Converge: It Totally Matters What It’s Next To
For those interested in artwork, and especially seeing the new student artwork coming from Anderson University, here's your chance to see the '09 class present it's senior work. On Saturday (April 4th) the show will be opening at 919 E. 8th Street (the old Rent-a-Center for those who are familiar with Anderson). The show includes 18 students from the Anderson Department of Art + Design. Among them is my friend Dane who everyone should check out and someone should hire...
To give some perspective on the work, this is the culmination of the four years (or more) that these students have been studying in the department and creating work. Over that time, the course of study has grown and evolved into what the students will present at the show and it includes a public thesis reading (which are not being held on April 5th, but during the week). Typically the artwork has tens of hours behind it in creation, and hundreds of hours in skill and concept development while at the school. My work for last years show had somewhere between 60 and 80 hours of work put into it including package design, sculpting, and glassblowing as well as skill building and technique trials. (Heck, it was probably close to 10 hours just developing a way to blow a glass head, much less actually blowing it with plenty of help). Beyond that, I had spent the last three years researching the visual history of propaganda and making connections between the mid-century and contemporary forms of persuasion. So, while the final product was a single sculpture and a thesis, it was really years worth of work. For every class it's the same way, and it's the same for this exceptional class.
To help explain the concept of "Converge", here's a quote from one of the students, Allison Vander Naald:
We believe that ‘Converge’ not only acts as an invitation to the community to interact with our work, but also reflects the way in which we have come together to form this group. Our learning has been dependent upon who we’ve been next to, and as we engage in this exhibition, we are reminded that our interactions as students have been essential to our work within this program.”
The irony of the opening is that AIGA decided to host the portfolio review on the same day. But, to make an unfortunate situation awesome, any students or AIGA reviewers should head up to Anderson after the review day is over and check out the work. If you need any other incentives, I'll be there. Certainly that's got to count for something, right?