I love our Fine Arts program. Fontbonne teaches more traditionally than some colleges, which means there is a heavy emphasis on the human figure.  The figure is used in every studio class. Along with understanding human anatomy, there is a strong urge for students to know techniques of old master painters, or at least have an ideal about past painters. Depending on the professor, you might find yourself drawing/painting/sculpting the human figure for 10 weeks of the semester or more.

We do offer classes that stray from the traditional figure, still life and basic technique, too. Bookmaking which is offered every few semesters, is a great substitute drawing class. You learn to produce books, stitch together folios, bind books, etc. You produce about 6-7 books. It is a great class that gives you the opportunity to be creative in a different way.

Any painting/drawing class taught by Tim Liddy will be very open ended and allow for so much out- of-the-box thinking which you may feel, as an undergrad, you don’t get to do in class very often. He is so open to any and every ideal you could think of and he is great at offering suggestions and doing everything he can to help make your ideal happen.

Mario Carlos is a drawing professor who, with more advanced levels of classes, will give you more free reign on certain projects. Victor Wang’s drawing class is another class that does more non-traditional projects but I have never taken this class.

A newly added class that is offered to artists is Woodworking. I was in the first group of students to take the class and you learn basic concepts of woodworking, safety, and how to use common tools. I am in the process of making a splayed leg side table

Photography, another great class, is definitely one to allow your creativity to flow. Our photography classes use (usually) 35MM  black and white film. Some people use larger format film, which we do have the equipment for. We have a great dark room too. Photo is a lot of work and can be a little expensive, but it is well worth it for the knowledge, experience, and great shots you get.

As a graphic designer, Illustration Techniques definitely keeps you thinking. We did a lot of projects, focused on the ideal being presented, how to present/express your ideals thoroughly and talk about them. It is interesting because you can feel like you are illustrating something so clearly and when you present the project, people might not get it. That is a very valuable experience to have.It was also a ton of work,but well worth it.

-Kelia

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.

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!

There are a lot of mixed emotions about Valentine’s Day. I, personally, think Valentine’s Day is wonderful! My wife and I have been married for 3 and a half years. Even though we love each other every other day, it is always fun to celebrate our love for each other. This year we made a rule that we could only spend $5 on our presents. For my wife’s gift, I utilized the metalsmithing studio at Fontbonne and made her earrings! They are pink topaz, sterling silver and pearls. I used a gift card I had for the topaz, and the pearls only cost $8 (so I ended up going $3 over the limit). She still hasn’t given me my Valentine’s Day gift because she hasn’t quite finished it yet, but that’s great because it means we get to have another Valentine’s Day!

I guess I don’t see Valentine’s Day as a reminder to do nice things for my wife, but more as an excuse to do something extra special! Even though I want to make earrings for her all the time, it is difficult to justify taking 9 hours out of my schedule to make them. Valentine’s Day gives me the perfect excuse!

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.

Hello everyone!

My name is Doug Weaver and this is my first blog post at Fontbonne.

This is my second semester at Fontbonne as a graduate student in painting and drawing. I live in an apartment in North County with my beautiful wife.

As I write this, I am sitting in my new studio space at the Options building in Brentwood. The graduate studios are one of the things that attracted me to Fontbonne. As an artist, it is important to me that I have my own space that I feel comfortable working in. I spend a lot of time in this room, in fact I spend more time in my studio than I do in class. It is the third week of the semester, and I am already working on 3 paintings (not for class). For an art student classes are where you learn valuable tools, the studio is where you really use them.

In addition to being a personal space to work in, the Fontbonne studios are extremely active. Very rarely do I come to the studios and find that I am the only one here. There is a sense of camaraderie among the artists that is difficult to find elsewhere. It comes from the fact that we all come here for the same purpose; art.  I can almost feel the creativity floating around in the space when I walk in the door. It is the sound of the saw when someone is cutting wood for a stretcher, or the scent of melted beeswax in a crock pot. It is seeing paintings in various stages of completion and watching them develop over time, or the random assortment of things that artists accumulate over time; glass bottles, old accordion doors, anything that has potential to be used for inspiration or in a piece itself. I really never know what I’m going to walk in and see.

Another reason having my own space here is important to me is because I need somewhere that I can come to think. This is the step of the art-making process that is often overlooked. Artists spend at least as much time thinking about what to paint than we do actually painting. So I need a place where I can think of ideas, read about various subjects and spending time developing those ideas into a work of art. This place is, for me, my studio space in Brentwood. It is a magical place where fleeting thoughts give way to concrete ideas, and those ideas become finished works of art!

Fortinbras is a go.  We had our first stumble through, and nothing drastic happened.  The performing arts department is producing a hilarious play about the truth of what really happened after Hamlet died.  It’s being directed by Deanna Jent.  She is the director of Fontbonne Theatre as well as the artistic director of our professional company, Mustard Seed.  Deanna is a really cool lady.   She’s an excellent director.  She’s been nominated about six times for a Kevin Kline award for best director (that’s St. Louis’s professional theatre award, sort of like the Tony’s are in NY).  And a lot of shows she directs are nominated for other things, like best ensemble acting, or best production.  And she was selected as the Scholar/Artist of Fontbonne for 2010-2011.

I see Deanna as much more than a director.  She’s the most understanding professor I’ve ever met.  That’s not saying she’s an easy grader, it just makes me want to attempt beyond my best.  Many students are intimidated when they first meet her.  That’s understandable, ’cause she’s pretty awesome.   Kind of like the I’m-scared-of-that-person-because-part-of-me-really-wants-to-be-like-them-but-I’m-afraid-I-never-can-be thing.  No worries, Deanna sees your potential.

Deanna gets you outside of the “institution” box.  There’s so much more out there than your grade.  There’s compassion, there’s social justice, there’s understanding, there’s faith, there’s…other people.  Deanna is a great teacher.  I love her classes.  I love working with her.  She’s just all around…cool.  I want to be able to teach like she does.  I want to be able to tell the world “hey, this is a something we need to work on” like she does.  One show at a time.

So, don’t have any rubber bands?  Find a plastic orchestra.

Remember, I’m pulling for you.  We’re all in this together.

The students, the teachers, and the whole environment at Fontbonne are amazing.  It’s like another home!  I can always find someone to walk with when I want to go to Walgreens.  The people I have met here are friends that I’ll have for life.  They make me want to be a better person!  Not only do the teachers know my and every other student’s name, they’ve helped me to find a job, supported me during hard times and tutored me when I found their classes challenging.  

The teachers’ office doors are always open.  With the great student to teacher ratio of 13:1, the teachers are always ready to help and support us.  For instance, I found out by taking a class in the fine arts building that our art department is extremely knowledgeable.  We have very talented artists.  It’s NONSTOP LEARNING!!!  You really MUST check it out.

On campus, there are many quiet areas I can study in or if I’d rather study with someone, I can do that too.  There are many different organizations in which you can get involved and classes you can take to ensure you have a successful future.  The opportunities are endless.  My advice: take an art class, join a club, walk across campus and meet someone new, go to a teacher for help and advice. Welcome to Fontbonne! Enjoy it!

Think a Fine Arts major may be for you? Want to know more about clubs on campus ? It’s all on the Fontbonne Website!