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Art students use exercises to generate creative ideas

Written by Kegan Sandoval, The Shorthorn senior staff

Monday, 02 November 2009 04:33 PM

Painting senior Ryann Bratcher paints on linens to develop her sequence for the exhibition. (The Shorthorn: Michael Minasi)

When Lupe Zaccarias paints she likes to separate herself from the world. But she cannot escape the classroom, instead she plugs discreet earbud headphones into her ears and blasts electronica music.

The painting and ceramics senior channels her inspiration through the techno dance beats flooding her ears, during her Advanced Painting class.

“I don’t think other people would like hearing it though,” she said. “That’s my music.”

Art associate professor Marilyn Jolly assigns the class themed weekly exercises. This semester’s themes include self portraits, light, impasto, repetition, figure, favorite color, collage, spontaneous marks and recycled materials. All on a postcard-size piece of paper.

Jolly’s class will display its work until Nov. 6 in the Small Work/Big Ideas exhibit at Gallery West.

The themes focus on generating ideas, Jolly said, to benefit the students while they create their final project that has one conceptual theme.

Painting senior Wayne Cornwell incorporates 3D elements into his artwork to portray texture. (The Shorthorn: Michael Minasi)

Jolly created the concepts before the semester’s start and randomly picks them weekly from a fishbowl.

Zaccarias said she uses the exercises to test limitations within painting. The collage exercise, in particular, forced students to use mixed media elements like paper, magazine clippings and paint.

“The collage exercise gave me a chance to see what materials work with each other,” Zaccarias said. “Since they [the weekly assignments] are a smaller scale I’m not afraid to experiment.”

Zaccarias’s painting style takes an abstract stance, focusing on expressing feelings. She uses scenes like her bedroom window or curtain patterns to frame ideas.

Much of Zaccarias’s inspiration comes from her Mexican cultural background, or lack thereof. For one or two weeks a year Zaccarias heads to Mexico to connect with her culture, but those experiences show her how little she knows about her roots, she said. Her paintings reflect those feelings, she said.

Painting and ceramics senior Guadalupe Zacarias listens to techno and trance music to inspire her while she paints. Zacarias and her classmates exhibit a series of small paintings at the Studio Arts Center Gallery West from November 2nd until a reception on November 6th.

Other experiences, like being a juror on a murder trial, have transitioned into her work. Her usage of bright yellows, pinks and purples are now muted and subdued tones. She said having a say in someone else’s life changed her perspective.

“You grow as an artist,” she said. “You need to use different colors to convey feelings and experiences like that.”

Biana Bodwin, painting and drawing senior, said the exercises help when developing an art piece. They help to loosen her up to concepts that help her get through painter’s block.

Not all of Bodwin’s inspiration comes from the exercises. She said she pulls ideas from food and nature, but mostly gets them out-of-the-blue like from a simple paint swirl on her palette. She also uses a technique to focus on certain scenes — placing her hands before her eyes and using her fingers to box out excess scenery.

This semester Bodwin has centralized her artwork around abstract symbols, which others have called her form of hieroglyphic lettering. She said she has a lot of confidence painting.

“I know this is what I’ll be doing for a long time,” she said.

Painting senior Wayne Cornwell said the exercises help him let go of planning his artwork. Cornwell has noticed his geometric-style paintings becoming more loose and fluid.

“Before I would try to solve it before I started,” he said. “Now I’m solving my paintings as I go.”

Painting senior Ryann Bratcher’s artwork in the gallery incorporates fabrics as well as paint. She enjoys the challenge of sewing fabric into her artwork.

Small Work/Big Ideas

When: Nov. 2 – 6
Hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Where: Gallery West, 810 S. Davis Drive
Admission: Free

“I’ve always sewed,” she said. “It is a craft that I would like to have viewed as a fine art.”

Bratcher has worked with fabrics for several semesters using scraps pulled from her grandmother’s closet. She enjoys using the fabric in a way it otherwise would have never been used, she said. Bratcher uses patterns and repetition to create her pieces, which are created more for design principle rather than evoke emotion.

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 January 2010 01:43 PM )

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