State of the Arts Mark Dixon ’96
RESPONDING CREATIVELY BY BRIAN SCHUH '02
ART PROFESSOR MARK DIXON ‘96 teaches his students to critically investigate sensory items, respond creatively to the world and cope with ambiguous situations. He leans on these skills as an artist and educator. And last spring Mark and his students practiced these skills intensely as the pandemic unfolded and classes went online. After he graduated from Guilford, Mark first focused on sculpting with materials like concrete and steel. However, he encountered some ambiguity when a new interest arose. “I started making sound-making
PHOTO BY JENNA SCHAD
machines that were sort of bizarre things that I didn’t know what to do
term. Conceding that no online version
prompted students to walk a shape or
with,” he says. “I knew it was creative,
of welding is feasible, Mark had to
a line repeatedly for two hours while
but I hadn’t quite figured out how to
quickly develop a new class. He says he
leaving a trace. The students then met
make sense of it as an art practice.”
asked himself four key questions: How
virtually to discuss their experiences.
Mark embarked on an MFA program
can I make a class physically healthy
“Mark introduced many ideas and
at Carnegie Mellon University to help
in a time of a significant health threat?
concepts that you can do on your walk
integrate sculpting and machine-
How could it be fun in a time of real fear
to make it less about walking and more
making. When asked to describe his
and anxiety? How could it be expansive
about thinking outside of the box,” says
practice now, he succinctly explains, “I
and open in a time when options seem
Julius Burch ’23, who used a rake and
make machines that make sounds and
to be reduced? And finally, How can this
shovel while walking around a baseball
perform with them.”
class be better than what I could have
field, creating a cone shape.
As part of a collaborative artist group known as Invisible, Mark has produced
done in normal times? The debut of “The Peripatetic Studio,”
And of the abrupt switch to online courses, Mark says, “I let students know
machines and toured with them to
a class that explored how artists use
that what we’ve encountered in this
galleries and other venues. One creation,
walking as part of their practice,
moment is a design problem. We have
“The Selectric Piano,” is a typewriter
answered those questions. “There is
to come together and come up with a
that types but also plays a piano.
a raft of art history around artists
new design for doing our education so
using walking as preparation for their
we can get the most out of it and learn
Design of Objects (formerly 3D Design),
practice or for a tool of developing
things that we never dreamed we could
in addition to sculpture, welding,
creativity,” Mark says. “Walking can also
learn in our in-person classes.”
technical wood classes and first-year
be a tool for artists to make work, such
seminars. Last spring he had planned to
as drawing or sculpting while walking.”
At Guilford Mark regularly teaches
teach a welding class during the 3-week 2 0 | W W W. G U I L F O R D . E D U
One assignment for the class
“One of the strengths of the arts is that I feel anything can be done,” he adds. “We just have to figure it out.”
