So far, I have been working with Neal Hughes for about a bit
over a month. Mainly I’ve worked a lot with making gator board panels for him
to paint on and constructing frames so they have the proper equipment to hang
on walls and hold the panels. This sounds like a quick and simple task, however
there is quite some time and effort that goes into this process. In order to
make a 12x16 panel, I must first get the large gator board (basically a thicker
foam board), take the according measurements and mark it on the board to cut it
down. The usual size of such a board before I cut it down is 32x40. But since I
never just make one panel at a time, I have to consider the entire board and
plan it out so I don’t end up wasting any material. For example, in an ideal world,
I could cut a 8x12, 12x16, 12x20, 16x24, and 20x24 all out of just one 32x40
gator board without having any leftover unusable material. Exhilarating, I
know. However, I usually end up having some unusable material.
I took a class in middle school called “Logic and
Reasoning,” where we mostly dealt with intricate puzzles and tried to use
“logic” to come to a “reason” and result for the puzzle. Though I found this
class a nice change, I never thought I would be able to utilize it in any kind
of artistic setting. I would like to congratulate my 8th grade teacher;
only 6 years later I am finally seeing how useful that class was. (Though I bet
he would’ve never guessed it would have to do with cutting panels in art
school.)
After each correctly measured panel is cut, I have to do the
same process of measuring and cutting again of the adhesive and the actual
canvas. So now that I have all my materials prepped, I can begin to attach the
adhesive to the panel, and then the canvas on top. This is by my favorite part,
I mean who doesn’t love hot irons and heating glue. The panel goes into the
heating press twice, first with just the adhesive to make the surface sticky,
and second with the canvas that will then stick to the panel. Now at this step,
the excess canvas can be trimmed down by hand. And WOLLLAH, you got yourself a
working surface to paint beautiful things on.
I’d like to title this dramatic short story as, The Art of Panel Making (2016).
Written by Jessica Dowicz.
On a serious note, I have learned a lot about what it
requires to be a successful artist. And that is not only artistic talent and
creative ideas, but one must posses non-art related traits. An artist has to be
organized, they have to not only see what’s on the canvas, but they have to see
the bigger picture too. By working
alongside Neal, I have seen how much work it takes to be a functioning artist,
and a lot of the work is not just painting. But rather it’s making panels,
emailing organizations, calling clients, shipping one’s artwork, managing funds,
it’s the nitty gritty stuff that nobody tells you your freshman year of
college. I will be able to bring this experience back with my to Uarts and
begin to organize and structure my life as a student in a more productive way
that will serve me when I begin my professional career.
I've found a lot of overlap in my own internship with what you talk about in your last paragraph. An artist's ability to make work and garner success is highly contingent on work that isn't related to art at all. I would also agree with you that we're not very exposed to this at UArts, and we could perhaps benefit from a course or visiting lecture dedicated to introducing this reality.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! That would be great to have something to show/ but also let students experience real world experience while in school. I suppose these fellowships are just that, but for the entire student body to experience something like this would be helpful. Just an idea, but I think this is something important that could be addressed.
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