BFA: meaningful delineations
If you are going to spit out your cereal, then do it each morning–maybe onto graph -paper, perhaps velvet–but why either?
and what is the craft of spitting out cereal? how do you attain mastery at this? do you seek to discover or create form–or is something else happening irreverence? annihilation ?–are you measuring space? constructing perimeters? re-enacting of the birth of the cosmos? attempting some new form of dissection? Are you creating topologies whole geographies? or in search of the invariant of form? might it be more intimate, expressing something abject and interior. Whatever the answer(s), still you must become expert at this, form a unique constellation of inter-related beliefs–knit these into a score of action.
I have sincere gratitude towards my students collectively I am significantly a product of them, the questions they invite me to probe at their sides.
I believe that every student—every person has something to say and a desire to transmit perceptions. I must impart skills, abilities and knowledge carefully to be sure I educate rather then indoctrinate. I must aid in increasing the ability to identify and speak with accuracy, without diminishing the gifts their voice has to offer.
More often then not I must grant permission for the student to pursue their own good idea—and with them scrape it free of conventions they have piled on to make it seem more palatable to expected norms. For it is the departrure from expectation that contributes.
We must question from every angle possible–why a person would do a thing like that–for this question of entry oft reveals insights into the unexpected, uncomfortable or an expanding scope of possibility. We need to listen to and also underscore the artists own answers and then ask that these be adhered to, or evolved towards better accuracy.
Its good to be reminded that there is a great wealth of work to look at—what you are looking at now. There are so many ideas to read about — There are a lot of costumes to try on–pretending to be someone else–the invention of persona can make doing some things easier.
Play should be encouraged as should be finishing—finished only means a work holds its own ground in its current state–That can prove difficult so we must seek to be adaptive–and beware, really hard work can be a form of procrastination or stagnation.
Undergraduate Learning
Students should experience broad explorations in contemporary studio practices and techniques both emerging and traditional–this rapid development of diverse skills is half a start. The other half is an explosive exposure to the range of possibilities and an ever expanding awareness of the breadth of what can and has been done. Students thus armed are empowered to make choices as to their own tactics media and processes.
Next deep focus and deep explorative critiques should permeate the studio environment–but I also tell students, ‘its my experience that if you think its not working, finding other people who will tell you it is… just wastes a week or years’.
No one should pretend to be less gifted, have less perceptive or be less critical then they really are. The development of the ‘individualized criteria of technical mastery’ must become a part of each students work regardless of style or media—What are the norms of your ‘production value’ we can expect and how do these discourse with a material and it’s crafting in industrial and commercial settings?—How do these relations to material and technique operate and inform the outcomes and effect of one’s own work, when adhering to standards? and when acting in dissent?
Sometimes we critique an aisle of products at Wal-Mart instead of things we made in studio—some days those Wal-mart things are better—those are not good days.
Why don’t we get out more?
Overcoming ones own deficits is exciting.
Where should this particular work take place—is it worth the bus-fare or scuba-gear, exhibition submission, covert behavior to get this work where it will function with effect?
You’d be surprised what you can do or get if you simply decide to. You’d be surprised again what opportunities, materials, supports you can get if you ask, and keep asking.
In the studio you can usually do both before you can decide which to do. More often then not you still need to do it over—or else you’ve already overworked it, how are you going to decide which it is?
As students matriculate towards completion of degrees the broader implications of their art practices must be considered. How do the means of production, Site of encounter, economics, viewership contribute to the work–and what is each artists relationship to art as an object or commodity, how do these understandings honestly relate to the works objectives as motivations and life actions?
Work isnt complete until it leaves the studio weather a progressive or traditional form its dissemination mode, placement(s) and methods of presentation contribute.
Capstones
Students need opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities and to self-initiate projects/endeavors of scale. Artists need to seek a functioning art form, purposefully seated on the spectrum from impenetrable mystery to well researched didacticism.
Translation skills that empower students to verbally describe their thoughts motives tactics and outcomes must be expected, but not always ahead of or concurrent with discovery through making-practices. Construction of a conceptual family tree of ideas across disciplines and history allows an artist to position their contribution to the whole and establish the significance of their own work. A determined search for artistic kinship, and a nuanced differentiation from those closest is useful as we refine our sense of our current turf of exploration and potential to contribute.
Studio work needs to be coupled with explorations of career options and sustainable paths of engagement via an individualized examination of expectations and strategies for interfacing with art outside of the home institution.
duane mcdiarmid 