Inside Out: Making Art out of Yourself
Course Description
This is a course for people who feel they have something valuable inside that can’t be expressed in words. You will learn specific principles for making a deceptively simple artwork that fascinates in ways that are hard to articulate. Materials will be ordinary objects easily available in your house and nearby. Farther away—roadsides, scrapyards, the river, the beach—if you want to stretch your possibilities. Tools will be minimal and easy to gather. Before the course starts you'll receive a pdf with details about materials and tools.
Week 1: Introductions and Essential Concepts
We start the class with you and something important in your life. Then we will talk about essential concepts that underlie my art practice. Using these concepts to guide us gives us the best chance to get where we want to go artistically.
Week 2: Creative Discipline
All artists have rules that govern their explorations. Artistic discipline screens out things that are unlikely to produce the effect the artist strives to achieve. (Taking creative risks is also essential but that’s another course.) We’ll look at the main rules we’ll use in this course. The last part of the class will be some practical information--and an assignment--that will set us up for success next week when we talk about actually making your artwork.
Week 3: Your Project
Finally we start actually doing the art. This week will be executional details: How to make a plan, instructions for getting started, and technical notes. I’ll move fast on the instructions so we have plenty of time for question and answer.
Week 4: Show and Tell, Successes and Challenges, General Conversation
Each participant will hold their piece up to the camera and say a few sentences about it. We’ll all talk about their artwork and ask questions. After everyone has presented, we’ll talk about challenges and successes and ideas for other artworks. Comments about the course are welcome. (I’ll also send an evaluation form.) Then cake and ice cream. Actually, we’ll have time for some general conversation. This class is one hour.
Missed Classes
If you miss a class, there are ways to catch up. After each class I will email a link to video with an automatically generated summary and transcript. If after viewing these materials you still have questions, please email me. I'll respond within a day.
Time and Cost
This course will be a 1-1/2 hours, for four weeks. (Exception: the last class is 1 hour.) Tuesday evenings at 7pm Eastern. Dates TBD. Time spent out of class on projects, not counting gathering materials should be 4-8 hours, depending on chosen complexity.
I developed this course with my experience teaching in university art schools. The cost is $397. This first-time offering is limited to five students and the introductory cost is $197. Your feedback--good and bad-- will be greatly appreciated.
