2 paintings, 2 handmade wooden frames and 3 posters. 52.5 hours of in-class time and at least the same amount, if not more, working outside of class, so over one hundred hours spent on the show. It sounds easy making art 24/7, fun even, but it was so demanding of your time/energy/skill/brain. I literally would go to class and paint, go to my next class and paint, go back to my room and paint, paint at night, paint in the morning, paint on Saturday, paint on Sunday. For hours. My desk, dresser, floor. All covered with paint pallets. My room was never clean. I literally lived my work. Now, my work is submitted, and I am free.

As a graduating BFA student, you have to partake in the Senior Thesis Show in order to graduate. It is my first gallery showing and I am sure it is many other students first “show” as well. To be honest, it was simply exhausting… but so exciting. The whole point of the show is to produce work that is reflective of all you have learned as an art student and focus yourself in a direction with your work. Each participating graduate produces 5-8 pieces, outside of class, that all come from your own thoughts and imagination. I feel accomplished.

Now, there are fewer pallets in my room, it is actually clean, and I rediscovered my desk. It feels empty. I have spent the last few days literally doing nothing. Things I didn’t have time to do before. And I am ok with that. I am still working on projects but they seem less pressing because the deadline is a little further away and I am more in control of the situation.

The opening is Monday, November 19th at 6 PM. Family and friends are coming. Strangers are coming. I am excited to celebrate, really take it all in and share the moment. There will be food, drinks and art. All for free. It can’t really get any better than that. I hope to see you there!!

Hi all! I am new to the Fontbonne University blogging community so an introduction is only appropriate.

My name is Kelia, pronounced “Kayla.” A lot of people, teachers included, know me as “Kayla,” but freak out when they see my name on paper. So don’t worry if when you read my name on paper you wonder who the heck that person is. It happens to the best of them. Once you get over the weird spelling, I think it means we are friends.

First thing first, I am a senior! This is my last semester of college. Last. Semester. How insane is that?! Unbelievable. Three point five years have never gone so fast in my life. If there were a mantra that should be scribed all over every notebook/agenda/wall of incoming freshman, it’s this: Life goes too fast. Appreciate it, have fun, worry less, smile more. Just because you are a college student does not mean you should adopt the stress level of Obama. This is something I wish I would have tuned in on. Have fun while you can and study when you should.

I am majoring in Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design. I love art. Every type. I love to create. I will probably be writing a lot about this. Expect to see musings about my art classes, which are: Painting with Tim Liddy, Life Size Painting with Victor Wang, Senior Project with Tim Liddy, Digital Imaging with Denise Shilling, and Wood Working with Mark Douglas. If you have no idea who these professors are, go find them and introduce yourself. It’s not everyday you get to hang around actual, real life, thriving Artists. The Art Professors of Fontbonne University are incredibly talented and profoundly caring. They create art, and they sell art. Some of the works are in New York, Europe and Hong Kong. They are kind of a big deal. Shake their hands, ask them questions, be their friend.

The other class: Kitchen Survival: Cook Well, Eat Well, Live Well (the special topics course.) Because of the awesome dedicated semester topic of Foodology, this cooking class was offered and I could not resist. I love food, I love to cook and bake and I love to be healthy. Best class ever. I will most definitely be writing about the creations from this class.

I am from Kentucky. I was born in Ohio as a 3 month early premi. I live in Northern Kentucky when I am not in ST. Louis attending school. My family lives about 7 minutes from Cincinnati Ohio, where I plan on landing a job. Expect to read about me missing my family, friends and my amazing boyfriend of 3 years and 7 months. Hey, long distance relationships suck, so every month counts.

Exercise: I love it! I love to run and have run competitively since 7th grade. I have been playing soccer since the age of 4. In high school I ran cross country and played varsity soccer at the same time all four years. I love the dedication and physical demands you ask of your body as an athlete. I found Fontbonne because I was recruited by a past cross country coach and fell in love with the school, the program and the area. I ran Cross Country and Track for 2 solid years, switched to soccer last year, and this year I am doin’ my own thing. I like to lift weights, I like to run, I like to sweat.

I am really excited to share my experiences as a last semester college Senior with everyone! Thanks for reading,

-Kelia

I have been taking Victor Wang’s Oil Painting Techniques class this semester. In the class we go through the painting methods of three master painters;  Jan Van Eyck, Titian, and Peter Paul Rubens. These three painters exemplify the three central methods of traditional oil painting.

Since I have been learning about traditional painting methods, I have been wondering what it was like for a painter back then. They painted when an artist couldn’t go to the store and browse through a shelf full of synthetic oil paints, nicely pre-packaged in little tubes for convenience. This led me to the question, “Where DID they get their paints?”

So, I have begun to research how to make paints. I started by purchasing pigments, which are colored powders that are mixed with oil to make paint. Still, this seemed too commercial. I wanted to know what it is really like to make paint from start to finish. I begun with the easiest pigments to make, which are earth tones. I searched out colored earth of different colors, looking for reds and yellows. I found two that I really like in Des Peres. One is yellow rock, and the other is a reddish colored dirt. I brought them back to my studio, and began grinding…and grinding…and grinding. Grinding it down until I had a powder fine enough to go through a metal coffee filter. The next step is to mix the pigment with linseed oil, and then grind it together. This step takes about 3 hours of grinding for a small tube of paint. Then, when the pigment is ground into the oil, I put the paste into tubes, and voila! Oil paint!

I thought that this project would just be about how it felt for the masters to make their own paint from raw materials, but now I’ve started using them and I can really tell the difference! My own paints don’t have fillers or preservatives, they are pure pigment and oil. I’m hooked.

The amount of time and energy that goes into making paint probably makes buying it end up being a little bit cheaper. However, it is not nearly as rewarding. Now I have started working on a bluish-green pigment made by suspending copper over vinegar(the masters used urine instead, but I thought I would spare my classmates from the smell). The result is a teal rust that I can’t wait to make paint out of.

I plan to slowly replace all of the paints on my palette, one color at a time.

Every few months the art department invites a visiting artist to come and do a critique with the graduate students. Most of them are professors from nearby schools, but sometimes they are more prominent painters. For the last two days we have been spending time with Jerome Witkin. He is a phenomenal painter with works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and in the Hirshhorn Museum in D.C.

Getting a fresh perspective on our work is always helpful. It is easy to get stuck in a rut talking to the same teacher about my paintings all the time. Having someone new to discuss my work with gives me a fresh start, even if they say all of the same things that my professors do (which is usually the case).

Now that the two days of critiques are over, it is time to apply what was discussed. The visiting artists always leave me with ideas that I need to get down quickly so they don’t fall to the wayside.

The visit with Mr. Witkin was very educational. It is always an honor and a privilege to meet such a high caliber of artist, and I look forward to whoever they find for our next critique.

Well, this is it. There’s just four weeks left of my first year of college! I can hardly believe it. This past week was quite a busy one, with final projects being introduced and other class related things to do. SHESA (Student Human Environmental Sciences Association) is sponsoring Denim Day in a couple of weeks, and I was busy making crafts out of denim we plan on selling for donations on April 26th.

This week I did something that I haven’t done all year long. I stayed on campus Friday night. Normally, I go back home every weekend, but Saturday afternoon I attended a lecture at Washington University, and with high gas prices driving home and back didn’t seem like the right choice. It was extremely odd being in the dorms when I would normally be at home, but change is good.

The lecture I attended Saturday was titled, “Is Fashion Art?” and Valerie Steele spoke. According to my adviser, it was a “don’t miss opportunity”. I am extremely glad I went. Steele does not think fashion is art, but her lecture was very insightful about the relationship between fashion and art.

With summer on its way, Cardinals baseball has begun, and I must say I am very proud of the Redbirds so far! I look forward to going to a game at Busch Stadium in the next few weeks. I just hope no one else gets hurt. This week I watched all the games, but was disappointed the weather was so dreary for Opening Day.

I look forward to my last weeks at Fontbonne until the fall. We’ll see what next week has in store for me!

This has been a great week! The weather is finally starting to look like Spring, so my wife and I started off the week by going to the zoo. We visited all of our favorite animals, like the new baby lion who was chomping on a big bone. Kenzi, the baby elephant was adorable as ever. Bert, the majestic grizzly bear was out. They were throwing rolled up bread balls at Bert, and he would sit up on his hind legs and beg for them… so awesome!

Later, we visited the grave of William Clark in Bellefontaine Cemetery just off of I-70. It is one of the largest cemeteries I have ever been to.

On Friday, we went to two art openings. The Varsity Art show at Art St. Louis was great, with paintings by two Fontbonne students, Albert Kuo and Julie Deken! The other opening was the faculty show at Fontbonne! I really think every Fontbonne student should get over to the gallery and check it out!

Today we went to the Fabulous Fox theater for a taping of America’s Got Talent! We got to be in the audience and cheer for the good acts and boo the bad ones! Best of all, we got to see Howie Mandel, Sharon Osborn, and Howard Stern!

Now my wife is out latin dancing with one of her girlfriends while I am at the graduate art studios for some late night painting. I just started the final painting in a series of 12!

It has been a long, but awesome week!

One of the greatest things about St. Louis, in my opinion, is the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM). The museum is free to the public and hosts a great collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures. I go there quite a bit since it is located in Forest Park which is right by Fontbonne!

Earlier this week, my Oil Painting Techniques class went to the museum and met an art conservationist. He took our class into an underground secure area where artwork restorations are done. It was so fascinating! We learned about how he strips the varnish off of old paintings, repairs them, cleans them, re-varnishes them, and then paints in the missing portions of paint over the varnish. It was really interesting to go into the off-limits area of the museum. It always amazes me how much artwork sits locked up underground waiting to be restored, never getting the chance to be seen by the general public.

Today my wife and I went to the SLAM, because today is Friday and Friday is free day for special exhibits at the museum. The show that is there right now is An Orchestrated Vision: The Theater of Contemporary Photography. It is a lovely collection of staged photographs. I encourage everyone to go and see the show, but I suggest waiting until next Friday when it will be free again!

For more information on the St. Louis Art Museum, or to check out the collections, you can visit their website:

http://www.slam.org/

Would you like to know my major? Well, tell me what you think!

I am a Fine Arts Major, and I’m also planning on doing Education as well. I’ve been drawing ever since I was about 5 or 6 years old. Boring, right? Not quite. As the years came by, I began to open myself to other media. Painting is another amazing technique. I will not say that I am absolutely magnificent at painting, but it’s a challenge that I like to take.

As a child, painting is just a mix of gooey substances that you can blend together and create silly pictures with. If you really want to know how to paint, you may need to really pay attention to primary, secondary, and complimentary colors. They’re really important!

I know it would take me years to understand how to paint and to mix the right colors for a beautiful masterpiece. Instead of painting, I fell in love with ceramics. My first experience with clay was in my freshman year in high school. I honestly had never heard of ceramics before (I seriously don’t know why), but I’m glad I got the chance to play with it. Throughout my whole high school years, ceramics was my best friend.With ceramics, you can do so much and use your own ideas. There are various techniques such as pinch pots, coil pots, low-reliefs, and slabs. The biggest challenge is probably the throwing wheel!

Currently, I’m a freshman here at Fontbonne, and I took classes in design, drawing, and now ceramics! Can’t get tired of it. I’m also thinking about taking painting in the next semester. I’m totally excited! Let the challenge come forth.

With education, I may be taking time on it. I do want to become an art teacher because I think art education can bring creativity and talent out of young children. It’s an amazing thing to see when little kids express their imagination. I love it!

I hope everyone will find something they’re passionate about, and take action to achieve a successful career!

After my senior year of high school, I was a little lost on where I wanted to go for college. I knew that I wanted to study art but I hadn’t found a place that felt right. My high school art teacher recommended me for a summer art camp hosted at Fontbonne University. I hadn’t seriously considered Fontbonne before then. My older brother had attended FBU for a year, and I didn’t think much of it, but there was a lot for me to learn that summer, and not just about art.

While attending the 4-week camp, I got to meet a handful of graduate students who also sang praise for Fontbonne. They claimed the biggest hallmark of the Fontbonne Fine Arts Department was the emphasis on classical training. They lamented friends who had graduated from other art programs but still couldn’t draw. Fontbonne, they told me, would give me a strong foundational education on the formal elements of art to better prepare me for the incredibly competitive art world. I took their recommendation under advisement.

The campus was charming and easy to navigate. A smaller student body appealed to me, having come from a very small high school. The location in the Clayton/University City area was prime.

But here’s what really sealed the deal for me. Everyone in the art department seemed to know each other. It wasn’t clique-ish, but it was neighborly. People walked in and out of the building all the time during the summer camp, and they always were saying hello to somebody. But they never referred to Misters or Misses in the faculty. It took only a little while to figure out that everyone was on a first name basis with the teachers, and that is an excellent selling point.

Now in my third year as an art student, I can vouch for all these things. The teachers are very personable and almost all of them go by their first name. Victor, Hank, Keith, Tim, Cat…. the informal atmosphere makes going to class a pleasure: an opportunity for self improvement, not a chore. As a student who wants to spend their life doing what they love, Fontbonne was an excellent choice to find a way to do just that.

If you’re not from these parts you might not have ever heard of SCOSAG a.k.a. St. Louis City Open Studio and Gallery located on our city’s south side in beautiful Tower Grove Park. It started out as a unique and special place to expose children to art even if they weren’t “artistic,” and it has steadily grown over the years. And though they now offer classes for adults, their main focus is still kids and their BIGGEST most exciting fundraiser is still WALL BALL.

Wall Ball is an exciting evening of art, food, fun and friends that caters to the artist in all of us. Watch as some 35 local artist create works of art  right before your eyes. Maybe even participate in the silent auction.  Whatever the case, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.  So if you are looking for something different for a Valentine gift this year or just something fun to do this weekend Wall Ball  just might be the thing. See you there!

Get more info here http://www.scosag.org/wallball/default2010.shtml