TELL ME A STORY

ARTS 2410 Relief Printmaking

We often talk about art communicating with an audience. For centuries humans have used visual art to tell
stories. Like the oral tradition of storytelling, works of art can be used to educate, inform, distort,
popularize, or convey a message, as they are passed on to future generations. Often works encapsulate or
memorialize traditional stories, and other times they remain their own unique pieces.
Stories can take a variety of forms, for this project you will use at least 3 blocks, cut from a piece of
linoleum measuring 8x18 in size and printed with black ink to tell a true(ish) story. Even within these
limitations your options remain varied and open. By true(ish) I mean that I would like you to use
experiences from your own life, history, family, or friends to tell a story that you have a connection with.
Like working from life in drawing, using a story from your own life will help you fill the world you create
with details and (hopefully) avoid sophomoric and trite conventions. You need to be able to cherish what
you bring to this assignment (or any assignment) enough to pay it real attention and give it the
consideration it deserves, anything less is disrespectful to your ideas.
Consider what you know about stories: what components must a story have to be a story? Does a story
need to be complete? What does it mean to tell a true story? The radio show This American Life is often
considered one of the best examples of creative non-fiction does that description make sense? How can
non-fiction be creative? What are some tropes of storytelling? How can your visual arrangement
(composition) make an impact on your story? What story do you want to tell? How will you work to
visually and conceptually unite your story across disparate scenes? How long will your story be (how much
time does it take up) and what kind of place does it exist in?
To help generate your initial ideas we will warm up with a few improv games and listen to a selection of
stories from podcasts. Additionally everyone will begin the process by creating 5 collages in their
sketchbook to test compositions and characters.
Input:
Songs/Musicians:
Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues
Bob Dylan Hurricane Carter
Neil Young Cortez the Killer
Slow Club Because We Are Dead
The Mountain Goats The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
Artists:
Lynd Ward, Frans Masareel, Kathe Kollowitz, Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, Lynda Barry,
Trenton Doyle Hancock, Sarah McEneaney, Karin Mama Andersen, Rob Matthews, Kerry James Marshall,
Robyn ONeil, Carravaggio (esp the St. Matthew cycle), Pieter Brughel the Elder
Podcasts:
Radiolab Double Blasted
http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2012/jul/16/double-blasted/,The Moth, The Memory
Palace, This American Life, Snap Judgment
Literature:
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace: A Radically Condensed History of
Postindustrial Life and Death is Not the End
2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark: Chapter 19 Transit of Jupiter
Japanese Tales edited and translated by Royall Tyler: #70 The Buddha with Lots of Hands and #91
What the Storm Washed In

Abecedary
ARTS 2410: Relief Printmaking
While the word Abecedary might be foreign, the concept is familiar to most. An example of an abecedary
is a childrens alphabet book (a is for apple, b is for ball). An abecedary can also be referred to as an
Alphabet Table or Primer. An abecedarium, an inscription of letters, typically in order, can be a useful
tool for those studying cultures and languages.
Numerous artists use text, language and the form of letters and symbols in the creation of their work. For
this assignment students will create their own abecedary, a collection that might refer to language or
symbol, something familiar, or completely invented, and use it as a matrix to create a series of printed
works. Students will use Photoshop and Illustrator and learn basic methods for creating vector graphics
which will then be used to laser cut their alphabets from chip board.
Following the creation of their alphabet system, students will experiment with color and printing to create a
suite of prints. Rather than create a traditional edition where all the prints are exactly the same, students
will start with 10 sheets of paper and create 10 varied experiments combining their shapes and color
choices in unique ways. For critique students will show what they consider the 3 most successful of the
group.
Block Size: varies, elements will be cut from a piece of chipboard 18x30
Paper Size: varies, but students will use sheets as a starting point.
Edition Size: portfolios must include at least 10 different prints, 3 will be shown for critique as the most
successful.
INPUT

Artists
Xu Bing Book from the Sky
Polly Apfelbaum
Sister Corita Kent
Amos Kennedy
Bruce Pearson
Ryan McGinness
Lesley Dill
Rachel E. Foster
Letterproeftuin
Ed Ruscha

Movies and Podcasts:

Helvetica
Proceed and Be Bold
Typeface
99% Invisible 10,000 Years
Radiolab Words, Games

POSTER REDUX
ARTS 3430: Serigraphy
For this project students will take one of the ubiquitous posters from around campus and offer their
services as designer to re-envision the poster. Students will consider size, scale, color, text, and image as
they redesign their poster.
Students should consider a poster for a number of reasons, but ultimately the chosen poster should be
successful in conveying a message. Students should consider the reasons they picked a particular poster,
what specific areas they wanted to improve, why this particular group or message needed additional
consideration. Upon completion, students will hang their posters in public ideally in the same places the
originals came from.
Size: sheets of poster board
Colors: Min 4 max 6
Edition: 10
Restrictions: students should utilize a variety of drawing techniques when designing their poster. Each
student should aim to have a minimum of 3 different approaches to creating their stencils for their poster.
Input to Consider:
Raymond Pettibon
T. Stout
Little Friends of Printmaking
Flat Stock
Aesthetic Apparatus
Sonnenzimmer
Posters from Fort Thunder
Sister Corita Kent
Ben Shahn
Shepard Fairey
Jason Munn
Sasha Barr (This is the New Year)
The Decoder Ring
The Heads of State
Yee Haw Press
Isle Of Printing

EVERYDAY
ARTS 3420 Intaglio
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A
complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have
to start over with a working simple system. - John Gall
While it may seem that many artists have grand ideas about the work they produce, when one begins to dig
we often find artists inspired by those most mundane and commonplace events. Through constant
observation artists build a greater and deeper understanding of the world, they recognize that every big
event is built from little moments.
For this project we will begin by noticing those moments, events, or pieces that occur everyday. What
things are automatic? Which require thought? What should happen everyday but doesnt? What does
happen everyday, but you think could be done without? What do you personally do everyday that
someone else might not? Where do these events exist, within the realm of your senses, beyond your
comprehension, without anyone ever noticing? The etching plate is a malleable surface, allowing it to
record, carry, print and be reworked again and again and again. Students will keep at least 1 metal plate with
them for the duration of this project. By making the plate a part of your everyday, you will hopefully make
the everyday part of your prints.
Students must print at least 20 impressions during this assignment. They may all be from the same plate,
or different plates but each impression must be a different state. Students will make an edition of 3 of at
least 2 of their 20 impressions. Plates should be no smaller than 3 on any side.
INPUT
Listen to the Radiolab episode on Sleep (season 3 episode 2)
Read Wayne Thiebaud from Ink Paper Metal Wood, by Kathan Brown pgs 33-38
Artists:
Wayne Thiebaud
Jeffrey Brown
Kevin Huizenga
Christiane Baumgartner
Julie Mehretu
Robert Gober Slides of a Changing Painting
James Sienna
Giorgio Morandi
Vija Celmins
Roni Horn You are the Weather
Sol Lewitt