DRAWING + PAINTING
DRAWING
SINCE ART’S EARLY BEGINNINGS on cave walls, drawing has been the primary medium. At Union, we offer an emphasis that trains students in this fundamental skill. The drawing curriculum is designed to train the student in the use of a variety of different media and practices. While emphasis is placed on the development of proficiency in a particular medium, the major is exposed to trends both traditional and contemporary in drawing as a craft and is encouraged to explore personal forms of expression from a Christian perspective. The Drawing/Painting lab is located in the Penick Building and supports multiple courses. The lab is outfitted with easels, stools, art storage, safety equipment, and ventilation for many types of materials.
COURSES ART 218 - Drawing: Advanced Methods and Practices ART 338 - Advanced Drawing: Expression, Experimentation and Critical Analysis ART 413 - Drawing Advanced Art Studio I ART 414 - Drawing Advanced Art Studio II ART 460 - Drawing Studio Practice VII ART 465 - Drawing Studio Practice VIII 2
MEET THE STUDENTS INTERVIEW WITH KATIE WILLIAMS Hi, I’m Katie Williams and I am a senior graphic design major here at Union. I’m studying to get my BFA in graphic design and drawing. What drew you to the art department? I was attracted to Union as a university, but not necessarily as an art department. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get an art degree or not; I really did want to do design but I assumed that a small Christian school would not necessarily have a solid art department, but rather just good community. I visited the art department, and I had seen all these glitzyglammy ones at art schools and it just seemed really different than that. At first, it seemed like a disappointment. I ended up coming to Union just out of scholarship and a love for the community, and it’s been the most ironic thing because the art department has been what I have fallen in love with the most at Union. I guess what has kept me here was initially the community; the fact that I had friends that understood my struggles in class, but also my spiritual and emotional battles because they were there for most of it, as well as the fun that we had, hard late nights, all the time, and a lot of things that I wasn’t used to. But the way I describe it is that I would much rather do this than anything. I would much rather be up at 3 AM trying to manage an installation on the wall than writing a paper. The art department has cultivated the arts really well, in a variety of ways whether it was in art history learning about art of the past or in drawing actually getting my 3
hands on the work or at art events learning about people in the community. It was so much bigger than just a degree, it was so much bigger than just something fun for me to do, it kind of was all encompassing, and brought together a lot of the aspects of my life. What is your favorite aspect of the art department? I think my favorite aspect has changed over the years just depending on what season I’m in. I think most recently my favorite part has been the consistency of the department; things change a lot, people change, artists change, and professors leave, but the fact that it’s still always here and there’s something very communal about it. When I’m in doubt or I need encouragement, I can always go to someone’s studio and see what they’re doing, or I can just pass through the ceramics department and remember that this is much bigger than me. It reminds me that there is just a crazy amount of talent in this place and so much learning to be done from the professors as well as each other, and just knowing it’s even here, and letting that influence my actions and influence my work and supporting each other in that. Why did you choose to study drawing specifically? I took Drawing I and II my freshman year; I had just barely touched on drawing in high school and really loved it; I loved rendering, I loved making really life-like portraiture, or life-like anything; I thought it was amazing that if I was patient enough and paid attention enough that I could actually make something 4
life-like out of just pencil and paper. Over those couple of semesters, I really had fun with drawing; it was a really weird, therapeutic thing for me that I could make something look lifelike just out of a repetitive action and focus. 3D is fantastic, but I really enjoy working on a flat surface; there’s just a magic to the fact that a piece of paper can become a whole different world in my mind. So as I’ve learned that it’s both therapeutic for me, I can achieve something that is meaningful to someone, and that I can grow in skill the more and more I do it has really kept me drawing for quite some time. Can you talk about the drawing department specifically? The drawing department is often a little overlooked because drawing is required for all freshmen here, so a lot of people get a little tired of it because it’s very formulaic. It’s very much about just getting the basic skills down, and drawing is not seen as a fine art at most places; so while you can go to an art museum and see tons of painting, tons of sculpture, tons of design work, drawing has often been seen in culture and in the past as a prerequisite for the other arts. The drawing department is definitely small because of that, because people are unaware of what they can do with drawing; you can still play with color and material, but it is much more about refining the basics and refining the technical skill. A lot of the people in our drawing department take two routes: they either want to do drawing as a fine art (which is the route I’ve taken) and then we have a lot of illustration students. Because we don’t have an illustration program, a lot
of those people will major in drawing and painting. Drawing is absolutely essential if you want to do animation or illustration, because even though it gets overlooked as a prerequisite for a lot of things, what an amazing thing it is that drawing is where it all begins, putting pen to paper to sketch out an idea to work out a composition is a powerful thing. So I would just encourage people to check out the drawing department and see if you would love to pursue drawing as a fine art. It’s definitely a cool place to be and Mr. Nadaskay’s a great teacher. How do you hope to use your degree post graduation? Sometimes it can be frustrating when you’re in the almost graduating stage to think about what your community needs with your art degree, and trying to figure out how that works together. Because I study both graphic design and drawing, reconciling those things together has been difficult for me. I do think the arts are more needed than we give them credit. I think there are more opportunities than we understand, but a lot of those are created by artists, because artists are the ones that can communicate that well. People interact with art all the time, but they may not perceive the need for it. Think about it, doctors offices are covered in art, and someone has to do that. So I think it’s about keeping your eyes open for opportunities for the arts to play a role in the community, where you are, what you do, and especially what you care about. Even if your vision of what that looks like is different than what is actually possible, there’s a need for art and design and beauty in that. For myself, I would prefer to freelance over getting a graphic design position, as of this point. But if I need to work a fairly
basic job, or a graphic design job, until I’m able to sustain myself freelancing, that’s totally fine. Something I have to ask myself all the time, especially as a Christian, is am I willing to let my art be only a gift, if that’s all it can be? I’ve been really struggling with that lately; if the Lord asked me to take a job or go to a place where there is no art job for me, I might have to give up a little bit and take a job that doesn’t require those skills in the same way that I think they should. But am I willing to still let art be my gift? I think a lot of the issues that postgrads have from the art department is that they don’t get an art job straight out, they take another job, and they’re frustrated because they feel that they desrve pay for their art, so they just stop making work. What I want to learn how to do is how to keep making work even when it doesn’t give back to me. How can I give to my community and not expect anything in return? I think that is a discipline that artists need to practice more, of giving art intentionally without demanding anything in return, because I think it’s a way of remembering that while art is our job, it is also a gift that God has given us to steward well and to give to other people, even if we don’t get the glory for it, even if we don’t get pay for it.
WE SHOULD LET IT BE KNOWN IN OUR OWN LIVES THAT ART IS THE GIFT GOD’S GIVEN US TO GIVE THE WORLD. HOW CAN I LET ART BE A SERVICE MORE THAN JUST PAY FOR ME? 5
It’s going to look different for different communities, but I will be staying in Jackson, Tennessee, for the next few years and plan on working on a magazine that I’m starting that will require a lot of my graphic design and drawing my skills. It’s a slow process, but I’m seeing how the Lord is ordaining ways for me to use my gifts. For example, I’m getting to display my artwork in a local café, and it’s a great way for me to tell people that I can draw portraits. It’s little things like that. I think using my degree is going to be more than just having a job with a title that has a word from my degree in it, but rather, saying I have learned how to see the world differently, I have learned how to work hard, I have learned how to work in community, I have learned how to be open to change, and those are bigger skills than just an art job will need. So much of what I’ve learned here is not going to show up so much on my resume as much as it will in my family and in my community. I’ve learned how to deal with people in a way that is life-giving, is encouraging, and brings beauty to the world, even if it doesn’t always come back to me in a very structured manner. Anything else you would like to share with prospective students? The key to surviving in the art department, and life in general, is teachability. I used to say all the time that the scariest thing in the world to me is that God has the power to change the desires of my heart, that He actually has the power to make me not only not hate what I hate, but to actually love and desire and need what I hate. There will be a lot of days in the art department where you will be working hard and you’re not 6
seeing the reward of that, you’re not seeing clarity, and it just feels like an uphill battle, but stay teachable. Every person I admire in the arts has told me this. And stay changeable, because your stubbornness of wanting it to be a certain way will be relieved with change, but as you grow, as your teachers push you further, and you’re willing to say that maybe you didn’t know yourself as well as you thought you did, it can open up a new door. Be changeable, because otherwise your degree and your coming here is not helpful if you’re not willing to be changed and moved. Be willing to see this as study abroad: you go to a new place expecting to be profoundly impacted, expecting to find new things; expect the same of this little, Jackson, Tennessee school and receive it as a gift, because it will be.
STUDENT WORK
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PAINTING
ALTHOUGH PAINTING as a traditional medium in art has changed
little in technique and practice since the 15th century, the thought processes, inspiration, philosophy and aesthetic concerns have all changed, often radically, and are of great importance to the student who desires to pursue painting as a field of study. Painting at Union is a skill-based program that attempts to combine the best that both tradition and the contemporary art world have to offer. We encourage our students to “think Christianly� about all aspects of the art-making process from the functional to the conceptual, understanding and perhaps challenging the established modes of thinking about paint in the art world, the church, and society in general. The Drawing/Painting Lab is located in the Penick Building and supports multiple courses. The lab is outfitted with easels, stools, art storage, safety equipment and proper ventilation for many types of materials as well as the tools necessary for the construction of painting supports. COURSES ART 331 - Painting: Intermediate Methods and Practices ART 312 - Painting: Advanced Methods and Practices ART 411 - Advanced Painting I ART 412 - Advanced Painting II ART 460 - Painting Studio Practice V ART 465 - Painting Studio Practice VI
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MEET THE STUDENTS INTERVIEW WITH BETHANY KINDT Hey, my name’s Bethany Kindt, and I am a junior art major with an education minor; my primary emphasis is painting. What drew you to the art department? As a child, I was always involved with art, even before college, and my parents really encouraged me to pursue something I was passionate about. The reason I chose art was because I felt that through this medium I was able to make an impact on the world around me; granted, everyone can do this with their different maors, but for me as an artist, one thing I can do is help people see beauty and hopefully enliven their day in some way. What is your favorite aspect of the art department? My favorite aspect of the art department is the room for individuality that the professors allow in your studio studies. At other universities, it can be the case that art students would be forced to follow a certain curriculum. Of course, there is some structure in the curriculum here at Union, but with that being said, the professors really allow you to deviate into whatever individual calling you might have and that freedom has really allowed me to explore my own path. 12
Can you talk a little about the painting department specifically?
How do you hope to use your degree post-graduation?
Here at Union, we have a painting department, and essentially what this means is that for the first painting classes (1 and 2), the professor will give you a syllabus and this syllabus will cover pretty much the traditional range of subjects that a painting major would need: that includes figural studies - studies of the human figure and how to paint that correctly (this includes muscle and skeletal systems) - as well as landscapes, still life, and others. However, as the painting students progress, the students are basically given the opportunity to create their own syllabus. The reason that professors allow this is that students can choose a specific emphasis in painting, such as figural work or landscape, still lifes, or even something more contemporary and abstract. So with that, the painting program is very regulated at the beginning, but as painting students get older, they’re allowed to pretty much explore and do whatever they want to. It allows students to build on their fundamental skills.
Specifically, I am an education minor, so I will be going into education. In regards to painting, though, I also have been doing portraiture recently; in fact, this is the direction I’ve taken painting. Personally, I’ve already had several commissions whereby I take pictures of people and paint their portraits; sometimes people will commission me to paint a portrait of someone else and then give it to them as a gift so I’ve found that there’s a decent market for portraiture, and that’s something that I’ve taken interest in.
Why did you choose to study painting specifically? I chose painting specifically because I really enjoy twodimensional work, and the reason for that is that I enjoy rendering and creating the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface. Specifically, I think painting has a lot of versatility in the way that it can be used in society; students can choose to paint still lifes, landscapes, or whatever, but the fact of the matter is, most people enjoy having paintings in their house or at their workplace, so my experience has been that painting is very versatile and can be taken into any kind of market you want to.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with prospective students? I would simply say that painting is a wonderful thing; the way that God designed color and depth in oil paints is absolutely beautiful. It’s not for everyone of course, but with that being said, if you do feel artistically inclined, choosing an art major and pursuing something that God has gifted you in is really a choice that you would never regret. Prayerfully consider it, and if it’s something that you are called into, you couldn’t choose a better major.
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STUDENT WORK
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