LSU SCHOOL OF ART Seeing a bigger picture
Ceramics Undergraduate BFA
New tools, in the hands of creative and well-informed conceptual thinkers, have changed the world and are transforming the way we think and feel.
Ceramics Undergraduate Prospectus 1
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LSU SCHOOL OF ART Seeing a bigger picture
Looking Forward
In early summer, the home to LSU Ceramics, the Studio Arts Building, will undergo a renovation that will transform the entire student experience. With the completion of the renovation, Ceramics will have 3 teaching classrooms, a dedicated seminar room, a BFA studio, state of the art glaze and clay mixing rooms, and access to a consolidated 3D digital fabrication studio. Our students value community and invest themselves fully into leadership roles. More and more each year, the students are actively engaging in research opportunities off campus, including: work-study summer scholarships at leading workshop schools, invited residencies in the U.S. and Europe, supported often by School of Art scholarships. After graduation, BFAs have successfully entered MFA degree programs and started Post-bacc years at notable schools. Momentum within the BFA program has been building for years and with the upcoming Studio Arts renovation, the pace of research and achievement will only increase. This is a dynamic time to earn a BFA in Ceramics at LSU.
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About BFA in Ceramics LSU Ceramics encompasses an expansive investigation of the ceramic material, its historical precedent, and its contemporary application for visual art. The two-person faculty team of Mikey Walsh and Andy Shaw encourage the pursuit of individual, goals within class projects and demand intensely motivated individual study for the BFA. Elective courses in other School of Art studios as well as Art History supplement the learning and insist on the integration of ideas across disciplines. The BFA faculty teaches necessary skills within Ceramic Art while examining applications of non-ceramic materials and technologies. The integration of Ceramics and Sculpture into a 3D Area is evidence of the shared commitment across the School of Art for substantial 3D studio research. The visiting artist lecture series and the Ceramic Teacher in Residence open further opportunities for students to engage their creative interests.
Still from stop motion animation, Intermediate Ceramics
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LSU SCHOOL OF ART Seeing a bigger picture
Undergraduate Admissions The LSU School of Art seeks motivated, enthusiastic students regardless of previous background in the visual arts. However, admission into the BFA in studio art program is a selective two-part process that begins when a student who has been accepted by LSU’s admissions office indicates a preference for studio art.
Foundation Year The first part of the admissions process occurs when a student who is accepted by LSU indicates a preference for studio art as their major. The primary tool for identifying candidates to enter the studio art Foundations Program is a review of their high school academic GPA and ACT or SAT scores. Students who feel they would be better represented by a personal interview to present their portfolio should contact the School of Art office to schedule an on-campus meeting. Students who have been accepted for admission into the Foundations Program will be notified in writing. Students who are not accepted into one of the major concentrations may complete the minor in fine arts.
Selective admissions to three-year concentration The second phase of the admissions process for the BFA in studio art takes place upon completion of the first-year Foundations Program. Students submit a portfolio of work created in their first-year foundation courses. Students who successfully pass this review may pursue one of the three-year concentrations in studio art and any studio art minor concentration listed in the LSU General Catalog.
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Courses in Ceramics Introduction To Ceramics Comprised of two courses, one that concentrates on techniques relating to Handbuilding and the other on the Potter’s Wheel, these courses address sculptural and functional topics, provide students opportunities to learn about glazing for low-fire and high-fire, and instruct students to load and fire kilns as teams.
Intermediate and /or Special Topics Courses This course provides students greater creative ownership of their studies within •
Mold-making and Slip-casting
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Functional Ceramics
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The Figure in Clay
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Installation and the Public
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Tile and History of Ceramic Surface
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Sledging
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Glaze Calculations
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Ceramic History and Studio Practice
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Clay as Intermediary Material
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Ceramics in Large Format
Advanced Ceramics Through individual studio meetings with faculty and within group discussions, students establish successful studio and research methods while developing strong skills in visual, verbal, and written communication.
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LSU SCHOOL OF ART Seeing a bigger picture
Facilities With over 10,000 sq. ft. of studio space, the facilities of the ceramic department are generous, well-equipped and offer an array of firing possibilities including electric, gas and soda. All BFA students receive their own private or shared work area and have access to the Design Shop, other studio areas for completing their work, and a small gallery for displaying their work.
Glaze room
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Student Organizations CASA The Ceramic Art Student Association (CASA) exists to support, educate and promote the ceramic arts on campus and within the larger community. In its efforts to uphold its mission, CASA holds a biannual ceramics sale on the LSU campus, the proceeds of which fund both student attendance at the yearly conference for NCECA (National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts) as well as an on-ca mpus visiting artist program. CASA is student run, and elected CASA student officers gain valuable experience in
organizing,
managing,
planning,
executing, and understanding all aspects of a busy, popular organization and its
Pottery sale
dynamic operations.
Wade Tullier, BFA
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LSU SCHOOL OF ART Seeing a bigger picture
Kim Howard, BFA, work created in Project Networks Residency at Guldagergaard, Denmark
Jonathan Wagner, BFA
Introduction to Ceramics, Handbuilding
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About the Faculty Artist Statement To best give an overview of my work, I would say that the impetus for it comes from my experience of reading poetry. I am interested in how poets arrive at compelling poems. A good Michaelene Walsh
Associate Professor
poet can take an ordinary word or image and put it together with another somewhat ordinary word or image to create a surprising feeling – a sensation in the gut that is unusual, striking, fresh and memorable. My goal as an artist is to try to do this visually – to bring seemingly disparate, ordinary, or unremarkable images together to form something memorable. I think of my best work as creating an opening or clearing a path for what is heartfelt and poetic in the ordinary to come through. Yet, I know too that latent within the ordinary are bittersweet and paradoxical feelings that betray these simple sentiments. Sweetness and pleasure felt in seeing or recalling certain objects or experiences often intermingle with feelings of sadness, loss and regret.
American Dream
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Artist Statement “The effort to know a place deeply is, ultimately, an expression of the human desire to belong, to fit somewhere…And every natural place...is open to being known....And this reciprocity, to Andy Shaw
Associate Professor
know and be known, reinforces a sense that one is necessary in the world.” From “The Invitation,” by Barry Lopez, Granta magazine, Issue a133
I like to be drawn forward. New cities, hiking trails, and the first pages of a book most often elicit this for me. In response, I design the porcelain Tableware series with a neutral glaze color, consistent cylindrical forms, and patterns that seem to extend beyond the rims and into the home. Together these elements present dishes that insist on a follow up action. Serving a freshly made soup in the bowl is more than fulfilling the utilitarian space, it’s a response to the subtle invitation to resolve the pottery’s request for completion. In this way, I try to draw the cook forward into creative Two Tall Vases
participation with the Tableware.
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LSU SCHOOL OF ART art.lsu.edu 123 Art Building Baton Rouge, LA 70803 t: 225-578-5411 f: 225-578-5424