http://Altered books Brette Higgins Originally in the winter session, I had thought about using altered books as a thematic studio practice. This has proven to be very engaging so far. I am struggling a bit with focusing on themes however. I am still investigating a multitude of avenues in which to better to explore my ideas and launch off with design. My biggest challenge right now is organization and I am trying to focus on synthesizing my thoughts in a cohesive way. It is difficult for me to hone in on specific ideas and focus on only one book at a time. After much thought, I have decided that I want to record a thought or feeling on a page daily. I would like to dedicate a few pages to calligraphy, poetry and literature. I also wish to incorporate some sewing if time permits. These books will be used as an overall basis for painting, collage work, and drawing. Hopefully, I can complete four of them as discussed in winter session, one for every month. I strongly feel that this form of journaling will allow me to better understand the complexity of my life and serve as an avenue to document personal thoughts and feelings. Maybe this artistic practice will bring some serenity and peace into my life, hopefully so. I really enjoy working with found materials and I am always eager to search for objects. But most importantly,. I truly enjoy the journey of where the artistic process will take me. There are no rules, only the confinement of space with altered books. Since I am really struggling with sticking to one theme throughout the book I would like these books top serve as daily journals for me ( art journals). Also, in my visual research studies, I am investigating material culture and the study of objects and belongings of human beings. I think I am most attracted to material culture studies because just about anything you touch in this world has the potential to be an item belonging to material culture. Objects that intrigue me are photographs, maps, jewelry, literature and most of all, I wish to create something meaningful. I had thought about manipulating children’s books, graphic novels and comics earlier. Recently, I have begun to collect a variety of old texts, right now I have the book of shells, and the book of roses. Both I am working with currently. I have discovered that I am having a difficult time working with smaller books so I am always looking for oversized. The idea of recycling also interests me, like I am rescuing a book from its predicted doom. Potential artists I wish to explore more: Louise Nevelson. Mark Dion

http://Altered books Brette Higgins Originally in the winter session, I had thought about using altered books as a thematic studio practice. This has proven to be very engaging so far. I am struggling a bit with focusing on themes however. I am still investigating a multitude of avenues in which to better to explore my ideas and launch off with design. My biggest challenge right now is organization and I am trying to focus on synthesizing my thoughts in a cohesive way. It is difficult for me to hone in on specific ideas and focus on only one book at a time. After much thought, I have decided that I want to record a thought or feeling on a page daily. I would like to dedicate a few pages to calligraphy, poetry and literature. I also wish to incorporate some sewing if time permits. These books will be used as an overall basis for painting, collage work, and drawing. Hopefully, I can complete four of them as discussed in winter session, one for every month. I strongly feel that this form of journaling will allow me to better understand the complexity of my life and serve as an avenue to document personal thoughts and feelings. Maybe this artistic practice will bring some serenity and peace into my life, hopefully so. I really enjoy working with found materials and I am always eager to search for objects. But most importantly,. I truly enjoy the journey of where the artistic process will take me. There are no rules, only the confinement of space with altered books. Since I am really struggling with sticking to one theme throughout the book I would like these books top serve as daily journals for me ( art journals). Also, in my visual research studies, I am investigating material culture and the study of objects and belongings of human beings. I think I am most attracted to material culture studies because just about anything you touch in this world has the potential to be an item belonging to material culture. Objects that intrigue me are photographs, maps, jewelry, literature and most of all, I wish to create something meaningful. I had thought about manipulating children’s books, graphic novels and comics earlier. Recently, I have begun to collect a variety of old texts, right now I have the book of shells, and the book of roses. Both I am working with currently. I have discovered that I am having a difficult time working with smaller books so I am always looking for oversized. The idea of recycling also interests me, like I am rescuing a book from its predicted doom. Potential artists I wish to explore more: Louise Nevelson. Mark Dion

So, a few weeks back I was on a nature hike and I came across piles of slate slabs… I took a few and they have been in my garage since. I am always curious about materials and their natural properties, honestly these works began as an experiment. The bear slate is unfinished. It was my first experiment, I had it in mind for a Christmas gift actually. I sanded “Welcome” off the top portion, in doing this I discovered that the slate is actually quite flaky, but low grit sandpaper removes acrylic paint very easily. I plan on stenciling the word later on, I am terrible at painting fonts! The house on the left ,I painted after I was inspired by a “thatched roof” book I was reading recently. For future reference, I am wondering if a layer of polyurethane would possibly protect the slates as they are very fragile ( also very heavy ). I have more also slate pieces- Jenn, Taylor

Snowy Landscape- Tempera on glass- Brette

Portrait of a student- India Ink on paper

I have taken interest in women’s sociocultural roles since this recent election. Students of various ethnicities, especially the girls, have remained very quiet in my classes since the recent presidential results. After researching a little about Veemers famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earing, I looked deeper in the expression of the girl wearing the turban. Her gaze is sad and still as she stares out at the viewer. When I painted this portrait, I had a particular student in mind. One a very talkative, lovely and vivacious girl has become silent. I am almost concerned…

I tried to use color to suggest a grim and sad mood;  I also incorporated text maybe to suggest her oppressed thoughts. I may do some more portraits this upcoming week…

In response to Lamott, I was thinking of first drafts in regards to the initial  applications of paint. I wanted to demonstrate with brushstrokes, my pre-planning processes.  Here, I chose to do some quick portraits, who is the person, I’m not sure yet. However, I was thinking about “shitty first drafting”. And, here they are. I will re-vist them in the future.. acrylic and spray paint on board.

I was just skimming through the NYT magazine, “the thread” page is actually quite comical. Illustrations by artist, Giacomo Gambineri express his feelings while investigating the final weeks inside Hillary Clintons campaign. This is really the fist artistic exposure Ive seen in representing the presidential race. Today, actually, I showed some of Shepard Fairey’s work to design students – emphasizing the Obama “Hope” print. A good discussion arose, heated but good!

I just sat in a professional development workshop geared towards 3d printing. Although we do not have a 3d printer in the art department, the technology department has one they would be willing to lend us for a collaborative project. Our facilitator today discussed how students are applying engineering design processes to their art projects and executing their ideas into scientific demonstrations. II never really explored media arts until today but I learned that 3d printing is a great resource as it allows the art to come to life right before their eyes!

The only discouraging element with 3d printing is that the process is very long. We watched a video where the CAD program was utilized to design a boat propellor to optimize speed.. students were building prototype boats then the math teacher stepped in to cover mathematical concepts such as ratios, density, geometry and buoyancy…. another video demonstrated where students deigned a ball launcher- it took students 18 hours to print 16 parts!!

Hopefully someday in the future we will really be professionally trained to use these for classroom use. We used laser cutters actually in our studio class at new paltz, using pine I think? Anyway, just wanted to share this !