First Year Portfolio (FYP) Information

 First Year Students!

Sending you a reminder that you need to sign up for your first-year portfolio presentation. The sign-up is live. 

Below is the email I sent right before spring break for your reference.

____________________________________________________________________________

Hello DCAD Students!

I am excited to share several things with you today concerning the first-year portfolio event. Please read this entire email.

1. After sending this email I will be sending access to our First Year Portfolio SharePoint. You will be given access to two folders. One is the “FYP – Student Documents” folder were you can find all the instructions and presentation materials we reviewed with you at our common hour zoom event last month. The other is a folder with your specific name in which you will upload your presentation and supporting documents. (more on what you need to upload next)
2. In your folder on the First Year Portfolio SharePoint please make sure you upload your presentation along with the outline with reflection responses and you catalog entry. If you are unsure what any of those things are please refer back to the instructions or ask your Program Chair.
3. Uploading your materials should be very simple. Once you are in your folder you simply click on the “Upload” option in the top navigation bar. You will then click “Files” and select the files you are uploading wherever you have them saved on your own device or USB. YOU MUST UPLOAD ALL MATERIALS BY APRIL 5^th AND NO LATER.
4. First Year Portfolio sign-ups are found here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904044DAEAA22A4FE3-first

Please click the link and choose a time slot to sign up. There are four slots for each time frame. The Zoom link for your specific meeting date and time will be emailed to you prior to the event. If, for some reason, you do not receive a zoom link for April 6^th please email me directly.

If you have questions please reach out to either your Program Chair(Tad, Rachel, John, Melissa, Casey, & Ron), the Dean’s Office(Katy or me), or our Registrar(Hailey McCracken). We are all looking forward to your presentation and enjoying the time to discuss your artwork.

Best,

Krista Rothwell  | Assistant Dean

Assignment for Thursday, April 1

 This is really simple: Improve your catalogue entry. For some of you, this will take five minutes, for others considerably longer. That's OK. I want to make sure that you have the best possible product for your First-Year Portfolio Review next Tuesday. Fix everything! Typos, grammar, misspelled words, flat-out mistakes, etc.

Remember: No classes that day, April 6. Upload your newest version to Populi no later than 9:00 am on April 1. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Social Event! This Friday, April 2, 5:30, Delaware Contemporary Opening!

 

DCAD Event! Meet me at the front of 600 Market St. this Friday at 5:30 pm. It's about a 15-20 minute walk. If it's pouring down rain, bring an umbrella. You are also free to drive yourself. You can experience Jasmine Combs's "Object" directly (not through your computer monitor). Next month, May 7, we're

 participating in this opening, "Definitive Work." See below for details.

Lecture/Interview with Andy Grundberg: How Photography Became Contemporary Art

 

This event takes place this Thursday evening, April 1, at 6:00. No registration or anything is needed. Just go to this page and the event will be live-streaming. 

This will be a great talk not only for photo majors but for all artists and designers. We now live in a world that is saturated by lens-based art. Everybody captures images every day. Tune in to this talk and learn more. 

Welcome Back! Check out these Art-Comics!

 

I know that I constantly refer to this art-blog, Hyperallergic, all of the time. To be honest, the site itself could serve as a textbook for this class. Everything about it is focused on "Writing for the Arts," which happens to also be the title of this course.

Here is a link to a long list of comics that deal in some fashion with art and design. Maybe some of you still need a jolt of inspiration for the Jasmine Combs project we're doing with the Delaware Contemporary? Why not a single page of a graphic novel or comic art? That could be really cool.

Maps Glover! Awesomesauce Artist Talk

A couple of weeks ago, Micahel Loria, an arts journalist writing for the Washington City Paper, published an extended piece about his work and life. His participation in the Awesomesauce gets extended treatment. Read the whole piece here.

And don't forget to attend our final individual artist talk of the series featuring Maps Glover.

This afternoon, March 20, at 4:00 pm

Topic: "Face/Mask/Window" : A Virtual Talk with Maps Glover

Time: Saturday, March 20th at 04:00 PM EST

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/98907960495?pwd=N015cEpzOFBwc1UxWGNYUHFSN2F2dz09

Meeting ID: 989 0796 0495

Passcode: window

 

Delaware Contemporary Project!

 

We introduced this innovative assignment over a month ago, and we've talked a lot about Jasmine Combs's video-performance-poem, "Object."

The due date for your work is Thursday, April 8. 

Along with your artwork, you will submit a piece of writing, maybe a poem, maybe a brief essay, maybe something else that's hard to classify. Your text should be at least 300 words, but you might have a good reason to make it longer or a little bit shorter. 

Please carve out some time during Spring Break to work on this. Reach out to me with questions (as some of you already have): csmith@dcad.org.

Have fun with this! Take some risks.  

You can submit the work physically at a drop-off location in the lobby of 600 Market St. or you can submit the work as a digital file.

What is an NFT? Beeple's "The Everydays: The First 5,000 Days"

 

This course is designed to highlight current events in what is sometimes awkwardly called "The Art World." One of these events that seemingly everyone is talking about but nobody really understands is the recent blockbuster sale of a computer file (see image above). The artist is a 39-year-old graphic designer from South Carolina who goes by the name Beeple. His digital collage, "The Everydays: The First 5,000 Days" sold at Christies auction house last week for more than 69 million dollars. The whole thing depends on the same technology that fuels bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It's called "blockchain" and it's fairly confusing to almost everyone. One of the artists in Awesomesauce knows all about it. Can you guess which one? Yep, Maps Glover. 

Many people have questioned the value of Beeple's work. See this take-down in The Washington Post.

DC ZineFest!

 

Check it out! Free workshop tomorrow night!

Register Here.

Fear of Narrative?

What do you think about the argument that Tony Hoagland makes in this essay? Do artists have a responsibility to represent reality in a way that "makes sense" in a linear and straightforward way?

After we briefly highlight several key paragraphs from his essay, register your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings about this issue in the Zoom chat.

Art Controversy at the 2017 Whitney Biennale: Dana Schutz, Emmett Till, Appropriation, Censorship, and Abstraction

 

I mentioned in class on Tuesday that the Whitney Biennale is often the site of heated "art world" debate.  Dana Schutz's painting Open Casket depicts the disfigured body of Emmett Till, a murdered teenager at his funeral. The painting provoked a massive response on all sides (not just two), and it's instructive to consider how and why dealing with it and debating it is crucially important. Some people might argue that the best option is to just forget it.  We need to remember that the so-called "art world" is part of the so-called "real world." Just because the issue centers around a painting in a museum doesn't make it any less relevant to everyday life. Art is not a thing apart from life.

This video, a debate about the two primary positions, is from a Boston television show about the arts. And this wonderful and in-depth essay, by Coco Fusco, uses passionate writing to defend her position that censorship is never right. The website for the 2017 Whitney Biennale does not acknowledge that the painting was in the exhibition. By the way, this was not a "one-off" thing. Just today I read an article about Amanda Gorman and a white Dutch translator.

After we watch the short video debate, everyone should register his/her/their position on the debate in the Zoom chat. Think of it as a short and fast five-minute mini-paragraph. What do you think and why? 

Short Assignment Four: The Catalogue Entry

The Whitney Biennial

If you've been paying attention, you'll remember that for your "First-Year Portfolio" exercise you will include a new piece of critical writing: The Catalogue Entry. This brief piece of writing does double-duty as a graded assignment in the Writing for the Arts class. The portfolio day is Tuesday, April 6 (no class that day for any DCAD student, first or second year). 

1) Choose one artist (or one artist collective) and one piece of art from the lists of the past five Whitney Biennial exhibitions (2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019). Most of these artists you have likely never heard of, and that's OK. Have fun browsing the lists and experiencing really different kinds of art-making. 

2) Capture an image of the one work you are concentrating on. A screengrab might be the easiest method of getting this image. Make sure it's not too pixelated.

3) Write your catalogue entry. This is typically two longish paragraphs or three medium-sized paragraphs. The first paragraph is mostly informative: who is this artist (brief bio)? what kind of art is this artist known for? mention your chosen artwork toward the end of your first paragraph. The second paragraph should really get into close and loving detail about the work itself (formal analysis). The third paragraph should explain the relevance of this work of art to issues in contemporary culture. 

It's possible to write the second and third paragraphs together as one, but I think it's far preferable to open a new paragraph that centers on philosophical issues and questions. 

A good length guideline is 300-400 words. Some might be a little shorter and some a little longer.  

Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing About Art has a brief chapter on catalogue entries: Chapter 6, 146-153.

It might be helpful to think of your three linked paragraphs as:

1) Who

2) What

3) Why

Here's a short video about the 2017 Whitney Biennial. 

The current edition of the Biennial opens next month! We'll be sure to read the reviews as a class.

DRAFT DUE: March 16 (upload to Populi)

FINAL DUE: March 18 (upload to Populi)

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Two Paragraph Proposal for Delaware Contemporary Project: Due Next Tuesday, March 9

This is fairly straightforward, but don't hesitate to write to me for clarification. Look back at our discussion board responses on this subject. Brainstorm, dream, imagine. Describe the what, how, and why of your visual response (your artwork) to Jasmine Combs's video-performance poem "Object."

Please follow these simple and easy to follow rules. 

In the first paragraph describe what you will be making and how you will make it. Be as specific as possible.

In the second paragraph examine the "why" questions. What ideas will your visual piece activate? Why is this important, worthwhile, etc. 

Proofread carefully before uploading. Catch your minor errors. Every writer on the planet does this.

Please remember that although this proposal is non-binding, you need to get a start on this. Of course, you might have a "Eureka" moment that compels you to do something completely different. As an artist and creator, you have this power. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

DCAD Town Hall Today

 

Ask questions, find out what's going on. 

Today, Thursday, March 4, 12:45

Zoom link here

DCAD Online Zines! Click and Read!

 

I'm super-proud of my students in the Writing for the Arts sections this semester at DCAD. These online zines are loaded on the Issuu.com platform and they await your reading and enjoyment. 

Delaware Contemporary Project: Reverse Ekphrasis or Making Images from Words

What is ekphrasis and what is reverse ekphrasis? The first part of our Delaware Contemporary project involves reverse ekphrasis. Like the example below of Charles Demuth's painting based on William Carlos Williams's poem, you will be creating a work of visual art based on Jasmine Combs's poem "Object." 

Charles Demuth, an American painter from the first half of the 20th century was inspired by a poem by William Carlos Williams titled "The Great Figure." Here is the complete text of the short poem:

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city

Charles Demuth, "I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold" (1928) 

The second part of the project is your writing (either poetry or prose) about the work of art you created and how it is connected to the themes and ideas that you find most important in your interpretation of Jasmine Combs's poem. Here is an example of the artist Robert Indiana writing about a work that he made that was inspired by Demuth's painting.    Robert Indiana on "The X-5".

The best work will be selected by curators and staff members of the Delaware Contemporary and featured in the gallery during the First Friday opening in May. 

Side Note:

This particular work by Demuth continues to inspire artists in the 21st century. Here is Rich Kegler's take on Demuth's painting done in historical wood type by letterpress. Note the whimsical title. Pantone 874 is metallic gold (which is impossible to replicate on a computer monitor).