Janet Desaulniers

This is a class in intensive and immersive making and curating. Students may complete rough cuts or refined versions of whole books, films, performances & installations or may begin prototypes/push toward final work for single or series of paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints. Some may choose to engage new paths while others may curate or re-version aspects of previous work in new form or mode. The content of the class is each student's work & practice. The compressed time frame, single focus and opportunity to produce and share work in an atmosphere of values-based critique provides both art & artist equally compressed & focused awareness of emerging pressure points on each work's or practice's trajectories. In a framework intensely engaging and intensely collegial we mean to recognize and name particulars of both our present work and emergent futures. Each student offers first an overview of practice followed by three separate iterations or progressions of work. The intense work load simultaneously demands and supports lightning-fast leaps in accomplishment, with weekly presentation of work forcing both intuitive & considered aesthetic choices, launching exciting new paths.

This workshop, appropriate for students working on or off the page, privileges construction by way of collecting, selecting and arranging smaller units I call miniatures. Traditionally miniatures in art have been expected to stand on their own and represent compressed essentials of an accepted form, but this course embraces individual units more slant and rag-tag and explores construction with miniatures that may vary in aspect, scale, intention and material form. This course was created to serve students across the graduate division and works best with an interdisciplinary cohort. All are welcome.