arts offerings – Fall 2008

Art Treasures of Medieval Burgundy
Priscilla Baumann
LAHST 6209
DATE: Thursdays, September 11–December 18
TIME: 10:00 am–12:50 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-037
TUITION: Non-credit, $470
This class examines the architecture, sculpture, and painting in the French province of Burgundy, from the Gallo-Roman period to the Renaissance. Special emphasis is given to the renowned sites of Vézelay, Autun, Tournus, Dijon, and Beaune. Topics of discussion include the historical and cultural influence of the abbey of Cluny, the economic and artistic impact of the Cistercians, and explanations for the phenomenal flowering of monumental sculpture in the twelfth century. The class concludes with the Dukes of Burgundy (1369–1477) and the effects of their courtly patronage, which bestowed a remarkable legacy of architectural and sculptural treasures in the Burgundian countryside.

Medieval Gardens Workshop
Priscilla Baumann
LAHST 6210
DATE: Friday, October 3
TIME: 10:00 am–3:50 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-040
TUITION: Non-credit, $100
This one-day workshop traces the history and evolution of medieval gardens in western Europe, from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance. Topics of discussion include the varieties and influence of monastic gardens, the impact of the water gardens of Islamic Spain, and the exquisite ornamental gardens of the fifteenth century, designed solely for pleasure and sensual delight. Selected slide images of paintings and manuscript illuminations illustrate details of medieval gardeners at work, the tools they used, and surprising views of their garden designs.

Intermediate Watercolor: Exploring Color, Light, and Transparency
Marjorie Glick LFINE 3001
DATE: Tuesdays, September 9–December 16
TIME: 10:00 am–12:50 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-023
TUITION: Non-credit, $470; 3 Credits, $1,545
This course is designed for the intermediate to advanced level watercolor enthusiast who would like to learn to utilize watercolor’s unique characteristics of vibrancy and fluidity to infuse watercolors with heightened color and transparency. The focus will be on utilizing these qualities to create cohesive paintings and to discover or clarify your personal vision. We will explore using watercolor, both wet and dry, along with various layering strategies of 19TH and 20TH century watercolor masters. Artists studied include John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Charles Demuth, Fairfield Porter, Paul Cezanne, James Mallard Turner, Andrew Wyeth, Marc Chagall, and Joseph Raffael. Students will explore subject matter of their own choosing, including still-life, landscape, nature, and abstraction. Critiques and outside assignments will be integral parts of the course. A materials list will be given to registrants.

Acrylic: A Painterly Medium
Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern
LARTS 5333
DATE: Wednesdays, September 24–December 3
(no class November 26)
TIME: 10:00 am–12:50 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-030
TUITION: Non-credit, $345
The versatile characteristics and flexibility of acrylic paint give us an opportunity to explore and develop fresh ideas and approaches to painting. An acrylic painting may resemble a watercolor or an oil, depending upon the techniques applied. Learn about color, texture, composition, paint viscosity, and various mediums as you develop technical skills. Paint realistically or abstractly as you work from observation, imagination, memory, and a series of visual problem-solving exercises. Individual and group critiques will be held, and the work of modern and contemporary artists on exhibition in our local museums will be discussed. The course will accommodate beginners as well as more experienced artists wishing to create new work. Suggested readings will be included with a list of materials needed for each class.

Drawing II: The Second Stage
Gillian Frazier
LFINE 3002
DATE: Mondays, September 15–November 17
TIME: 6:45 pm–9:15 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-030
TUITION: Non-credit, $330
Through observation and personal interpretation, this course reviews and explores the fundamental drawing concepts of line, value, color, shape, form, and composition. Students will work from still life, the figure, and with abstract drawing exercises, using varied drawing media including graphite, charcoal, colored pencils, and pastels. Participants will look at different approaches to drawing such as gesture and contour drawing. They will be encouraged to explore self-expression, mark making, process, and accident through short exercises and class assignments. The class will study historical and contemporary drawings, including works by Durer, Da Vinci, Kollwitz, Matisse, Seurat, and Jim Dine. There will also be individual and group critiques.

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Using the Portrait as Inspiration: A Drawing Workshop
Gillian Frazier
LFINE 3003
DATE: Saturday, October 4
TIME: 9:00 am–5:00 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-030
TUITION: Non-credit, $100
Students will investigate both the formal and conceptual aspects of portraiture. Using models and reference, students will explore anatomy, proportion, shading, and facial expression, using a variety of drawing media, including pencil, charcoal, conte crayon, pastels, colored pencils, and mixed media. Basic drawing concepts such as gesture, shape, and contour will be reviewed. Participants will be encouraged to explore new ways of seeing the portrait by being exposed to and using historical and contemporary approaches to the portrait.

Word and Image: Making Art in Two Languages
Karen Davis
LINTD 5302
DATE: Thursdays, September 11–December 11
TIME: 9:30 am–12:30 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 3-100
TUITION: Non-credit, $470; 3 Credits, $1,545
Do you want to create in words and images? This class will help you develop your concept by guiding you from planning, to creating a prototype, and, in many cases, to completing the project. The project may be the work of an individual or the result of a collaboration. The class begins with consideration of contemporary word and image art, using different media: painting, photography, sculpture, electronic, and platforms, including multi- and mixed-media approaches. Exercises in and outside class will make you familiar with your own word-image associations, while broadening your experience with a variety of artistic approaches. The class will culminate in a presentation of completed or prototyped projects. Cassandra Goldwater, M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Lesley University, will work with students on text-related topics.

Word and Image Series

Free and open to the public and the Lesley community.
This unique series, sponsored by the Center for Photographic Exhibitions, New England School of Photography, and the Lesley Seminars, pairs outstanding visual artists and writers in a format that deepens our understanding of each artist’s work, and creates an interplay between the artists themselves—their images and their words.

Transitions: An Evening in Word and Image
Mary Kocol, Photographer
Cornelia Veenendaal, Poet
DATE: Thursday, November 6
TIME: 7:00 pm
LOCATION: University Hall Amphitheater
TUITION: Free and open to the public and the Lesley community
Mary Kocol’s photography has received acclaim for its transformation of ordinary domestic and street scenes, located often in and around Somerville, into dramatic, richly colored compositions that convey an uncanny sense of both day and night. By photographing at dusk with prolonged exposures, Kocol creates a melding of daytime and evening that transforms the mundane into the fantastic. In 1993 she was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Her photography is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and numerous other museums and collections. Visit: www.marykocol.com
Cornelia Veenendaal is a poet, and author of The Trans-Siberian Railway, Green Shaded Lamps, and most recently,What Seas What Shores. She is a co-founder of both Alice James Books and Rowan Tree Press, and for twenty-five years taught literature and creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Introduction to Photography: Finding Your Creative Vision
Kristin Gleason LPHOT 2002
DATE: Thursdays, September 18–November 20
TIME: 6:45 pm–9:15 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 3-100
TUITION: Non-credit, $270
This course is intended for those interested in exploring the creative possibilities of photography. It’s designed to introduce the student to the operation of the camera, flash, and exposure variables. Through slide presentations of past and contemporary masters, students will learn about photographic aesthetics, composition, history, professional applications, contemporary issues in photography, journalism and the media, and other technical considerations. Also emphasized will be the framing of an image, and assessing a scene and capturing it in “the decisive moment.” The student will be able to grasp the use of light in a photograph to evoke an emotion and to describe a subject. Weekly assignments will enable students to experiment with various aspects of picture taking, and through supportive critiques, to enhance their confidence and skills. While SLR and digital cameras are desirable, other cameras may be used.

Photography Atelier: Contemporary Practices
Karen Davis
LPHOT 6303
DATE: Fridays, September 12, 19, 26; October 3, 10, 17,
31; November 14, 21; December 5
TIME: 9:30 am–12:30 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-023
TUITION: Non-credit, $350; 2 Credits, $1,030
Photography Atelier is a unique portfolio-making course for emerging and established photographers who feel ready to produce an emotionally and intellectually focused body of work. In this advanced class students work with the photographic media of their choice to produce a coherent collection of images. The emphasis is on creating art work that is richly allusive. The class consists of two parts, and is scheduled for ten weeks in the fall semester, and ten weeks in the spring semester. Students may register for one or both semesters. Students’ work from both classes is featured on the Photography Atelier website, www.photographyatelier.org, and in an annual Lesley exhibition in the spring. The emphasis in the fall class is on composition and personal style. Classes include instructor presentations, discussions, and group critiques to help each participant create a strong body of work as a portfolio of printed images, digital presentation, website, or book produced by hand or online. Contemporary trends in photography and the work of selected photo-based artists are reviewed. Through a series of assignments, participants will explore new approaches to portraits, landscapes, still life, and interiors that support the development and completion of their final projects.

Deciphering Your Digital Camera Workshop
Bryce Harper
LPHOT 2007
DATE: Tuesdays, September 16–October 7
TIME: 6:45 pm–9:15 pm
LOCATION: Library 403
TUITION: Non-credit, $120
Looking for a new digital camera? Received one as a gift, but don’t know what any of those “features” you paid for really do? This workshop will help you choose a new camera, or use the one you already have. Choosing a camera should not be complicated, but with all the terms and jargon on specification sheets, how can you tell the difference? We will find the right camera for you, beginner or advanced, point and shoot or DSLR. This class will cover the basics of photography and help you make pictures instead of taking them. Learn when it’s best to use those automatic features, or when turning off your flash and using the manual settings could allow you to be more creative.

Digital Photography Workshop:
The Basic Workflow
Holly Smith Pedlosky LPHOT 2005
DATE: Wednesdays, September 24–October 8
TIME: 10:00 am–12:50 pm
LOCATION: Library 401
TUITION: Non-credit, $120
This workshop is for people who have some experience
shooting digitally and using computers. Participants will learn how to set up and use the Bridge and Photoshop tools in Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 to download, organize, and retrieve photographs. They will learn how to adjust the colors, the contrast, and the brightness of images, and to use the Levels and Curves tools in Photoshop, and how to format photographs to send in emails.

Mastering Adobe Photoshop: Layers and Layer Masks Workshop
Holly Smith Pedlosky LPHOT 2003
DATE: Wednesdays, November 19, December 3, 10
TIME: 10:00 am–12:50 pm
LOCATION: Library 401
TUITION: Non-credit, $120
PREREQUISITE: For intermediate photographers who utilize digital cameras and computers, and are familiar with a basic digital workflow.
Photoshop’s layers can inspire fear in the digital novice, but learning how to use them will give you wings to fly with. This workshop will enable you to use non-destructive adjustment layers and layer masks to make changes to the colors, brightness levels, saturation, focus, dynamic range, and contrast of your photographs. These changes can be applied to selective parts of your photo using layer masks, and can be revised later without any loss of image quality. Participants will also learn how to retouch photographs, add text layers, sharpen using sharpening layers, how to copyright and watermark images, and how to create powerful panoramic images using Photoshop’s new CS3 software.

Travels with Your Camera Workshop
Mark Chester LPHOT 2001
DATE: Tuesdays, September 23–October 28
TIME: 2:00 pm–3:50 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-020
TUITION: Non-credit, $145
How often do you see a wonderful moment while on vacation or during a day spent exploring, click the shutter, and then realize that the photo you took isn’t what you thought you had seen through the lens? This class will show you how to make interesting and memorable photographs by seeing better, and becoming more aware of your surroundings and subjects that grab your eye. Through field trips in the area, supported by class discussions, participants will learn about composition, lighting, camera angle perspective, and other techniques such as juxtaposition and depth of field (i.e., foreground/background focusing), as well as “tricks of the trade.” By learning that magical transformation of “becoming the camera,” you will become more observant of human interactions, the juxtapositions of elements, and the lighting in landscapes, seascapes, and still life.

Marketing Your Fine Arts
Photography Workshop
Karen Davis LPHOT 4319
DATE: Thursdays, September 4–25
TIME: 6:45 pm–9:15 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-020
TUITION: Non-credit, $120
Marketing your work takes time, something that visual artists often overlook. If you want to have your fine arts photography viewed, part of that work becomes the time it takes to market it. In this class you’ll identify your longand short-term goals, and establish some priorities. You’ll learn about the many ways to get your work before the public. Information regarding opportunities and resources will be provided. By the conclusion of the workshop, you’ll have a critiqued “package” ready for marketing your work, including artist resume and statement, slides/CD, business card, and portfolio.

Designing Your Website Workshop
Karen Davis
LARTS 4318
DATE: Thursdays, October 2–16
TIME: 6:45 pm–9:15 pm
LOCATION: University Hall 4-020
TUITION: Non-credit, $100
A presence on the web has become an important component of marketing efforts for artists, service providers, and businesses. Whether it’s used as an electronic business card or a more extensive vehicle for familiarizing the public with your work, a website allows you to establish a direct connection with the viewer. In this workshop you will learn how a website is developed; how it works, from URL to server to world; and the variety of options one has for creating a site. Through discussion, exercises, and examples from the web, you will identify your objectives for your site, including the look and feel, and navigation considerations. By the end of the workshop you will have specifications for a site you can build or have someone else build for you.