Dear Students,
Welcome to the class blog for Sculpture, which will provide links to our syllabus, class schedule, attendance policy, directions for setting up your blog, and more by January 13th, our first day of class.
Welcome to the class blog for Sculpture, which will provide links to our syllabus, class schedule, attendance policy, directions for setting up your blog, and more by January 13th, our first day of class.
For now, I wanted to share some info in advance of our first meeting, that will help us get off to a strong beginning! In particular, I wanted to offer the following information and recommendations:
1) First Steps:
Our first unit will explore the idea of sculpture as object, metaphor and form. For this project you will identify/find source objects that can use as a springboard for your sculptural explorations. Each of you will need to gather 5 - 10 possible source objects that have potential as a visual, formal and/or conceptual metaphors. I realize you may not quite know what this means yet, but I suspect you all know what a metaphor is in literature, so for now, just think of visual metaphors as using images rather than words to create new meaning among/between objects. If it helps to have an example, consider Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog, which is a transformation of a simple everyday kitsch object into a sculptural metaphor. Our work will involve exploring the idea of visual metaphor conceptually, visually and formally, and as noted, to begin I need you each to locate 5 - 10 objects with which you sense some sort of sculptural or visual potential.
Since you are likely still at home, or traveling where you may encounter more interesting objects than you might find in your dorm, I'd like to suggest that you return to campus with as many interesting possible objects. Keep in mind that we will be working with these objects for at least 3 weeks while we hone our understanding of main idea of sculpture as object, metaphor and form. Choose objects that have interesting shapes as well as objects that reflect an inherently interesting idea.
If you want to correspond about this please know I am available....if not, just do your best and don't sweat it too much. Once we have a collection of stuff, I can make this all much clearer.
2) Books:
There will be one required book, which will be available at the bookstore (Sculpture Now, Anna Moszynska). Find it on Amazon if you want a sneak peek.
In addition there are several books that I highly recommend but will not require. We will read some chapters from these books and they will be provided through our class Google Drive folder. Nonetheless, some of you may want to purchase them for your personal library.
- Practical Sculpture, Tuck Langland
- The Sculptural Idea, James Kelly
- Living Materials, Oliver Andrews
All of these books are available on Amazon, some as e-books, some for rent, and most as inexpensive, used books. I would encourage you to have a look at them and if your pocketbook allows, considering a purchasing what you are most drawn to. They will also be on reserve in the Library.
3) Tools
Most tools will be provided for your use during class time or technician's hours outside of class, but you will have to purchase the following:
- needle nose pliers (you will need two)
- wire cutters
- utility knife and extra blades
- a good clean ruler
- paint brushes
- work gloves (purchase on your own)
- scissors
- ruler
- pencils and erasers
- a sketch pad
- tapes - a roll each of scotch and masking and duct tape
- a box to hold your tools and supplies
- a lock for your locker
- a camera - a simple point and shoot or decent cell phone camera should work
4) Materials:
As with tools, much of what you need will be provided but there will be some costs for you. Between bronze, metal and some wood, plus some mixed media supplies (paint, etc) you can anticipate spending between $100 - $200. As with your tools I recommend that if you already have paints, pencils, etc, or found materials that might be of interest to work with, or access to scrap steel (maybe you live on a farm?) bring these things to campus when you return! We will work with metal, bronze, fabric, wood, plaster gauze, found objects and more. It does help to have a stock of stuff you can use as needed to add to what we will provide.
I look forward to our work together this semester!
Prof G
