Printmaking/ Exploring, Experiencing and Expressing for Art Teachers
Summer 2010: Instructor- Robert Mueller
Email: bmueller@ufl.edu, Office: FAC 317
July 27 (Monday) – July 31 (Saturday) class session is over by 4pm.
Note: The two required texts listed below should be read before the first day of class and bring them with you.
Course description:
This course will introduce you to the art of printmaking and inform you of the tools, materials, ideas, and teaching approaches required for the elementary through high school art instruction. This course depends upon seeing, doing and thinking—the studio practice. Demonstrations, exercises, fieldtrips, readings, presentations and guest artists will be used as motivation for exploration. Students will explore visual interpretations of the five senses. Your final prints will describe an allencompassing sense of your experience with us at the University of Florida.
Objectives:
- To develop a healthy and committed studio practice.
- To explore, experience and express image-making possibilities that engage the other senses.
- To develop your own visual philosophy, themes and a consistent body of work to assist in your artmaking and teaching.
- To enhance and develop those qualities to be able to better recognize, ponder and address the progress of your artwork.
- To be open and willing to take calculated risks in an effort to move your studio practice forward.
Requirements:
1. Preliminary in-class sketches/ Readings (20%)
2. A suite/series of finished fine art prints (70%)
3. Participation: The ability to work together with mutual respect and regard for the well-being of others. To follow safety procedures and studio etiquette at all times and to participate in a responsible manner in all aspects associated with creative endeavors; attitude, production, engagement, self-motivation and discussions. (10%)
Readings: (All readings may be found on Amazon.com)
- “A Natural History of the Senses” – Diane Ackerman, pub. Vintage. 1990
- “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art” – Stephen Nachmanovitch. Pub. Penguin-Putnam. 1990
Materials to Bring:
Work clothes which also includes closed-toed work shoes, an apron, an art box for your tools, black drawing materials:5B-8B graphite pencils and/or sticks, compressed charcoal, vine charcoal, black markers, single-edged razor blades. erasers. Assortment of cheap paint brushes. A notebook and writing tool, bar of lava soap, hand cleaner, 18”x 24” newsprint pad, 4 rolls of Bounty Paper towel, 1” inch wide roll of masking tape, Q-tips.
All other materials covered in Lab Fees and are supplied by the studio Yupo paper, Rives BFK paper, single-sided mylar 24”x 36”, white sulphite drawing paper, pre-cut
linoleum, speedball lino-cut nibs with handles, metal spoons, Litho inks, brayers, rags, cleaning materials etc.
Grade Explanation:
A = Superlative work: careful attention to craft and presentation. Originality of idea and execution work together. Goes beyond merely solving the problem – one who performs at this level is visibly outstanding, work is outstanding in every respect.
B+ = Very fine work: almost superlative. A few minor changes could have been considered and executed to bring piece together. Again, goes beyond merely solving the problem.
B = Above average: solution to the problem and idea well planned. Execution is well done. This is an honorable grade.
C+ = A bit above average: slipping in levels of originality, craft and presentation. The piece does not work well as a unified whole or statement yet effort was made.
C = You have solved the problem: the requirements of the problem are met in a relatively routine way.
D+ = You have solved the problem but there is much room for improving your skills and developing your concepts further. You have neglected the basic craftsmanship skills and breadth and depth of idea development.
D = Inadequate work: the requirements of the problem are not addressed. The piece represents careless and/ or incomplete effort. Work is substandard.
E = Unacceptable work and effort
Academic Honesty policy:
Students are expected to abide by the UF Academic Honesty Policy, found on the World Wide Web at
Students with Disabilities:
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to register with the Dean of Students Office and submit to this instructor the memorandum from that office concerning necessary accommodations. The ADA office (www.ada.ufl.edu) is located in room 232 Stadium (phone: 392-7056 TDD: 846-1046).
THE STUDIO PRACTICE OF SYNESTHESIA AND IMPROVISATION – FREE PLAY
We will explore, experience and express synesthesia, a completely natural human attribute that we use daily to negotiate our way through the physical world. All this means is that we transfer from one sense to another. Listening to a piece of music can conjure up a shape, a taste, a smell etc. We will be taking each one of the senses at a time to create a visual interpretation….a unique, individual visual philosophy exclusively of your own making. The free play (improvisational aspect) of actually creating an interpretation will happen in the studio….in the making of the work. As artists that is what we do….but on a more subconscious level. What may and can often happen is that we can experience unusual states of mind….states of mind which have no rational basis in reality. Each day will begin with a physiological experience….that will then during the rest of the day, expand into a moment by moment movement throughout the studio, manipulating….experimenting with materials, ideas, re-adjustments and calculated risks to create images that are far removed from the traditional….into the more exotic. My hope is that this approach to art making will inform your previous work and move your studio practice forward to surprising outcomes not imagined before. I see the mind as a muscle and once it’s been stretched it will rarely return to its original shape. I am looking forward to working with all of you.
