PAFA MFA 1 Finale

 

Last week was my final review in front of the faculty of my work for my first year in PAFA's MFA program. It was a real barn burner in some ways between teaching the After School Illustration Class, keeping up with the weekly demand of Judge Parker and trying to finish my final paintings and squeeze in my last few crits with my critics. This was probably my toughest semester mentally as a student as I often just felt a real strong sense of disagreement with certain esthetics and certain teachers. I think I grew a lot as a painter and became even stronger in my convictions as a result. Modernism and I are never going to really agree, we can have a beer and talk, but nope, we  can only agree to disagree. I was often buoyed and supported by my fellow students and that was great. I hope I did the same and think many of us found ourselves in choppy seas.

This final review was better than my first review, though I don't think anyone of my reviewers really loved my work, which is OK. They kinda' wanted to make it the male gaze, but having the male figure in it made it not just that. The fact is they want me to spell it out more, spell out the ideas, and I really don't want to nail it down. or not yet. I like letting people bring what they want to bring, for me that's much more enjoyable. I know what the ideas and influences are, I know what I'm putting in my soup. I imagine myself like a bird with that spot in your brain that says "north" is this way, so I head in that general direction but I might make detours. One of the worst things for me is to nail down what the ideas are exactly--- as then it becomes like an illustration, which is specific and has to be to be good. But i don't want my paintings to be illustrations. This is my big thing about artists statements as well. I know many artists like Dan Miller and Alex Kanevsky also feel that artist statements are kinda pointless--or certainly over done. If you can't tell what I'm doing, you don't get a real strong sense of something--react to it--well I'm not doing it very well. None of the issues the critics brought up were really ever brought up by anyone else seeing my paintings this semester. None of my female friends did and they actually were really supportive of my work including my model, which made me feel great!

I stand before the Jury....its always interesting to get feedback even if sometimes I completely disagree.

I know its the critics charge is to challenge us, but I think if you define something too much and break it down too much you remove the magic and the mystery and the open gate of an idea. I feel what's really important for me as a painter is to leave the gate open, idea, format, technique--everything--then slowly close or resolve ideas. I know the danger is for me as a painter is that other wise it can become too closed off or like what I do as an illustrator. And good god I know they loath illustration for the most part though Renee Foulks did encourgae me to use my skills as an illustrator more in cooking the ideas. Reading Andrew Wyeth's Bio this semester he says this very bluntly that he hated talking about or explaining his work and I agree.

In fact I think Scott Noel was more supportive in my private crit that in the public one, but I was surprised by Mark Blavat, who I think was the most negative in my last review, labeling my work "journalistic". Mark came up to me after my review and talked to me at length about how I could push and incorporate my figures and backgrounds more. Honestly I was surprised as I figured he simply didn't like my work, but in the end what matters is if we can take away something from these conversations to make our work better, not whether the critics will love it more or not. In the end its about us, not them, you have to be open of course, but you can only paint to please yourself in the end. You will never appease all of the critics.

 The Umbilical of Reason 30 x 40

 Dream of the Blue Dress 30 x 40 Oil

This started out as just the figure in the chair but then really ended up as sort of a self portrait as I used myself as the model for the figure in the background.

 The Conjuring 30 x 30 in Oil. This was mostly done from life and there was one more session after to basically tone down the background, finish the hand and add the orange. I got all kinds of great comments from my critics about these paintings as a group. Some like Noel wanted them to be complex, but almost every other critic said keep them simpler. Scott wanted more in the backgrounds, but almost everybody like Denise Green or Mike Gallagher said less. In the end you can end up with really good ideas that kind of cancel each other out and I have to go with my gut.

 This was the final assignment for Bruce Samuelson's class. Bruce only assigned one outside drawing which we had to bring in for our review along with a few of our better class drawings. It's a drawing of my table in my studio done during lunch time in HB pencil. For the most part I kept things pretty simple in the seminar, I either just drew in pencil or sometimes in colored pencils on a Canson pad. I just wanted to draw and keep it pretty plain, no pastels or inks etc. I think because I was under a time pressure it was so easy to just whip out the pencil and draw. Simply just draw what interested me. Since it was pretty low light, very low contrast I just kind of thought of it as a wandering landscape. Bruce sometimes regaled me with tails of the old days at PAFA when he was a student--sounds like it was a lot more fun in the old days!

 

This is my set of drawings I brought in for my final crit.

 Niloofar and Kathleen pin up their work and have a crit with Bruce who assigned us individual crits instead of the group critique.

Here is my final wall for my crit in Scott Noel's class. Scott didn't have much to say about the work, my fellow students did, they especially liked the one of the figure in front of the window, but he did spend time looking at them. I told him he's "the carrot and the stick", but in the end mostly the stick--and he laughed. I know we will never agree about the use of photography or many other things, but he is still the teacher I have learned the most from.

A shot of some of the work in the final review in Scott's class.

Scott's crit might have set a record for the longest crit I have ever had, it was close I think to 4 hours by the time we finished. Whew! It was good, but a bit exhausting!! That man can talk about art forever! lots of good ideas but after a time people just kinda start going blank after pushing so hard---the drive is full!

Then over the course of three days the MFA 1 class had our final reviews which most of us tried to attend to see what we have each been doing but to support each other and help out.

 Gus and his final review

 Win Xing sets her paintings up. The faculty really seemed to respond to her work well.

 One of Phong's paintings and my favorite of his.

One of Steve's paintings and a good showing of support from fellow students.


 They keep the cookies stacked and the refreshments fresh over the three days. Its tough on everyone, the students as well as the faculty, a lot of hard work has gone down and people are also kind of tired and a bit stressed but in the end we were all reviewed and rushed to the exits to begin the summer break and get ready for the ASE this Friday.  I know I can use the break and plan on painting my but off for me over the summer. Overall it was good year but I can be honest and say at times I was very unhappy with a certain class, and some aspects of the MFA program. There are too many students in the program and this stresses out the system. I wish there were more figurative painters as critics and I had a better studio. Honestly,  the school must really update things and come into the modern age, we should be able to do more things on-line, not have to stand in line. Our computer facilities need to be vastly overhauled--its a sad, sad computer lab and the internet some days is a joke. All of our teachers must be on-line and be able to deal with email, which too many can't. The incoming department head has a lot to tackle and I wish him well as he will have a big job and big shoes to fill replacing Dan Miller.

For now its time to get away from the place for a bit and recharge and get ready for the final sprint in my journey as a art school student.

PAFA MFA 1 Week 14 Mega Upload

 We are down to the final full week of school before the reviews and final critics start for the spring semester and the end of my first year in the MFA at PAFA. Its been a fast semester, faster than the Fall semester it seems, but I feel better about the work I have going in the studio and all of my critics have been reacting really positively to it as a body of work. I have 3 more paintings in progress to finish for my final review so I feel like I will have a good finish without lost of crazy hand-wringing or nail biting that the MFA 2's are having with their graduate show. I get to do that next year. But the weeks none the less sping by fast and I haven't had as much time to blog about things as each weekend is jammed with activity, either catching up on my main gig, writing a paper or painting over at my friend's place in New Jersey with our Sunday painting group.

This was the last painting I did in Scott Noel's master's painting class. I wish I had more time on this as I really liked how it was developing. You can see a picture of the setup at the top of the blog. This was my favorite set-up all semester with the light cutting into the room and across the figures. But thats the way it goes with classroom work, I never quite get to the final spot I want with the paintings.

 But no matter what else is going on I am staying up with my regular gig on Judge Parker. Here is a shot of a up coming Sunday strip in the pencil stage. There has a been a bit of a buzz about how I depict the female members of the cast, or how I depict their breasts in what I have come to call "Nipple gate". It required me to make a few changes to a few strips that were deemed a bit too sexy for the comics page--which I find in a way very funny when you think about the crazy shit you see elsewhere in the papers--including Celebrity Nip Slips and all kinds of other junk. But in a way its good for a little controversy or having the readers perk up over such small things as it proves people are paying attention to the strip.

 I continue to teach the Illustration Class in the After School Program, and one of te students has just been accepted into the Certificate program at PAFA for the fall, which is great! We have a core group of dedicated students who show up every week and it's great to see and mentor them through their projects which are all coming to a finish in the last few weeks.

 I also was able to fit in a workshop with Jon Redmond the same week I took the workshop with Ken Kewley. Jon is a great painter and a good teacher as well as a fellow grad from PAFA. The painting above is the painting I completed in the two-day workshop with Jon. Jon's method of working is similar to many of the teachers I have had , from Alex Kanevsky to Scott Noel, and Peter Van Dyke. A process that involves direct observation and the build-and-destroy method of painting. Jon likes a limited palette that includes no black, and only tow prismatic colors a cad yellow and cad red, then cool red, yellow and an ultramarine blue, basically an earth palette. He also like to paint on either Duralar (frosted mylar) or panel.

 I had two paintings accepted into the Philadelphia Sketch Clubs Small Oil Show. Here I am standing in from of my entry, Altoona Red. There were over 150 pieces accepted in the show and at least that many rejected, so the competition was quite heavy. I am happy that all of my Dirty Palette buddies got into the show as well.

 The opening was packed and they had a great spread of food and refreshments. It seems the shows at the PCS are growing in popularity and that means the quality of the entries continues to get a little better every year.

 My buddy and new father Charles Newman was the winner this year, Go Charlie!

In my Reading and Writing Seminar we have our weekly readings and presentations. I have to say this semester this is my least favorite class and probably the least favorite class I have and as a student since I was in High School. I know I am not the only student who feels this way--which is a shame when you are paying such high rates for a class in a masters program.  I hope next falls seminar is a lot better than this class or there will definitely be an issue.

     

This quick little still life was painted in my kitchen one morning after I had my coffee. Sometimes I get struck by something and just have to grab a canvas and go for it.

 This is the pencils for a quirky advertising job I got in the last month for a company in Canada. It had to do with a bunch of teenagers suddenly using their talents from the rest of the book as superhero versions. It was also another "boob' issue as well. her rest of the book features live action actors, and the teenage actresses were-well--normally endowed. However when they I drew them I have to make chnages and pare down the boobs below what they were on the real life actresses and remove the "crotch" indication on the gal in the second panel. Normal stuff I have drawn a billion times, but the "client" was extra sensitive to these issue in an educational comic. I think nobody , certainly not kids look at anything this way--but if they are paying for it--they get what they pay for. So I still have  a lot of hopping from one place and one job at home drawing the strip or a quick job like this to jumping back into the painter's chair, but that's the way it will go for another year for sure until graduation.

 This is one of my finished paintings for the series I am calling the Bride for right now, and it will be one of the paintings I have in my final review. Below is one of the drawings from my Drawing Seminar with Bruce Samuelson. It was a one class drawing in HB pencil on Canson recycled paper in one of those big 18 x 24 sketchpads.

The Big Update--MFA Week-San Fran and Spring Break

 As the song goes. "I left my heart in San Francisco...."

Its been a few weeks since I have had a chance to update the blog with traveling and work, classes---you name it. As I sit here writing this update in the studio Spring break has started for me--and boy can I use it!

The last month has been a real mash-up between the strip, traveling to San Francisco and then back to Philly and classes. In San Fran I visited the John Pence Gallery twice and the Disney Family Museum to see the Snow White exhibit and to attend my buddy John Heebink and his lovely wife Bonna's wedding reception. I also got to catch up with some old friends who were also attending the celebration. I love San Francisco! I've been there 4-5 times now and almost moved there back in the 90's. It was a quick trip, only 4 days including the travel so I packed a lot in. I stayed at a great Hotel, the Hotel Carlton down near the Tenderhorn. It was a great little hotel with a new redesign, great freindly staff and located a few blocks away from Union Square.

 

It was also a few blocks from a great bookstore Kayo Books! man I could have spent days there looking at the great old paperbacks and pulps.

                                    One of the zillions of old great pulps to be found at Kayo.

I have wanted to visit John Pence for a long time, its a great gallery featuring some of the best realist artist working today with both the figure and landscape as well as the still life. It is also one of the few galleries that has a sizable section set aside to display drawings.

 Most galleries I go into don't have any drawing up and certainly not prominently on display. One of my current  favorite artists Jeremy Mann has work on display there. I first became aware of his work a few years back at the USArtist show that was held here in Philly. Principle gallery from Virginia had some of his work on display as well as Lynn Bodge. I've followed Mann's career as he has been becoming an even better painter--working more with figures than just with the landscape. I also saw work by Travis Shclat, Jacob Collins and many others including Peter Van Dyke who teaches at PAFA.

 

Jacob Collins

                                                                      Robert Liberace

                                                                         Jeremy Man

 
                                                            Detail of two of Mann's paintings

Along with my buddy Scott Cohn I hit the Disney Family Museum and saw the amazing Snow White show. I had seen many of the drawings before but never in person---just fantastic work.

 


I find when I see that level of drawing and craftsmanship I feel sad that we had lost so much by everything going 3D. It was remarkable to also see how they were really inventing the modern cartoon with more realistic figures. The craftsmanship alone was astounding when you see the animators clean up drawing and then the cell next to it that had to "keep the drawing"--amazing delicate draughtsmanship!

 I wish every animation student or hell--fine art student could see this work in person. It was also one of the best museums I've been to and maybe the best ever display wise. The layout and presentation of the work, touch screen technology was just so well designed, eye pleasing and enjoyable. APPEAL! That was the key word. Disney was always appealing from design to action, the whole corporate thrust was an appealing product and experience, and while it is common coin to knock things as "Mickey Mouse", being that well done isn't easy by far. I don't know if any other company ever pushed as hard to always grow the art and craft and appeal as Disney. Even today, decades after Waly has passed you can still see that esthetic on display at the museum.

                                                              Mary Blair's tabaret




 
One of the hundreds of  drawings from the story dept. on display as well a the amazing watercolor backgrounds! It was almost an overload of material to really take in and appreciate and I was awed, something that I am rarely. The amount of talent and craftsmanship and inventiveness was off the charts. I think its so easy to look at something this old and say, "oh, how old fashioned". But this was cutting edge and we are standing on the shoulders of all of these immensely talented men and women today.

One of the old animation desks that was lined up with a lot of great animation drawings! Boy would I love to have one of these!

 

Two great story drawing from Pinocchio, the top one by the great Gustaf Teggren.

Then it was back to Philly! Man I missed the California climate immediately!


                                                              OPEN STUDIO NIGHT
Right before I left for San Francisco we had the annual school wide Open Studio. The whole school is open to the public to cme in and visit the 10 floors of open artist studios to see what we all have cooking. Last year I was on the 4th floor but now I'm up on the 9th floor. As usual I didn't get to make it around to all floors myself as I was pressing the flesh and yakking about my own stuff--but I did get a chance to run about and snap a few pics before it was all over.

Here is a shot of my studio ready for Open Studio, and below a bunch of pictures of my fellow PAfa students and their studios. Our floor had a theme of the Gnome Prom, and there were all kinds of gnomes , including Noam Chomsky.

The weather was a bad actor this year and so I think some people stayed away, but it was a fun night and I had a great response to my current work.

When I got home the next weekend  DPC all got together for some food and painting at my place. We ate some of my famous curry and Jamie brought an awesome dip. We ate talked, painted, sketched and looked at art. These folks are like family to me and there are few things I enjoy more than hanging out with my pals and painting.

 

 This is the painting I did during our session of my dining room. I can't stress how important I think it is to have a like-minded group of artists to be there as a support and encouragement. We are at some similar stages and at some different stages in our art careers and I think that also helps the mix.

 

Back in school with Scott Noel, and Bruce Samuleson I continue to do one session drawing or paintings. Scott really pushes us with these complicated set-ups where Bruce is the opposite, he has us stripped down to just a model on the floor, a blanket and that's it.

Scott always has the books out and a bunch of drawings and paintings of his up to stress the points he talking about. The two drawings below are by him, my favorite is the first one where you can see how he drew the skeleton first and then drew the figure on top.

These are the last two smallish oil paintings from Scott's class by me and a drawing from Bruce's class. The drawing is in prismacolor pencil.

You have to work fast and bold to try and get all of these set-ups in as suddenly the light might change. My only real dissatisfaction is with the Reading and Research Seminar this semester. I really just don't like the class or how its run. I really enjoyed my class last semester, but this is a torture in many ways and I know I am not the only student who feels this way. I don't feel I am getting much out of the class, which is frustrating. But you know you just have to suck it up and keep your head down and concentrate on the good.