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.