Work for this week (2/24)

Here is what's on the agenda for this week:

INTERVIEWS

I am expecting everyone who has successfully conducted their interview to be ready to present an overview of that interview by today's class (following Claire's lead from last week - summarizing the main points of the interview, and showing some examples of their work). By Wednesday, I want you to have a transcript of the interview typed up – I will have everyone post their interviews to the blog (except in cases where the interviewed artist did not want to make the interview public - in which case you will need to hand in a printed hard copy). This does not have to be a full, verbatim transcript – but your should have at least five questions and responses typed up – make sure they are the five most interesting, concrete answers.

CLOSE READING

I am going to have you do a "close reading" of two interviews with artists, one this week (due Wednesday), and one next week (due Monday 3/3). Find two artists whose work has something in common (in terms of themes or style) with your current work. One artist should be a living, contemporary artist, and one should be a dead artist (a 20th century or earlier artist would be ideal). Look up a substantial interview with each artist, print out or copy the interview, and mark up the interview using the following format. You will probably have to add a page or two of commentary to expand on some of these elements. I have no preference whether you do the close reading of the contemporary artist or the dead artist first.

UNDERLINE what you think are the main, most interesting quotes in the article, and in a brief sentence for each, explain why you think those quotes are particularly interesting.

ASTERISK any words or names you don't know, and look them up, providing definitions/brief bios.

MAKE A VOCABULARY LIST of what you think are the key terms and concepts the artist is talking about.

SUMMARIZE the world view of the artist, as it appears in the interview. What is the artist's work "about?" What sorts of historical, social, political, formal, and aesthetic ideas does the artist's work engage?

There are two purposes for this assignment – one, to give you potential avenues for talking about your work by example, and two, to potentially broaden your set of contemporary and historical art references when talking about your work. In one form or another, the work you're making now is in conversation with artworks and aesthetic questions that may be decades or centuries old – hopefully this exercise will help you position yourself in that conversation in the most articulate way possible.

By prepared, this Wednesday, to talk about the first artist interview, and have online links to some of their work so we can look at it while you talk about it.

WEEK-BY-WEEK SCHEDULE FOR JAPR/BFA

The date for JAPR is Friday, April 4th. You will be expected to have your work installed before 5pm Thursday, April 3rd. By this Wednesday (2/26), you need to hand in a printed schedule breaking down what you need to accomplish, week by week, for the six weeks leading up to JAPR (if you're making work for the BFA show, tailor it to the weeks you have left). I will also have you post your schedule to the class blog, but I still have to get everyone signed in as blog contributors.


A sample schedule for someone creating a doumentary photo essay might look like:

WEEK 1
Contact all photo subjects and schedule shooting for the next week

WEEK 2
First round of shooting
Processing negatives

WEEK 3
Printing smaller format prints
Ordering frames
Schedule any follow-up shooting necessary

WEEK 4
Printing first 3 large-format prints
Follow-up shooting

WEEK 5
Printing second 3 large format prints

etc...

Here is a very structured schedule from someone who did JAPR last time I taught the class (they had seven instead of six weeks):


Week One (September 18-24)-
- Start on copper wire sculptures.
- Start new vessel forms.
- Research Raku glazes and Patina for copper.
- Have seven new vessels done and ready to fire by 23rd.

Week Two (September 25-October 1)-
- Research more glazes, do samples.
- Start more vessels, carve them. (different sizes, shapes).
- Have total sixteen vessels done by 1st.
- Introduce wire to the pots, see how the sculptures will work/fit with vessels.

Week Three (October 2-8)-
- Write a few pages on my theme, subject matter, etc..
- Start Glazing vessels.
- Practice patina on copper.
- Work on more vessels.

Week Four (October 9-15)-
- Glaze as many pieces as possible.
- Finish patinas.
- Bisque all finished pieces.
- Be done with wet clay.

Week Five (October 16-22)-
- Glaze pieces.
- This is mistakes week. Start new vessels if something goes wrong.
- Bisque.

Week Six (October 23-29)-
- Research galleries to get ideas for how to show my pieces.
- Put sculptures and wire together.
- Go back to the paper and start writing my speech, practicing.

Week Seven (October 30- November 4)-
- Freak out.
- Drink wine.
- Have all pieces done and ready to stage.
- Make stands?
- Present.