Spring 2011 WASHers

Check out spin cycle 2 for a preview of some of what we'll be doing in the spring.

Your spring MWF WASH blog, spin cycle 3, is located at
http://washspring2011.blogspot.com/

Your spring TTHF WASH blog, spin cycle 4, is located at
http://spincycle4.blogspot.com

Hanging the laundry

WASH student exhibition prep/timeline

Monday, December 6

1. Crit 5 photo hybrids and 2 photo/bw representation hybrids
2. Work in class on hybrid self symbol final presentation format
3. Work in class on character
4. Email invitations to exhibition to your friends, family, coworker
5. Review blog and fill in missed posts

Wednesday, December 8

MORNING
Finish hybrid self symbol
Finish characters
Finish updating blogs
Make any optional books to include in show or for BFA review

AFTERNOON
Crit characters
Patch, repair walls, paint walls
Clear out ALL personal stuff from studio by end of day
Sweep floors, arrange furniture
Make labels for each piece, including books that will be included in exhibition. Type your name and project title for each piece.

Review handout for list of materials to include, both required and optional.

Friday, December 10

1. Table team critiques (list one thing you have appreciated,  worked well, or is just good/helpful about each one of your table mates; choose 3-5 other classmates not at your table and do the same. Turn in.)
2. Divide into teams to devise layout scheme for each project area (2d: text as texture—wall/tables, mark making—wall/tables, texture—table, hybrid self portrait—wall/tables; 3d: cardboard—floor/tables, performance—table, modular madness—wall/tables/ pedestals, self portraits--wall/tables/pedestals, characters; lecture—wall/tables)
3. Install work and name labels

Monday, December 13

1. Send out reminder emails to friends, other professors and coworkers.
2. Install inflatables if needed (3:45 pm)
3. Exhibition: all students are to attend 5-7 pm
4. Deinstallation: 7-8 pm or Tuesday, December 14. All work must be removed by December 14. The combination to the building will be changed for the next semester and you will no longer have access—please remove your stuff or put in loft for accreditation process (will be notified by email to pick up from WASH building late fall 2011).

it is time to post your pics

of you as object. be sure to classify, label each pair. make your prints to bring to class tomorrow along with your collection and all previous works of your object. bring drawingpaper, scissors, glue etc. tracing paper would be helpful if you have some.

I am grateful todayfor having you WASHers in my life

thank you!

WASH building plumbing turned off

do NOT use bathrooms please

over thanksgiving holidays plumbing is being worked on
so if your plumbing requires relief

walk up the hill to taco bell...
please no wash building smells!

sorry i couldn't help the form of my public WASH service announcement.
sincerely, a laundry room attendant!

can't wait to experience inflatatopia tomorrow (11-2, LSC)

Don't forget to return and neatly store all power cables, blowers, etc, after inflatatopia! Bring your camera's it will be awesome!

You as object (representation part 2 - self portrait)

Representational Form (part 2)

YOU AS OBJECT

BRING EVERYDAY

Bring object and all previous photos, drawings, etc.
Bring your brand culture stuff library .
Bring camera, spare batteries, wall jack, cable to transfer images to computer.
Bring light source to class.
Bring background material.

SELF PORTRAIT
You will need be able to print these images out both BW copies (Xerox) and actual photographs. (They can be uploaded to Walmart and for about 10 cents a copy printed).

Series (capture 10 strong images for each numbered category)
For each series consider

a. consider lighting (indoor/outdoor/spot etc)
b. consider image resolution/quality
c. consider material/background context for object (you) to be set on
d. consider all peripheral materials that might be
inadvertently captured through the lens of the camera
e. consider scale
f. consider cropping
g. consider zooming
i. consider focus/clarity/image quality

Consider a theme for the (you) object to direct you imagery you shoot.
Ie. Body hair as masculinity, body or part as container, gender, unique feature about you, specific body part or area that represents you, etc. Once you have selected a them, for example nose, then all 130 shots should be about the nose.

Shot image (you) in a way that shows off its natural (10 of each = 130)

1. whole object (all of you)
2. lines
3. shapes
4. color
5. surface texture
6. depth/space
7. rhythms or repetition
8. balance(symmetrical/asymmetrical, formal/informal)
9. dramatic lights/darks
10. closure/metaphor/symbol
11. negative space
12. positive space
13. exaggerate scale
14. object as an abstraction
15. object in motion

Print and bring to class Monday, Nov 29.
1. Color photographic prints of top 2 images from each category (walmart)
2. BW print out top 2 images for each category (may be different).
Consider how it looks BW. Enlarge on copier to 8 ½ by 11.

Post Top two images from each category on Blog

POP CULTURE BRAND COLLECTION
Collect a range of branded (with logo) ephemera based on popular culture that is interesting to you, such as xbox, starbucks, bands, books, movies, clothing lines, etc packaging, ads, photos (you take) of product.

Some INSPIRATION
Look at work by artist such as Michael-Jean Basquiat, designer Ryan McGuinness, Gustav Klimt, Egan Schliele, Ray Ogar, Keith Harring, Gonzo247, Shepard Fairy, Barbara Kruger, graffiti or other art and design sources….and many more

tonight is the night. get your 30 images posted and labeled

don't forget your printouts and supplies for tomorrow.

WASHer sample.

object in motion (michael's artichoke)

 

object in motion (ashley b's plyers)

object as abstraction (alina's hairbrush)

object/shapes (dana's artichoke)

depth and space (danielle's garlic)

abstraction (edith's pineapple)

habits of work that will serve you well.

1. Direct Engagement
   (making/experimentation/testing)
2. Self Reliance
   (learning how you learn, where your ideas come from, going and doing, knowing when to ask for help)
3. Organized Persistence
   (test/evaluate/reflect/test alternatives)
4. Daily Practice
   (yup)
5. Appropriate Speed
   (learning to be efficient with your approach/adjusting where need be)
6. Incremental Assistance
7. Valuing Alternatives
   (test/evaluate/reflect/test alternatives/explore sideways ideas)

two more things to do this weekend involving looking and thinking

1. LOOK at each your table teams blogs, specifically consider their identity essentials projects. read the text they included. consider which images are stronger and why. do you derive their intended meaning or see something else in the work as dominance? come to class with an opinion along with your print out formidentity essentials and for our represent project.

2. relative to the represent project think about why you chose the object you did? be specific? relative to that explore three descriptive wireworms your object. consider action, mood, sensory experience, purpose, metaphor...

look
think
develop

Time to get to posting your identity essentialssee you at mfah.org at promptly at 10 am

a few of your fellow WASHer's solutions
to identity essentials photo project

 Brian :: the mouth metaphor

Daniel B :: gender/masculinity/hair

Trey :: the eye

Danielle :: the body as a container (and pliable)

Hunter :: undisclosed identity essential metaphor
(he figures you're smart enough to figure it out)

 Michael :: the body as container

That's pretty good...for a girl!

First generation feminist art (the waves before and after) Lecture 
Homework assigned (10/29)

Due Wednesday (11/3)

This assignment will make more sense after tomorrow's lecture.

Shoot: a series of a body, body part or a metaphor for a body part (my preference over naked gentile—ie Georgia O’Keefe and her flowers) photos considering one item below as the source idea…

Identity essentials

- the body as “container” (as form, but also in the abstract: the soul, thoughts, desires…)

- the body as landscape

- the body as site of conflict, debate, legal issue

- the essence of gender

- the body as spirit

- graphic elements as pattern/decoration, nature, text, graphiti

- role of age, history, time ( i.e. wrinkles, patina, traces of experience)

- the body as a site of loss and remembrance or associated with the passing of individual or cultural histories.

Post images to web (5), title post identity essentials, for the set indicate which ONE item you were considering when shooting the images. Include a short statement about your approach and why you chose the specific area of focus.

Print out one image (BW) enlarge to 11x17 or larger. Enlarge the photo

gosh. i was just going to post some samplesbut there were to many wonderful ones

students spent a week or so exploring mark making and then brought a quote of their choosing into the work. the goal was to express the quote in a way that mimics actual speech in creating breath (space) and emphasis, etc and yet maintain readability.

each work is 2 to 3 feet by 3 to 5 feet in size.

Color/Texture project begins Monday 10/25

Read Color Theory reading assignment (before 10/22).
Read 2D project 3 texture/color handout.
Collect 5 sets of 3 color swatches (paint section at a hardware store) and bring to class Monday.

Choose color sets for each of the following based on a specific:

1. mood
2. temperature 
3. season 
4. gender
5. persons profession (engineer, lawyer, teacher, doctor, etc)

For each set choose one hue with low value (light/pale), one with high value (dark/rich), and another hue of your choosing. (3 hues max)

Using adobe kuler picker http://kuler.adobe.com/ recreate your color swatch sets online and post to your blog before Mondays class. Post a link to kuler creation of swatch for each of your five sets, identify which category you are depicting with your color and specific type...ie mood/angry.

Reading before Friday, Oct 22

Color Reading

mini posters up and don't forget book making materials.

today is the day to post and finish

post your 10 mini poster images
finish your modular madness and install it if necessary (today?)

collect all materials for 2d so you are ready for the morning (review prep for tomorrow)

good example: Top 10 Poster Pics

dana's WASH blog: Top 10 Poster Pics

mark making monday (10/18)

mark making monday

1. critique TEN refined ~11x17 mark/word solutions
2. refine final solution/prep for enlargement
3. work on mark making sketchbook (stab binding)

a.  select 20 of your best mark making experiments
     that show a good deal of variety in mark style.
b.  sequence (consider variation vs clustering and pacing)
c.  determine best size for sketchbook
d.  crop/clean up sketches to work in book
e.  mount sketches (black paper)
f.  CRAFT matters! Be consistent.
g.  stab bind
h.  put name small on back

before Monday

1. from 50+ mark/word solutions choose top TEN
   (show variety styles of solutions)
2. refine and clean up craftsmanship
   of word/word application (create mini poster)/
   trim off edges that are unneeded on TEN
3. posted refined images to blog
   (also images of your mark making device
   should already be up on your blog)
4. bring to class ready to pin up on wall at 9 am.
5. make extra text/make extra matching background images
   (not combined so that you have materials to work with on Monday in class while refining based on crit)
6. bring supplies for book making
   (ie large black paper, needle, awl, thread, exacto and metal ruler, etc)
7. bring all previously made sketches and mini posters
   to class even if not part of final ten.
8. LOCATE store that has the equipment to enlarge your final piece before monday.

ps. i was very pleased with all of you that showed up to class with all your materials in order to work. YAY! It's the little things that bring me joy = y'all showing up prepared does that. THANKS it made my day.

I am also very much looking forward to seeing your MADNESS on monday with your modular pieces.

Parking issue tomorrow (Wednesday)

Sam Jam Carnival

Wednesday, Oct 12 (and prep today)

Holleman (baseball) Field
PARKING LOT (this is where we normally park for WASH)

Please park across the street at the other dirt parking lot for the duration of tonight, tomorrow and Thursday morning.

Lecture (10/08) what holds a composition -- reading assignment

Reading #1 -- Harmony
Reading #2 -- Balance

Quiz Friday, Oct 15 over the readings

Lecture (10/01) assignment -- looking for repetition

Blog post (must be up prior to Friday, Oct 8)

1. Choose 2 artists (not shown today) from each of the following movements who use repetition as a key ingredient in their work:
   

   (1) Abstract Expressionism
   (2) Minimalism
   (3) Post Minimalism
   (4) Today (within last 10 years).

2. For each artist, post
3. two images (include artists name, title, and date) large enough to see details of work
   

   (a) identify which element(s) are involved in the repetition
   (b) discuss where the work sits on the spectrum of
         monotony-harmony<---->contrast/variety-chaos (explain)
   (c) discuss the effect the repetition has on you as viewer (be specific). 2. Read assigned reading and summarize on blog.

READ and outline Kathy's organizing principles reading assignment before Oct 8.

Time to post your human compositions to your blog

Please also post the BW comp you guys are replicating.

WASH up at the Menil Friday

Be at the Menil (menil.org) promtly @ 11 am
1515 Sul Ross, Houston, Texas 77006
(parking lot located on Alabama)

BRING
1. a picnic lunch (and drink)
2. sketchbook/notebook, pen/pencil
3. handout (download)

photo by Hickey-Robertson, Houston

Students attempt to become white space or black dot artifacts in their human dot compositions

Bryttani and Rachel

Michael art directs shot with team for human compositions

The Exquisite Corpse photographic scavenger hunt (part II)

Problem (challenge):
Post one photograph you've shoot over the weekend inspired by your Exquisite Corpse sentence.

Subproblems (parameters/challenge):

1. Don't stage or setup a scene
2. Go for a walk (dorm, library, road, block)
   as long as it takes
3. Don't try to tell the whole story held within the sentence
4. Consider it a movie frame still
5. Capture an incomplete fleeting moment
6. One instance
7. Give us a hint
8. When looking through the camera/phone consider
1. perhaps a close up
2. leaning towards abstraction
3. to what degree of abstraction
4. continuance, proximate, closure, similarity/difference
5. the way the forms interrelate
   detached, touching, overlapping, interpenetration, union, cropping, etc
6. the dominating elements
   point, line, shape, color, value, texture, space...

Timeline: Due Monday, September 20th before 9 a.m.

1. Post to blog
2. Include
1. title: The Exquisite Corpse Two
1. sentence: your The Exquisite Corpse
2. image: ONE  (you may decide to post more images in another blog post if you like)
3. short write up of your process -- what helped you; what blocked you?

NO NOs:
no images created by anyone else
no digital manipulation/editing

PS Get your blog up to date this it weekend.

Here is a list of posts you should have on your blog to date
beginning with the oldest posts first right up to the ones for this weekend.

1. newspaper/first day summary
2. week aug 27 lecture/reading summary
   
   
3. 16 dots composition (b&w 6x6 clean sketches)
4. final dot 4 and critic writeup (~250 minimum)
5. cardboard nature studies (sketches)
6. cardboard object progress report
7. week sept 3 lecture/reading summary
   
   
8. cardboard progress report
9. playful and periodic image of top eight with self crit explaining selection
10. week of sept 10 lecture summary on creativity
    
    
11. the equiste corpse image and sentence
12. final playful and periodic images with group critique write up
13. cardboard critic and images
    
    
14. week of sept 15 lecture/reading summary
15. eight text as texture images
16. the equiste corpse two image, sentence, process self evaluation

Visual elements as sound

Laurens WASH Blogg: Explaining design through sound, umm what?: "Hey guys, heres all the videos of everyone doing their element of design by making some kind of noise. ..."

umm, what? point, line, shape, color, texture, value, and space...see if you can identify the element each group tried to create via sound. it was very difficult to truly isolate elements into sound alone, almost all include a bit of visual cues of space/position or mood.

Thanks Lauren.

Museum of Fine Arts Houston looking for student volunteers to help with Houston Portal Project, Cai Guo-Qiang’s Odyssey

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Portal Project, Cai Guo-Qiang’s Odyssey needs student helpers.

 Photo by Seiji Toyonaga, Courtesy Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

Cai Guo-Qiang producing a gunpowder drawing titled "Unmanned Nature," Hiroshima, October 2008

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang (at left, in a portrait by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders) will create a permanent, site-specific installation for the museum’s new Arts of China galleries, which open in October 2010. The project -- a monumental landscape mural to be created in a Houston warehouse just prior to installation and rendered by igniting a gunpowder drawing over multiple panels -- will line the walls of the Ting Tsung and...

Some excellent WASHER posts!if you're at a lost for what to blog, here are some well done posts

NEWSPAPER/CINDERBLOCK
Ryan records his first days actual and mental process with a sense of humor.

If It Can Go Wrong: Newspaper / Cinder Block Project: "...the last thing I had expected as the first thing I'd be doing on the first day... I suppose I expected something a bit boring, the standard "This Is What You Will Be Doing For The Rest Of The Semester" speech*...."

CRITIQUES
Michael's critique with the bonus sense of humor.

W.A.S.H. Chronicles: Thursday, 9/2/10. Final 4 Dots and Critique.: "...My obsession over these dots uncomfortably reminded me of the detective that goes nuts in the  "Dark City" movie. I may yet play with the size ..."

Adrienne posts an informative, useful write up of her critique

Mmmm...Candy: Critique and Top Four: "At first the group said I did not have very many large circles and then they flipped and said I had a large variety of the size of the circl..."

Kelsey communicates slow clearly even if her roommate was a math major, they would understand both the process of critiquing this project as well as Kelsey's compositional strengths and why she believed they were choosen

Kelsey Faubion: Circles, circles, everywhereeee!: "The finished 2D circle project is right around the corner ... Wednesday morning we were asked to bring in 40 6'x6' sketches. From those 40 w..."

SELF EVALUATION/PROCESS
Melissa discusses her process, habits, and experiments.

laundry day: Wednesday, 09/01/10: 2D & 3D progress: "The 2-D project is going pretty well so far I think.  When Kathy told us to look for patterns in our thumbnails I immediately looked for the..."

 Michael's cardboard progress reports

W.A.S.H. Chronicles: Wednesday, 9/1/10. Cardboard Organic Project - Pro...: "Top Left Image: Cardboard sketch missing from previous analysis. Other Images: Update on Progress - I decided that to make the piece..."

W.A.S.H. Chronicles: Saturday, 8/28/10. Cardboard Organic Project - Bir...: "Upon research of my spindle-like seed pod looking object, I've made some observations: -I found that the pod/core is split and frayed in i..."

SUMMARIES
Hunter gives an excellent summary of week 1 readings. It is fine to present these as notes from your reading, but Hunter's is a good example of summarizing the main ideas.

WASHBLOGGER: week one reading synopsis: "The reading assignment for this week focused on the critique and how the principles of Gestalt theories subconsciously affect our perception..."

 Paige's point of view on the first week's lecture.

Artist Vision: Gestalt Lecture 8/27/2010: "2D When someone give you the word composition and asks to define it, you think, ' Oh, that's so simple.' But breaking down the word compos..."

When thinking about WRITING A SUMMARY of reading, lecture, or even a critique, think in terms of how you might explain the information or what you learned to your roommate who was not there. A short narrative of your experience/learning.

Lauren takes a different approach which is just as valid and useful solution for considering our readings. She points out key words and concepts.

Laurens WASH Blogg: Reading Assignments, week of August 27: "Gestalt- entire figure or configuration, whole is understood to be different from its parts, exhibits high organization 4 aspects of Gestal..."

Dang I am proud of you guys! What a great start to our semester.

__________________________________

Posts that should be on each of your blogs
prior to Wednesday, Sept 8.

1. Newspaper/Cinderblock experience and image (if you have one)
2. Week of August 27 lecture/reading summary
3. Any process shots with a little bit of narrative
4. Image of selected 16 dot compositions
5. Image of final 4 images selected (both image of crit group selection and new group if you deviated from their choices). Critique write up (~250 min on words)—include list of patterns or habits of problem solving (both what the group observed and any you are self aware of), summary of groups evaluation as well as ways in which their understanding of your compositions differed from your intent. And if you swapped out any images from the groups choices, you must justify your reason for the change(s).
6. Cardboard and nature object studies
7. cardboard object progress report

Attacking dots with gusto, constructive arguing, and a sense of humor.

Alina, Hunter, Mark, Jasmine, Amber and Kelsey professionally argue about the application of gestalt theory within their visual explorations



Daniel, Henry, Edith, Michael, Geoffrey and JD do the same as did the rest of the WASHers. YES!



Then there was the aftermath of mental and sharpie exhaustion. Thank you Alina for a laugh and smile. It is good for the soul.

Ha. I do like the WASHers. Not only are you guys throwing yourselves into the tasks, you are doing it with gusto and humor. I am proud of you guys. It is and is going to be an awesome semester. I can't wait to see what you guys produce and your insights!!

Reading for Friday's lecture

I've posted the reading that accompany this Friday's lecture.
Download it or read it online by Friday, September 10, when there will be a short quiz.
It's a little early, but I figured I'd post it sooner rather than later.
Bill's reading assignment #1

Hand tools and power tools

Hunter slicing and dicing.

the sliced and diced.

Courtney powers up.

Let's keep all our fingers please.

Coloring between the lines

Edith rendering and, yes for this project, seriously coloring inside the lines

Liz evaluating her thumbnails based on several gestalt principles

Brian prepping the page for thumbnails roughs

New York Trip

2010 Fall Semester New York Trip:
First Meeting August 30th at 5pm
in Art Building C (Sculpture) Room 101

Reading assignments week of August 27 (with Kathryn)

1. Intro Gestalt
2. Formal Matters pages 3-24 focus; skim remainder. Don't panic if this essay seems Greek to you. Just give it a once over and move on
3. Principles (intro)
4. More on Form/Composition
5. Artist Interview: Piet Mondrian< the actual interview is the part to focus on/li>
   

Read and post reading summary (focus on key concepts and terminology)  prior to Friday, Sept 3 (quiz over readings)

Reading #1: Sol LewittArtist’s statement (1970–71)

The draftsman and the wall enter a dialogue. The draftsman becomes bored but later through this meaningless activity finds peace or misery. The lines on the wall are the residue of this process. Each line is as important as each other line. All of the lines have become one thing. The viewer of the lines can only see lines on a wall. They are meaningless. That is art.
—Pasadena Art Museum Catalogue, 1970



The artist conceives and plans the wall drawing. It is realized by draftsmen. (The artist can act as his own draftsman.) The plan, written, spoken or a drawing, is interpreted by the draftsman. There are decisions which the draftsman makes, within the plan, as part of the plan. Each individual, being unique, given the same instructions would carry them out differently. He would understand them differently.

The artist must allow various interpretations of his plan. The draftsman perceives the artist’s plan, then reorders it to his own experience and understanding. The draftsman’s contributions are unforeseen by the artist, even if he, the artist, is the draftsman. Even if the same draftsman followed the same plan twice, there would be two different works of art. No one can do the same thing twice.

The artist and the draftsman become collaborators in making the art.

Each person draws a line differently and each person understands words differently.

Neither lines nor words are ideas. They are the means by which ideas are conveyed.

The wall drawing is the artist’s art, as long as the plan is not violated. If it is, then the draftsman becomes the artist and the drawing would be his work of art, but that art is a parody of the original concept.

The draftsman may make errors in following the plan without compromising the plan. All wall drawings contain errors. They are part of the work.

The plan exists as an idea but needs to be put into its optimum form. Ideas of wall drawings alone are contradictions of the idea of wall drawings.

The explicit plans should accompany the finished wall drawing. They are of importance.
—Art Now, vol. 3, no. 2, 1971

NY Times article

Welcome to WASH

2220 Avenue M.

The sparkling new WASH Building, 2220 Ave. M, across from Holleman Field. We'll be welcoming our new fall WASH students promptly at 9 am this Wednesday, August 25. Thursday night, August 26, 5-7 pm, we hope you all will come out and join us for the Grand Opening celebration!