#courseintroduction

Welcome to Non Woven Structures!

This website is devoted to the exploration the world of non woven fiber structures alongside our in class time together this Spring. This course explores a wide range of off loom textile structures such as basketry, netting, crochet, felting and soft sculpture. 

This website will serve as the homebase for this class. Check here regularly for important course information on fiber techniques, processes, and concepts as well as information for all assignments, class announcements, and detailed linkable fiber art resources.

We will examine off loom textile techniques together in hopes of finding ways that the concepts, materials, and processes of fiber might serve to enhance your own developing art practices, wherever you go after this class.

I’m glad you are here!

Images above, from top:

I wish I was in LA to see the exhibition “Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction” before it closes at the end of the month. However, I was able to purchase the catalogue for our fiber class library which features this particular work by contemporary artist Andrea Zittel made using the felting process which we will learn this semester.

From the exhibition press release:

“Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction foregrounds a robust if over-looked strand in art history’s modernist narratives by tracing how, when, and why abstract art intersected with woven textiles (and such pre-loom technologies as basketry, knotting, and netting) over the past century. Although at times unevenly weighted, the diverse exchanges, alignments, affiliations, and affinities that have brought these art forms into dialogue constitute an ongoing if intermittent narrative in which one art repeatedly impacts and even redefines the other. In short, the relationship between abstract art and woven textiles can best be described as co-constitutive, and their histories as interdependent. With over 150 works by an international and transhistorical roster of artists, this exhibition reveals how shifting relations among abstract art, fashion, design, and craft shaped recurrent aesthetic, cultural, and socio-political forces, as they, in turn, were impacted by modernist art forms.“

our informal fiber studio logo designed by Baylor Graphic Design Spring 2023 graduate Delaney Bullock!!

Welcome to Advanced Fabric Surface Design!

This website is devoted to the exploration the world of advanced fabric surface design alongside our in class time together this Fall. You will be introduced to even more processes from the material world of fibers that we didn't cover in our intro fabric surface design course, to continue our exploration on how to create patterns and surface designs on fabric. The techniques we plan to cover this semester include screen printing, batik, marbling, and tufting.

This website will serve as the homebase for this class. Check here regularly for important course information on advanced fabric surface design techniques, processes, and concepts as well as information for all assignments, class announcements, and detailed linkable fiber art resources.

We will examine advanced fabric surface design techniques together in hopes of finding ways that the concepts, materials, and processes of fiber might serve to enhance your own art practice and artistic point of view, wherever you go after this class.

I’m glad you are here!

Images above, from top:

I wish I was in LA to see this new work by artist Suchitra Mattai, a contemporary artist using fiber in her work. She is currently showing a body of work at Roberts Projects in her solo exhibition called “In the Absence of Power, In the Presence of Love”. The top 2 images above are works from the show. 

From the exhibition press release:

“The show presents new mixed-media paintings, tapestries, and a soft-sculpture installation that evoke the artist’s Indo-Caribbean heritage. Mattai’s work engages with the subject and form of European pastoral landscapes and figuration as well as Indian miniature paintings. Linking craft-based processes, sumptuous weavings and traditional techniques, the artist portrays resolute brown heroines, replacing heroes and colonizers and reclaiming a patriarchal past.”

our new logo designed by Baylor Graphic Design Spring 2023 graduate Delaney Bullock!!

Welcome to Drawing!

This class focuses on developing your observational drawing skills and techniques, conceptual skills, creative problem solving, and building art literacy in drawing and beyond. We will explore the activity and medium of drawing from a multiplicity of perspectives so that you each can find ways to apply this knowledge to your own creative futures.

Be sure to check this website regularly for links to important course information, tutorials, and supplemental material to enhance our lectures, homework assignments, and other class content, and more, as we explore the world of drawing together.

Drawing is…

….a tool for training, an activity, an art medium, a tool for observation, a description, a record of research, a translation, a way of mapping, a study or a plan, an experiment….

Artists choose to make a drawing instead of other art forms, in part, because of what that choice communicates. A drawing, historically, has been particular effective at communicating things like:

spontaneity, creative speculation, experimentation, directness, simplicity, abbreviation, expressiveness, immediacy, personal vision, technical diversity, unfinished-ness and open-endedness

In this class we will approach drawing largely from observation and my hope is that each of us grown in our abilities to:

> observe angles and distances between points and record these measurements on paper

> use a variety of line weights to accurately draw shapes and forms

> use a variety of mark making techniques to apply a full range of values

> understand light logic and perspective and how they can inform how 3 dimensional objects and spaces are described in a 2 dimensional picture plane

> explore compositional strategies

> diagnose and critique the strengths and weakness of our own drawings and the drawings of others

Images from top:

These is my current drawing book stack. These are the texts that I refer to and use to help me teach this class. While you are not required to read these books yourself, our class is rooted in my own understanding of this content, and this stack of books inspires what we do in this class. 

Here are a few quick examples of what I’ve been doing lately as an artist that I consider to be part of the larger discourse of drawing. I show primarily these more as a method and means to introduce myself as your professor. You can learn more about my work on my artist website linked here, as well as my artist project sites Painting & Sculpture Outpost and my gallery cooperative project, Four Fourteen. 

images of drawings by 4 year olds who were asked to draw a child, part of a study published by Psychological Science in 2014 looking into associations between how a child draws and their future thinking skills, NPR article linked here.

Albrecht Durer, “The Four Horseman” 1498, woodcut.

drawing art meme

Here is a card from my “things to learn in art school” deck with quotes taken from “101 Things to Learn in Art School” by Kit White. 

Welcome to Drawing!

This class focuses on developing your observational drawing skills and techniques, creative problem solving, and building art literacy in drawing and beyond. We will explore the activity and medium of drawing from a multiplicity of perspectives so that you each can find ways to apply this knowledge to your own creative futures.

Be sure to check this blog regularly for links to important course information, tutorials, and supplemental material to enhance our lectures, homework assignments, and other class content, and more, as we explore the world of drawing together.

Drawing is...

....a tool for training, an activity, an art medium, a tool for observation, a description, a record of research, a translation, a way of mapping, a study or a plan, an experiment....

Artists choose to make a drawing instead of other art forms, in part, because of what that choice communicates. A drawing, historically, has been particular effective at communicating things like:

spontaneity, creative speculation, experimentation, directness, simplicity, abbreviation, expressiveness, immediacy, personal vision, technical diversity, unfinished-ness and open-endedness

In this class we will approach drawing largely from observation and learn to:

> observe angles and distances between points and record these measurements on paper

> use a variety of line weights to accurately draw shapes and forms

> use a variety of mark making techniques to apply a full range of values 

> understand light logic and perspective and how they can inform how 3 dimensional objects and spaces are described in a 2 dimensional picture plane

> explore compositional strategies

> diagnose and critique the strengths and weakness of our own drawings and the drawings of others

Images from top:

Luis Flores “Reflection”, graphite on paper, 24″ x 18″, 2020.

Albrecht Durer, “Study Sheet with self-portrait, hand, and cushions”, 1493, pen and ink on paper.

images of drawings by 4 year olds who were asked to draw a child, part of a study published by Psychological Science in 2014 looking into associations between how a child draws and their future thinking skills, NPR article linked here.

screenshot from

Julian Rosefeldt’s “Manifesto” project, specifically the “Film/Epilogue-Teacher” scene

based on the following artist manifestos: Stan Brakhage, Metaphors on Vision (1963), Jim Jarmusch, Golden Rules of Filmmaking (2002), Lars von Trier/Thomas Vinterberg, Dogme 95 (1995), Werner Herzog, Minnesota Declaration (1999), and Lebbeus Woods, Manifesto (1993). More information about the Manifesto Project here.

Some of the drawing resources I am using to prepare for our class this semester...

Here is a card from my “things to learn in art school” deck with quotes taken from

“101 Things to Learn in Art School” by Kit White

Welcome to Drawing!

This class focuses on developing your observational drawing skills and techniques, creative problem solving, and building art literacy in drawing and beyond. We will explore the activity and medium of drawing from a multiplicity of perspectives so that you each can find ways to apply this knowledge to your own creative futures.

Be sure to check this blog regularly for links to important course information, tutorials, and supplemental material to enhance our lectures, homework assignments, and other class content, and more, as we explore the world of drawing together.

Images above, from top:

Albrecht Durer, “Study Sheet with self-portrait, hand, and cushions”, 1493, pen and ink on paper.

Here is a card from my “things to learn in art school” deck with quotes taken from “101 Things to Learn in Art School” by Kit White. We will be emphasizing many different art school lessons as they overlap with our class content through out the semester. Art school is an incredible opportunity. Lets make it as meaningful and fruitful as we can!

Here is a screenshot from the video we watched on the first day of class by artist Julian Rosefeldt, one of 13 videos that make up his “Manifesto” project. Here is a link to see it again if you want.

From the artists website about the project:

“The 13-channel film installation Manifesto (2015) pays homage to the moving tradition and literary beauty of artist manifestos, ultimately questioning the role of the artist in society today. Manifesto draws on the writings of Futurists, Dadaists, Fluxus artists, Suprematists, Situationists, Dogme 95 and other artist groups, and the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers. Passing the ideas of Claes Oldenburg, Yvonne Rainer, Kazimir Malevich, André Breton, Sturtevant, Sol LeWitt, Jim Jarmusch, and other influencers through his lens, Rosefeldt has edited and reassembled thirteen collages of artists’ manifestos. 

Performing this 'manifesto of manifestos' as a contemporary call to action, while inhabiting thirteen different personas – among them a school teacher, a puppeteer, a newsreader, a factory worker and a homeless man – Australian actress Cate Blanchett imbues new dramatic life into both famous and lesser known words in unexpected contexts. 

Rosefeldt’s work reveals both the performative component and the political significance of these declarations. Often written in youthful rage, they not only express the wish to change the world through art but also reflect the voice of a generation. Exploring the powerful urgency of these historical statements, which were composed with passion and conviction by artists many years ago, Manifesto questions whether the words and sentiments have withstood the passage of time. Can they be applied universally? And how have the dynamics between politics, art and life shifted?”

Welcome to Fiber Sculpture!

This blog explores textiles to supplement the content I cover in the fiber class I teach each semester at CSULB. This Spring we will explore a variety of off-loom textile structures within a contemporary sculpture context. We will examine and research these techniques in hopes of finding ways that the bigger ideas, materials, and process of fiber can serve to enhance your own developing art practice.

Over the coming months together, we will define and redefine the boundaries of what constitutes fiber sculpture and how the particularities of textiles might be especially useful to create meaningful art experiences.

Check this blog regularly for links to important course information, tutorials and supplemental material to enhance our lectures, homework assignments and other class updates, and more as we explore the world of fiber sculpture.

Images from top:

art by Haegue Yang

Claes Oldenburg soft light switch sculpture

Jim Drain sculpture

Sheila Hicks sculptural installation

Eva Hesse installation

detail of banner installation by artist Cauleen Smith

Welcome to Senior Seminar, Spring 2018

I’m looking forward to getting to know each of you and your work this semester in Senior Seminar! This blog is designed to supplement what we cover in class as you each take time to initiate and develop a studio practice that will produce a body of work to be exhibited in your own Senior Thesis Exhibitions in the Spring.

Expect to spend significant time and energy exploring your previous work, current work and unique story and voice. You will be involving yourself in thoughtful and expansive research in order to locate your own interests as an artist within the context of contemporary art.

Its time to grow! Lets get started….

Images from top:

This first image is a screenshot I took from on my laptop where I watched this video in the Manifesto project by artist Julian Rosefeldt. (This particular video of the larger project, Manifesto 12, is what I have planned for us to watch as part of the course introduction on the first day of class.) What I like about the genre of artist manifesto is the vivid picture they offer of what it means to have a particular point of view as an artist or designer.

From the artists website:

“The 13-channel film installation Manifesto (2015) pays homage to the moving tradition and literary beauty of artist manifestos, ultimately questioning the role of the artist in society today. Manifesto draws on the writings of Futurists, Dadaists, Fluxus artists, Suprematists, Situationists, Dogma 95 and other artist groups, and the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers. Passing the ideas of Claes Oldenburg, Yvonne Rainer, Kazimir Malevich, André Breton, Sturtevant, Sol LeWitt, Jim Jarmusch, and other influencers through his lens, Rosefeldt has edited and reassembled thirteen collages of artists’ manifestos.

Performing this ‘manifesto of manifestos’ as a contemporary call to action, while inhabiting thirteen different personas – among them a school teacher, a puppeteer, a newsreader, a factory worker and a homeless man – Australian actress Cate Blanchett imbues new dramatic life into both famous and lesser known words in unexpected contexts.”

The text included in this particular video is drawn from the following art historical texts: Sol Le Witt’s “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” and “Sentences on Conceptual Art”, Sturlevant’s “Shifting Mental Structures” and “Man is double Man is Copy Man is clone” and Adrian Piper’s “Idea, Form, Context”. 

Welcome to Fiber Sculpture!

This blog explores textiles to supplement the content I cover in the fiber class I teach each semester at CSULB. This Fall we will explore a variety of off-loom textile structures within a contemporary sculpture context. We will examine and research these techniques from a contemporary art perspective, in hopes of finding ways that these ideas, materials, processes, and techniques can serve to enhance your own developing art practice.

Check this blog regularly for links to important course information, tutorials and supplemental material to enhance our lectures, homework assignments and other class updates, and more as we explore the world of fiber sculpture.

Images from top:

Jim Drain, exhibition view of 2007 show “I would gnaw on my hand”. I’m looking forward to seeing a new exhibition of Drain’s work coming up on September 10th at the Pit II, here in Los Angeles.

Carmen Argote, “Place On-Fold” installation view, showing at the Orange County Museum of Art this past summer.

A Nari Ward project made with shoelaces from 2011.

Recent work by Isabel Yellin. If you like this, check out her work in person this coming September 9th through October 7th at Night Gallery in LA.

Josh Faught, Legs, 2013.

Sculptures made with pipecleaners by Don Porcella  You can see his work until September 2nd in a group show in LA called Trapper Keeper.