2012 Summer Class Registration Opens July 2

Artist in the Environment – Judi Pettite

This studio course will focus on the deep and rich practice of art making in and about our environment. We will contextualize our work by looking at the various categories of earth-based art from the Land Art of the 1960’s and 70’s to local indigo production and urban farms. Through field trips and studio work we will engage directly and personally with the inspiration that comes from our relationship to the earth. There will be one weekend field trip where the students learn about mapping and another where they will learn to make Japanese Indigo Dye.

Registration:  Last Day to Register, Wed, July 11  ●  Class: A&C 5670.2, 3 Units  ●  Dates:
(6 weekday classes, 2 weekend classes)  ●  Mon, 7/16, 7/23, 7/30, 8/13, 8/20, 9/10, 4:30pm - 7:30pm, Sun, 8/5, 11am - 4pm, Sun 8/26, 11am - 3:30pm  ●  Fees: JFKU Alumni $240 / Non Alumni $570 /
Non Degree: contact us for information

Spring Program News

We have entered the cycle of Spring and this may be a wonderful time to ask yourself, What in my life is arising, growing, and moving toward expression? On a program level the energy of new beginnings and expansion is reflected in our welcome of Masters in Transformative Arts spring students Kathy Gaschk and Jena Shellito and faculty Alisa Golden who will be teaching the course Writing and the Creative Process.

Spring Exhibition schedule:
MFA Debby Miller, March 24-April 20 with an artist talk April 15, 4-5pm
MFA T.C .Moore, April 28-May 18 with an artist talk May 12, 4-5pm
2012 Graduate exhibition, May 29-June 16, reception 7-8pm and ceremony 8pm

Program News: We recently received a grant from The Society for the Arts in Healthcare for consulting hours focused on accessing the viability of an Arts in Healthcare certificate in addition to the degree program.

Summer session: There will be a four week break between the end of the Spring quarter and the beginning of the summer quarter. The summer session is nine weeks long and runs from July 16-September 15, 2012.

Summer class preview (partial list):
A&C 5670 Group Studio practice: Art and the Environment, 3 units, Judi Pettite, Mondays 4:30
A&C 5670 Group Studio practice: Process Painting, 2 units, Margaret Lindsey, Tuesdays, 4:30
(studio classes are repeatable for credit)
A&C5200 Transformative Arts Education: Faces of the Soul: Mask Making, 3 units, Kaleo Ching (this will be a prerequisite to the Teaching Mask Making course in fall), July 21/22 & 28/29
A&C5255 Transformative Arts Seminar, 3 units, Date: TBD, faculty: TBD

Summer opportunities:
If you are interested in working within the healthcare field as an artist and educator you may wish to explore this resource: The Arts in Healthcare Summer Intensive at the University of Florid.

Faculty Recommendations for current Bay Area Exhibitions

Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought is an exciting opportunity to explore the subject of the tree in Jewish tradition through the lens of contemporary artists who enable us to see the world in new ways and to encourage us to find fresh meaning in tradition. Ending date: May 28, 2012

Mark Bradford Crafting abstract paintings from fragments of the urban environment — permanent-wave end papers, billboard paper, posters, newsprint — Mark Bradford has built a body of work that is richly layered in both material and meaning. Bringing together abstraction with social awareness the paintings subtly map the patterns of class, race, gender, and sexuality that structure American life, especially life in Bradford's own South Central Los Angeles neighborhood. Ending Date: June 17, 2012

Spring and Summer Course Information

Spring advising begins Feb. 21
On-line registration begins March 3
Spring quarter begins April 4
Spring quarter ends, Commencement, June 16

There is a university wide major change in the summer schedule this year. There will be an Intersession period of four weeks when courses are not being held. This would be a wonderful time to plan vacations and take a break before the summer academic quarter begins. The summer session will last 9 weeks instead of being 11 weeks long.

Intersession June 18-July 14

Summer schedule
Instruction begins July 16
Labor Day University Holiday — University is closed September 3rd
Instruction ends September 15

I recently was asked to jury an exhibition for the Sebastopol Center for the Arts around the theme of "Blue" and found the process deeply engaging. Two books helped me to prepare: Color, a Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay and The Anthropology of Turquoise by Ellen Meloy. I also gathered blue objects, studied the history of the blues in music, and generally opened myself to the color's energy.

The following is an excerpt of the statement that I wrote for the exhibition:
When the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard wrote, “Without blue eyes, how may we really see the blue sky? Without black eyes, how may we look at the night?” he was not speaking literally but from a symbolic understanding that the concept of blueness must become alive in ones consciousness in order to awaken to its layered presence in our lives. In selecting work for this exhibition I focused on four distinct levels of engagement with the concept of blueness that seemed to be arising in the submitted art works.

The first type of engagement is present in works that encompassed a focus above the surface (sky, light, aerial imagery). The second includes works that focused on physicality (the body, objects, materials, and environment). The third includes works that focused on blue as fluid surface (water) and the fourth includes works with a focus below the surface (emotion, memory, spirit, and symbol). The content of the art works may also move between these areas in a multifaceted journey that is a testament to the power of creative imagination.

The exhibition includes the work of A&C alumni Cindy Cleary, Margi Rhode, faculty Fariba Bogzaran and a current student T.C. Moore. If you are in the Sebastopol/Santa Rosa area between now and March 11 when the exhibition ends stop by and immerse yourself in the world of this primary color.