Residency 1: Unmesh Inamdar Art Academy, India ( 39 hours completed )
Residency 2: Children’s Residential Treatment Center (teens) ( 4 hours)
Shadowing: Shakun Maheshwari teaching artist, COMPAS
I am a Drawing and Painting major. When I heard that all classes I going to be online, I wondered how that would look for fine art majors. Seniors and most juniors have more open-ended classes because they work on their own projects. But it is hard for classes which are a foundation and technique based. The students need more attention from professors to learn the skill set.
Some professors are giving online tutorials about how to set up a studio in available space for oil painting and other needs. Because of the lockdown, people do not have access to the studios or workspaces. I really appreciate having such tutorials that talk about simple but essential things for an artist. Professors are sharing videos of themselves drawing or painting the subject matter, which is also helpful to understand the techniques for the foundation level classes. There also have been changes in assignments, which are now based on the things that are available to students at home. Like, creating still-life for drawing/ painting by using things at home or self-portraits or figure drawings. Professors are encouraging students to share the photos of in-progress work or showing the work on video calls, which allows students to critiques and professors have more insights towards student’s circumstances and progress.
Initially, I was unsure how the online system would look like and even it would work for such practice and process-based education. I am surprised by the adaptability of professors and students to provide and accept the circumstances and finding solutions for each problem. Online learning has made it accessible for students to continue their classes without missing anything. This type of learning is not the best thing for fine artists but I can see them working.
I do think online learning is not a good option for fine arts students because our work is very tactile, texture-based and dimensional, but the screen flattens everything. It is hard to get the feel, effect by looking at the work online. There is also a problem of accessibility of the materials, subject ( still life, models) during online classes.
We experience that art has been more accessible and visible than ever through versual means. I wonder if online visuality makes art more accessible or inaccessible. In the online fine art classes I wonder about the physical presence of professors and students in the class. I think this dynamic changes the equation of the class, it is easy to help students while they are working in front of the professor. It is easy for students to ask questions or clear difficulties in the physical classroom. This is my opinion it might be different for other people. For some people, online classes give them freedom than being in the structural classroom.
Online classes are working for me now because of the situation but I would prefer on campus if I had a choice.