Visual Arts - Studio (VAST)
An exciting introduction to studio art through an exploration of drawing media. Class critiques and discussions, insure the beginning student of a solid introduction to the creative process. Students work with charcoal, ink, graphite, watercolor pencils and other drawing materials. The course includes intensive sketchbook work as well as larger drawings based on observation. In addition, students acquire skill in figure drawing by working from the model. Taught by the studio staff and a prerequisite for many intermediate courses.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
For students who are interested in an introduction to the physical world of sculptural art. Students explore the basic tools, processes and approaches to 3-Dimensional art through wood, clay wire, cloth and found objects.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
A hands-on introduction to digital art making processes on Macintosh computers. Generate and manipulate images and files within an artistic context. Think creatively, work digitally and examine the potential of digital art making as a new form of art. In addition to class projects and critiques in the media lab, students discuss contemporary artists who use the computer in their work.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually
This course is an introduction to digital photography, with a particular emphasis on understanding images made through camera-based techniques. Students will learn the rudimentary aspects of the medium through regular assignments culminating in a final portfolio project. Topics include proper camera use (camera settings), exposure, editing, printing, and presentation. Class time will be devoted to lab demonstrations as well as critical discussions of student work. Also, through lectures and discussion, students will become familiar with aesthetic trends and notable practitioners, both historical and contemporary.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
This course focuses on the techniques and theory of video production. Through a series of assignments, students will learn the basic technical elements of still and moving image productions. A variety of production formats will be discussed; focusing primarily on creative, lens-based documentary-style productions. Class time will be divided between equipment demonstrations, discussions, and critique. Topics include proper camera use, sound recording, editing, and presentation. Through critical readings and selected screenings, students will gain familiarity with the historical and contemporary trends in visual storytelling through moving images. Students will develop a set of production skills that will culminate in a collaborative group project.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
A sketchbook is invaluable for experimentation with drawing, recording memories, practicing instinct and observation and connecting art with the everyday world and experience. This course will explore both studio work as well as Worcester and Holy Cross sites each week and use these sites to build upon fundamental drawing concepts in order to create unique and personal artist sketchbooks. Line, value, shape, form, perspective, measurement, composition and other elements are included using direct observation. A variety of methods and materials of drawing will be investigated and used to explore both contemporary and historical perspectives to make on-site drawings within the parameters of the sketchbook. The course will also investigate the various formats and concepts of both contemporary and historical sketchbooks.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
In this dynamic team-taught course, we will explore various mixed media techniques and approaches to the art of collage. Collage, a method for interweaving complex shapes and images, can employ a limitless range of materials beyond paper and glue, such as fabrics, found objects and images, paint, paint skins, image transfers, printmaking, and acrylic gels and mediums. This course will encourage improvisation and experimentation in your work, introduce you to a wide variety of options beyond traditional applications of 2-D media, and lay the groundwork for developing content and thematic exploration. Together we will apply techniques of collaging, drawing, painting, color interaction, composition, and design through projects that progress in complexity, culminating in a vibrant portfolio of non-traditional works of art.
GPA units: 1
The experience of architecture, structure and space will be the consistent theme for this drawing course. This course is geared to introduce students to basic drawing concepts such as: perspective, proportion, volume, shape, texture, value and composition. There will be a strong emphasis on observational methods to learn these basic concepts. The students will also engage in projects that explore their individual ideas about space and architectural subjects. This course does not require previous experience and fulfills the requirements of Drawing Fundamentals. It is also open to advanced students who are particularly interested in architecture and space as subjects in drawing as well as majors or minors in the Architectural Studies program. The course will also include an introduction to working from the nude model as an additional tool for understanding structure.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
An introduction to the principles, methods, and materials of oil painting in both historical and contemporary contexts. Emphasis placed on developing an understanding of form and space in pictorial compositions, strengthening perceptual abilities, and increasing knowledge of the use of color as it pertains to painting. Supplemental readings and field trips provide further connection and investigations of the history and process of Painting.
Prerequisite: One previous studio art course
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
A continuation and expansion of the skills acquired in Painting 1. Students are introduced to a wider range of experimental painting methods using oil based media, and will be working in large as well as small scale formats. The context of painting in contemporary art will be heavily emphasized in this course.
Prerequisite: VAST 200 or VAST 211 or by permission.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually
Color is the most dynamic and complex of all the visual elements. In this course students explore color theory as it applies to a variety of media, including painting, collage, digital media and installation. Discussion of color and its relationships to composition through harmony and contrast is emphasized. In addition students explore applications of color that are symbolic as well as cultural. Students working in all media will benefit greatly from a solid understanding of color relationships, and will gain the skills to apply their knowledge to any chosen medium.
Prerequisite: VAST 105, VAST 199 (Digital Art Design) or VAST 199 (Studio Digital Art).
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
An explanatory approach to the next level of using digital processes as a fine art medium. Building upon the skills learned in Digital Art Studio 1, students will examine the impact of digital processes on art and artists, research the work of artists who use digital process to produce art, and create computer-based artworks in formats ranging from large format digital prints to web-based art and digital objects.
Prerequisite: VAST 105
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
New Media radically explores diverse and contemporary methods of digital production and output (including but not limited to computer graphics, computer animation, Internet art, and interactive technologies, on platforms ranging from computer monitors to projections, video game consoles to portable electronic devices), raising issues regarding the nature of the physical art object, the expanding role of emerging digital processes in artistic production, and the role new media art plays in the production and dissemination of contemporary artistic practice.
Prerequisite: VAST 105.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
Drawn to Nature explores the natural world as a source of inspiration, as well as a point of departure to develop artistic investigation. Fundamental drawing skills such as line, texture, value, space, and scale will be practiced through visual engagement with the natural world. Subject matter will include plant and animal forms, trees and landscape, specimens in the studio and science lab, and objects viewed through the microscopic. Students will work with a range of dry and wet media, as well as traditional and experimental approaches to drawing. The practice of observational sketching and field journaling will provide source material to develop larger, resolved works. Numerous site visits to various locales on campus, as well as in the surrounding region will provide a variety of subjects for inspiration. The semester will culminate in a final project that develops personal exploration and builds upon the themes explored in the course.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Every Third Year, Fall
Emphasis is on a structural understanding of the figure and an expressive approach to drawing . The class also examines contemporary figurative artists. Students draw from the nude model in each class session, using a range of media including charcoal, pencil, ink, paper and oilbar. In addition to class work, students develop independent projects.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Typically Offered: Annually
Collage is a method for interweaving complex shapes and images. Visual fragments from flat fibers and images are combined to create interlocking forms of both actual and perceived shapes. The course will place an emphasis on how edges join in both a physical and illusory way. Students will learn to consider the most sophisticated way to join parts, whether it is gluing, wrapping, weaving, sewing, or using hardware. Collage refers not only to the technique of combining objects and or images in a new way but also to new attitudes and ideas about how the world is perceived and re-contextualized. As a primary medium of the 20th century, the processes of Assemblage and Collage reflect the modern age oftechnology and culture. The students will be introduced to the major artists using these techniques from the 18th century to the modern age. Issues of copyright will be discussed also.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Printmaking is closely linked to drawing, but with a different range of marks, textures, and line quality. This course introduces the printmaking process by focusing on woodcut, monotype and screen printing, Projects are designed to examine different sources of artistic content and engage with the process of making multiples. You are encouraged to improvise, layer, and experiment. Your goal is to find out which materials, techniques and strategies can best realize your individual ideas.
Prerequisite: One previous drawing course or with permission of Instructor.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
Mixed Media is an intermediate studio art course in which students will explore a variety of experimental and mixed media painting and drawing techniques through the use of collage, found objects, digital media and image transfer. We will be using acrylic paints and mediums predominately in this course, and some assignments may call for the student to obtain additional "non-art" materials from home. This course will encourage improvisation and experimentation in student's work, and introduce them to a wide variety of options beyond traditional applications of painting and drawing, and will lay the groundwork to developing independent and self-directed works. Formal elements such as form, color, paint application, and composition will be emphasized throughout each assignment, as will content and thematic exploration.
Prerequisite: VAST 101 or VAST 200 or VAST 210 or VAST 222.
GPA units: 1
Explores the tradition of handmade artists' books and more recent experimental book forms. How do images work together in a sequence? What kind of narrative can be created by blinding images and text into a book form? What are the possible physical forms for the book? In addition to making conventional and experimental books in the print studio, students make a digital book in the Millard Media Lab. Through readings and discussions, this course examines the emergence of the "artists' book" in the 1960's and the work of contemporary artists.
Prerequisite: One previous studio art course
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Alternate Years
Textiles have long been treated as a substrate for imagery. Many artists choose fabric as a medium to explore repetition, collage, and scale. Textile-based imagery can be decorative or loadedit can adorn the world around us and tell potent stories through its pictures and patterns. Textiles can raise questions of utility, presenting images that are made to be touched and handled as well as seen. Working with fabrics can also teach us to improvise, and to creatively juxtapose different materials within a cohesive larger vision. In the first half of this course, we will print on fabric using block printing and silkscreen processes. Then, students will learn basic quilting techniques which they will use to incorporate their printed samples and other found textiles into a final, small-scale quilt of their own design. Design concepts such as color, texture, and composition will guide students process as they integrate fabric samples into this final project. Throughout the semester, students work will express themes of their own choosing, resulting in a final project that is personal, specific, and reflective of their own conceptual interests.
Prerequisite: One previous studio art course
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Sculpture 1 explores the elements of 3-Dimensional expression in projects of varied media. Students are exposed to sculptural issues via slide presentations on past and present works in sculpture. Class critiques allow students to refine both concepts and expression to create a personal synthesis.
Prerequisite: VAST 102
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
This course continues to build basic drawing skills and fosters the development of an individual drawing style. The content of Drawing I includes drawing in color, and other drawing forms such as collage and sequential drawing, making longer timed drawings as well as an introduction to abstraction. Students are encouraged to explore new content in their work and examine contemporary themes of drawing. Course includes readings, sketchbook work and research of contemporary artists and their drawings. This course was previously known as VAST 121 - Drawing 1.
Prerequisite: VAST 101
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
A study and practice of the principles of digital design and rapid prototyping tools necessary for bringing 2D and 3D artwork off of the computer screen and into the physical world. Students will learn to use Adobe Illustrator, Fusion 360 and handheld 3D scanners to design content that will be produced using CNC technologies such as laser cutters, Vinyl cutters and 3D printers.
Prerequisite: VAST 102 or VAST 105.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
This is an advanced course on the fundamentals of creative photography. Class time will be devoted to lab demonstrations as well as critical discussions of student work. Through regular lectures and discussion, students will become familiar with aesthetic movements and notable practitioners, with a focus on contemporary trends in the medium. An emphasis will be placed on the development of the student's own ideas about photography as demonstrated through a multi-week project culminating in a final printed portfolio. Students will be expected to acquire an intermediate level of technical skill within a digital workflow by refining their image editing skills utilizing Adobe Creative Cloud applications to create inkjet prints. Additional topics will include darkroom processing and large format printing. Students are required to supply their own digital camera with manual controls (DSLR or equivalent), although specialty equipment (such as film-based cameras, tripods, and lighting equipment) will be available for student use.
Prerequisite: VAST 130
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
What role can art play in social protest? Prints have a tradition of being created as forces for social change. This class examines that tradition and how it plays out in current art making. Working in drawing and printmaking, you will be making visual representations of contemporary social issues of concern to you. You will build your drawing skills and learn new print techniques, including relief printing and screen printing. This is a process-based course that focuses on the engagement between ideas and materials, rather than the success or failure of the product. You will be encouraged to think creatively and work with a spirit of curiosity.
Prerequisite: One previous studio art course
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall
The past two and a half years allowed us to turn inward and engage deeply with the everyday and familiar moments of our lived experience. Engaging in the quotidian becomes a field of potential to see the magic in the mundane and the beauty in our everyday lives. Artists from Johannes Vermeer to Jennifer Packer will provide inspiration for the range of ways in which artists have represented the stillness and mystery of the quotidian. This painting course, designed for both beginning and intermediate painting students explores traditional themes of everyday objects, spaces, and moments as themes throughout the semester. We will apply fundamental visual elements of value, form, scale, and space as we work through a series of smaller projects in the first half of the semester and build up to more complex and larger format paintings by the second half. Using water-soluble oil paints, students will learn foundational as well as advanced techniques of paint application.
Prerequisite: One previous studio art course or by permission
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall
How can art allow us to slow down, to reframe, and, maybe for the first time, really to see the world around us? How can we, as artist and educator Corita Kent says, "combine the abstract and the concrete, the joy and the laborplay and work all at the same time? How can making art bring us closer to God? To each other? This team-taught course in studio art and Catholic theology is offered in conjunction with the exhibition in the Cantor Gallery, Always Be Around: Corita Kent, Community and Pedagogy. The exhibition will feature selected works from the Corita Art Centers collection and work by contemporary artists. Students will dive deeply into the life and work of Corita Kent, see and work alongside contemporary artists, and create their own artwork. Students will learn about theological concepts and currents in the history of Catholicism that will illuminate Coritas artistic practice; this theological work will give students a distinctive lens to examine and to participate in socially-engaged art. Students will keep a sketchbook, write focused papers, and work collaboratively on a large-scale project to be included in the exhibition. This course will be taught in a studio seminar format.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts, Studies in Religion
In this studio course, students explore processes in transforming a digital photographic image to extend beyond a single, static exposure. Students are encouraged to creatively consider how digital photos can be transformed through unique pre-and post-production contemporary methods in creative still and moving outputs. Topics include digital and physical combining of photos, such as digital compositing and physical print manipulation, and the intersection of the still and moving image in creating photo-animations and basic video. Students conduct research and regular critiques at intervals throughout the semester, and the course culminates in a final project driven by student interest. Students are strongly recommended to have their own digital camera with manual controls (DSLR or equivalent). If you are unable to purchase course materials, the Financial Aid Office will be happy to provide you with information and assistance.
Prerequisite: VAST 130
GPA units: 1
This course explores the intricate world of analog imaging, delving into various light-based techniques for creating unique photographic objects in a darkroom. Students will experiment with multiple black-and-white processes, transcending the boundaries of traditional photography by combining elements of drawing, painting, and printmaking. Through hands-on demonstrations, thoughtful discussions of selected readings, and critiques, students will develop a deeper appreciation for the artistry and science behind darkroom work. They will also explore how these techniques have shaped ideas throughout the 19th century and into the present day.
Prerequisite: VAST 130, VAST 230, or instructor approval.
GPA units: 1
Common Area: Arts
Focuses on developing a "subject " or idea that can serve as the basis for a concise body of artwork reflecting the studio major's individual viewpoint and distinct aesthetic voice. In creating this body of work, students are challenged to take risks and experience both the discovery and failure that is the basis of the creative process. Each student has an individual space in Millard Art Center for intensive work. Students may work in any combination of media that serves their ideas. Critiques, trips, readings and discussion address the process of developing a body of work as well as issues of professionalism as an artist. Student work is evaluated at the end of fall semester for admission into the Studio Concentration Seminar II.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
In the second semester of the Studio Concentration Seminar, you are asked to take the culmination of the first semesters efforts and hone it into a mature and cohesive body of work. The second semester of the Concentration Seminar differs from the first in that it is much more goal oriented and schedule driven, due to the fact that you will be working towards the Senior Exhibition. Regardless of the fact that the exhibition will dominate the experience of the seminar, the true goal of this course is to engage with and produce a mature, thoughtful, and strong body of independent work. The exhibition should be a by-product of this ultimate goal. Frequent critiques with Studio faculty and outside visiting artists will help students refine their work. Students will also prepare for the exhibition by further refining their artist statements, and preparing for a public gallery talk about their work during the Academic Conference. After the exhibition, all students will design a professional-quality artist website that can be used for promotional purposes beyond the exhibition.
Prerequisite: VAST 300. Enrollment limited to 4th year VAST Majors.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Annually
Tutorials relate to all areas covered by Visual Arts Studio 200 courses.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Tutorials relate to all areas covered by Visual Arts Studio 200 courses.
GPA units: 1
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring