Sky

When I want to just do a little painting, I like to make small plein air paintings on masonite board. These are four paintings I did the other day as the sun was setting. They are all between 8" x 6" and 6" x 2". I did them from the painting studio windows. I'm planning on doing more of these paintings.

Figure Painting

In Painting class, we've painted figures and still lives for in class assignments. This is an image and details of the second figure assignment we had. For this painting, I wanted to focus on the light and having the figure not be lifeless. It has an unfinished quality to it because it was essentially a study done in a limited time.

Clouds

For painting, we've had many homework assignments. This assignment was to observe the sky and paint it (paying close attention to the colors). I painted this study on a cloudy day with scattered showers. It is oil on plywood.

Photo 1

In Photo 1, we had an assignment to photograph people. This is a portrait of someone I saw just walking around the city.

South Dakota

I've been scanning in film that I shot in South Dakota over the summer. The color film was great. These are two of many photos I took in the Badlands National Park.

SOPHOMORE YEAR

Sophomore year has started. Hooray! This is a painting I made for my Painting class/just for fun. We had to do "nature studies". I painted leaves, a yellow bird outside Tyler, and this scene from the Tyler Painting studio. I'm pleased with the last two the best.

This image is from the view outside the studio. It's oil on canvas. I think it might be about 12" X 24". Oil paint is going great. I'm liking it better than acrylics. I used a lot of skills I learned over the summer to make this painting.

Mrs. Dalloway

This assignment was for Drawing class second semester. We had to draw a still life based off of a literary work. I chose one of my favorite books: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I set up this still life in my dorm room and used watercolor pencils to render it.

Glass Squirrels

For my final in 3-D class, we got to use the glass studio to do sand-casting with glass. I made 5 squirrels out of glass. The final assignment was to create something with glass that related to architecture in a parasitic way.

I placed my glass squirrels on the ground in the emergency exit in a stairwell at Tyler. They didn't photograph very well in their intended location. This image is of just one of the squirrels in the Salon De Refuse (the last show for Freshmen at Tyler).

I wanted the building to be the parasite of the squirrels. This was based on an experience I had in the fall, where I found a squirrel that had been hit by a car and was still alive. The squirrel died shortly afterwards. At the time, I had recently started to photograph the birds that were dying from window strikes on campus. The city environment of Temple's campus was new to me, and I disheartened by the affect the city had on living things inside of it. I made this piece with that memory in mind.

Boathouse Row

I made this painting of Boathouse Row a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, I sold it at First Friday (an event where galleries exhibit new pieces and people sell their work by the side of the road). It's acrylic on canvas. It looked like it was about to storm when I was painting it. I decided to make this blog post to commemorate the painting and my first sale at First Friday.

Candy

This was the project we worked on in class the last day of Drawing before our final. Our teacher set up a still life of candy, cookies, and pinecones. We could approach it as a still life or as a landscape of candy.

I used chalk pastel on 18" X 24" paper. After we were done drawing, we could eat the candy and cookies. It was a great assignment.

Photos

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I've been learning photography recently. These are two images I took over spring break on color film and slide film. The film has been scanned into the computer, so I have them as digital files now.

Bunnies

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In 3-D foundations class, we learned the process of slip casting. Slip (a clay and water mixture) is poured into a plaster mold. The plaster absorbs some of the water from the slip and creates a hard shell of clay. The excess slip is poured out of the mold, and when dried, the hallow clay object can be removed. The slip objects were fired in a kiln to make them finished ceramic pieces.

I chose to cast some small plastic Easter bunnies. I created a gang mold with three bunnies inside one mold. This allowed me to make 3 bunnies with each cast. I ended up with 153 bunnies in the end.

The assignment was to organize the slip cast objects based on an organizational system we researched. After much thought, I settled on creating a political map of Pennsylvania with the bunnies. I combined a population density map with a map of the most recent presidential election results. I put the map below the balcony overlooking the basement by the photography area of Tyler. This way, one could view the map from above, and also go down the stairs to see the bunnies up close.

On-going sketchbook assignment

In 2-D, we've been making 8 sketchbook pages a week. In the end, we'll bind all the pages together. Here is a small selection of the pages I've made thus far. These pages I've selected were inspired by my trip to Alaska. The goal in making these pages is to practice and experiment using color in different ways.

Stream

My friend Josh and I went to a park outside Philadelphia recently. There, I made this painting of a small stream with rocks and small waterfalls. It's acrylic on canvas and measures about 22" X 13.5".

Soft Sculpture

In 3-D class, we had a recent assignment to create a large soft sculpture inspired by the work of Claes Oldenburg. The sculpture had to approach or go beyond human scale. We also had to find a specific site at Tyler install the work in. We had to think about the context of the environment and how it related to the sculpture.

I chose to create a large pad (of the "sanitary napkin" kind), which I installed in a chair outside the advising office at Tyler. It was well received, and brought up good discussion about culture, what is considered disgusting, taboo, comfort, and choice. I chose to put the pad in a chair next to another empty one. This brought up the fact that when given the choice, most people would feel uncomfortable sitting in the chair next to the pad, and would choose a different set of chairs farther down the hall. The image on the left shows the pad outside the advising office. The image on the right shows my Professor, Dan Cutrone, posing with the pad.

2-D Color Study

In 2-D, we've been making small compositions with guoche to explore color value and saturation. These studies were all non-representational. Mine were 6" x 6". I think this one was the most successful.

Gerbil Painting

I've been slowly making a series of paintings of gerbils for a while now. This is the latest one. This isn't for any specific class. It was just for myself. The painting is acrylic on canvas and is about 9" X 12".

Spring Break Assignment

Over spring break, we are drawing bananas as they age. This assignment in Drawing class is an exercise in color observation. These bananas are from day 6. I used watercolor pencils to draw them and then add a painterly quality.

2-D Project One

In 2-D, our quilt project culminated in a final quilt. We had to think about elements we weren't thinking about in out smaller quilts such as size, pattern, material, and texture.

I made my quilt from ties. I opened the seams to create new shapes, and sewed the fabric sometimes with the back facing forward. This created more variety in the shapes, colors, and textures I had to work with. I tried to find a composition with interest and balance.

The quilt was well received in the crit. Ideas were brought up that I hadn't thought of before. The teacher commented on how its a blending of masculine and feminine associations: ties being associated with men and the act of quilting being associated with women. The patterns in the fabric also have a variety from humorous to traditional. The eye travels through the piece with the help of certain directional and contrasting shapes and colors.

The quilt measures roughly 15" X 40" as is made of hand sewn fabric.

Color Compositions

In 2-D, we've been learning to use color by experiementing. We've been selecting different colors, and trying to put them together so they look pleasing. These are three compositions I made with dyed paper. The one on the far left was made first and the one on the far right was made last.

Drawing

In Drawing class this past week, we began using chalk pastels. We did two drawings using color. The one on the left was done first on 18 X 24 paper. The one on the right is roughly 30 X 40 inches.

Snow Pony

These are pictures of a Snow-Pony that my friend Sarah and I made. We used ornamental grass for the mane and tail. It's so tall, we could barely reach the head to put the ears on. It's so big and strong that a person can sit on it. The pony is supported by four individual legs made of columns of snow.

Snow: Part 2

I made this snow-woman outside of the Tyler School of Art building. The first reactions I got from people headed to the studios was "what class is this for?". I explaned that I just did it for fun. The hair made of ornamental grass was the part people liked best. I don't know that it's great art, but it was really fun to make.

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It will snow about two feet in Philadelphia by the end of today. Here are some pictures I took while heading to breakfast.

3-D Wire and Cardboard project

In this project, we had to create a wire and a cardboard component, and think about their relationship. The wire had to depict a truncated body part or small object. The cardboard had to create form through cross sections. Where the two met, we had to lay down paper and select one color to paint that area.

All in all, this project had many requirements, but I'm very happy with what I came up with. I chose to make a wire ankle. Inspired by the fact that a sprain my left ankle at least once a year without fail, I decided to have my wire ankle be slipping off a cliff. I wanted to show how weak and prone to injury it is.

2-D Sketchbook from 1st Semester

An ongoing project throughout the year is the sketchbook project. "Artist Book" is a more appropriate term though, because it isn't really a sketchbook. Every week we do a number of pages. We experiment with new mediums, compositions, and ideas. In the end, we bind the pages into a book which is graded. The pages are experimental, but viewed as finished and resolved pieces.

These are some of what I consider the best pages from last semester when we couldn't use color.

Compressed Charcoal

There was a passionate conversation during our break today about compressed charcoal verses vine charcoal. Compressed charcoal lasts longer, is darker, and is harder to erase. I had been using vine charcoal before the break, so I decided to try out compressed charcoal after the break. The finished drawing is much darker than my earlier ones. I think both kinds of charcoal are good for different things.

Drawing - 2nd Semester

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Today was the first day we got to draw in Drawing class. Here are 3 figure studies I did. Each was a 15 minute drawing in vine charcoal on 18" X 24" paper.