The Art Studio

Fall, 2013, back in the art studio....with both my students and myself. Here is a journal of the week's creations.

[hilarykhutchison]

A Room of One's Own. Having spent the start of the term practicing bas-relief looking at a still-life set up in the studio, the advanced level class was asked to select an interior space with personal and narrative aspects for the creation of a second, higher relief sculpture. Many students selected their rooms for their projects. They were challenged to describe a believable perspective and rendering of furniture and objects. I would have liked to see more risk taken with the narrative elements, showing more of themselves, and why these spaces are meaningful.

[hilarykhutchison]

The fall Ceramics class did not disappoint with their creativity and willingness to make beautifully designed work. These projects illustrate an assignment to create a vessel with applied texture, a pair of related mugs, and push plates with glazing techniques, including sgrafitto, stencils, and patterns created with style writers.

[hilarykhutchison]

Impressive clay sculptures made by 7th and 8th graders in my 3-D Design/Ceramics elective class.

This group of talented young artists did a really nice job learning to sculpt with clay and wire in making sculptures of birds.  Pieces were cut from their armatures, hollowed out, fired in the kiln, and the addition of metallic paint and wire legs bring each work to a strong finish.

[hilarykhutchison]

Bas-Reliefs from the Honors 3-D Design III & IV classes.

I always like to begin the school year with a warm up of observational skills.  Bas-relief, while very challenging, is a great way to get back to the fundamentals of drawing and clay modeling.

Working from a still-life set up in the studio, each artist was challenged to make a believable rendition of their view, using as shallow forms as possible to create the illusion of three dimensional objects in space.

[hilarykhutchison]

A fantastic workshop to start the school year!

On a Saturday in September, students and several faculty members joined visiting artist, Brett Thomas, of MobileRaku, to spend the day firing clay pots in his portable raku kilns.  The energy of the day was contagious as students were frantically running from the studio glazing area to the kilns, ready to assist with the firing and reduction.

The process is fascinating and fun, Brett is a great teacher, and a gallery display of works made on this day are just beautiful!

[hilarykhutchison]

Year End Celebrations. Spring of 2017 was high-lighted by the annual All-School Spring Art Show and the much anticipated Wearable Art Contest. Who knew couture gowns could be created from corrugated cardboard, trash bags, and coffee filters!

[hilarykhutchison]

Revisting some final moment of 2016. The "Walking Figures", inspired by Bay Area Figurative artist, Manuel Neri, were a challenging and true success!

[hilarykhutchison]

Topography and Architecture The 3-Design class was asked to dream a little about a hillside dwelling. These cardboard and Bristol board models serve as maquettes for bass wood constructed architecture works.

[hilarykhutchison]

Copper Embossing This semester's 3-D Design I class did a great job manipulating a copper sheet in order to make a believable three dimensional form and space with a variety of interesting surface textures. They were eager to experiment with mark making, finding all sorts of tools throughout the studio for grass, cheetah spots, drapery, and patterns inspired by Indian design. Beautiful!

[hilarykhutchison]

Art rEvolution: JTerm 2017 Two weeks, eighteen enthusiastic artists, Coptic bookbinding, hand-made books, community service murals, the Hirschhorn Museum, Renwick Gallery, Guggenheim Museum, collagraph printmaking, and a gallery full with hanging paper mâché Orbs created in response to all of these experiences!

[hilarykhutchison]

Some awesome anatomy studies and copies of Master figure drawings created to inform about the human form and inspire the Honors 3-D Design class for an upcoming direct plaster figure sculpture.

[hilarykhutchison]

Ceramic Totems

Two in place, and one to go, the Ceramics class did a fantastic job working collaboratively in three teams in order to design, fabricate, and install three beautiful totem sculptures for an outdoor student exhibition area.  For me this has been quite a learning experience.  We were at the mercy of finicky kiln firings, curing cement, weather, and mud, and of course gravity with the stacking of heavy ceramic elements!  The final results however, are beautiful works of public art and in the end all of this time and effort will benefit many throughout the school community.

[hilarykhutchison]

(via XPN Playlist)

[hilarykhutchison]

Another great group of mixed media insects!

[hilarykhutchison]

[hilarykhutchison]

Wall Sculptures in Cast Cement With my Honors 3-D Design III & IV class, I decided that I was going to teach them about all of the things that excite me about sculpture, the figure, clay, mold making and casting. I could not be happier with this first series of sculptures.

[hilarykhutchison]

New Favorites! This new Foundations of Art work makes me so happy! In Foundations I see each group of students for about three weeks. I am challenged to give them a project that will broaden their knowledge about making sculptures, teach skills, and get them to make a finished piece of art. With these sculptures, each student began with drawing, a profile and "top-down" view. They needed to familiarize themselves with the anatomy of an insect; head , thorax, and abdomen, recognizing from where the wings, antenna, and legs originate. They spent one class sculpting the insect body in clay. This brief, additive modeling experience served as practice for the final work which asked each artist to switch it up and work in the negative and carve in plaster. Wings, legs, and antenna were added with wire and metallic paint gives each mixed media bug sculpture some buzzy bling!