the intaglio/plate printing class the second half of art block, most students were in the midst of printing their collagraph plates.  Jeremy started the class with a demo of how to intaglio wipe a plate to ink it, as opposed to rolling the ink on with a roller (either one provides slightly different visual outcomes).  After the demo, many students got to work printing on one of the presses.  I unfortunately wasn't able to get any photos at the time, but was impressed with the variety of student work.  From fairly crisp, hard edged designs to more painterly images and even text work, this particular class left me excited to see what the students continue to come up with through the semester.

Saturday was my second day shadowing Drew Peterson at Juxtaposition Arts.  The students in the VALT program where we were working were finishing off the linear perspective portion of the program with drawings of the interior studio space from different points of view.  The drawings were in varying stages of completion, but once again I was very impressed with the level of work I saw.  In talking to Drew, the VALT program is based off of a college level intro drawing curriculum, and they really don't pull any punches.  The work I saw was pretty comparable to what I saw in my Drawing 1 class at MCAD as a freshman, but coming from middle or high school students.  

I circulated the room for a little bit helping students where needed, but most were adding finishing details or touch ups.  Drew had been wanting to change up the space a little bit, so he set me up with a drill and some framed work from past VALT students to help illustrate the curriculum.  Doing this reminded me how much I enjoy hanging and setting up artwork, but also served as a reminder that as a teaching artist, not everything you are doing is always about direct contact with the students.  Sometimes it's about planning curriculum or lessons, setting up examples, or helping facilitate an engaging and visually appealing work space.  Overall, it was a busy week, but an invigorating and exciting one.

Week 3 (Jan 29-Feb 4, 2018)

Perpich residency - 6 hours (two 3 hour sessions).  Shadowing, Drew Peterson/Juxtaposition Arts, 3 hours.

This week was my first time being on site at Perpich (my second residency for Practicum) and at Juxtaposition Arts with Drew Peterson (my "shadowing" residency for Practicum).  Both sessions went really well, and left me excited to continue working with the students and teachers at each place in the coming weeks.

I was at Perpich on Monday and Wednesday for their "art block" class period from 1-4 pm.  I'm working with Jeremy Lundquist for both of the classes, the first of which is a screen printing class, and the second being an intaglio/plate based printmaking class.  The first day was definitely somewhat mellow; Jeremy introduced me at the beginning of class, and we talked about why I was there and what I'll be doing for the semester.  Most students were still in planning or sketching phases for their first projects as it was only the third day of the semester or so.  Some students were beginning printing with some cut paper stencil based screenprints, though, so I looked around and checked in with students about how the printing or sketching process was going.  The next class was primarily centered around a collagraph demo, which Jeremy was using to introduce intaglio techniques.  He showed students how to use gesso, string, fabric, glue and other low relief materials on matboard to create printing plates.  Despite the low tech materials, Jeremy's test prints were pretty unique and visually engaging, and I'm excited to see what the students come up with.

My second day at Perpich felt a bit more eventful, as students were a couple more days into their projects and seemed a bit more used to my presence in the classroom.  A couple students asked me for help with coating screens and printing processes, so I was able to talk to them and get to know their names, and a little bit about how they like to work generally.  I helped one student with printing some T-shirts, as it's something she had not done that I have a fair amount of experience with.  It's not necessarily more difficult than printing on paper, but having an extra set of hands can help with stretching the shirts around the boards to allow them to be printed.  Overall, I'm looking forward to getting to know more of the students and see how their work progresses through the semester.

Saturday was my first day shadowing teaching artist Drew Peterson and working with his students in Juxtaposition Art's VALT program.  VALT stands for Visual Arts Literacy Training, and it's Juxta's intro program; students learn a variety of techniques, similar to what one might learn in an intro level college drawing class.  Indeed, the level of work of each student (and the student work hanging in the gallery) was something that immediately stuck out.  The students ranged in age from 12-19, and most of the work was pretty comparable to what I saw in my drawing one classes at MCAD; exciting stuff to see.  Drew introduced me to the group and pretty much let me operate as another teacher in the classroom, along with Leslie, the other regular VALT teacher.  The students began with a basic 2 point perspective exercise, then moved on to drawing the benches and chairs in the space.  Students who were further along or finished the benches were beginning perspective drawings of the interior studio space.  I moved around the space, talked to the students and asked how their drawings were going.  I offered advice or pointers if they asked, and worked through issues that students were having with techniques or visual accuracy.  The group dynamic was definitely a good balance between fun and creating pretty serious dedicated work, and it was really cool to see how a program as unique as Juxta's works from the inside.  I'm looking forward to working with Drew and continuing to see how he works with the students in the coming weeks.

Week 2 (Jan 22-28,2018)

Nothing much really happened in terms of work for Practicum this week; my residency at MIA occurs once a month, and my shadowing at Juxta doesn't start until February.  However, tomorrow (Monday the 29th) is the first day of my placement at Perpich, which I'm looking forward to for a variety of reasons.  I'll be assisting visual arts department teacher Jeremy Lundquist with the printmaking classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, one being a digital printmaking processes class and the other being either intaglio focused or more of a "personal project" class, depending on what the students want.  I haven't been as focused on printmaking lately, but I still think in terms of multiples, process, appropriation and consider myself a printmaker; its what I focused on for years and it has really shaped my practice.  As a Perpich alum, I'm also excited to work with students who are at a pretty formative place in life and are presumably pretty dedicated to art or creativity.  I enjoy and have experience working with students of all ages, but working with students that are old enough to have a bit more personal vision sounds interesting right now.

The upside of having a more low key week was that I was able to pick at some personal work that I've been mulling over for a while.  I've been thinking for a while about the term "support", and its various meanings, from justification for an argument to material that supports paint media.  I don't consider myself a painter, but painting is one of the art forms I'm most interested in and something I have been interested in interrogating for a while.  Thinking about a painting as a surfaces for gestures as well as a gesture in itself, and from that how objects or situations can function like painterly gestures, or paintings simply as objects.  I've also been curious about how walls or architectural structure can function as (painterly) support or a picture plane.  Nothing feels too definite yet, but getting to play and sketch with objects (the shaped canvas, found objects and plaster pieces pictured) was absolutely invigorating.  I also got a chance to mess with music and musical composition/recording a bit, something I alwasy

Week 1 (Jan 15-21, 2018)

Perpich residency - 1 hour,  MIA residency - 6 hours, shadowing Drew Peterson at Juxtaposition Arts, 30 minutes (offsite meeting)

This week served as the introductory week to both of my residencies and my shadowing placement for the Practicum.  On Wednesday, I met with Jeremy Lundquist a printmaking teacher at Perpich Center for Arts Education, who I'll be working with for one of my residencies.  On Friday, I had a short meeting with artist and teaching artist Drew Peterson, who I'll be shadowing at Juxtaposition Arts.  Saturday was my first actual teaching experience of Practicum, where I was on site at MIA working with educators and artists Witt Siasoco and Michael Gaughan for MIAs Creative Saturdays program.  

My meetings with Jeremy and Drew didn't involve any actual teaching, but we went over what I'll work with, their expectations, how I'll be able to help and what the experience might look like.  Being back at Perpich was (and will be) interesting as it's where I graduated from high school, and I'm excited to work with youth that age that feel dedicated and excited by art.  Meeting with Drew was productive as well; we discussed what I'll be shadowing him for at Juxta, as well as talking about our art practices outside of teaching; we both come from printmaking and screen printing in particular, but experiment with a variety of different media.  

Saturday was my first real day on site at MIA, working with artist and educator Witt Siasoco to help with their Creative Saturdays drop in art class program for kids.  The day was broken into two halves, with the morning class being students 10 or under, and the afternoon class being students 8-12 maybe.  Both classes were facilitated by Witt and local artist Michael Gaughan to teach the students about figure drawing.  Topics Michael particularly stressed were looking at the alignment of the body and the way its weight falls.  We took the students on a tour of the MIA galleries to look at a couple of figurative sculptures, and came back to the classroom to work on traditional gesture, contour and blind contour drawings from models (the models being myself, Witt, Michael and other employees that were present!).  The key points of this lesson were twofold, I think; draw without being precious, and really look at your subject.  These are hard techniques for young artists to absorb; it's natural to want to make good drawings and to look at your media and substrate when you work.  This was difficult at first, and some students were vocal.  By the time we got to the final drawing, which was blind contour, the mood had shifted.  We taped paper over the students boards so they could still draw, but could not look at their paper without removing the cover sheet.  These drawings in many ways were the most successful ones, in terms of composition, visual interest and accuracy or realism, even more so than the drawings where they could look at the paper.

Pre start

This semester, I'll be working at the MIA, Perpich Center for Arts Education and shadowing at Juxtaposition Arts.  I'll be working with teaching artists Witt Siasoco at MIA, Jeremy Lundquist at Perpich and Drew Peterson at Juxta.  I'm looking forward to engaging more with some artists I already know a bit, like Witt and Drew, and to see how things have changed since I was at Perpich in high school.  Being there was a very formative experience for me as a young artist, so I'm excited to see what the students there are working on and helping them where I can.  Working at MIA should be interesting too, as I spent a year working in a similar position at the Walker Art Center; I'm curious about how it is similar as an arts institution, and what they do differently.