OPEN TO NEW AND RETURNING STUDENTS
Develop your throwing skills with expert potter Jon Hook. Jon will teach you how to create vessels on the wheel, add handles and embellishments, carve or stamp textures, and finish it all off with glazing.
Students will have supervised access to the ceramics studio on WEDNESDAYS, 6:30-9 PM.
In this introductory ceramics class, students will learn the basics of handbuilding and wheelthrowing. Artist Jennifer Zona will teach you how to create functional and non-functional works of art using coil, slab, press molds and wheelthrowing techniques.
Black Tree Studio Artist Steven Skinner throws clay into thin slabs that can be cut, wrapped and attached to create beautiful forms. Learn these and other handbuilding techniques to use in your own functional or sculptural artworks.
ALL MATERIALS PROVIDED
This introductory class will expose students to a number of traditional skills and ideas that have occupied artists throughout history. Artist Lea Bult will teach basic techniques and concepts including space, volume, linear and free hand perspective. Students work in black and white media on a variety of subjects including landscape, still life arrangements, and portraiture.
(1/2 hour lunch break)
Kalamazoo artist and Frostic School of Art instructor John Kollig paints on mat board with graphite dust, pastels, collage, acrylic gel medium, acrylic paint and more to create dynamic, layered abstract images. Learn to combine many materials and use tools like a plaster knife and rollers for expressive markmaking in this messy hands-on workshop.
Work with artist and master papermaker Andrea Peterson to create beautiful handmade sheets of paper. Explore contemporary paper art techniques such as pulp painting and inclusions. Utilizing cotton rag and abaca, we will make fine sheets that can be used for a special purpose at a later time and create works of art. You will take away a stack of work and the knowledge of paper making.
Professional potter Dick Lehman will demonstrate 13 on-wheel alteration techniques/tools that can be combined to yield nearly 2,200 different possible outcomes! Learn to make square pots from a round wheel, explore ergonomic sensibilities, and be dazzled by Dick’s “dancing vases on parade.” Students are encouraged to explore, investigate, and find their own voices in clay as they learn from demonstrations, a PowerPoint Presentation, and hands-on work.
MATERIALS LIST PROVIDED
Have you taken an introductory drawing or painting class and are ready for the next step? Artists Lea Bult and David Baker will alternate teaching this mixed media drawing and painting class that focuses on landscape, portraiture and still life. Develop a personal style as you add to your skills and knowledge about drawing and painting.
Artist Nathan Margoni will teach basic color-theory and paint application techniques in this class for beginners. Students will start off with material and color-mixing exercises and progress to painting the still life. Students will learn from demonstrations, lectures, in-progress critiques and hands-on painting.
This in-depth and information-packed class will discuss the main aspects of digital photography including camera controls, lenses, menu options and much more. Group critiques of students’ images will provide further discourse on the practical uses of the techniques discussed, including composition and aesthetics. Bring your adjustable digital camera and a hefty notepad to learn from photographer Tim Schroeder!
Using film and traditional darkroom techniques to enhance and extend digital imaging is a popular trend known as crossover photography. Instructor Andy Sawyer will help you blur the lines between digital and analog techniques as you work in the darkroom and shoot on location at several outdoor venues. A special emphasis will be placed on photographing people in both posed and candid settings. All materials are provided including loaner cameras and a Holga camera to keep.
Learn a variety of sculpture techniques with professional sculptor Nina Menduni! Students will learn about form, space, balance and texture as they work on projects including plaster gauze casting, assemblage and clay portraits.