Untitled

Duncan Rutstein 
2013
Charcoal, ink and watercolor on paper

This piece was created by Duncan Rutstein, class of 2014, and was a product of a class prompt that he had received by his art teacher Ben Roach.  When asked about the process, Rutstein said “We were prompted with a card and I based the design off of previous stuff I’d done in before.”  The ‘card’ Duncan is referring to is a card that Mr. Roach gave his students that contains a quote, prompt or instructions that are very vague, intentionally.  The cards are designed to make young artists, such as Rutstein, think deeply about their work and look inside themselves to find the way to approach the card in their own unique way.  The piece was primarily sketched using graphite for the basic outline and shape; then, Rutstein used a lot of ink overlay to further enhance the outline and bring forth key parts to the viewer’s eye and add a very strong sense of depth.  The colors were made using watercolor paints.  The watercolor paint lets the rough paper texture been seen through the color.  The texture of the paper               draws the eye of the viewer into certain parts of the artwork.  Along with this, the watercolor also adds a focal point to draw the eye in.  The first thing that a viewer would glance is the green coloring in the middle of the piece because most of the piece is not colored and it’s the only “big” solid color.  From there the eye wanders up to the second subject and its helmet.  From here the viewer would most likely spend a good part of the time looking at the second subject.  Lastly the eye would make a big loop following the cord, that transforms into a string of smoke, all the way up to the top and back down to look at the lightly drawn sketching around the subjects or to look at the subjects again.  

The House on the Hill

Mary Collins
2013
Acrylic on Board

This work,  created by artist Mary Collins (class of 2013), was inspired by Christina’s World (1948) by the  Realist artist, Andrew Newell Wyeth .  From afar when one glances at the piece it might fool the person into thinking it is a photograph, but upon further inspection one can then start to see the highly detailed brushstroke she took to achieve this effect.  This work closely replicates the soft grass tone with the more harsh contrast of the house in the far background.  Collins took the piece in her own direction by taking out the girl that lay in the foreground of Wyeth’s painting.  As well as finding inspiration from Wyeth, she painted it based off of a photo she had taken of her neighbor’s house and field.  By copying Wyeth’s style and placement of the house and coloring of the grass, she crafted a beautiful masterpiece.  She stated “I was going to add horses here, but I felt that the piece still has that line that the eye travels up to the house in the background.”  The careful mixing of colors brings out a soft tone for the grass and sets the stage for a very abrupt change from soft flowing grass to a upper-toned, straight edged, house that sharply stands out on the horizon line.  The light spot she added in the grass on the left was actually supposed to be on the right as in the photograph she took, but she instead put the light spot on the left side so that the piece would be more balanced.  She carefully copied the picture by even showing the trees blooming to indicate the start of spring.  After much hard work, determination and attention to detail she completed this painting with confidence and admiration that she hopes is shared through this summary but mostly through the painting itself. 

Kids Playing in Water Fountains

Lauren Linehan

2012

Photograph

8 x 10 inches

These two photos are by Lauren Linehan. Lauren took these pictures in New York City while children were playing in a water fountain. In my opinion what makes these photos unique is the perfect lighting; the focus on the kids’ faces also make the works look very subjective.

The Deep Sea Angler Fish Has No Reason To Be Happy

Emma Remsberg

2013

Linoleum Print on Paper

13 x 16 inches

Artist Emma Remsberg made this print in six steps. First she drew the sketch on a paper and then copied the sketch on the linoleum block. Then she carved the block with the linoleum block cutters and in the next step she put Blue, black and silver Inc on the block to transfer the print to the final paper after sending it under the press. The song of the deep sea angler fish has no reason to be happy has inspired Emma to make this unique and beautiful print.

Untitled

Kira Brock

Aluminum Wire

9 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches

2012

This piece demonstrates a minimalistic approach. The sculpture looks almost like a three-dimensional line drawing. The artist, Brock, created the portrait with aluminum wire, which is light-weight and bends well. She began with the rounded shape of the skull. These lines are similar to plumb lines that artists often use to map out where things are supposed to be. Using these lines for portraiture ultimately stems from Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of the proportions of the human face and body. After the head was formed, the features were attached. Some of the features, specifically the eyes and ears, are comparable to the wire portraits of Alexander Calder with their expressive quality and varying methods of wrapping and bending.

Teddy

Cole Snyder

Aluminum, Copper and Steel Wire

16 x 12 inches

2012

Cole Snyder created this wire dog, Teddy, in a sculptural forms class here at Friends in 2012. He used aluminum, copper, and steel wires of various gauges and a piece of electrical wire for the collar.  With careful inspection, one can dissect the sculpture and discover how it was built. The artist started by creating the round form of the head and a ‘spine’ with the light aluminum wire.  He also made a wire frame for the base and front legs.  These act as a skeleton, providing structure and support.  After this, Snyder connected the two using the copper and steel wires. He mixed the two colors to create a mixed, textured color, imitating his dog’s coat.

Still Life

Adrienne Jankowski

Oil on canvas

16x12 inches

2013

Adrienne’s assignment was to create a traditional vanitas painting, a style usually associated with still life works and heavy symbolism. Contrary to the assignment, she picked her objects based on how they looked rather than their meaning.  Nevertheless, the painting ended up forcing her to stretch herself and experiment with new techniques.  She began with her usual style, “trying to make things perfect and paying close attention to detail,” but was told to “loosen up.”. Although this proved rather challenging for her, she tried out many techniques and eventually finished the painting using palette knives in place of a brush.

This departure from traditional techniques is obvious in her painting.  The paint is layered thickly and at times even three-dimensional, jutting out from the canvas and adding a unique texture.  The under painting peeks out from underneath, and there are visible scratches in the paint.  Just by looking at the work, one can clearly see the evolution of her process, and all of the different methods she played with.

In the end, Adrienne was not especially happy with her final product, but thinks that she learned a lot from this work.   By being forced to abandon precision and try out new ways of painting, she learned how to “loosen up,” and had a chance to develop and explore her own artistic process.

Two Moons

Dylan Brown

Aluminum, copper, and steel wire

11.5x10 inches

November 2012

Dylan Brown’s piece, “Two Moons,” was inspired by the cloth moons hanging in his room.  He created it for his Sculpture class, using a combination of steel, aluminum, and copper wire.  After finalizing his subject and sketching out his ideas for the final product, he built the skeleton of the moon from four main wires tied together.  He then made rings to hold together the frame, and threaded the other wires through that structure. He says that if he had a chance to do it again, he’d use only silver wire, but is happy with the finished sculpture as it stands.  The final piece matches his sketch nearly exactly, showing that throughout the development of the work, he stayed true to his original concept.

One of the most interesting things about this sculpture is that, because of its wire composition, each element of the structure is visible and distinct.  The mobility of the piece allows it to be seen from different angles, and the design is entirely transparent, so that one can tell immediately how it was put together.  By making the process evident in the sculpture, Dylan allows us to examine the piece’s construction and gives us insight into how he managed to represent a moon using only wire.

Untitled
Kailie Saudek
Photograph
2012 

Ideas leading to the camera obscura originated in ancient times by the philosophies of Mozi in China and Aristotle in Greece. Many more discoveries made by numerous scientists and philosophers led to what we know as modern photography. The camera obscura is an “optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. The device consists of a box with a hole on one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, but with color and perspective preserved.” This device combined with photographic paper results in pinhole photography.
Kailie used a can camera obscura with photographic paper on the opposite side of the hole in the can. When developed, the image is negative because when exposed to light, photographic paper turns black.

Untitled
Josh Leiner
Mixed media
2013

Experimental drawing’s focus is about “the experience of drawing and seeing drawings, and the possibilities of extending our traditional concepts concerning the parameters of drawing. This process explores alternate ways of making marks with no specific boundaries for the end result. These type of definition altering processes are a “result of art history, contemporary psychology and sociology and the psychology and sociology and the scientific and technological developments of man.” The artist is more concerned with the gestures, movements and meanings in the drawing process rather than the representational quality of the product.
Josh’s assignment was to draw an object. His first step was to draw the object loosely by drawing the object with a pencil taped to the end of a yardstick. He then repeated this process with a sharpie. He then drew the object again on top of the first two drawings with charcoal. He completed his drawing by adding bold colors in pastel.