The Painting 1B artists have finished their Photo Booth paintings, and final critiques/reflections are an important part of the artistic process. Bay Area artist Dharma Strasser MacColl joined the class this week as a visiting artist to take part in this process. With the student artists, Dharma looked at the final paintings, giving feedback and providing insights on how to move forward as makers.
A studio visit from a visiting artist can provide students with a fresh perspective, and empower students to take visual leaps and risks. During the reflection/critique Dharma talked about materials choices/combinations, the intentionality of mark-making, and Dharma honed in on compositional challenges. Dharma pointed students into new directions by introducing them to artists to investigate, and asking them rich, meaty questions, encouraging them to think about their craft. View the completed Photo Booth paintings at the bottom of this post.
In a recent statement reflecting on her work, Dharma writes: “Taking inspiration from the cellular structures of plants, my work invents its own vegetal organism, one that grows and proliferates to such an extent that it multiplies right off the paper, in the form of porcelain ‘cells.’ The addition of this sculptural element makes what appears from a distance to be two-dimensional work actually a hybrid between drawing and sculpture. For the past few years I have been aware of the enormous changes happening to our environment on a molecular scale, one that is all but invisible, and therefore relatively abstract. By illustrating a family of imaginary, multiplying cells, I am mapping the changes I see around me, however personal and abstract the results may be.” View some of Dharma’s work on both the Augen Gallery website and the Traywick Contemporary website.
– Ascha Drake, Visual Arts Faculty
Want to learn more about the Photo Booth project? Read about the artists’ process and see the works-in-progress here!
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