VS 280 F2013: PROJECTS: December 2013

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Ari Takata-Vasquez Blur

Flight

(Acrylic on wood canvas, clay, nails. 8"x12")

Drive

(Acrylic on canvas. 9"x12")

Set

(Acrylic on watercolor paper. 3.5" x12")

Terrestrial

(Acrylic on wood, clay, and wire. 9"x12")

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Monday, December 16, 2013

Maël Castellan, loaded

A semester of suffering, recovery and renewal in progress. This class was always a sanctuary. Despite myself, my work couldn't but reflect this process, sometimes overtly, others covertly.

Gravity. Feel it entirely, as you would joy.

Hope. A case for the power of the individual over fate. (Or: Jellyfish.)

Defiance. Half a gift.

Renewal. The self re-emerges.

I thought about posting my drawings to the blog - and, if Mr. Tony insists that I do so, I will - but it dawned on me that work produced in VS 280 is secondary to the actual product of the class: a tightly bonded group of adults, or students of life, really, who grow to see one another's work, to feel it, to accept it with warm embrace. With Tony, we learn to experience creative work, be it our own or that of others, without the weight of academic ideologies and disciplinary of-the-momentness. We push ourselves out of the academic comfort zone of binary evaluations ("good" or "bad"), and ask ourselves to see a broad spectrum of qualities in all work. That our physical creations are artifact is precisely what makes Tony's class the self-effacing crown jewel of the CED. In a consortium of departments that encourage harsh judgments and often reward students who toe the party line, VS 280 is an island of respite for those students who pathologically reject the status quo. So, Tony and colleagues, please let this be my final offering to you. My gratitude for your effort to perceive my tiny drawings. A proclamation that Nathan's hanging monuments are fundamentally grounded in process. A proclamation that, even though Mael is a Breton, he's a ray of creative sunshine. That Eulaila has discovered herself in watercolors. That Christina's garbage is worth an entire department's heavy bond-printed boards. That Lauren's intricate combines say more than a thousand words ever could. That Suok's paintings shouldn't make sense, but they do. That Cat knows wood. That Jorge bares his soul in charcoal. And that Tony, precious Tony, our friend and mentor, maker of artists, maker of art, sayer of weird things, is to thank for a most unexpected, inspiring, gratifying academic experience.

Thanks, Tony, and thanks, everyone. We'll always have VS 280.