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Department of Art

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BYU Art Student’s Exhibit on Grief Invites Others to Connect in Sorrow

February 25, 2021 12:00 AM
Myleka Bevans’ choice to break artistic rules led to a variety of successes
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BYU student showcases 7 years of work in abstract art exhibit

November 16, 2020 12:00 AM
Imagine a man jamming out to trap music in his studio as he rhythmically goes to town on a canvas. This is how Stephen Clawson, a senior art major at Brigham Young University, does his paintings in the basement of his grandmother’s home, also known as his studio. That same trap music could be Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby any other day of the week, a song with a slower and more melodic essence to it, but this is how Clawson likes to work. His work over the past seven years culminated into what he called an abstract art experience. The gallery at BYU was packed from wall-to-wall with his work. “Some of these things are horrible paintings, but I still wanted to put them up,” Clawson said. “My teachers didn’t like it, they just wanted me to do eight pieces.” For Clawson, art is somewhat of an escape. He added there is something crazy about painting, a feeling that he — at times — had trouble describing. Sometimes his work just seems to click for him, other times paintings seem flat and dull. The beauty of abstract art is that you can paint over things, or as Clawson likes to do, glue things on to the canvas in a collage style. One instance where a painting fell into place for him was when he had surgery and was still dealing with the pain. He was on some pain medicine to help recovery, and Clawson said he mixed colors to create an orange hue that seemed to fit perfectly on his canvas. He still gets that feeling sometimes, just without the pain medicine. Clawson also uses art as a way of expression. During his time at BYU, he had one instance where he was dealing with depression and he could not seem to get out of “the funk.” Read the full articlewritten by Ryne Williams at heraldextra.com.
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Students Spearhead Seminars Featuring Professionals in Art Education

November 05, 2020 12:00 AM
BYU’s Art Education Club to host seminar focused on museum education opportunities for students
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Stone Works

July 29, 2019 12:00 AM
In a BYU art class Brandon J. Gunn (BFA ’03) quickly discovered that drawing and painting weren’t his forte. But his wife, Nicole Flores Gunn (BFA ’01), had enjoyed a lithography class from Wayne Kimball and thought Brandon might like it too. He did—so much that he eventually went on to study at the University of New Mexico’s prestigious Tamarind Institute, where he today serves as education director. “I’m half teacher, one quarter artist, and one quarter technician,” he says. Lithography’s laborious printmaking process—involving stone, grease, and chemicals—suits Gunn. “Printmaking gives me time to think,” he says. “The technical part lets me step away to look at things in a new way. . . and add things that I can’t just do by drawing.” Read the article and see Gunn’s work at magazine.byu.edu.
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Student Teacher-Mentor Duo Walks Students Through Making Meaningful Art

May 20, 2019 12:00 AM
Every fall and winter art education students in their final semester of the program complete student teaching in local schools. Paired with innovative mentors who offer authentic full-time teaching experiences, students have the opportunity to practice the theory they have learned in their coursework over the years. Chloe Welch, one of six student teachers this semester, gradually assumed responsibility for Bart Francis’ high school art classes until she became the primary teacher. Outside the classroom, however, they continue to meet regularly for coaching, assessing and brainstorming lesson plans. Early in the semester, Welch shared an idea about visualizing data as art, inspired by the project Dear Data, and Francis made the connection to a lesson he had previously taught on routines. Together they researched other artists who incorporate data collection and routines into their work and designed a lesson plan. For the assignment, students collected data for seven days on one aspect of their life, then documented that data in an artwork that included a legend to help viewers decipher their image. In February, Welch and Francis presented their experience at the Utah Art Education Association conference. One outcome that resulted from the data collection project was that students were able to make meaningful connections between their art and their life. Read the full story at art.byu.edu.
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New Digital Fabrication Tools Expand Students’ Art-Making In Digital Sculpture Class

May 09, 2019 12:00 AM
In a new digital sculpture class taught by Associate Professor Collin Bradford, students explore the material, formal and conceptual potential of sculpture using new technologies. Digital 3D: Sculpture with Digital Tools is one of two new courses offered as part of the Art and Technology track within the BA degree. Students enrolled in digital sculpture learn the basics of 3D modeling, 3D rendering and creating physical objects from digital models using a 3D printer, laser cutter and a CNC machine (also called a CNC router). Continue reading on the Department of Art’s website.
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Elisabeth Baird Applies Socially Engaged Art To Wilderness Therapy

April 18, 2019 12:00 AM
BA Art student Elisabeth Baird feels most inspired when making art —not in the solitude of her studio, but with other people. As a future teacher (she is earning an art education licensure), Baird draws on the power of art to inspire understanding and connection. So when she learned about socially engaged art in a class from Professor Dan Barney, it seemed a natural fit. Read more on the Department of Art's website.
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BYU Design and Art Students Share Their Talents to Serve Homeless Youth

December 19, 2018 12:00 AM
BYU design and art students worked with Volunteers of America to serve homeless youth in Salt Lake City
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Graduate Student Invited To Present Research On Alternative Education At National Conference

March 22, 2018 12:00 AM
Priscilla Stewart will present her research on place and ecology based education at the National Art Education Association’s National Convention, the premier conference for K12 art educators and university researchers
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Summer Intensive Program Challenges Advanced Art Students

February 14, 2018 12:00 AM
Students experienced art and nature while developing as artists in an accelerated and intensive summer program
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Students Apply Contemporary Thought to Classic Art During Italy Study Abroad

November 09, 2017 12:00 AM
Students worked across disciplines and made contemporary connections
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Pearl Corry | Art: Studio Art | Honolulu, Hawaii

August 07, 2017 12:00 AM
Pearl Corry’s view on art matches Franz Kafka's quote about music — “Music is the sound of the soul, the direct voice of the subjective world.” During her time at BYU, Corry enjoyed the art program’s focus on critical thinking and theory. One of the most important things she learned as an artist is to never get too comfortable with what she is doing. Through several of her educational experiences, Corry has enjoyed meaningful and impactful experiences that helped shape her both as an individual and as an artist. During a study abroad in Berlin she took a New Genre course that motivated her to research contemporary artists on her own. She also took an Advanced Photo class where they discussed before each class about what was happening in the world. 'Those conversations in my art classes were very meaningful to me,” Corry said. “I felt lucky then, and I feel lucky now, to have been around such brilliant and compassionate people.” Corry cites her relationships with her art professors as a critical part of her BYU experience. “They instilled in me the importance of being a good person as well as a good artist,” Corry said. Corry plans to pursue both an interdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts and a Master of Library Science in Art Librarianship. For her time at BYU, Corry said, “I hope I’ve been a good friend and a hard thinker.” One thing you enjoy about your major: “I enjoy when everyone is working in the BFA studios at the same time.” Influential class that you took at BYU: “In addition to the above mentioned, courses like Interdisciplinary Projects and Peter Everett’s painting classes have been very influential.” If you could have a toy designed after you: “I’d like to have one of those roller coaster bead mazes, the ones where you can push painted wooden beads back and forth along twisted wires. I think they are kind of awesome as sculptures in their own right.” Movie title for your life: “I’m always dropping things. Something about that, probably.”
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Learning in the Dalai Lama Temple: a BYU Study Abroad

February 08, 2016 12:00 AM
Study abroad programs aren't hard to come by at BYU, but some are found in the least likely places. Last summer, seven students from the College of Fine Arts and Communications studied in one of the most unusual places on earth: the Dharamshala province in northern India. India’s Dharamshala province is home to thousands of Tibetan refugees. Many Tibetans cross the Himalayas each year to escape mounting persecution by the Chinese government in their homeland of Tibet. The most famous refugee in Dharamshala is the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader for Tibetans around the world. While in Dharamshala, the students were invited to discuss art, religion and theology with Tibetan monks within the Dalai Llama temple at the Institute of Buddhist Dialects. By Carrie Duford: Continue reading at https://news.byu.edu/news/learning-dalai-lama-temple-byu-study-abroad
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An Exercise in Creative Agency Through a TASK Area for Action

October 15, 2015 12:00 AM
How do we make our life more artistic? How does our life influence our art? To answer and interpret these questions, Professor Daniel Barney’s art classes, Theory, Method and Practice and Issues in Contemporary Art, created this piece inspired by Oliver Herring’s TASK Area for Action concept. A TASK party is an improvisational event with few rules. For this TASK, the students were told they had to keep a three-foot boundary around the piece and only add to the artwork, no subtracting. Barney’s two classes each had a different role with the TASK. The first class was instructed to create the piece starting with a few students standing as statues and then adding any material they could find. Papers, tape and foil were draped around the students and tied up the staircases and walls. “It became not just artist-object, something pristine and curated, but to improvisation galore,” Barney said. The second class was charged with repurposing the materials already used and adding to the creation even further. “Everyone might not be an artist but everyone is a creative agent,” Barney said. “How we interpret the world is based off our own agency.” PHOTOS: Hailey Stevens For more information on Oliver Herring and TASK visit: https://oliverherringtask.wordpress.com/
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BYU Professor Lectures in Salt Lake City

August 20, 2014 12:00 AM
Robert Barrett, a BYU Department of Visual Arts professor, helped out with a sketch night at the Animal Inside Out exhibition at The Leonardo, a contemporary museum in Salt Lake City for science and culture. About twenty artists joined Barrett for a night of sketching a variety of animal models. The museum is showcasing several different animals, each of which is opened up and preserved, providing artists with the unique opportunity to sketch their muscles and deeper anatomy. The event was recently featured in the Deseret News.
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Illustrator student opens up about NY internship

June 05, 2014 12:00 AM
Interview by Nicole Vance of the Department of Visual Arts This month, Andrew Zundel, an Illustrator student and Wheatly scholarship recipient, answered questions about his experiences in New York City. How did you find your your work with Peter de Seve and your weekend work helping at Brooklyn galleries? Honestly it is all about putting yourself out there. Bethanne Andersen asked me in an internship meeting last December who I would like to work with, and when I told her Peter de Seve. We called him right up and asked. As for my work with the gallery, I contacted everyone I knew in New York asking for advice about city living and work experience, and gallery director and non-profit founder Jason Andrew generously offered to mentor me through several projects and events in his art circles. What is it like working for one of your favorite illustrators? Typical days working with Peter are very exciting, enriching and inspiring. There are some simple chores I perform, like organizing artwork and filing it, but that has been very enriching and inspiring on its own. Peter also has me scan in current drawings and characters he is working on, cleaning up the images in photoshop and tweaking some of the levels to punch out the color and contrast, and then get them ready to send to the different studios he is working for. And then I would get to sit down and have lunch with him, picking his brain about obstacles and triumphs that have shaped his career, ideas he has for me to strengthen my work, and just hilarious occurrences that he has come across as a professional. What is it like working in NYC galleries? As for working with Jason Andrew, I have been plunged headlong into the fine art world. On a typical day I sit in one of his galleries, helping people who come in learn about the shows going on, and occasionally selling artwork and catalogs. I was also put in charge of running all of their social media accounts; updating Twitter feeds, Facebook accounts, and their websites; adding new subscribers to their mailing list, and keeping orders and requests organized. I also have been helping in collaboration books between artists and authors. They give me their respective work, images, poetry, or literary works, and I work with them to create layouts for their books. What is your favorite part of living in NYC? Honestly it’s the food. Any delectable flavor, style, ethnicity, or quantity of food you like can be found. And it’s everywhere! Also I love the museums! There are so many, and they are all stuffed full of outrageously awesome stuff. If there is ever a time you feel uninspired, or are in a creative rut, a couple hours in any of the museums here can spark the imagination and fill you with great ideas.
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BYU to host Summer Arts Workshop for high school students July 29-Aug. 7

June 21, 2013 12:00 AM
The Department of Visual Arts at Brigham Young University is hosting a Summer Arts Workshop, a seven-day workshop for high school-age artists from noon to 3 p.m. July 29-Aug. 1 and Aug. 5-7. Online registration is available by clicking on the calendar item at ce.byu.edu. The cost for the workshop is $180. The Summer Arts Workshop is an intensive studio workshop for 9th- to 12th-grade students interested in developing their skills as artists and finding new ways to express their points of view. Students will work with professional artists and teachers from the Department of Visual Arts, as well as talented BYU art students through hands-on instruction in master classes. Students throughout beginning, intermediate and ready-to-graduate levels will draw, paint, work with mixed media and explore ceramic processes. They will receive one-on-one feedback and instruction tailored to their skill levels and ideas. This workshop is for seasoned high school artists who want to develop their skills. Students will also visit selected exhibits at the Museum of Art, tour the Department of Visual Arts and spend time outside doing “plein air” painting. At the end of the week an art show will be held to display the students’ work and celebrate with parents and friends. For more information, contact Tara Carpenter at taracarpenter@byu.edu, or visit visualarts.byu.edu. Source: BYU News Photo Credit: ohdearbarb via Compfight cc
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BYU team employs photography to see through the eyes of disabled students

February 15, 2005 12:00 AM
Many children with developmental disabilities have limited means of communicating their everyday experiences, thoughts and feelings. However, researchers from Brigham Young University have recognized that snapshot photography can open a whole new world of expression.
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