School: University of Chicago, Department of Visual Art

Quarters: Winter 2022 (2 sections), Spring 2023 (1 section)

In this hands-on course we will create artworks and explore a range of materials and methods used to produce 3D objects. Looking at the techniques developed and adopted by artists in the last century, we will learn about art making by making art - moving materials around, cutting, attaching, bending, pouring, presenting, modifying, destroying, painting, preserving, hiding things, among other activities. We will challenge our discoveries through studio work and critical discussions. How do artists think about the objects they create and use in their art? Using an array of techniques available in the Logan Center shop like woodworking, metal fabrication, inflatables, plaster and experimental processes, we will use artistic research and studio practices to find out.

Throughout the course, dialogue and collective experimentation will drive the class momentum. We will define the moments in recent art history that have changed the course of how artists think about objects; considering things made by established object makers, as well as newer folks who push experimental boundaries and challenge the genre of sculpture making. We will look at drawing and its role to serve as schematics for larger works, consider artist writings and interviews, visit a museum and keep a sketchbook; spending ten weeks exploring the nature of objects in the physical world, experimenting with materials, processes. We will further develop our critical skills through participating in critiques of each others artworks and learning how to offer constructive feedback as a means for growth.

School: University of Chicago, Department of Visual Art

Quarters: Autumn 2022 (one section), Spring 2023 (one section)

In this hands-on course we will create artworks and explore a range of materials and methods used to produce images. Looking at the techniques developed and adopted by artists in the last century, we will learn about art making by making art - moving materials around, cutting, attaching, folding, pouring, presenting, modifying, destroying, painting, preserving, hiding things, painting and drawing, among other activities. We will challenge our discoveries through studio work and critical discussions. How do artists think about the images they create and use in their art? Using an array of methods and materials available in the Logan Center shop and beyond, we will use artistic research and studio practices to find out.

Throughout the course, dialogue and collective experimentation will drive the class momentum. We will define the moments in recent art history that have changed the course of how artists think about images; considering things made by established image makers, as well as newer folks who push experimental boundaries and challenge the genre of 2D art making. We will look at drawing and its role to serve as schematics for larger works, consider artist writings and interviews, visit a museum and keep a sketchbook; spending ten weeks exploring the nature of images in our world, experimenting with materials, processes. We will further develop our critical skills through participating in critiques of each others artworks and learning how to offer constructive feedback as a means for growth.

School: University of Chicago, Department of Visual Art

Instructor: Pope.L

Quarter: Autumn 2020

The process of making something can sometimes seem mysterious, daunting, and befuddling. This process can begin in several ways, for example, via necessity, compulsion, a feeling, or an idea. Some people are Mullers and some are Divers. Which are you? Some people mull and ponder and some people dive in without thinking. Both approaches have their pluses and minuses.

Regardless of mulling or diving, the process of making is not linear but there is a kind of logic to it that moves back and forth between evaluation, physical-making back to evaluation, and so on. There is a push and pull to the process between being inside the process (making) and being outside (evaluation). Both are required for there to be a balance. No matter how brilliant the idea is, if there is not enough inside work done, the project may seem mismanaged, poorly constructed, or lacking in follow-through. If there is not enough outside reflection, the same may result. At the end of the day, the ideas, feelings, daydreams, revelations, etc you might have must find concrete reflection, in the thing you make. That is the final test.

Making is a back-and-forth, push-and-pull process in which one sets out a plan, then tests that plan, and so on. Build a model, stress the model, and so on. Move from an Inside perspective to an outside perspective, from subjective immersion to objective evaluation. This back-and-forth process requires patience, determination, patience and hard work, and more hard work.

This course is an exploration of what happens to each of us when we make things. Even though the making process, to a certain extent, can be described, everyone has their own idiosyncrasies regarding how we actually do it. You are here, each of you, in this class to explore and examine what are your particular wrinkles in the basic fabric of making. What are the weaknesses and strengths in your personal process? Where are you reacting and not thinking? Where do you hit a wall? If you are a muller, does mulling turn into procrastination? If you are a diver, does diving turn into poor organization?

Some students ask me if I like their work or if it’s any good – the most helpful answer I can give is a question that’s best answered by the asker: How well is my work performing based on the goals I set, the questions I posed, materials used, labor and time contributed and the journey experienced in the process?

Bottom line evaluation: What do you want the work to do? What do you, the maker, need to do to make this happen? Sometimes one does not know the goal exactly but not knowing exactly does not preclude one from success. Some answers: At first, work lightly, playfully, and quickly. Sketch and model. Wrong and strong. Evaluate only after you have committed. Do not rush to judgment and be overly critical. Any evaluation should leave space for development. Too much criticality too soon can kill development. The opposite can also be true: too much patting on the back, defensiveness and lack of criticality can hide or obscure weaknesses in your process. Based on your wants, discoveries, and practical requirements of the project, to what degree does the thing made satisfy your expectations and your goals? I find, at most points, when I am doing a project two things are almost always true: some things work, some things do not. You want the proportion of things that work to outweigh the things that do not.

I have been making and thinking about making for the last 40 years. I have been teaching and thinking about making for over 30 years. I will be your guide in this class and my job is to nurture you, challenge you, and evaluate you—not merely the things you make but how you think through your work process and meet the challenges I put before you. This class is not about making. It’s about exploring and learning about how you make.

School: University of Chicago, Department of Visual Art

Instructor: Jessica Stockholder

Quarter: Winter 2021

Required of Visual Arts majors in the Studio Track. This course provides an opportunity for students to engage in a sustained and intense development of their art practice in weekly critiques throughout the Winter Quarter.

School: University of Chicago, Department of Visual Art

Instructor: Chris Bradley

Quarter: Winter 2021

This course introduces the technical fundamentals of sculptural practice. Using basic introductions to welding, basic woodworking and metal fabrication students will undertake assignments designed to deploy these new skills conceptually in their projects. Lectures and reading introduce the technical focus of the class in various historical, social and economic contexts. Discussions and gallery visits help engender an understanding of sculpture within a larger societal and historical context.

School: University of Chicago, Department of Visual Art

Instructor: Amber Ginsburg

Quarter: Autumn 2019

Ceramics and painting have a long intertwined history. In Natural History (77–79 AD), Pliny the Elder attempts to trace the history of portraiture. Butades the potter, brokenhearted at the departure of his soon-to-be-married daughter, catches a glimpse of her profile on the wall from the reflection cast by a candle and traces the outline with some clay. In the retelling of this narrative, this act of doubling is attributed, variously, to the origin of portrait painting and to the origin of the portrait modeling, depending on the focus of the outline as an act done by a brush or the plastic actions of filling in the trace. While historically apocryphal, this account captures the historical dance between ceramics as a surface for painting and material to form shape.

In this course, you will bring surface and form together to create a space and site of content. While using the inherently plastic nature of clay to create shape, the workshop format of this course will instrumentalize the surface to test and play with color and line. Thinking of ceramics as a flexible surface for archival paint, also known as glaze, this studio course will test glazes, oxides, decals, and multi-fired surfaces. Assignments will be geared towards experimental results that allow you to further your own interests and practices. You are not limited to ceramic materials, glazes or firing, however, you should experiment with these processes. As a class, we will learn how to manage firing and glaze protocols. While acknowledging that technical hurtles for clay are large, all works will be critiqued as an installation or complete work. Your work should reflect your ideas and the materials and techniques should support your interests.

School: Maryland Institute College of Art, Ceramics Department

Instructor: Rebecca Chappell

Semester: Spring 2014