Look! An Artist!

I had the immense privilege to attend my former student’s art opening this week at the Hopkins Center in Hanover New Hampshire. Max is a Dartmouth graduate who discovered a love for architecture during his freshman year. This interest led him to fine art and voila! An artist! His work reflects his complex personality and diverse influences and has gained many honors – you can see it  by visiting his webpage: http://maxvanpelt.com/

 

Max makes sculptures and drawings. I was impressed with the variety of materials he uses in his work, and took a picture of one of the labels associated with a very large drawing.

I want to show this to my current students, because I ask them to identify the media they use, and to title their work, when filling out an “artist’s statement.” This information is displayed with their work.  I think they will be interested to see how this is employed in a gallery setting.

ANIMATION 2012!

The “Animation Station” in the studio features 2 “stages,” 2 cameras, 2 tripods, a roll of fishing line and Plasticine clay.

Animators can make characters to populate their films or use other objects from around the room for characters and props. Backdrops can be pinned to the wall behind the stage.

Teams of two work well –one person snapping the pictures while the other moves the characters. Animations with a lot of characters do better when a third team member is added. A rhythm emerges: move, snap, move, snap – like clockwork, until 80-200 photos are amassed and post-production can begin.

Stop action painting/collage project: "The Flood"

After all the pictures are imported, sound effects, visual effects, titles and music can be added.

The important thing about making a stop-action movie? Keep the camera still and make tiny, incremental moves with the characters. That and a clever idea = a winning formula.