New semester new start

 

Motto for us all...

A 14 x 20 ft wall stands before you. How long should it take to finish and when do you work on it knowing it is not the only thing you have on your plate to get done.  Beyond this, have fun in the process!

Pewter casting for the new school year...

 

We had our first night of Wyoming Sculpture Society and it was great fun. 

For some, it was their first time casting metal as I did over 28 years ago.

Crazy how things repeat and who knew I would end up in this place for going on 19 years. 

I am so lucky to get to work with the students I get to work with every day.

Mobile Maker Spaces Coming to K-12 in Wyoming!!

 

Ben Butler coming in March 2022 to install in New UW Science Initiative Building

 Ben Butler, amazing sculptor is coming to the UW campus in March of 2022 to install his new public art piece within the brand new Science Initiative Building.  Students will get to talk and meet with Ben as well as hopefully be helpful in his install.  Come check out the work when it is installed!  

For more info: ahc1@uwyo.edu

Happy 2022!

I don't know about  you but a new year was just what we needed. A new perspective, new issues,but new time for making art and sculpture in particular! This past fall was hustling and bustling in the best possible way but this spring has full sculptural practice courses and the promise of amazing work to come.

Have you checked out this amazing website called This is Colossal?  Well Peter Callesen’s new work is a amazing as usual. Check it out!

New Year...new clean page. cheers!

End of Fall is near

 

Linda Fleming

Love this image as it shows all of the various iterations an artist can come up with that are absolutely beautiful and inspiring.

At a time when I hear students say to me, I wish this.. or class should have been like that..., I often have to remind myself of this quote.  You have to have a tough skin as a teacher in this world. Paid the least and scrutinized the most.

I am not here to give all of the answers but to hopefully inspire, teach by example, ask more questions than give all of the answers, and to gently push my students to think about what they are making.  

This job is a privilege and I know how lucky I am to be here at UW and to teach the students in our studio classrooms everyday. 

I also sacrifice time in my studio for my teaching and yet need to teach by example and get back to making.  Looking forward to the break before spring semester to make this happen.

I learned not by example but by what not to do in more instances than one. Quite a few of my professors didn't teach, did not inspire, and did not push. Maybe this is why I teach the way I do and care as much as I do.  I do not want a student to ever feel this way about me.  This was not true of my K-12 experience however and for that I am grateful.  

I knew I was going to teach one day, but never what age or grade or place and here I am.

I am lucky. I am an artist/teacher.

Clifton Cox comes to Laramie

 We were lucky to have had Clifton Cox from Kentucky pay us a visit to UWYO sculpture while installing his work as part of a sculpture call from LPAC Public Art.

Taking Flight

He was so lovely and the students really needed his energy this week during midterm. Thank you Clifton for spending time with us! Cant wait to see you again in the Fall for some iron pouring.

Adobe creative suite during Covid until May 31st

Hey all,

As an artist I absolutely am indebted to Adobe - InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator especially.

Right now it's free. Follow the link below and try it out.
ADOBE Site


The $30-40 month is steep so this is a deal to take advantage of right now.

What a wonder of a woman

How could anyone not love the work of Louise Bourgeois?

Watch her Art 21- she is so feisty and self assured.

                 


Music to dwell on after seeing an amazingly humble documentary. Click and really listen to the words. Makes sense for the time we are in.
The boys

Oh dear oh my..

So sad that we lost this talent! So connected to my hometown.

Ellis Marsalis you are loved and will be missed.

   

gig on youtube

Positivity Post #2-Jeff Lockwood

Good Stuff in Bad Times

Jeff Lockwood

1. Zooming with both of my kids on Sunday evenings (when we’d just phone each of them every couple of weeks in a haphazard fashion before now).
2. Playing games with my brother and his family on Saturday evenings (Codenames has been really fun via Zoom).
3. Re-connecting with some old friends who’d drifted away for various “good” reasons that weren’t very good after all now that we’re thinking about what’s really important.
4. Reading the entirety of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries as a big project (about two-thirds of the way through the tales which allow a wonderful escape from this reality).
5. Writing Sherlock Holmes pastiches (sold one to Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine), and distilling each of Conan Doyle’s stories in exactly 17 syllables (to match the 17 stairs from the street up to Holmes’s domicile).
6. Spoiling Gus, the cat.  He’s getting old and needs lots of affection and warm places to nap.
7. Enjoying time with Nan, the wife.  She’s getting old and needs lots of affection and warm places to snuggle.  Actually, it’s nice having “coffee breaks” and lunch together every day.
8. Watching and listening to the daily opera recordings from the Met which are now available for free, online via their “Nightly Opera Stream” (available for 24 hours after each night’s ‘performance’).
9. Marveling at how much better I look when wearing a bandana as a mask and how it gives me the cachet of a western train robber.
10. Chuckling at the capacity of humans to find moments of light in the dark hours through humor, such this from Michael Niavarani (Austrian comedian): “When this is all over, I’ll treat myself to a couple of nice, quiet days at home.”

Positivity Project Post #1_Anne Guzzo

From Anne Guzzo in Santa Fe, NM for sabbatical/ away from Laramie home

OK…...

I have been trying to keep a journal of “silver linings." 

Time outside (in my case, in an interesting, cultural place with nature, desert, ruins, etc.)

Time with family (Bonnie)

exercise time - I, too, have been walking about 5 miles every day.

birds - listening, seeing

dreaming about a new doggy in my life soon and maybe I’ll get chickens, too

flowers - apricot trees were miracles, and now we are on to cherries and apples

adobe architecture - warm, interesting, all different and sculptural in conception. No damn cookie-cutters here!

time to organize my files (when my brain is working, which is actually rare right now)

time to do my taxes (when my brain is working, see above)

time to read fiction - I love fiction, and I almost feel like I am a teenager, and I can put on an “album” and then just read. (I just finished Bless Me, Ultima - a coming of age story for the Northern New Mexico area.)

some delivery food - NM chile! And Chinese food. 

Weekly calls zoom calls with my extended family - I’m finally talking to my brother and sister-in-law and niece and nephew.

Zoom with my pub group

connecting with other friends once a day by phone

time to create - though only….you guessed it, when my brain is working, which is rare! Hah. 

So far, I still have my job and so does Bonnie….

Having a nice relationship with our Santa Fe landlord, who is a wonderful lady of 83 - and her cat, Sophie Sunshine

Getting to know Santa Fe’s roads and streets really well by walking them. 

UU services in Santa Fe are broadcast, and uplifting. (Zoom coffee hour with the septugenarians and octagenarians afterwards is….less fulfilling.)

MOST IMPORTANT: letting myself be kind to myself. I’m accepting what creativity I can do, and accepting my lack of creativity and productivity when I lack it, allowing myself pleasures (dark chocolate, for example) while still taking care of myself, walking. 

Calm before the snow..

How does one be creative when it feels like the world is falling apart? 

How do we as professors/teachers ask our students to be creative in a time like this? 

I remember Hurricane Katrina hitting the gulf coast I love so much and not knowing where my family was and if they would be okay.  There was this unknown and eerie drive to watch the news ALL of the time which showed only stupid people looting and folks on their roofs waving for help.

You feel helpless and distant and guilty and sad.

It is hard to help because the work you have chosen pays your bills, or the schooling you are in is not finished and it's up to you to do so.

It's hard to not look at the news because you feel so far away,
you are hopeful for any kind of positive news

that says things are getting better.

The one thing you want to do is throw your arms around those that are hurting and we currently cannot do this.

I am supposed to be advising students but how do you advise on the future when we do not know what that is?

I have been taking walks around the tree area of Laramie every day simply to get some fresh air, perspective, and exercise.  Ive gone from walking/teaching a minimum of 5 miles a day to sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time.

It clears my head and makes me smile looking at others getting out too. We stay away from each other but still being human together.

Then when I get back to home, I feel almost as if it were summer, and my time is simply my time.

This then allows me to be creative.
To problem solve.
To smile and laugh and be hopeful.

Keeping my hands busy allows my mind to be busy in a productive way.  I also surround myself with people I love, we have corona cocktails at 5 with different friends and family, and we laugh and cook dinner together.  It makes the time pass and we get to see our favorite faces.

This keeps me going.

Things will get better.

Something may happen in our future that disrupts our lives again, but maybe for reasons of merely getting back to what is important.  To love, to make and make a difference in the world, and 

to be kept on our toes.

Until the snow hits this weekend, I will enjoy the warmth and perspective Wyoming is bestowing us.

Track for the day:

Samba da Bencao- Bebel Gilberto

favorite art image..

Eva Hesse

Henri Matisse in bed still working

Henri Matisse

Don't let anything stop you from creating.

Facebook find on a blog for art professors figuring out what the hell to do for the rest of the semester online!

Figuring things out...and tips for photographing your work

 

Youtube

Covid19 changes how we deliver sculpture and school in general

So while I am putting together this online version of my course, I keep reminding myself that our students will have unknown entities pulling them in every direction, and school , esp. sculpture, most likely is at the bottom of the list. We are supposed to pick up BFA work in a week and have had to think about the reality that we can set up a show, but there will be no one to see it, and contact with humans will have to be a part of this process. An online exhibition seems to be what we should do, but damn- this sucks! I can tell students are giving up, and freaked out and all you can do is say, this too shall pass. We have been given the task of going from interacting with our students daily, especially as a sculpture professor, to no interaction except through this machine I am currently praying does not die on me. I worry about my students mindset, what they are dealing with while I plan, and how this will work.
With all of this said, I think in times like this, when we are cooped up inside because a blizzard is coming, we should keep our hands and minds busy. Pretend we don't have to do anything, and use the creativity we have honed for our whole lives. Every day, when my boys are asleep, I pledge to put up art/sculpture ideas for students and artists alike to keep your mind and hands busy. It will help me as well to share what I love and imagine the 10 followers on this blog might turn into 100s just for the love of connecting to you as a human. Hope you enjoy and please reach out if you have any questions. ahc1@uwyo.edu

Todays food for thought...

We as teachers have these plans of what we will do every semester. I think about it, and play/practice with the ideas, research inspiration in artists to look at and materials/processes to focus on, and I have to figure out how my well thought out plan can be changed to eliminate our face to face interaction. Instead of giving the students big projects, focus on small tasks/pieces the students can finish quicker while still focusing on materials and processes they can do at home. They may be caring for an elder family member or watching their siblings while their single mom has to go to work, we simply do not know what other burdens our students are carrying, so instead of adding to it, allow them an 1/2 an hour-1 hr a day that they dedicate to keeping their hands and minds busy. I think of Linda Fleming and her maquettes. How beautiful and different each one is. Of course she does a lot of these with a laser cutter which is not an option, so what about an xacto blade and paper that the student picks whether from the to do list, or the newspaper that is in the recycle bin, or god forbid, an old book that is laying around. I am not only reconfiguring my class a bit, I am getting ready for a public art project proposal ( which has not been canceled crazily-yet..)with my husband which means writing and drawing to sell an idea and making maquettes to wow. Let's go back to the basics. Bigger is not always better, but give it some scale, a footer, a small person next to it so though the piece is 6 inches tall, the students finds or makes a tree, a figure walking, a dog made of sculpey next to the piece so we imagine what the piece will look like at 20 ft tall.

16th Annual Iron Pour Fun

Every fall, we at UWYO, have an annual iron pour.  This pour allows students to cast artworks in iron that is donated and broken down, but we also invite the community to come and create a tile that holds drawings or text and is poured in iron.  We have created quite a following in Laramie.  Pouring iron in particular really asks the students to work together as a  group and accomplish something together. You have to lean on each other and trust has to be formed so the pour runs smooth and everyone gets out without scars.  The work is beautiful/thoughtful and this year we got to throw around some iron as well.

Food for thought on teaching and making art

So it is April 2019, and the school's end of the semester is in sight.  What a great semester full of interesting questions and delights as students feel their way through sculpture. 2018 was rough as it really taught me how much the college student as we have known them has changed.  I wish I could say that that was a positive thing but not when you feel as if you are working against a wall most of the time. It is exhausting.  This semester has taught me there is hope.  I have great students that are a constant reminder of why I teach.  They want to learn and want honesty in their art-making practice.
I could very well be comfortable in my studio dealing only with energy that is positive and hard working.  Teaching does not always bring this energy, but I do my best to support my students while making work- often times alongside them.
On my off day- I run errands and accomplish things that are quick and I can scratch off of my list which leads to a smile every time.  But I also can't help but plan for the next day of teaching. When I do this I often get ideas for my own work and the two processes feed each other.  It reminds me of artists I have not looked at in awhile like Christiane Haase:

and Daniel Agdag: 

Antony Gormley and Louise Bourgeois live in my teaching world each semester and always inform my work. If you have never seen the Art 21 with Louise- please do! It's my favorite. I love the way she touches her work while she speaks.

Teaching allows me to remember how I teach- very hands-on- fun but full of hard work. Fierce integrity and passion allow me to speak my heart and mind in the classroom and people either appreciate that or run from it.

 4th Biennial Western Cast Iron Art Conference hug with Daniel Hunt and Noah Kirby in Laramie, Wyoming.

The most I can do is throw out ideas to the students and see what they catch and what they let go. Tells me a lot about who they are and what/how they want to learn.

Ideas have homes....



Ideas shape who we are and what we stand for.

Rian Kerrane and Yumi Roth coming to UW!

We are so lucky to have Rian Kerrane and Yumi Roth to UW .

Come to Laramie for both Talks:

Rian Kerrane. Tuesday November 13th 7pm Visual Arts Building 

& Yumi Roth Thursday November 15th 7pm Visual Arts Building 

Their exhibition is from November 12th- December 7th 2018

Come join us!

 Rian Kerrane nd Yumi Roth