Patrick Byers, Winter 2021. Patrick's example is fairly simple in structure, in that every black element on the left corresponds with a white element or negative space (a gap) on the right.
The second project in my Design classes all year was a cut paper "notan" project. The technique for this project is conceptually pretty simple, but students can complicate it quite a bit if they choose to.
Carmen Nelson, Winter 2021. Carmen has cut and translated (flipped) pieces from the left and right side of the original black square. She has also translated some of the stars across the top and bottom edges of the original.
The technique is fairly simple once you see it. Start with a square of black paper. Cut a shape from one edge. Now flip that cut-out so that it faces away from where it started, but the edge stays lined up with the edge of the original square.
Chloe McDougal, Spring 2021. Chloe's design appears so complex because of the variety of her cut lines, as well as because she started with a rounded rather than square shape.
Students in my classes had some practice where they worked through the basic technique and learned from what worked well. The second week, which was otherwise focused on shape and negative space, was set up to give them some fairly simple practice with the notan cut paper technique.
Lillian Davis, Winter 2021. Lillian's translation of boxes to the bottom is a un and interesting play on space and negative spaces. The apparent gap on the bottom left is from translating the tirangles to the left while the squares moved "down."
After the simple practice, students participated in a "mini-critique" where they had an opportunity to show their practice notans, see those of their classmates, and discuss what sorts of things worked well in their own and others' designs.
Elias Reyes, Winter 2021. Elias's city scene is made more interesting by the curved edges of the roads that imply hills in the foreground.
The project, then, was meant to be a revision or improvement based on what the students first created and what they saw in their classmates designs.
Erica Guadian-Riso, Fall 2020. Erica's design is super complex, with lots of similarly sized animals and plants, as well as some repeating features in the birds and the shell textures.
And I would say that it was pretty successful in this. The revisions tended to be a lot more interesting and complex. Students in Winter and Spring quarters also benefitted from being able to see finished projects from classmates in previous quarters.
Heaven Calvert, Winter 2021. It's hard to tell sometimes, whether the student cut paper and then adjusted the colors in the photo. This one appears to be computer generated, but I think it was cut and then washed out in the camera.
At the end of Winter and Spring quarters, I offered students an opportunity to earn extra credit by sharing tips and techniques for various projects with classmates. A video or two shared from winter was helpful for spring students and a spring student shared a video she made herself with recommendations for cutting cleaner lines using her exacto knife.
Israel McDonald, Fall 2020. Israel challenged himself to create a snake that flowed across and between the edges of the original. This was complex enough on it's own and caused some areas that aren't quite "right" but he further complicated it with teh round inside shape.
I was delighted to see this video, because the techniques this student highlighted were ones I hadn't thought to include. She discussed knife angle and cutting direction for small or pointy cut-outs.
Madeline Crowder, Spring 2021. Madeline's zig zag lines and repeating triangles and diamonds lend a shocking energy to the outer space inspired design.
In the Fall, a misunderstanding about budget meant that studio kits didn't include exacto knifes, which I did include for Winter and Spring students. The cuts improved because of the tools, but I actually find some of the rough edges from Fall endearing.
Jordy Marquez, Fall 2020. This one is deceptively simple. The tiger's face was quite a challenge, but I love how the large stripes emphasize the subject while contrasting in size and shape.
The students mostly chose to use black paper on white backgrounds, but a few tried a variety of colors.
Sabino Rivera, Winter 2021. The color contrast here is wild, but so is the way that the original square almost starts to disappear.
There was a pretty good mix of abstract and representational designs. The practice designs had assigned prompts to give students both direction and inspiration, but also to give them some practice using class concepts.
Marvin Medoza-Rosas, Fall 2020. Here I really enjoy the wiggly edges and how they repeat in a variety of sizes and locations.
The prompts varied a bit, but included symmetry and asymmetry, rhythm, flow, and representational imagery.
Allison Parke, Fall 2020. The radial symmetry here means that all four edges are just the same. The top one appears smaller because of the angle of the photo.
The resulting projects tended to build on one or more of those terms, so that we saw lots of symmetry, which tends to present itself when students approach the notan cuts from both sides.
Raymond Ramirez, Spring 2021. This one is a great example of symmetry, but I especially like how the figures are not identical on either side. The contrast between good and evil here is subtle and forces the viewer to look longer.
But many students chose to vary the scale of cuts and create asymmetry.
Student Example, Fall 2020. Very different from the curvy cityscale shown earlier, the one is all about repetition of long lines and stacks of windows.
Once they saw classmates cut out windows or add in textures inside of bodies or clothing, students tended to build on those ideas.
Student Example, Spring 2021. The spacing of the undersea creatures here allows us to distinguish each one separately. I suspect this person may have learned from some examples in earlier quarters. This one also does a neat trick of translating the bottom, then cutting and translating stars from that new location.
I enjoyed seeing the designs that most clearly developed from specific elements of the earlier designs.
Student Example, Winter 2021. A mesmerizing example of pure abstraction.
Some students chose to revise their notan design later in the quarter and it was interesting then to see students work through issues that didn't quite work early in the quarter.
Student Example, Winter 2021. I love the shaggy bits at the bottom of each tree and the melty shaggy overlaps of the meteor.
At the end of the quarter I asked students to tell me about which projects they liked most (and least). Many students enjoyed the notan project because of it's immediacy, and that it didn't require planning to get started.
Student Example, Fall 2020. This student has filled every available space at the top, leaving the bottom as a bit of a rest. Full disclosure, this was submitted on its side, so I'm not sure which direction is/was intended to be top.
But when I asked about favorites and least favorites, I found that they exactly matched. Someone's favorite project was usually someone else's least favorite.
Student Example, Spring 2021. Music, a nice example of sticking to a theme throughout.
Students who didnt' like the notan generally didn't like the free-wheeling structure of the project. They didn't know where to start on a project where they didn't need to plan ahead of time.
Student Example, Winter 2021. I love the sense of movement through the birds, and somehow I also get a sense that it must have been breezy, too.
In the class generally, I like to offer students some opportunities for more and less structure. Some students prefer one over the other, so giving both gives all students some time to be comfortable and successful and also offeres the opportunity to stretch and challenge all students.
Vero Adame, Spring 2021. This one is entirely abstrack, but has moements of real interest. I believe students used pieces from this example as elements in revision projects later in the quarter.
This project was also a nice break for students who were hesitant or lacked confidence in their drawing skills. Since YVC offers a drawing class, I like to use different media and give student the opportunity to try different techniques.
Kyle Win, Fall 2020.It's hard to tell, as the photo may have been washed out, but I think this one was created online. The curved edges have been handled well.
Note: All the the work above is shared with permission from the artist. When the work is listed with "Student Example" or just a first name, that anonymity is at the student's request. Not all students who took these classes or made quality work chose to give me permission to show their work.
Ashley Lawson, cranes (pre-installation), online hand-building Spring 2021, this installation is not featured in the DoVA show, but will be featured here on this blog in future.
This year we were hoping to have an on-campus show, since Larson Gallery was open at some point for other shows, but at the time we were to install the students' work, the gallery had to have its floors replaced. Larson is in a new building and the floors were somehow damaged or installed incorrectly. The gallery is now open in person for the membership show.
Patrick Byers, Breakfast in Bed, on-campus functional pottery, Winter 2020
Because we couldn't be in person, we decided to move the show online. Putting together an all-virtual show was still a bit of a scramble, and it was made more difficult by the fact that with the status unknown for so long, and the classes all virtual since last Spring, I hadn't collected student work or images of student work since Winter, at least not in an organized fashion. In fact, the make-up of the show consists mainly of work collected in Spring or Fall 2019 and a bit of work from Winter 2020, though much of the accompanying paperwork for the DoVA show wasn't completed due to the abrupt end to the quarter, and thus nothing was showing from my on-campus hand-building class.
Patrick Byers, Tritone, on campu functional pottery, Winter 2020
I ended up photographing work that was left in storage on campus for the DoVA show, but only ~2/3 of the students who had left work in storage responded giving me permission to show their work in a different format (and time) than they'd originally agreed to. Some students had moved away, others maybe weren't checking email or just didn't have the motivation to respond to yet another thing this year. Significantly less than half of the students who had initially agreed to show work on campus in Spring 2020 (which would be students from Spring and Fall 2019) responded to my requests to send in pictures or bring in work for the virtual show.Winter 2020 students mostly didn't get the chance to fill out the paperwork which is usually done during finals week (the finals week that was abruptly moved online).
Lacey Velazquez, Cosmic Twister, on-campus, Intro to Clay Fall 2019
Very few students from the online classes (Fall 2019 and Winter/Spring 2020) agreed to show their work this year. I'm sure the low turnout for online classes was a combination of timing, the extra work of taking quality photos of their work, and me not being there in person to pressure them to participate. They'd already made work during a particularly challenging time. On top of that, we were asking them to take photos, fill out a document with a bunch of info they might not 100% understand (like sale price/NFS, dimensions, etc), adjust their file name and size, and email all that back to the gallery and their instructor. That's a lot of hassle, especially if you aren't totally comfortable with manipulating files and maybe also lack confidence in your work. This was exhausting for me, I can't imagine how it felt to students.
Kimberly Owen-Long, Mountain View, on-campus, Spring 2019
It really is too bad, because I had some really neat work this year. I taught three online Design and three online Hand-building classes this year, but only one student example from each shows up in the DoVA show. I did ask permission to show their work on my blog, so for those who gave permission, I plan to do so in future posts.
Harrah Hanson, stacking set, online Spring 2021, this work is not featured in the DoVA exhibition, but will be featured here on this blog in future.
I hope that when people look at the Larson Gallery show and even my blog here, they realize that what ends up in the show is only a fraction of what was made. I prefer to have explicit permission from students before sharing work on this blog and I didn't always get it, but I do have more permission to show work here than work submitted for the Student Exhibition online at Larson.
Kaitlyn McPheeters, Viking Woman, on-campus Intro to Clay Fall 2019
Making the work this year, was expecially challgening, especially for the clay students, but not only for the clay students. Besides navigating an entirely online world for demonstrations, support, techniques, critiques, and grading, they also had to learn photography, uploading, and file management for a class that isn't designed to deal extensively with any of that. They didn't have in-person help for any of this and they had to make do with whatever tools or space they had at home.
Clara Hamill, Untitled (pit fired), on campus Intermediate wheel, Spring 2019
"The show represents a small sampling of the commendable results of remote learning at YVC over the past year. It is a testament to the tireless efforst of educators and the drive of students during a time of stress and uncertainty. Students have had to not only navigate the unfamiliarity and challenges of online education, but also adjust their lives and living spaces to accomodate impromptu art studios. Faculty members, working with limited resourcces, have had to devise new mthods of instruction to remotely communicate the tactile concepts that are best desmonstrated and experienced in person. Despite the many unavoidable setbacks of this period, the Department of Visual Arts is proud to be able to showcase some of the excellent work that continues to be produced by the students at Yakima Valley College."
You can see some of that student work at the Larson Gallery website for the duration of the Student Exhibibition (through July 2, 201). Be sure to click through to each image, as the Instagram style square boxes of the main page impose artificial size and shape restrictions on the work, an especially unfortunate situation for vertical ceramic forms and horizontal compositions or groupings. There is also a video at the bottom of the DoVA page from my online clay stop-motion-animation project.
Ashley Lawson, pinch set, online Spring 2021(follow her on Istagram) This work is not on display in the DoVA show, but will be featured here on this blog in future.
I have featured some of the work from the DoVA show (with the appropriate propotions) above, as well as some work from the most recent quarter in my online clay class that didn't make it into the show (not because of merit, but because of the complications mentioned above). I plan to create some more posts in future on this blog that feature and discuss student work from both the online clay and online design classes this past year. Stay tuned.
This winter I am teaching my Clay 1: Hand-building class entirely online for the second time. In September, I learned I would be teaching the clay class online about 2 weeks before the quarter started, so I scrambled to get ready and pretty much stayed in scramble mode from September to December. This quarter, and over the break, I've been able to revise the class at a more reasonable pace and build on my experience and student feedback from the fall.
Shelf, carved from solid, class example
What I Learned in Fall
I learned a lot during the quarter about how I teach studio classes, mostly I (repeatedly) learned that when students are in the room with me, there is a lot of informal teaching that I don't necessarily think a lot about and which doesn't get written down anywhere. I know what techniques I teach and even which parts of which techniques are taught on which days, but there is a daily repetition of certain terms and concepts, as well as daily interaction with students that are impacted by what they're making, how far along they are, and what complications are impacting their current build. Besides that, many of my daily interactions with students are heard by their classmates and apply to more than one student, so that my recommendation to one student might result in another student making a correction without my direct involvement.
For this quarter, I made bisque texture rollers and stamps to put in the students' studio kits so they'd have a bit more variety in their tools and texture options.
This stuffed elephant sculpture by Margarita Cruz (Winter 2018) was built almost entirely in one day. Circumstances beyond her control prevented her from attending class, but she watched all the videos, then came in and just worked really hard for hours one day to get it done.
In an online class, technique demonstrations are about as good as in an in-person class, especially since most of my main demos have been moving online over the past several years anyway. The written assignment directions are probably improved quite a bit from when the class meets in person and students have ready access to rubrics right away (rather than whenever I get around to sharing them). I've actually improved my specificity in communicating to students things like how thick the wall should be, and I've added demonstrations to show them how to do many of the "little" things that sometimes get demonstrated in class, like how to measure wall thickness, flip a wide scupture, and substitute tools.
a video from a playlist on carving solid, this one captures some of the "little" things that might otherwise be demonstrated in class
But I can't peek over the students' shoulders and casually let them know that they have more carving to do. I can give them this feedback when they meet with me or once they have submitted their assignments, but once they've submitted something for grading, this kind of feedback seems like criticism rather than support. Importantly, I can't catch them and stop them in the moment before the piece is going to collapse and help them brace it and understand what happened. This I do on-campus both during and between classes when students are working in the studio.
Segmented bowls, carved from one solid log (see video above), class example
Also, vitally, they've lost some significant amount of their in-class interactions with classmates. They still can interact with classmates in critiques and other discussions, but there isn't the kind of automatic time spent working together. For several years, as I've been working to flip my classes, I've discovered that the flipped modality, especially in the Hand-building and Intro to Clay classes has allowed students to take on some leadership and peer support roles in the classroom. For the past several years, I've had students work on different proejcts in the same space, meaning that one group of students is working on the 3D printer, while another group is using the extruder. This means that students learn the tools and techniques in different order from their classmates, then are able to support their classmates who are getting to those tools and techniques later.
Notan Cut Paper, Jordy Marquez, 2D Design, Fall 2020
Obviously the working on different tools part doesn't translate well when students don't have access to many of those tools, but I think there's some level of discussion between classmates that happens in a live class but is difficult to replicate online. So in my online studio classes I haven't really figured out how to look over students' shoulders and I haven't figured out how to get students to support their classmates. My classes are asynchronous, and thus don't have a designated meeting or work time where I can see them working. Some online classes meet synchronously, and maybe that's what I should be doing, but that's now how I've set up these classes.
Line Project, Marvin Mendoza-Rosas, 2D Design, Fall 2020
Design Class Online
Last quarter, my other new online studio class was Two-Dimensional Design. I hadn't taught the Design class in years and never had any elements of it online, so I designed that class from scratch, including projects, check-ins, and timing that were planned for online first, rather than modified from a face-to-face class. In the Design class, I had weekly projects, with 1 or 2 "planning assignments" that directly related to the projec, as well as a set of interactive content lessons and sketchbook assignments designed to help students learn each week's composition or formal element of art terminology.
Notan Project, Kyle Win, 2D Design, Fall 2020
In the clay class, on the other hand, I kept the project timing basically the same, with 2-3 week projects, demonstrations and interactive lessons. My changes were mostly to do with techniques and with creating new demos and information about projects to put online. Since students didn't have access to the same equipment as they do on campus, I couldn't reuse the projects, and since we couldn't learn basic technniques, clay processes, recycling, and kiln loading in the studio, I had to move all that online as well. I reduced the size of projects a bit, to try to account for traveling with clay for firings, and added to the section on taking quality photographs because photos (and video) are the only ways students can show me their work.
Notan Cut Paper, anonymous student example, 2D Design, Fall 2020
In both fall classes, I required students to check in with me roughly every other week. This was a quick ~10 minute check-in via Zoom (or phone or email if their schedules and/or internet connections couldn't accomodate Zoom) for me to check that students have started working, answer questions, and help make sure they were moving in the right direction. I knew I wanted to make up for the lack of face-to-face interactions, but a 10-15 minute check-in each week with each student would be ~9 hours of my week spent doing check ins. As I write this, it occurs to me that some sort of group check-in might work (and I could maybe give the students a chance to check in with their classmates, too).
Color Collage by Jordy Marquez, 2D Design, Fall 2020
I've been particularly concerned with scheduling in flexibility, not just because the class is asynchronous, but because so many students seem to have such complicated schedules. From what I've seen, during the pandemic it appears more of my students are working full- or part-time and taking at least a full load, while also helping the family or raising kids. It's really alarming, actually, and I both see where it comes from (they've got bills and responsibilities, and they think they can make it work), but know it is unsustainable. I worry that students are going to burn out, but I'm really saddened that students are not getting as much out of their college education and experience because they are exhausted from trying to do it all at once.
Color Collage by Kyle win, 2D Design, Fall 2020
This quarter, several students have informed me that they are taking 4 classes (a normal full time load is 3), while also working. And, of course, we know they are also dealing with the additional stress and uncertainty of living and working during a pandemic. I suspect that the thinking goes something like this: "since my classes are online and don't have a meeting time, I can add them in anytime." But the thing with a college level class is that you can move the work around, but you still need the time! Students who have taken on too much come to their classes exhausted and unable to function. They can't understand as well when they are tired, and I assume the same thing happens in their job and their families, too.
Color Collage, anonymous student example, 2D Design, Fall 2020
In the fall, I noticed that the Design students were more consistent in turning work in on time. I realized that their class had more built-in check-ins than the clay class. Besides the biweekly check-ins with me, they had a number of other opportunities to get feedback and show me that they were working. Their interactive lessons and sketchbook assignments functioned as both an early deadline to get started on the week's work and a check to show us both if they understood the content. My feedback via Zoom and email answered the questions they asked, and the submission feedback answered those they didn't. The Design students also had what amounted to a kind of weekly progress check via their planning assignments. They didn't just submit the project, they did the planning work beforehand and got feedback on that planning work before moving onto the project itself. Not all of the students made the connection that the planning assignments were planning for the project, but the vast majority did and I believe that helped them space their work over the course of a week.
Segmented triangular vessel, carved from solid, class example
I imagined that the clay students would follow along with the building demonstrations early in the week and get started on the project early enough that they could spend time on it every day or every other day for a couple of weeks. In reality, I think this often didn't happen.
Notan Project, Israel McDonald, 2D Design, Fall 2020
This quarter, in the clay class, I decided to build-in more of the required checks. Students still have two-week building projects, but I have added a mini-building project each week. Some of these preparation assignments, like the interactive pinch-building demo on day one, would have been done in class normally, but others were added as a way for me to check that they can do the technique and check that they've started the project. I'm not sure I've hit upon the most elegant solution, but it's an improvement over last quarter.
Line Project, anonymous student example, 2D Design, Fall 2020
Why I Blog
Writing about my classes, like writing about my work often helps me think through the various elements of an issue. When I started writing this morning, I thought I was writing a blog post about the carving project I added this quarter. I've never had students carve from a solid block of clay before. They've hollowed out solid sculpture using carving methods, and I've had at least one student try Ayumi Horie's dry throwing technique, but this quarter's was an entirely new technique designed specfically for students working at home.
one of a series of demonstrations (new this quarter) I made showing this solid carving technique
Maybe I'll talk about this technique in future, but as I wrote I realized that the bigger issue on my mind was (and is) what is missing from the current online studio that I think is important to capture. I'm not sure if you caught it, while reading, but my "aha" moment (or at least a glimpse at what could be an "aha") came around the 10th paragraph (right above Jordy Marquez's orange and blue collage), when I connected three separate bits that have been floating around in my head: 1) Important stuff happens in casual conversations in groups in the studio 2) I don't have time to meet each student individually each week and 3) I'd like to have a more casual way of peeking over students' shoulders to make sure they are on track.
Line Project, Kyle Win, 2D Design, Fall, 2020
I'll have to think a bit more about how this will work, but right now I'm thinking that instead of just checking in with me, students could have a required check-in with classmates in which they share pictures of their work space, what they're working on, and talk about what's going well or not. It could bring in the quality conversation of a critique, without the tension and expectations of a graded project. It could also help take the sole burden of feedback off of me, while helping empower the students to support each other. Stay tuned, I guess.
Artwork Note: All student examples are used with student permission, anonymous examples are from students who asked to remain anonymous but gave permission for their artwork to be shared here. Clay class examples are my work (since their project is due tomorow).
