Assignments and Due Dates: Topic #1 - The Creative Impulse

Topic #1 - The Creative Impulse

Why do we make things? What gives art power?

How do we define traditional folk arts? How do we define outsider art? How do these categories function in the context of Western art history? What are the folk art traditions in your heritage?

What types of aesthetic objects are around you in everyday life?  Which things are art art-based? Which are craft-based?

Schedule/Due Dates

8/29 (Tuesday) 

• Introduction; paper exercise; discussion of assignment

8/31 (Thursday) 

• Readings completed, two paragraph response to “The White Bird” uploaded to blog. Bring a copy to class for discussion.
• First three images or objects due.
• Bring assigned materials & tools to class

9/5 (Tuesday)

• All five images or objects due.
• Written response to PAMM visit due (uploaded via on-line Form- link will be sent out)

 9/7 (Thursday)

• In-Depth project due; critique begins promptly at 10:15am. (Bring any materials necessary to properly present your work such as push pins, tape, etc)

Assignments for this topic

Assignment 1. Homework Due 8/31 

Make three images or objects—2D, 3D or a combination of both—based on a similar object in your home/environment.

Notes:

Use the methods and materials with which you are most accomplished and have the most familiarity with. (What did you show in your portfolio to gain admission to NWSA? Use that material/media.)

If your methods are digital/photographic, you must bring a hard copy to class. Printed Size: no smaller than 10” and no larger than 16” largest dimension.

DO NOT BRING OLD WORK.

Assignment 2. Classwork Preparation for 8/31

Bring to class a set of materials you feel comfortable working with—markers, pens, paper, clay, fabric, thread, and more. Photography and other digital methods will not work here; bring in something that allows you to work with your hands. You must also bring the materials and tools on your materials list.DO NOT BRING ANYTHING YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT LOSING.


Assignment 3. Five small works in any medium. Due 9/5

Two additional images or objects will be assigned and begun in class. You will have a total of five images/objects to present on 9/5. Three from first homework assignment and two more begun in class. All work must be documented on blog.

Assignment 4. In-Depth Project (this will take long to complete). Due 9/7

In addition to assignments 1 – 3 listed above, you will work on one larger piece that takes the ideas and techniques you are exploring through this topical section further. This project will be due at the end of the section and must be more ambitious in scope (scale, complexity, and conceptual & technical development) than the related small works.

Required Readings

“The White Bird” by John Berger. From The Sense of Sight, Vintage; First International Edition, November 30, 1993. Web version accessed on 8/18/2016

http://asymptotik.net/artweb/white_bird.html

Jerry Saltz, “Jerry Saltz on the Outsider Art Fair — and Why There’s No Such Thing As ‘Outsider’ Art,” Vulture.com  February 1, 2013, accessed on 8/18/2016

http://www.vulture.com/2013/02/jerry-saltz-on-the-outsider-art-fair.html

Required Outside Museum Visit

 Spots, Dots, Pips, Tiles: An exhibition about Dominoes at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.  This will count as one of your outside visits, and you must write a two paragraph response, Post this to your blog, including a selfie at the site, and bring a hard copy to class.

http://pamm.org/exhibitions/spots-dots-pips-tiles-exhibition-about-dominoes-0

Pérez Art Museum Miami

1103 Biscayne Blvd.,  Miami, FL 33132

305 375 3000     

                                  

Some areas for your research to begin

About John Berger, who passed away last January:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/02/john-berger-obituary

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/arts/design/john-berger-provocative-art-critic-dies-at-90.html

Prehistoric Art http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/science/new-dating-puts-cave-art-in-the-age-of-neanderthals.htm

African Rock Art http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rock/hd_rock.htm

Chauvet http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chav/hd_chav.htm

Lascaux http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lasc/hd_lasc.htm

Altamira

Traditional Folk Arts

Museum of International Folk Art http://www.internationalfolkart.org/

American Folk Art Museum http://folkartmuseum.org/ Browse the collection. What things art art-based? What are craft-based?

The history of folk art traditions is very long, and the variety of objects is enormous. One way to approach this is to look at a single category—textiles, for example—and investigate the way various cultures make and use textiles, and the aesthetic qualities of each tradition. Here is a beginning:

·      Gee’s Bend quilts http://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers Shaker quilts, Amish quilts and other American quilt traditions

·      Hand-loomed fabrics of India

·      African textiles (Kente, Mudcloth, many others)

·      Huipil – a traditional garment of Mexico and Central America

Outsider Artists (Visionary or Self-Taught Artists)

Judith Scott

Martin Ramirez

Hilma af Klint

Emma Kunz

Henry Darger

James Castle http://jamescastle.com/

Bill Traylor

Sam Rodia, Watts Towers http://www.wattstowers.us/

Howard Finster
Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Jean Dubuffet and Art Brut http://www.artbrut.ch/en/21017/19/dubuffet---art-brut