Just For The Fun Of It: Vik Muniz

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Vik Muniz, get ready for a treat. All of the recent activity amongst you guys learning to master different and new materials and techniques put me in mind of Muniz. This man makes drawings working with materials that one generally would never use to make drawings. Particularly, he has created series of drawings using wire, sugar, dirt, garbage, and (the work he is most famous for) chocalate. In each case he makes the drawing than then photographs it. Since he is using materials that are not archival and sometimes even perishable, the photograph becomes the only evidence of the work. Essentially, the photograph IS the artwork. Below I have examples of a few of his "Pictures of Chocolate" and a video in which he talks about his work. However, since most of Muniz's work is difficult to find online anywhere other that his own website, you should also visit vikmuniz.net and specifically check out his "Pictures of Wire" and "Pictures of String". Those series are particularly appropriate, since you will essentially see drawings very reminicent to what we do in class, only done with very odd materials. Have fun checking him out. His websit is particularly fun to navigate.

Homework Due On Wednesday, November 11, And A Reminder About Class

Outside Assignment
Plant or Flowers
* Line only
* Work to the edge of the page
Materials
* 18"x24" White Bond Paper
* Charcoal pencil, drawing pencil, or black conte
* Hard eraser

Reminder:
For the in-class assignment, we will be working with black conte on 22"x30" good quality white paper. Come to class with at least two sheets.

Homework Due On Wednesday, November 4

Exterior With Objects

o Work from a outdoor view with objects defining the space
o Examples: a parking lot with vehicles, a fenced-in patio with furniture, a sidewalk with parking meters, etc.
o Use free hand perspective and line variation to heighten the illusion of three dimensions and the deeper space of exterior vs. still life
o Line only
o Materials
• Drawing pencil, conte, or charcoal pencil, hard eraser, good-quality white paper (22”x30”)

The above example is the one I mentioned it class. Now, it certainly has some perspective problems and could use more line variation within lines and a bit more confidence in the lines. But, if nothing else, it does an excellent job of heightening the illusion of a much deeper space than the still life has provided you. Notice how the student executed each layer of space (the drawing board, the objects on the patio, the railing, the parking lot, the apartment building across the way, and the more distant apartment building) with a different quality of line. As a result, even though the problems I mentioned before are still there, the illusion of very deep space can be seen and this drawing is quite successful.

Why Do I Ask You To Blog???

Why the hell do I have to keep a blog in a drawing class?

If I already have to keep a sketchbook/journal, why do I have to journal on a blog?

I'm always just writing the same stuff on my blog that we end up saying and talking about in class, so isn't the blog just busy work?

How come Jason is the only Drawing 1 teacher making his students keep a blog?

I wanted to wait until we were past the half-way point in the semester before I answered these questions, which--whether you've vocalized them or not--I am sure many of you are asking. Well, there are a several reasons that I ask you to maintain a blog as part of your work experience in this class:

1. If you take a look at your syllabus, you'll notice this sentence in the "course description": The student is expected to develop disciplined work habits and an understanding of the artist's language. Also, under the "course objectives," you'll read this tidbit: 7. Develop skills of observation, personal expression, and abstract thinking. How does one accomplish these skills? Through repetition, and through a regimented schedule of writing down your ideas. No one just suddenly arrives at being an artist. It takes patient, pervasive work. And patient, pervasive work requires a disciplined work ethic. Some students enter college with this work ethic already in place. But it is not merely a natural talent--a work ethic is learned behavior and can be cultivated and honed through lots of writing and written analysis both in private forums (your sketchbook) and open forums which are susceptible to public comment (your blog).

2. I may be giving away a bit too much about myself, but here we go: Here are two paragraphs excerpted from my written teaching philosophy (every college educator has to write one of these):

Beginning Students
My approach to teaching the beginning student is based theoretically on the idea that people learn skill proficiencies through repetition, ritual and ceremony. Repetition is achieved through daily exercises created to teach the student very specific skills such as line-control, color mixing, and compositionally organizing space. Ceremony is achieved through ritualized critiques and dialogues with specific guidelines and parameters designed to encourage assignment-specific discussion and avoid off-topic rambling. At this beginning level, it is essential that the student be introduced to the foundational elements and principles of design and learns to master techniques.

Some New Approaches
In the classroom, I employ some of the newest resources available in order to provide an educational experience that is optimal for the students of our current technological age. This is achieved by utilizing Internet websites such as Blogger, Facebook, and Deviant Art as communication tools. These provide not only a means of transferring information from educator to scholar, but also provide forums in which classmates can connect, discuss, and analyze as a community. Making use of these new approaches in cooperation with the established classroom operation ensures a learning experience that is geared toward reaching a generation of learners who have grown up in the “computer age.”

I think that sums things up in a nutshell.

3. It is important to be ready to promote yourself, your work, and your artistic community using the vast resource that is the Internet. The practice you're getting now by maintaining a blog will better prepare you for maintaining a website at a later point. In fact, many people from many disciplines--not just visual arts--use their blog as a website itself.

Dwayne Butcher, a local Memphis artist, good friend of mine, and Painting 1 instructor at MCA, maintains a blog that generates a huge amount of local and national attention on not only his own art and writing, but on the Memphis art scene as a whole.

Texas artist, and also a good friend of mine, Claudia Quintero maintains her blog "Blind Carrots" to showcase her new work as she produces each piece and so that she can receive feedback.

Louis Lovhaug, a funny guy who does video critiques of really bad comic books, maintains his blog, "Atop The Fourth Wall", in lieu of an expensive website.

Photographer Nicole Kuntz maintains a blog to showcase her work.

So, I hope this answers any of your questions and puts any of your concerns to rest. If not, and you are still asking why you have to keep a blog, then I can only say this: BECAUSE I SAID SO!

Examples From Artists Who Work "Loose-To-Tight"

Edgar Degas

So, here's a guy with whom I'm sure you are all familiar. Edgar Degas, in his drawings, worked very similarly to how we are working now in class and in the homework assignments. Take a good, careful, analytical look at the drawings below. You will notice that underneath the topmost finished, confident drawing, there is evidence of more gestural work. In many cases notice how, in earlier steps, he often discovered that he had an appendage in the wrong place. Rather than erasing this screw-up, he just moved over and put it in the correct place. He was making his corrections right on top of the mistakes. There are areas where you can see that it took him three or four attempts to get it just right. Now, this man could DRAW, and look at all the mistakes that he made over the course of each picture. So when you, as a first-year college student, find yourself getting frustrated and concerned with making nice perfect lines while working in that first loosened-up underdrawing, remember Degas.

Alberto Giacometti

Here's Giacometti showing up for us again. This time, I'm showing a few of his paintings. His paintings are essentially drawings, as well, not unlike Zak Smith's. Now, Giacometti definitely works "loose-to-tight," but he does one thing I don't want you doing. He places the same amount of pressure and emphasis on the lines of each layer he puts down. I always want you working very lightly in the first and second steps of your drawing process. But Giacometti is good to look at while you are working in this manner because, since he places just as much emphasis on his gestural underdrawing as he does on the more defined final step, you can really see the evidence of his entire process.

Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres

Ah, here's our old buddy Ingres again. I figured I'd just put one example of his work up here for you to analyze since you've spent plenty of time with him already. Since Ingre saw these drawings as studies for finished paintings (and I've always loved his drawings so much more than the paintings) he wasn't worried about having every area of the drawing perfectly "finished." When you examine his work, you can see that he first blocked out the figure in gestural lines, then came in and gave a bit more finish to areas with which he was mainly concerned, and then came in with the final coup de grace of finished, confident linework (mainly around the face). Now, yes, Ingres gestural lines still feel rather defined and close to perfect, but that because he's INGRES. This guy trained like a madman for many years to be able to do that. I would never expect that kind of polish from you at this point in your education. What is important, however, is that you look at artists like this--artists who were doing what you are now doing long, long before you--and see what there is to learn, to glean, to adopt from their work.

David Row

In this interview, David Row talks a lot about how his paintings are about using a line to get from one point to another. This is, essentially, exactly what you did with the contour drawings. Listen to his particular take on his own work, in which he uses a similar approach to ours, only in a purely abstract format.

Wednesday, October 21

Tomorrow we all return from our much-needed, but entirely too short, fall break. So, here's a quick reminder about what we'll be doing, and what you will need to bring with you, tomorrow.

Free hand Perspective, Blocking-in Compositions, Line Quality, Loosening Up, Loose to Tight
o Work from still life
o Draw “through” objects
o Materials:
• Black conte or charcoal pencil, hard eraser, bond paper (18”x24”)

We'll be working with the charcoal pencil tomorrow, not the conte, so you don't have to bring it with you. See you all tomorrow.