Spring Semester 2013

2013 already!? It's hard to imagine. A week into the semester and we are already busy. Two seniors are working on their senior thesis in sculpture, and all our classes are full in 3DD, and all levels of ceramics and sculpture. The only class a little under-enrolled is Sculpture I, not surprising when you see the class conflicts on the schedule. However, I am pretty sure the instructor, Chris Lee, is OK with that as having nine or so folks in the wood-shop is way safer than the 17 in there last semester.

It will be an interesting semester as we look for a new Art Historian and a new Department Chair, and as we enter into re-accreditation with NASAD. Although the self study process is annoying (in a major way) the last time it netted us some major new equipment, renovations, technology and helped the department with positions.

In the sculpture area we have lots going on this semester- conferences, an iron pour, the annual student show, senior thesis show. Below is listed the stuff we know about, more dates, as related to the Sculpture Guild (student club) will be posted once we have them.

March

• Iron Pour, Friday March 1st.- we will have a small pour on Friday starting at 9:00 am. You are responsible for bringing your own completed mold and small chunk iron. Contact Jen if you have questions, jennifer.torres@usm.edu
• NCECA (National Council on the Education for Ceramics Arts) March 20 - 23, this big conference will be in Houston. Finally! A conference we can drive too. Right now myself and two students are going, and I am trying to encourage other students to jump on board. The department has committed to paying the cost of transportation. This is not a group outing, once in Houston students are on their own, but it's nice not to have to pay for the gas! This is a very important conference for students, artists, teachers, and craftspeople I hope more folks will consider going. A few things to think about- 1) the cost will be about $215 for registration, cheaper if you buy or are a member. 2) about $500 for hotel for three nights, cheaper if you share a room. 3) $150 - 200 for meals and incidentals. 4) there may be additional transportation costs around the city as our car gets you to the convention center and then students are on their own. Also, going to conferences is way fun, a great way to network and makes for some good lines on the resume, never mind all the super art you'll see and the artists you'll meet.
• Annual Student Show, March 28 to April 12- Entries will be received from march 4-7. Get entry forms from the museum director or the Art Office. This is a juried show and awards are given out. A great opportunity to show your work to the world and to add lines to your  resume! The show reception and award presentation are March 28th from 5-7 PM.

April

• SLOSS, National Conference on Cast Iron Art and Practices, April 10-13 in Birmingham at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. This is held at an amazing location and is the best way to meet other artists working in cast iron. Many of us have been going for years and years to this conference. This is low cost (under 100 bucks if students register before early March) and has camping opportunities for cheap accommodations. You might be able to do this whole conference for under $500! Check it out. It generally is held every other spring in the same location. This year it is under new management, so-to-speak, and promises to have even more of a professional level atmosphere than ever before.
• USM Senior Thesis Show, April 25 to May 11. This is going to be a big one! Make sure you check it out, there will be some exceptional work by our best and brightest seniors. Reception, April 25, 5-7 PM.

That's all for now folks! 
JT

A Busy Semester

Yikes! It's been way too long since I updated this blog. That's what happens when you are so busy!

Over in 3D we have full classes in many of the studios and that has made for some tight working conditions, but we are getting buy and some good art is coming out of it all. It's about mid-point of the semester and we are really beginning to see some people get their groove on and make some cool stuff, some pictures of student work in the next post.

As far as events go we had Christo come to campus in early September and do a lecture and that was way fun. He hung out with us at the 3D Building for about an hour prior to the lecture and several students got to meet him at the official pre-lecture reception. It's the best campus wide arts lecture we have had in many years. Many thanks to the College of Arts and Letters for funding this project, and John House, our department chair, who did an amazing job organizing the many details that made this whole event possible.

We also had a student organised iron pour with the hot rod in September. It was early in the semester to take care of some works needed for senior project. We'll do another one on November 30th, which will be bigger and have more students involved. The pour went off without a hitch and I am very proud of my students for doing such a good job getting everything organised and ready.

Finished Tables

Here is a look at the fruits of our labor from the summer class.

I certainly hope we can do this class again next summer. Due to the logistics of running this course it has to be done at a time when there are few if any other classes going on in the building. Everyone was successful in building their tables. It was a challenging class but I couldn't ask for a harder working group of students to work with.

Working Hard

Just thought I would share a few new images from the past few days of working in the furniture class. It's getting really exciting and I can see real progress.

The milling machine, perfect for cutting a mortise.

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Cutting tenons on the table saw.

And a table base emerges! Lots of sanding now.

Lots of gluing and clamping going on here.

Building Tables

My second class of the summer is a special class on designing and building a table. Each student gets to design a simple table and then build it from scratch. I say simple because most of these folks have no wood shop experience and this is only a five week course. So our primary objective was to get most folks learning how to do a basic mortise and tenon and let them design from there. Four legs, four aprons and a top, that is our primary goal. All of the tables are different and unique even with in these basic parameters.


We started by going to a hardwood lumber dealer and purchasing lots of raw materials. These students are learning how to mill from rough cut stock. Face planning on the joiner and then using the large thickness planer and so on. All this prior to even making and joints and cutting parts. 


They are doing really well. Some students needed a tutorial in how to use a ruler and many don't have basic skills in math, figuring out decimals and fractions, but we are learning. After a few folks made some measuring mistakes every one is being extra careful.


It is very exciting to see so much new stuff going on in the shop. This class is hard as we have a fine wood shop but only one of every thing so it takes time to get folks through the process, but everyone is patient and working hard.

Back Up and Running for Summer!

So here we are again, ready for summer semester. When we made the push to get summer classes going about five years ago I never expected that the department would end up with so many full classes over the shorter and generally more intense summer semester.


It became apparent that we would need to offer more studio classes to make it easier for students to get their studio electives completed, so we started by offering some ceramics classes.  Painting quickly followed. Now we have all of those in addition several sections of graphics and a digital photo class. This summer I am also offering a new studio in furniture design, boy did that fill up fast!


For non-majors we also have several sections of Art Appreciation and on Tuesday I will offer the first ever on-line Art Appreciation. Gosh has that been a learning adventure for me. So far it seems like it will go off well, but it has it's own challenges and I'll keep everyone posted on its progress.


Ultimately I hope that some day we will be able to offer non-credit type studios, open to the public. Those pose many, many challenges, for us mainly space and resource issues, but with detailed planning and some funding maybe it can happen in a few years, any way, one can always dream!

Spring Pottery and Art Sale

Need a Mother's Day gift?
How about a neat gift for your favorite graduate?
What about just supporting your local art students and art program?

This sale will in part, benefit the Sculpture Guild students who are trying to raise funds to go to the International Sculpture Center's Annual Conference in Chicago! Buy some art to help support them!

SPRING POTTERY AND ART SALE
April 27, 12:00 - 6:00 PM
April 28, 9:00 - 5:00 PM

At the 3D Arts Building on the USM Campus
2905 West 4th Street, Hattiesburg, MS

For additional information, jennifer.torres@usm.edu or call 601-266-6032