Jeffrey James Matthew Prokash

This course offers instruction in various methods of casting, including simple plaster molds, hydrocal-cement casts, simple body casts, thermal-setting rubber molds, wax, terra cotta, and paper casting. Students are advised to bring objects they desire to cast. (No hot metal casting in this course.)

This course explores how contemporary artists, architects, and designers are sourcing and utilizing wood in a world of disappearing resources. Architects and designers are returning to the use of timber in their work, claiming it to be a bold 21st century material due to the emergence of sustainable, engineered wood products. Demonstrations, slide lectures, discussions, readings and field trips will engage: urban logging practices, arboretums, recycled construction materials, sustainable practices, ecologies, economics, veneers, and faux wood. Students will advance their knowledge of wood selection and fabrication while producing art and design work in a variety of wood products.

Students who enroll in Capstone 4900: Senior Exhibition must have been assigned the Spring exhibition at SAIC Galleries. The Spring exhibition assignment takes place in the preceding term (Fall). Enrollment in this course will only be permitted for students eligible for the Spring exhibition. Students who fail to subsequently complete the Spring exhibition registration process may not ultimately participate in this exhibition-focused course. This interdisciplinary capstone class is designed to help students recognize patterns of inquiry within their practice and to help contextualize their work in preparation for their Senior Exhibition. The class will collaboratively organize a group curated section of the exhibition. Students will tackle both critical and practical aspects of exhibition planning from writing conceptual supporting texts to the nuts-and-bolts methods of installation and preparator work. An assessment of previous work will be the starting point for ongoing critical inquiry into your creative professional practice, and how you might position and locate your own work in the art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary. Class visits by local artists will provide the opportunity to have a conversation about their lived experience sustaining a creative practice. With an emphasis on faculty mentorship, class meetings will support the development of a body of work or project for the Senior Exhibition, building a strong portfolio, and planning for post-SAIC life. Prerequisite: To enroll, students must be assigned to the Spring exhibition at SAIC Galleries. Assignments take place in the preceding term (Fall). Students who fail to complete the registration process may not ultimately take this course.

This interdisciplinary critique seminar is designed to help students recognize patterns of inquiry within their studio work while proceeding toward an outward-facing practice beyond graduation. An assessment of previous projects will be the starting point for an ongoing critical examination of your creative practice, through which you will be asked to contextualize and position your work in the art-worlds of the 21st Century. This course is a forum for in-depth individual and group critiques with technical and conceptual discussions tailored to your practice and research. In addition to various readings, screenings, and field trips, class visits by local artists and curators will provide the opportunity for conversation about the lived experience of sustaining a creative practice. With an emphasis on faculty mentorship, class meetings will support the development of a focused, self-initiated Senior Project, a strong portfolio, and the tools for maintaining an independent studio practice.

Students who enroll in Capstone 4900: Senior Exhibition will participate in the fall exhibition at SAIC Galleries and will be ineligible to participate in the spring exhibition. Students enrolling in this course must have senior status--90 credits or more completed--when the Fall semester begins. This interdisciplinary capstone class is designed to help students recognize patterns of inquiry within their practice and to help contextualize their work in preparation for their Senior Exhibition. An assessment of previous work will be the starting point for ongoing critical inquiry into your creative professional practice, and how you might position and locate your own work in the art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary. Class visits by local artists will provide the opportunity to have a conversation about their lived experience sustaining a creative practice. With an emphasis on faculty mentorship, class meetings will support the development of a body of work or project for the Senior Exhibition, building a strong portfolio, and planning for post-SAIC life.

This course introduces students to the basics of sculpture fabrication and production. Students of this course will become authorized to use the department's facilities through a series of material projects and assignments that enable safe and competent work in three areas: Moldmaking, Metal Fabrication and Woodworking. The class will design and make molds suitable for casting models from simple and complex patterns in the mold-making studio. The class will use cutting, bending, rolling, welding and finishing techniques in the Metal Fabrication Studio to produce a project in steel. In the Woodshop, the class will learn to design a project in wood using the following machine tools: table saw, dado blades, jointer, planer, band saw, router, pneumatic brad nailer, and sanders. Upon completing Sculpture Bootcamp, students will have the authorizations and experience they need to take full advantage of the sculpture department open shop facilities.

This course introduces students to the basics of sculpture fabrication and production. Students of this course will become authorized to use the department's facilities through a series of material projects and assignments that enable safe and competent work in three areas: Moldmaking, Metal Fabrication and Woodworking. The class will design and make molds suitable for casting models from simple and complex patterns in the mold-making studio. The class will use cutting, bending, rolling, welding and finishing techniques in the Metal Fabrication Studio to produce a project in steel. In the Woodshop, the class will learn to design a project in wood using the following machine tools: table saw, dado blades, jointer, planer, band saw, router, pneumatic brad nailer, and sanders. Upon completing Sculpture Bootcamp, students will have the authorizations and experience they need to take full advantage of the sculpture department open shop facilities.

Guided Studies are intensive, self-driven courses of study that have a clear rationale for their configuration and articulate an expressed need in terms of a student's scholarly, material, and theoretical research. As a 3 credit course, a Guided Study constitutes 135 hours of study and production on the part of the student, including four meetings (virtual or otherwise) with a supervising faculty who has expertise in the research areas. On the Guided Study syllabus co-produced by the LRMFA student and supervising faculty, expected research accomplishments must be formulated, alongside a course description, learning objectives, evaluation criteria, a proposed timeline, a communication plan, and a suggested reading list or bibliography. Open to Low Residency MFA students only.