News from Fall Semester: Patrick Moser in LA

Professor Patrick Moser's video featured in Los Angeles venue.
Read the story here.

News from Fall Semester: Donald Martin in NYC

Professor Donald Martin included in NYC print show!
Read the story here.

"Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying To Get Back In"

Check out Loren Myhre's paintings Friday October 3rd at Nettles Fine Jewelry from 5-8

Join us on October 3rd at the Plum Gallery

Sara Pedigo is a Flagler College educator as well as a Painter. The exhibit starts at 5:00. Enjoy the wonderful work created by someone on campus. There will be a lot to see. Hope to see you there!

Also check out what she has to say about her work online:

http://folioweekly.com/PAINTER-SARA-PEDIGO-TRANSFORMS-DAILY-LIFE-INTO-COLORFUL-CONTEMPLATIONS,11066

The Slick and the Textural: A Range of Artists’ Books in St. Augustine

Courtney Asztalos, image from Bourbon Street.

“Dear Diary…” has been the start of many a naive confession to private pages. Divulging one’s innermost thoughts and feelings to a receptive blank page may bring relief or solace, but also by documenting an experience the record confirms the reality of it, creating a mark in time. The nearly 60 works on view in two exhibitions at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum (CEAM) at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, all tell individual stories. These stories are offered in the form of intricate, textural artists’ books in “Hand, Voice, and Vision: Artists’ Books from Women’s Studio Workshop,” a traveling exhibition curated by Kathleen Walkup, professor and program director of book art at Mills College in Oakland, California, and as photographs, screen grabs, ephemera, a live stream of Earth Cam, and an artist’s book in Bourbon Street, a project by artist Courtney Asztalos curated by Staci Bu Shea, a graduate student at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College in upstate New York.

Asztalos includes an artist’s book in her exhibition at CEAM, but instead of being encased in the typical vitrine, this book has a slick plastic film cover that evokes the audacious culture (Bourbon Street) it revels in. In The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society, Lucy Lippard describes how, within the context of identity politics, culture has come to stand for race and ethnic backgrounds, which runs the risk of being associated with stereotypes and prejudices.1 Asztalos’s work in Bourbon Street is a representation of various overlapping experiences intent on exploring the possibility of authenticity in the culture of this specific location. In an artist talk at the opening, Asztalos not only identified race and ethnicity but financial status, gender identity, and sexual orientation as nominal qualities of culture. She also considered how a transient population (tourists, a transplanted working class, and traveling performers) became the signifier of a culture, and how this dictates the location’s commercialization.

Courtney Asztalos, still from EarthCam live stream, Bourbon Street.

Asztalos developed this project while living in New Orleans. She engaged with people on the street, documenting them through photography, then she incorporated screen grabs of the publically accessible digital surveillance footage of her street interactions through the 24-hour Earth Cam that records public activity on Bourbon Street. Earth Cam enabled her to view the activities of her subjects both before and after she stopped them to take their photo. By observing and recording these Meta connections she is deepening her involvement with temporal encounters, filling in more details in search of a sense of place. Lippard’s text notes that place is “known or unknown histories, marks made in the land … human histories and memories … connections, what surrounds it, what formed it, what happened there, [and] what will happen there.”2

In conversation, Asztalos said that she did not have a specific agenda when selecting subjects to photograph. She simply reacted to the moment, asked for permission, and took down their email addresses so she could later send them the photograph. In most cases this particular detail, a subject’s email address, was a telling yet enigmatic glance at someone’s digital personality, their chosen alias. Her project blends markers from both the digital and the physical, and her book, which sources myriad advertisements and graphic samples, reveals that the language of commodity in our culture may be the most unifying element. She jokes that there must be only one graphic designer for all of Bourbon Street. So, despite the diversity of activities and individuals who congregate there, Bourbon Street can be reduced to a cultural template. The demeanor of her subjects, set against the digital noise of Bourbon Street advertisements, however, build a strong case for authenticity and context.

Installation view of “Hand, Voice, and Vision: Artists’ Books from Women’s Studio Workshop” at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum. (Photo: Lily Kuonen)

The compendium of artists’ books in “Hand, Voice, and Vision” includes works by 36 artists created between 1981 and 2010, selected to illustrate the diverse range of projects that have been supported and produced by the Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW). The artist-run organization, cofounded in 1974 by Barbara Leoff Burge, Ann Kalmbach, Tatana Kellner, and Anita Wetzel, has overseen the creation of more than 180 editions of artists’ books.

Emily Speed, Unfolding Architecture, 2007
; silkscreen and letterpress
, edition of 90.

In this exhibition, the books are all protected by vitrines that act as diary locks, preserving and making precious. Yet, this method of viewing hinders an intimate engagement with these noticeably rich and layered objects, and reinforces the standard of museum display, relying on case labels for summary information regarding the works. The narrative content of most of these personal, cultural, or abstract stories is interrupted by the limited viewing, with the exception of the more sculptural books. Their object-based construction, presentation, and positioning allows access to their content. Despite the display, these books are incredibly tempting artifacts that challenge categorical concepts of book structure, building quite beautiful, honest, and complex pages.

1Lucy Lippard, The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in Multicentered Society, New York: New Press, 1997, p. 11.

2Lippard, p. 7.

“Hand, Voice, and Vision: Artists’ Books from Women’s Studio Workshop” and “Bourbon Street” are on view at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum (CEAM) in St. Augustine, Florida through October 18. 

Lily Kuonen is an assistant professor of art at Jacksonville University in Florida. She is a native of Arkansas, where she was born in the kitchen of her parents’ house.

Erica Van Horn, 
Seven Lady Saintes, 1985
; silkscreen, edition of 90.

ALSO CHECK OUT OUR FLAGLER COLLEGE ART DEPARTMENTS FACEBOOK PAGE!

TRACTIONARTS IN LOS ANGELES

Sarah Knobel Cheer On view from August 30 to september 26, 2014
Cheer examines the role of a cheerleader through the perspective  of a pre-teen girl. The dialogue is taken from a young girl’s 2005  blog entry that describes her dream role as a cheerleader.  Her discourseof a cheerleader’s strengths, trials and tribulations is reinforced with close-up visuals of customary actions.   he images and dialogue are constantly interrupted with abrupt prevalent chants of “go, fight, win”.   This odd combination of  imagery and sound examines the social structure of femininity  and the naivety of rituals that are apart of our Western culture.

Still from the video:

MEETING OCTOBER 6TH

Women's Studio Workshop

Ann Kalmbach and Tana Kellner from Women's Studio Workshop taught a special workshop on book making to Flagler College students inFlagler College Department of Art & Design.
ALSO CHECK OUT THE FLAGLER COLLEGE ART DEPARTMENT FACEBOOK ACCOUNT! 

FIRST AIGA MEETING

This meeting will be held on Monday 9/15 in the student center room 215 at 6pm.

 AIGA, the professional association for design, is committed to advancing design as a professional craft, strategic advantage and vital cultural force.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Come check out: Hand, Voice and Vision: Artists' Books from Women's Studio Workshop

Join us in the Crisp Elert Art Museum from September 5 - October 18, 2014

Courtney Asztalos: Bourbon Street(Curated by Staci Bu Shea)

September 5- October 18, 2014

Courtney Asztalos, Mother and Her Non-Twins on an Early Morning Jog on Bourbon, 2013, medium format (6x7) photograph. Courtesy of the artist.

In the News!

Congratulations to Professor Robison and hard-working students Mahaly Grant, Emily Lowell, and Michael Stingle on making the front page in the St. Augustine Record.

Here is a link to the story about their mural project in the St. Augustine Record.

Summer School Ends With a Mural

Three senior fine art students spent their time 

in prison this summer!

Mahaly Grant, Emily Lowell, and Michael Stingle worked with Professor Leslie Robison and residents at the St. Johns County Youth Detention Center, designing and executing a mural about literacy and forming a reading group with the teen residents. 

After several meetings with the residents, Grant, Lowell, and Stingle each designed several mural proposals.  The residents chose one of Grant’s designs (above) and the whole group worked together to paint the mural onto a section of wall measuring approximately 13 feet long and 9 feet high.

When asked how working with this group went, Stingle replied that, “It was fun. I think all of the guys will be able to make art more successfully now and they are definitely more interested in art.”

But did the experience affect the Flagler students?  Definitely, says the group.  Grant adds that,  “It was a really humanizing experience to work with the guys because you were able to look past the societal view of them as juvenile delinquents and get to know them personally.”

Professor Robison feels that the caring attitudes of these seniors, the book she chose for the group to read, and the experience of participating in an art project, will positively affect the paths these young men take in the future.  “We read Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian not only because it is charming, entertaining, and relevant to these young men’s lives, but also because it demonstrates how art, reading, and education can come together to provide hope for the future,” says Robison.

Design Students Create a New Identity for St. Francis House

Students in Natalie Stephenson’s Design Methodologies class spent the past semester creating a new identity for St. Francis House, St. Augustine’s only emergency shelter serving the homeless and less fortunate.

The class of; Kaytlin Bremmer, Lia Dalpini, Noni Heers, Miranda Lee, Melissa Mision, Ryne Pearson, Alexis Valladares, Kara Walter, and Marco Warren, each created a logo and stationery package.  The logo created by Kara Walter was chosen to form the basis of the branding campaign.  The entire class continued the service-learning project by each creating part of a suite of marketing pieces, including an informational handout, a promotional media folder, posters, a banner, t-shirts, social media profiles and much more.  “The students learned a great deal from the experience, and I did too,” said Stephenson. “Since we visited the shelter and saw first-hand the facilities, the people and the administrative offices, this became so much more than just another class project. It was real and very meaningful for us.”

“We were so excited about the opportunity to work with these talented students,” Judy Dembowski, Executive Director of St. Francis House stated.  “We are deeply grateful for the amazing work the students have done. The results exceeded our wildest dreams.  Every student put their heart into this project.  The results meet or exceed what we could have gotten, but could never have afforded, at an established agency.  Every student in this class has a promising career ahead of them.”

Their work will help the organization launch a new identity as St. Francis House celebrates 30 years serving those in need.    

Don't forget these tomorrow night!

The Bubble Wall: A Collaborative Interactive Installation by Flagler Environmental Graphic Design Students

Recently, the students of Chris Smith’s Environmental Graphic Design class collaborated to produce an interactive installation piece that promotes stress relief.  Environmental Graphic Design can be defined as the combination of graphic design, signage, and art while taking into consideration architecture and interior design.  The students wanted to create awareness of this specialized field in graphic design by creating an interactive piece that reflects and mediates the stressful concerns of college art students. 

The students stimulated a process similar to an actual design agency by being encouraged to come up with their best proposal ideas while staying under a $200 budget monitored by the Creative Director.  The student who came up with the best proposal, voted by the entire class, oversaw the production, execution, and removal for the duration of the project.

The chosen proposal by class vote was Graphic Design Senior, Zack Lewis, who originated the idea for an interactive bubble wall that promoted stress relief.  The installation was constructed by covering an 8’ x 20’ wall in the Molly Wiley Art Building Lobby with large, white paper. Typographer and Graphic Designer, Keith Lowe, designed a logo mark that embodied the creative theme in a minimalistic, youthful manner which was painted onto the wall canvas by other students (Kasha Fahy, Ashley Madden, Tanis Montgomery, Mitchell Oliveira, and Sandy Chick). The wall was finally covered with bubble wrap to achieve it’s full interactive state. Photographer Matt Quann and cinematographer Kevin McDonald recorded the whole process, from production to the interactivity phase with frames captured every 60 seconds. 

According to the Sealed Air Corporation’s “Pop” poll stress survey, one minutes of popping bubble wrap proves stress relief equal to a 33 minute massage. So wander off from your easel or your computer once in a while and pop some bubble wrap to relieve overwhelming stress! 

Portfolio Show Info/Posters

 

Flagler College Spring 2014 Bachelor of Fine Art

Senior Portfolio Exhibition

Thursday, May 1st from from 5-9 pm

Oral Presentations start at 3:30 

Crisp-Ellert Art Museum

 

Flagler College Spring 2014 Bachelor of Art

Graphic Design Senior Portfolio Exhibition

Thursday, May 1st from 7-9 pm

Ringhaver Student Center, Virginia Room

 Flagler College Spring 2014 Bachelor of Art

Senior Portfolio Exhibition

 Thursday, May 1st from 5-9 pm

Crisp-Ellert Art Museum