San Jose Exhibit

Just read the article from yesterday's paper - thanks to the Sterry's - about the Joan Brown exhibit on view at the San Jose Museum of Art until March.

Joan was a Bay Area painter and had a wonderful handling of the medium. And while I don't want you using as much of the school's paint on your canvases as she did, this would definitely be worth you checking out.

You can get details here.

True Text

In my ramblings around SFMOMA last night I picked up a new book for the classroom called
101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White (if you want your own copy you can get it here).
It's published by MIT - which I thought was interesting considering they are not an art school, and goes along in a series of similarly titled works they have published over the past few years - including 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, which I also have in the classroom.

At any rate, I just unwrapped it this morning and read the titles of a couple of pages, and the very last one caught my eye and made me read the entire page, it states:

"Not every art school graduate becomes a successful artist.
But the training one receives in art school opens avenues to the whole world. Art school teaches one to observe carefully, describe precisely, find solutions to problems through experimentation, keep an open mind to all possibilities, and to accept withering critique in the pursuit of the not yet realized. These are the skills of adventurers, visionaries, and builders of a future we cannot yet fathom."

Now, I realize this - as in LGHS - is not an art school; we all work/attend a public high school, however, many of these things are true for us as well.
I am not looking for you to be the best ever; I am looking for you to be your best. I am looking for you to try new things. To let go of some preconceived notions. To try. To work hard. To enjoy the process. To question in a positive way.

And all of that serious and gushy (yet so true) stuff.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else this book has to say and how I can distill it for you.
Because the truth is, the above statement is so, so true.

And happy Friday!!!

Serra Signs

Really great to have even a couple sentences shared with Richard Serra as he signs my book at SFMOMA tonight.
Such an inspirational person and artist!

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Art 2 Canvas + etc

As we went over today in class, there are several items you will need for class next week, and you need to be working on these things as you are dealing with your grisaille painting.

First, you need a 16" x 20" canvas for your monochromatic oil project.
I have them for sale here for:
$5 for the thinner profile
$9 for the thicker profile
If you want to go purchase your own, no biggie, but you need it here by next Fri.

Also you need at least 3 super cool very high quality b/w pics so we have some options for your oil painting.

As I said in class, it would be sweet if you took the images yourself!
If you want help converting them to b/w in PhotoShop I'm happy to help. Just let me know.
Again, those are due by next Friday.

And that's the same day the grisaille painting is due.
Hint, it shouldn't take you until the end of Fri to finish, so if you are playing your cards right you could have some study drawing time built in there as well.

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Very Cool Illustration

I'm connecting to this post of a linocut done by "Sturdy". Maybe it's because of teh Cousteau stencil from last week, maybe it's because it's a great illustration connecting the person to their life via an image, maybe it's just 'cause.

Sturdy: New Linocut: A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it. - Jacques Yves Cousteau

Updating

I'm always updating the class site, so make sure to keep checking back.
Lately it's mainly just been the links page, here, but I'm going to attempt to have some work from this year up there, too.
Maybe.
We'll see how it goes.

Digging the Daily

I don't even know how I came across this, but here is a link to a pretty cool blog from a semi-local art guy - Craig Stephens. He's showing off a bunch of small still life paintings ... yeah, yeah, I know, you hate still lives, but look at them.
They are fun and well painted.
Look around you, already. There is some fun stuff in this world for you to take advantage of.

Why Man Creates by Saul Bass, 1968

Good ol', old school video. Hilarious. Totally worth the 12 min it will take you to watch it.

Why Man Creates by Saul Bass, 1968

de Young Field Trip

Great pic from the observation tower at the de Young courtesy of Nicole Gallizioli.
Great day, but I need (another) coffee!

MICA Visit

It's official, a rep from the Maryland Institute College of Art - MICA - will be here in room 502 for a presentation on Sept. 29th during tutorial.
The more adv. students there the better. If you want her to take a look at any work she will be happy to do so and I'll get you a pass to go to class late, too.