What has gotten you through?
Department of Art Lecturer Leslie Barlow skating 2020. Photo: Sarah Dovolos
We asked our Department of Art faculty, staff, and graduate students to share with us some of the delightful things that have helped them get through the past challenging year. (Click the links in their names to see more of what they've been up to.)
Regan Golden-McNerney, Lecturer in Critical Practices
Collage!
"Collage as a Way of Living," Essay by Regan Golden, published by MARCH: Journal of Art + Strategy, February 2021.
Collage!
"Collage as a Way of Living," Essay by Regan Golden, published by MARCH: Journal of Art + Strategy, February 2021.
Louise Fisher, Lecturer in Digital Drawing
Collage has gotten me through this past year—especially the long and dark winter. I have a collection of scraps from artwork made prior to the pandemic that I'm turning into new pieces. It's been a great way to reflect on the integration of the "before times" and "after times", and pass the time as I waited for access to a community studio again.
Collage has gotten me through this past year—especially the long and dark winter. I have a collection of scraps from artwork made prior to the pandemic that I'm turning into new pieces. It's been a great way to reflect on the integration of the "before times" and "after times", and pass the time as I waited for access to a community studio again.
Robin Schwartzman, XYZ Lab, DPP Area Technician, Lecturer in 3D Model & Digital Fabrication
Participating in a daily drawing challenge called Caricature Resolution really helped me get through the past year. There was one in January 2020, April 2020, and January 2021. The act of drawing every day for a month from a list of subjects along with hundreds of other artists from around the world helped keep me distracted, focused, and entertained. Challenges like this also help keep drawing skills sharp!
Participating in a daily drawing challenge called Caricature Resolution really helped me get through the past year. There was one in January 2020, April 2020, and January 2021. The act of drawing every day for a month from a list of subjects along with hundreds of other artists from around the world helped keep me distracted, focused, and entertained. Challenges like this also help keep drawing skills sharp!
Sayge Carroll, MFA '21
My BFF Keegan Xavi and I created some community-based art exchanges, had regular check-ins, chat-ups, and outdoor fires (until it got too cold). We've been planning art projects, our escape, and making art for ourselves and our people.
My son and I have tried new things (covid safe things) Camping in the BWCA and Dog sledding.
And we got a dog.
My BFF Keegan Xavi and I created some community-based art exchanges, had regular check-ins, chat-ups, and outdoor fires (until it got too cold). We've been planning art projects, our escape, and making art for ourselves and our people.
My son and I have tried new things (covid safe things) Camping in the BWCA and Dog sledding.
And we got a dog.
Laura Stack, Lecturer in Drawing & Painting
Making art!
Making art allows me to travel … In my mind's eye, I can escape the mundanity of everyday life. Art opens a door to the unlimited world of my imagination. I am no more a slave to gravity, chained down on the earth. I can be a jellyfish deep down in the darkest depths of the ocean or a bird soaring high above the clouds. I am there in that moment, and everything else around me fades away.
Making art!
Making art allows me to travel … In my mind's eye, I can escape the mundanity of everyday life. Art opens a door to the unlimited world of my imagination. I am no more a slave to gravity, chained down on the earth. I can be a jellyfish deep down in the darkest depths of the ocean or a bird soaring high above the clouds. I am there in that moment, and everything else around me fades away.
Shannon Birge Laudon, Administrative Director
KAKE, a neighborhood radio station broadcast from the Pancake House rooftop. Tune your radio to 87.9 (best heard in southeast Minneapolis) and listen in. I love this radio station!
KAKE, a neighborhood radio station broadcast from the Pancake House rooftop. Tune your radio to 87.9 (best heard in southeast Minneapolis) and listen in. I love this radio station!
Isa Gagarin, Lecturer in Drawing
I teach foundation drawing, and at the end of every semester my class holds a ceremony to celebrate the students' accomplishments. Each student ceremoniously destroys their least favorite drawing that they made from that semester. It is a cathartic and joyful way to remember that our work is more about the process than the end results. Most students gleefully tear up their chosen drawings into shreds. Fire is not allowed for safety reasons. As an educator, this event has also been meaningful for me: a reminder to allow myself some grace and acceptance about the challenges of this last year.
I teach foundation drawing, and at the end of every semester my class holds a ceremony to celebrate the students' accomplishments. Each student ceremoniously destroys their least favorite drawing that they made from that semester. It is a cathartic and joyful way to remember that our work is more about the process than the end results. Most students gleefully tear up their chosen drawings into shreds. Fire is not allowed for safety reasons. As an educator, this event has also been meaningful for me: a reminder to allow myself some grace and acceptance about the challenges of this last year.
Clarence Morgan, Professor in Drawing & Painting
Reading, journal-writing, listening to jazz, cooking for myself, and making drawings/paintings.
Reading, journal-writing, listening to jazz, cooking for myself, and making drawings/paintings.
