back to basics
March 6, 2010
Yesterday I taught a small beginning bookbinding workshop. Participants made models of three simple book forms: a single signature pamphlet binding, a Japanese 4-hole binding and perfect binding. Here are some of the finished samples:
Because we have no bindery equipment here, I brought up this somewhat primitive trimming apparatus that my dad made for me back in the 1990s when I was doing a lot of bookbinding but didn’t have any money or any tools. Propped up on one end (the end you can see here, with blocks under it to keep it steady) a pair of backing boards can be slid inside and the book clamped for rounding the spine. At the other end it’s got a nice high smooth wooden wall that’s used for a guide to keep the blade nice and straight for trimming the clamped book; it uses an old blade from a plane with leather wrapped around it, and back when I was trimming twenty textblocks a day with this thing I’d wrap my hand in leather and fabric as well and still get blisters in two lines across all four fingers. It’s a grueling job, but it does the trick.
Using this old trimmer again has me really looking forward to getting the new (to me) Chandler & Price paper trimmer up and running once I’m back home (remember how I was going to get the base sanded and painted over the February break? Didn’t happen). Did I mention that I’m planning to spend my whole summer down in the basement just cutting up books all day? Any books I can get my hands on. Because I can, that’s why.
Posted by jodi on March 6, 2010 at 9.08pm
student drawings
February 24, 2010
I’m a bit behind in posting student work and now have a rather large pile in my office waiting to be marked, photographed and handed back. Guess this weekend is for grading.
These are a few of the self portraits my Drawing II students did last month. For more you can check out the class flickr set.
Steve Saad
Emily Evans
Nick Scarfone
Erikka Molenaar
Posted by jodi on February 24, 2010 at 9.13pm
quick portrait studies
February 9, 2010
A few of the portraits my life drawing students drew of their classmates (20 minute studies):
Marie, drawn by Laurel Gough
Kathleen, drawn by Shea Lacombe
Cayla, drawn by Annie McIntyre
More drawings from this session can be seen in the class flickr set.
Posted by jodi on February 9, 2010 at 8.36pm
drawing II, surface expression project
February 8, 2010
The first major drawing project for my Drawing II class was a closely observed study of an object of their choosing. The objective was to create an expressive drawing that was highly descriptive of the object’s surface while addressing (through composition on the page and/or the quality of the mark-making) the object’s function or its importance. Here are a few of the finished drawings (more projects, and detailed shots of these ones, are in the flickr set for the class):
Nick Scarfone (well worn jeans)
Brittany Lee (pressed flowers)
Steve Saad (pre-worn jeans)
Ben Barak (old sneaker/new sneaker)
Posted by jodi on February 8, 2010 at 7.35pm
some images from life drawing class, february 1
February 4, 2010
Spent some time reviewing facial anatomy and portraiture, since many in this class seem less confident with the faces than they are with the rest of the figure. I’ll get to see how well they’re integrating this review and practice with their figure drawings next week when we have a model again, but by the third portrait they did in class (of each other) they were really getting it.
I was going to upload another studio video, but it looks like it might take all night and half of tomorrow for it to upload to flickr. Don’t get too excited, it’s just more drawing on the same drawing again, only this time in red ink. Woo!
Posted by jodi on February 4, 2010 at 11.02pm
abrasive
January 27, 2010
I always leave my Wednesday morning class with a headache. It’s got twice as many students as my other two classes have, and they’re an energetic bunch even at 8:30 in the morning. I often have to shout to be heard or tell them to shut up and listen, and while they’re drawing, while they’re sitting around waiting for class, while they’re dawdling to set up their easels, they are constantly yakking. All at once. Mostly I don’t mind, because they’re fairly engaged with the drawing they’re doing in class, and so far most of them are doing pretty good work. And I would much, much rather have a noisy talkative class than a morose class that doesn’t want to participate. But now it’s suppertime and the mild headache I left class with at 12:30 has unfurled itself into a full-blown migraine. I need to either get these folks to quiet down somehow, or have the drugs at the ready the second I walk out of there.
Posted by jodi on January 27, 2010 at 5.03pm
blue skies
January 21, 2010
It was an insanely fine day here in this little corner of the Great White North. Here, have a look:
Yup, that’s the same old path up the same damned hill AGAIN. One of these days I’ll walk somewhere else, I promise. And when I do, I’ll be sure to photograph the snow over there for y’all. I’m quite certain it will look TOTALLY DIFFERENT and Not At All Boring.
I don’t teach again until Monday afternoon, and as we’ll be critiquing a drawing assignment and then having another session with the live model, I don’t really need to do any planning for it. I’ll still be heading in to the school over the weekend, however; there are a couple of shiny new woodblocks waiting in my office and I’m looking forward to getting started cutting on them. I’m also planning to poke around the print shop a bit and get a better look at what letterpress equipment is in there, and think about what sorts of projects I might be able to do while I’m here. Then there’s that whole lithography shop worth of equipment and supplies that’s been recently donated to the school and hasn’t even been fully set up for use yet, and it’s pretty damned tempting to try and start working on a stone, since I wouldn’t have to worry about getting in the way of students with it. If I don’t get too caught up in all of that, I’m going to try and spend a bit of time working up a drawing for my next tattoo (which I’m planning to get while I’m here in North Bay) featuring one of these cute little fellers:
Posted by jodi on January 21, 2010 at 9.21pm
practicing what I preach
January 12, 2010
My students are not used to being expected to fill a whole sketchbook for every drawing course they take, and most of them carry around a big black hardbound book that they use for all of their studio courses. It makes me sad to see how little they’ve drawn in books that in some cases they’ve been using for a year and a half now, and how many of those precious pages are instead filled with notes from art history class. I told my life drawing students that I expect them to draw every day, in order to develop good working habits if nothing else. I also told them that I would bring my own book to class so that they could check up on me and know that I’m keeping the same commitment I’m demanding from them.
These are the books I brought with me to draw in while I’m here. The one on the left should look familiar: it’s another of my 20-spread drum leaf books made entirely of old prints. I used to draw in these every day, but got out of the habit when I got busy with my thesis work and never picked it up again (see, kids? If you don’t draw every day then you wind up having NO WORK ETHIC AT ALL). In the centre is a longstitch binding by Stacie Dolin, another gift she brought me when she visited Windsor last fall. I’m especially looking forward to drawing in this one, as it will feel good to go back to blank pages after drawing on top of layers and layers of ink for so long. On the right is a perfect bound notebook I made using a variety of recycled papers. These should keep me going for a while. Of course, I haven’t started drawing in any of them yet (don’t tell my students).
Grace asked for clarification on what buffet has to do with Manifest Destiny, and I’ll write something about that later. Soon. It’s just that I goofed off all day today and now I have this syllabus and lesson plan to finish for tomorrow morning. Ah, the last minute desk jive. My favourite dance.
Posted by jodi on January 12, 2010 at 8.15pm
teaching uniform, January 11
January 11, 2010
I really need to take these earlier in the day, before I teach, instead of later when I’m worn out and rumpled and all the light is gone. Today was a rough day, as I woke up so sick I almost thought I wouldn’t make it to class. But, with only one class per week, we only have ten classes after today so I swallowed an insane amount of ibuprofen and took a 20 minute nap. It did the trick, but now I feel like I could keel over from exhaustion.
Good class today, though. I wish I could have taken some photos of my students while they drew, but we had a live model so no recording devices allowed (this is one area in which my teaching philosophy is definitely not “do as I say, not as I do”). Hopefully some of the homework drawings they’ll be turning in next week will be good enough to show. Perhaps I should try out a tough love approach, looking at the work they submit and telling them it’s not bloggable quality, in the same way Daniel W. Dingler once told me that all of the lithographs I’d done during a summer independent study with him were “horseshit”. But, although I can see a lot in my teaching style that comes from Dan, I can’t quite bring myself to say things like that to them; instead I just tell them the “my professor told me all my work was horseshit” story. I am, however, going to take a cue from something Daniel once did to me and tape sticks to their hands next week. JUST WATCH ME.
In related news, I’m already well on my way in establishing myself as the crazy professor. I might have said something to my printmaking students during our very first class about how buffet restaurants are an extension of Manifest Destiny. Oddly enough, they seemed like they got what I meant. Unless they were all just nodding their heads and biding their time until they could get to a computer and drop my class.
Posted by jodi on January 11, 2010 at 6.52pm
chasing my tail in the driveway whenever a car drives by
February 27, 2009
These last few weeks have been crazy-busy, exciting and exhausting. Some highlights:
I taught my first workshop out of the Windsor Printmaker’s Forum, a two-day whirlwind introduction to stone lithography. It was fast-paced and fun, and we got an incredible amount of work done in less than twelve hours. We’d scheduled it for Monday and Tuesday of the university’s Reading Week to accommodate some professors who came down from North Bay to attend the class, but there was enough interest in the community that we’re planning to schedule a weekend workshop very soon (stay tuned!).
After the workshop I spent the next day and a half building slideshows in preparation for our Pecha Kucha Night, which, if you didn’t get the message last time, was the event of the season. A week later I’m still a little hung over from the excitement generated that night.
The day after Pecha Kucha Peter and I took the day off to drive around the county, paying a visit to the Ridley homestead where they have recently welcomed an incredibly soft and lovely baby llama into their growing fibre family. First-year shares in this homegrown fibre co-op have sold out, but if you keep your eye on Old School Fibre’s etsy shop you might be able to snag one next season.
This week I spent two mornings at the University of Windsor teaching a lithography demo to the senior printmaking class. We did our best to speed through about four weeks of instruction in six hours, falling a little short but not disastrously so. I got to spend some time in my old haunts, working on a press I love, and one of the students is even interested in coming out to the Printmaker’s Forum and running for a spot on the board, which is beyond awesome.
In local news, Windsor’s very own Phog Lounge was named this week as best live music venue in Canada by CBC Radio3. The National Post even called Windsor “the nation’s undiscovered indie rock supercity”. But hell, we knew that. If you were unfortunate enough to miss the big announcement you’re in luck, because CBC television cameras captured the moment of the big reveal live. Click to relive the glory!
This weekend we’ve got some sooper-seekrit family stuff going on out of town, but if you’re staying behind in Windsor you should check out these two events tonight that I’m disappointed to be missing:
-a live music benefit at the Kildare House to raise dough for Rafiki Kenya
-opening reception for La robe-ruche (The Hive Dress) by Julie Faubert and Héloïse Audy at Artcite Inc
And don’t forget, if you feel yourself starting to wobble, use the zen to keep you steady.
Posted by jodi on February 27, 2009 at 10.40am
