Cupid’s fancy is only varnish deep, coming Spring 2015

What are those flowers, pearls and places of delight all about? What set of ideals really run through the art of the 18th century? Enlightenment? This innovative art history course takes on the lineage of sources beneath the Late Baroque and/or Rococo Painting into the shades of which we see in the present. The units are organized according to chronology, geography, philosophy and theme, with special attention given to the main centers of production. 

TR 1:30-2:50, no prerequisites; recommended for both art history and painting students.

*Image above by Francois Boucher

Teach Talent

NEW! Senior Expo & Forum:

Cochenour Gallery, Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY

http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/galleries/

November 7 – November 21, 2014

Reception and lecture: Friday, November 7, 12:00-2:00 p.m.

Georgetown College is pleased to present Teach Talent. A team of researchers, Catherine Shelburne and Miranda Sosby, will explore the current issues in art education. Why is talent important? How can it be recognized? How can it be nurtured? Recent reports claim that there is a desperate need for talent outside the realm of what higher education provides. Creativity, emotional intelligence, and true enjoyment, lacking or not, are skills that can be taught. By simply implementing a few proposed ideas into the secondary school programs today, the team suggests, we can significantly increase our talent-pool for the future.

The project will launch at the Cochenour Gallery and run through November 21, with an opening reception on Friday, November 7 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. The related presentation by Ms. Shelburne will begin at 12:30 p.m., to be followed by a brief Q&A session. The gallery will host Teach Talent’s direct proposals, interactive teaching tools, and their ideas for curricular/content managing. All events are free and open to the public.

Both Catherine Shelburne and Miranda Sosby are 2014 BA candidates at Georgetown College.

For further information please contact:

Jeanette Tesmer, Director of Art Galleries and Curator of Collections

Email: jeanette_tesmer@georgetowncollege.edu

Phone: 502-863-8399

Fotofocus Biennial; Congrats Sheldyn!

The Cincinnati Fotofocus Biennial is coming up in a few weeks, featuring numerous exhibitions, lectures, and photography opportunities from October 8–November 1, with most of the events occurrung during our Fall Break (Oct. 8–12). I attended in 2012 and had a wonderful experience gallery hopping in downtown Cinci.

Super big congratulations to our very own Sheldyn Duff whose work was juried into the regional student show. Her work and others will be on display at the Findlay Street Project Space with an opening reception on Saturday, October 11 from 11 AM–2 PM.

Image: Sheldyn Duff, Untitled, Archival Digital Print, 2014

Grand Gesture @ PUBLIC, through Sep. 27

Grand Gesture, Paintings by Boris Zakic, will be on exhibit August 14 –September 27, 2014 at PUBLIC, the LVAA’s gallery in Downtown Louisville.

A subtle examination of mark making expands to embrace sweepingly romantic pictorialism in an ambitious new exhibition from Zakic. In the large canvases reminiscent of the late Baroque or Romantic periods, Zakic combines what might seem like conflicting elements into the magnificent allegories of love with a lush, continental grandeur.

“Initially, the gestures were to have an unparalleled ‘airiness,’ as if extensions to an evening breeze or a kind of bird song you may hear in the mornings,” explains Zakic. Brushstrokes, simultaneously abstract and highly realistic permeate representational images and evoke art movements that are, on their surface, in opposition to the modern sensibility of Zakic’s recent projects. If you have seen his Shhh, Flicker (Galerie Hertz, 2014) or the Painting at The New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project (2013-2015), the Grand Gesture will rather surprise and perhaps amaze you. (preview available here)

Zakic has taught at Georgetown College since 2000, where he teaches a popular painting course for art majors entitled Impasto Mannerisms. The course is dedicated to the study of gesturalist painting almost exclusively. In 2010 Zakic received the Frank F. Weisberg Award for Excellence in Painting from the Louisville Visual Art Association. In addition, a concurrent exhibit, Grand Gesture: Sublime, will be at Eastern Kentucky University’s Fred Parker Giles Gallery (link) August 18 – September 12, 2014.

More Information:

Website: http://www.louisvillevisualart.org/event/grand-gesture-opening-reception/

Source: http://www.artebelladaily.org/artists/boris-zakic-2/

Food For Thought, Boat Club, Louisville, Sep.16th

Boris Zakic, "Grand Gesture" from Louisville Visual Art on Vimeo.

Sublime @ EKU: promo card!

I cordially invite you all to my EKU expo and the reception on September 11th, 5-7 pm (directions)

welcome back!

It is very exciting time, particularly for me: I have been missing teaching very much over the last few months. In the next few days, all of us (art faculty) will be spending time with our new orientation groups, eagerly looking ahead to a jam-packed year of events and projects -- please join us anytime!

above: waiting for shuttle to Windsor Gardens (service project)

above: lining up for the class photo yesterday evening, class of 2018

To all tigers (incoming or returning): Have a great 1st day of class!!!

FALL 2014!!!!!

It's a move-in day: I have just finished painting Earl Gray's office, only to opt for my old "white" one. Have a look below -- feels like a gallery now!

Embracing Challenges

"Momentum," a light and sound show at The Curve, an art space at the Barbican Center in London.
Galleries are creating unconventional  spaces to showcase unusual exhibits. Credit James Medcraft/Barbican 

What is an "unconventional" space? In the gallery world, unconventional usually means non-rectangular. Take a look at the space at Barbican, London. This area shown above was deemed a concourse (think airport) non-site yet it has become the hub of installations of late. Artists are drawn to the unusual space and take advantage of it. A former challenge is now embraced.

Here's a photo of the lavish interior of the Guggenheim.
I took this photograph last Winter at the Gutai exhibition.

Exterior of the Guggenheim, New York

An unconventional space that might be a bit more familiar comes from our art history survey textbooks...Frank Lloyd Wright's structure for the space that would become known as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on New York's Upper East Side. Think of the Guggenheim as one piece of bread and the Met as the other—the slices of architecture embrace the natural environment of Central Park.

When it opened in 1959, the Guggenheim was deemed an eyesore because it was considered a work of (applied) art that could perhaps detract from the real art on view. Like the Barbican's space, the Guggenheim presented installation challenges — how to hang in a space that lacks 90-degree angles. But now, this New York gem is a coveted space for artists to use. Truly, artists of the modern and contemporary eras have risen to the challenge and embraced such overbearing structures and, as a result, have activated spaces in new ways.

Perhaps in a very short while, London's Barbican will become the kind of cultural icon that Solomon R.'s building has become.

Dangerdust...

Thanks to KLev for sharing this link with me. Artists working with chalk on a chalkboard in a rather stealth manner. Since a number of students have commented on the Chanel poster in my office, I thought this image would be of interest. Enjoy! 

Majors Party 2014 pix

Thanks to everyone who came over on Thursday evening, May 1. It was a chilly one this year—meaning next year, it should be balmy! That's been our history: hot one year, cool the next.

It was great to see all of the faculty, families, students, and our special guest star alumni (Maddy and Hannah!!!) as well as special guest star students, Jaylin, Joey, and Travis. I didn't do a great job taking photos this year — I was too busy taking care of the grill. So I only have a few. But, hope you enjoy them. 

Good luck studying for finals and Happy Graduation to our seniors!

Time to catch up with old friends

Time to play some games and relax, too

Lots of toppings for the burgers and dogs...where's Kristin's cookies? :)

Cartoons go Bald for Good!

A project that started in Brazil is now going international: Bald Cartoons!

In an effort to make kids who have cancer feel more comfortable with the unfortunate affects of chemo therapy, a Brazilian campaign was imaged to take beloved children cartoons and make them bald. Cartoons now around the world will be getting a buzz.

These characters will air episodes with their locks buzzed for seemingly no reason. Just like a kid who has cancer. The characters don't have to explain their baldness to others. Everything continues as normal... just as it would for real kids.

Check out the NPR news article here.

According to Roberto Fernandez, executive creative officer at the ad agency Ogilvy Brazil, kids have already felt more comfortable at school and so have their peers.

It is amazing how a little less hair goes a long way!

Art Majors Party: This Thursday @ 5 pm!

All GC students who have declared a major in ART are welcome to join their faculty and peers at a year-end picnic on Thursday, May 1 (the last day of classes)! The festivities begin at 5 pm. All art majors—all class years are welcome! First year students: it's not too early to fill out that paperwork to become an "official" art major!

2012: all smiles Dana, Evey, and April

Edward Hopper's Movie Debut

I'm not quite sure how I stumbled on this but I am so glad that I did. 

'Director Gustav Deutsch brings 13 Hopper paintings to life in his film, Shirley - Visions of Reality, the story of a woman whose thoughts, emotions and contemplations lets us observe an era in American history.'

Intense set design and research was conducted to create each vignette of this film to perfect the exact Edward Hopper scene.

This is a sketch of Hanna Schimet, the set designer, for a particular scene.

The results of painting to film are completely unbelievable. 

The film synopsis:
Shirley is a woman in America in the 1930s, ‘40s, ‘50s, and early ‘60s. A woman who would like to influence the course of history with her professional and socio-political involvement. A woman who does not accept the reality of the Depression years, WWII, the McCarthy era, race conflicts and civil rights campaigns as given but rather as generated and adjustable. A woman whose work as an actress has familiarised her with the staging of reality, the questioning and shaping of it; an actress who doesn’t identify her purpose and future with that of solo success or stardom but who strives to give social potency to theatre as part of a collective. A woman who cannot identify with the traditional role model of a wife yet longs to have a life partner. A woman who does not compromise in moments of professional crisis and is not afraid to take on menial jobs to secure her livelihood. A woman who in a moment of private crisis decides to stick with her partner and puts her own professional interest on the back burner. A woman who is infuriated by political repression yet not driven to despair, and who has nothing but disdain for betrayal.

Shirley, an attractive, charismatic, committed, emancipated woman.

For more information click here.

Save the Date: May 1 5-7 pm

Declare your art major & come to a party! 

Um WOW "watch" this

Amazing craft and blend of contemporary technology and traditional craft. I think one of my favorite bits is at 2:13 with the little set of the minute hand…just wonderful.

Ive always had a familiarity and affinity with and for time pieces. I grew up with a number of my days being spent in the clock shop of my grandfather. My office looks a bit like his shop I'll try and dig up some photos. There is just so much to look at and ask questions about. He is a true fix it man. If you ever see the grandmother clock, or coo coo clock in my office they belonged to him. Something about moving parts and how things work has always followed me. I also have always enjoyed precision, something about making something as best you can is fulfilling and somehow essential.

I think back to my first years in art school where there was constant phrase "if you can't make it good make it big, if you can't make it big make it red". It was thrown out as criticism and a joke as well as sometimes advice. I always love when people make things small. That takes courage. All of its flaws and craft are available, it cannot often hide behind scale or anything else for that matter. Anyhow enjoy the video, hopefully it makes you think of how you make things.

Undergrad Research

As noted earlier, Lynsey and Rebecca were invited to present two papers at Asbury as part of the National Council on Undergraduate Research's "Undergrad Research Week." The GC students made their presentations and took questions from the audience of about 25 students and profs. Some of the questions were challenging—but they helped our students to broaden their discussion and to think about their topics in another way.

Thank you to our hosts, Professor Patrick Adams (whose work you can check out here) and Dr. Linda Stratford, for inviting us to join them. Lynsey and Rebecca presented their work on contemporary art and the "end" of art, as noted in an earlier post here.

Dear World

Photographer Robert X. Fogarty starting a community photography project titled Dear World  in 2009 in the aftermath of the devastation in New Orleans. He invited survivors to be photographed with their 'love letter' to the city.

Robert claims "We aren't changing the world, we are taking pictures of people who are." Through the years Dear World has become a 'social experiment, an art project, and a business.'

The team has photographed cancer survivors, citizens from Joplin, MO who are picking up the pieces after tornado wreckage, New York after hurricane Sandy, celebrities with positive world messages, and other high powered humanitarians. But what I want to highlight is Dear World: Boston Marathon Survivors + First Responders.
 
A little over a year ago I was in my office with a live stream of the marathon minimized on my computer screen and all cued up to receive text message updates. Why? My brother-in-law, a former professional marathon runner, was coaching a friend of his in preparation for the race. At the last minute Ben decided to run with Adam as a pacer. Ben was convinced that Adam would come away with his best PR and qualify (again) for the Olympic marathon trials. My sister and niece and Adam's pregnant wife were all in attendance in the grandstand.

Our department had an end of the year meeting and just out of habit I brought my phone with me. Though on silent, I could see out of the corner of my eye my phone crazy lighting up. All I could think was WOW these guys are really kicking it. You receive these text updates at check points along the course. They must have been flying. The next time I glanced down I had a text from my cousin. We aren't super close so it was a strange message to get. She said something to the affect of ... 'I just saw what happened, I know Jen and Ben are there... are they OK?

PANIC!

I tried calling my sister, Jen. Then my mom, my dad. Then my other sister. Then instead of live updates from a happy healthy event I was getting live updates from tragedy and terror.

Thankfully, Adam DID run his best PR that day and qualified and Ben wasn't too far behind him. They were safe. So was my sister, niece, and friend.

Seeing these survivor images from Dear World really hit home for me. Those people could be my family and friends. They could be my brother and sister. These powerful images of strength, resilience, and love overcome the fear and terror that was forced upon this peaceful event.

As a society we see violence on TV, in movies, on the news even. We get jaded and numbed to humanity. When you see images. LOOK. Stop just seeing: Look. Who are these people. What is their story, struggles, pain, happiness, love, peace....

Three Art Events: Stations of the Cross, Gallery Hop, LAL Spring CSA

As the semester winds down, art events and happening continue to be in full swing. If you're looking for a few opportunities to be involved, here are three coming up in the near future.

Stations of the Cross Pilgrimage (tonight!)
There will be a walk this evening beginning at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Lexington at 6:30 tonight that will travel across town to Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. I and group of other local artists have installed artworks to accompany the 14 Stations of the Cross as part of Holy Week. The project has been spearheaded by Mark Davis of First Pres and Brian Cole of Good Shepherd, along with Becky Alley of the Lexington Art League. For my part, I was responsible for Station IV, Jesus is denied by Peter (pictured below, located at the corner of Spruce and 2nd streets).

Link to the map of the walk:

Gallery Hop (Friday)
Come out this Friday to enjoy and celebrate the work of regional artists during the semester's last Gallery Hop in downtown Lexington. It runs from about 5–8 PM and includes a variety of venues. I always enjoy visiting Mary Rezny, Ann Tower, and the Bread Box. Mary will be featuring The Art of Structure (image below).

Lexington Art League Spring CSA (next Friday, April 25)
LAL will be holding its 3rd CSA Harvest Party. This is a Community Supported Art project that allows anyone to purchase a share of artwork from 9 featured regional artists. (Daniel and I were featured in the first and second harvests last summer and fall.) The event will be from 6–9 at the Loudon House and will included food, music, and a ART!

Art History @ Georgetown College

The visual art major allows students to develop an emphasis in studio art or art history. The students, as part of their capstone experience, participate together in an exhibition/research presentation each fall and spring (during each student's last term of enrolling in art courses).

This spring, two senior art history majors participated in the senior thesis course: Rebecca and Lynsey (shown below on the very balmy opening of the thesis reception). As part of their theses requirements, each of them presented their research findings at the opening of the senior exhibition and took questions from a packed audience in room 104—minds curious about contemporary art. A second portion was the construction and reasoned analysis of primary data (in the form of surveys and data analysis by Rebecca and data compilation and analysis of auction records by Lynsey). The third portion is the writing of a thesis (meeting a 30 page minimum, with the use of 30 sources). [Current junior art history major, Catherine: you have your work cut out for you!]

AAM MAP

These past few days in the gallery we welcomed Zinnia Willits, Director of Collections Administration at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, SC and her shadow, Lauren Silberman, Program Officer for the Museum Assessment Program through the American Alliance of Museums.

About nine months ago, Dr. Juilee Decker and I wrote a Museum Assessment Program (MAP) grant that is sponsored by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) to specifically assess our collections stewardship. The grant was long and laborious and I learned a lot of institutional knowledge (thanks to Dr. Decker) that I had not know. When writing such a grant you learn a lot about your institution as well as the distinctive writing style and skill it takes to apply for a grant.

The Georgetown College Fine Arts Galleries was awarded the grant though our writing did not stop there. Once we received word that our application was selected, we then needed to complete the necessary workbook. This series of questions reflected our day to day operations, our polices and procedures, and our hope for the future of the Galleries. We had three goals in mind: to strengthen our operation, to plan for the future of Georgetown College's collection, and to continue to strive to meet national museum standards.

The past two days Zinnia met with students, faculty, administrative staff, the CFO, and facilities. It was a wonderful experience for me to have a mini conference centered right around our collection and Galleries. Ideas were shared as well as concerns. But overall, the reception of these meetings was positive and I GREATLY appreciate all who were willing to participate.

Over the next month or so Zinnia will complete her report. This report will reflect how the Galleries are function now, if we are on the right track in turns of national standards, and how to improve. We have a lot to think about for the next few days as we combine all of our own thoughts on the subjects that were discussed.

I am so glad and honored with the opportunity that the Galleries were awarded. This will be a wonderful examination in how the Galleries continue to function and how to better serve the Georgetown College and its community.

(I wish I had a picture to show you!)

Collections Stewardship

logo by Cailley

Thanks to a grant from the American Alliance of Museums, Lauren from the American Alliance of Museums (based in DC) and Zinnia from the Gibbes Museum (Charleston, SC) are on site Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the Museum Assessment Program’s “Collections Stewardship” peer review. Zinnia is visiting and conducting the review of our collections; Lauren is shadowing Zinnia in order to see the process as it unfolds at a smaller organization/institution such as ours.

This site visit is part of a two-year review that we have undertaken in our Art Department to assess our collections and our care of them. This is akin to an academic department undertaking self-study and a site visit from a peer reviewer. 

Field Trip: GSCM

Photo by Museum Director David Rice

Thank you to Mr. David Rice, Director of the Georgetown & Scott County Museum (GSCM), for welcoming us to their space last week. Students in the FDN 112 "Engaging Objects" course had the opportunity to learn about the museum and to explore the collections on their own. Some photographs of our time there and our "favorites" are below, including Pete the Crow!

Director of the Georgetown & Scott County Museum,
Mr. David Rice, welcomed our group.

Creative Placemaking

This past Thursday I attended a symposium in Lexington on Creative Placemaking presented by LexArts' Art Means Business Forum and the Gaines Center's Lafayette Seminar in Public Issues.

There was an earlier presentation in the day presented by Anne Gadwa Nicodemus who works as a consultant at Metris Arts Consulting, has co-authored, Creative Placemaking (2010) and authored, Fuzzy Vibrancy (Cultural Trends, 2013).

The symposium was set up as a round table discussion of the 'movers and shakers' in Lexington as well as business professions, a lawyer, a professor, and financial guru for Downtown Lexington.

Since 'creative placemaking' is still in the early stages of being develop as a term and accepted in the world of art history as well as community, there was a very interesting beginning discussion about what this ACTUALLY means. Many phrases were thrown out like: organic collaboration, highlighting assets of a community, cultural, heritage, and cross-sector organization.

Ms. Nicodemus' defines it as this: In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, tribe, city, or region around arts and cultural activities.

This discuss took me down many different roads of what this 'placemaking' can be. We discussed not only PLACE but RITUAL such as WaterFire in Providence, Rhode Island where the community comes together at random times to light lamps along the river side and other coordinating events.

All of this discuss has got me thinking about Georgetown College's Create Places --- do we have any? if so, where are they? if not, how do we make them? what people are involved?

Study Photography Abroad: London & Dublin Meeting

I will be leading a photography course abroad through CCSA next winter term for two weeks to London, England and Dublin, Ireland. The topic will be landscape/cityscape photography and culminate in the production of a self-published photo book through Blurb.com. (Here's an example of my book from a previous trip.)

 

Click here to see students on our last trip at on the Lodon Eye, riding the tube, at the Globe Theatre, Stonehenge, Bath (England), St. Patrick's Cathedral, Glendalough (Ireland), and more.

While there we will make photographs on the city streets of London and Dublin, visit major museums, tour landmarks and historic sites, travel in the region, and perhaps take in a show or two. There will be plenty of opportunity to shop and enjoy local cuisine, as well as celebrating the new year on the Thames with Big Ben if you like.

The trip flies out December 26 and returns returns January 8. Coursework (in terms of editing photos, online discussion, and production of the book) will continue into the beginning of the spring semester.

Application deadline is September 26. Course costs are $4295 (including airfare) or $3295 (excluding airfare).

There will be a brief informational meeting on Tuesday, April 15 at 5:00 PM in the Wilson Art Building, room 104. Come and find out more if you may be interested, and bring a friend!

See you then,
Prof. Darrell Kincer

Printmaking everywhere

In todays digital environment CMYK, halftone dots, and pixels are inescapable in the areas of production and entertainment. In the past 10 years or so there has been a real swing back to laborious processes and "traditional" ways of making. Many have seen this evident in fonts and letterpress as well as other forms of art processes such as sign painting, chalk menus, hand tools, typewriters etc. But I have seen it in one area more than most…. and that is in children's books. So here are a couple of ones I  saw on my most recent trip to the bookstore as well as one of my favorites. First one called "If you want to see a whale" by Julie Fogliano. The title is hand set type but my favorites are the illustrations using mono prints and woodblock hand printing. I acted like an absolute printmaking nerd if front of strangers when I saw the use of the woodblock grain in this book. Some sample images are below.

This grain texture seen is made by thinning the ink and pulling the mono print while the ink is still freshly rubbed into the wood rather than rolled.

This wall of sea color in the back is what is called printing "Salty" 

The next book "The wolves in the walls" By Neil Gaiman uses hand drawing as well as silkscreen and mono print. 

And one of my personal favs in the area of kids books (primarily because of its printing) is "Sick Day with Amos McGee" by Philip C Stead. The use of woodblocks and drawing are just fantastic. I have collected a few in process images from the artist so you can see how the final images are achieved. 

Great story of a zoo keeper who gets sick and while he usually takes care of the animals this time the animals take care of him. It is all done in relief blocks and graphite. 

Click for larger view

Click for larger view

rough sketch of the scene 

A more detailed sketch to start blocks and place at scale

Carved blocks based off of colors needed using the drawing for placements

Print without the drawing on top. Combining two woodblocks. 

Final image with drawing on top of the woodblock print. 

 Anyhow I hope that in all areas of visual culture you can begin to see where the handmade and the aesthetic of the artist is coming further forward. And rather than visual culture being dictated by technology or technical gimmick the visual culture is being produced by choice.