THE ART PROGRAM AND ART/PHOTOGRAPHY CONCENTRATION
The Art Program, in concert with the Art/Photography Concentration, strives to provide an intensive and demanding art education, one that instills and nourishes a love and knowledge of art. The program seeks to inspire students to develop their creative potential not only within the framework of academia, but throughout the course of their lives. Degrees offered by the program are: a BA and a BS in Art; a BA and a BS in the Art/Photography Concentration; and minors in Art History, Photography, or Studio Art. Courses are offered in the following disciplines: Art History, Drawing, Painting, Photography, Portrait Drawing, Printmaking, and Sculpture.
All of the art history classrooms, the art studios, the CSI Student Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of the College of Staten Island, and the photography lab are located in the Center for the Arts, Building 1P on the College of Staten Island campus. There are 2 studios devoted to painting and one dedicated studio for each of the following: drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. The CSI Student Art Gallery presents 8 exhibitions of student work over the course of the academic year. The final show of the spring semester features the art made by graduating Art and Art/Photography majors.
DRAWING
The Drawing and Portrait Drawing courses present this discipline as a primary tool of vision and consequently as a means of apprehending the world around us. The essentials of perspective, anatomy, and drawing from observation are followed by an introduction to the analysis of compositional dynamics. Students may work from the human form, still life, 2 dimensional images, and/or landscape depending on the instructor. At the intermediate and advanced levels, students are presented with more complex problems in perspective, composition, and detailed rendering in light and shade. Studio classes are tutorial by nature but may be supplemented by group critiques. Students are familiarized with various drawing media, which may include charcoal, conté crayon, pastel, ink, and graphite. All of the drawing classes are held in a well-lit, spacious studio.
PAINTING
Introductory Painting initiates students into the often-ignored fundamentals of painting a picture. Students are first familiarized with materials, equipment, and studio maintenance. Basic pictorial concepts such as color, composition, perspective, space, and the picture plane are introduced. Studio classes are tutorial by nature but may be supplemented by group critiques. Students choose from a wide variety of unusual still lifes. They allow the student to return to his/her picture repeatedly over several weeks and outside of class time. Late-term gleanings can be re-applied to earlier efforts. Prolonged work allows the imagination to generate new possibilities from the initial attempt as the student is made to see as an artist sees. At the intermediate and advanced levels, the student is presented with more complex problems of composition, in genres from landscape to abstract; and expression in the medium. Painting classes are held in 2 studios that are outfitted with an unusual array of still life displays. Oil paint is the medium used in all of the classes. Students have easels, lockers, taborets, and secure storage racks for their paintings.
PHOTOGRAPHY
We offer a BS and a BA in Art with the
concentration in photography, as well as a minor. The program provides a rigorous technical training and a familiarization of the historical and theoretical aspects of the field.
PRINTMAKING
The Printmaking classes give students instruction and practice in the fundamentals of the intaglio process, which may include: linoleum or wood block, etching, aquatint, drypoint; and silk screen. As the student progresses, a concentrated area of study in one or more of the graphic processes may be selected developing technical and expressive skills. In Advanced Printmaking, the student may attempt individual projects using one or more of the printmaking processes, developing a portfolio of prints that reflects an emerging sense of individual style. The printmaking studio is well appointed and spacious. The press is the largest press made by the renowned Charles Brand with a bed of 4 by 5 feet allowing for ambitious projects. (It is unique in that it is the last press manufactured by the company before the business closed.) The studio is equipped with an acid room, drying racks, and storage facilities.
SCULPTURE
The Introductory Sculpture classes examine the relationship between two-dimensional design and three-dimensional structures. Ideas are realized by working in a series of different media. Flat simple drawings are converted into digital images on the computer; these, in turn, are changed into freestanding oaktag models, to be reproduced in metal. The techniques of subtractive and additive sculpture are introduced as the student progresses to the intermediate level. Students learn to work directly in stone and/or wood. Advanced students, with the approval of their instructor, work on individual complex projects in stone, wood, or metal.
The sculpture studio is equipped with an extensive array of metal and wood working equipment including: Beverly shears, Diacro foot shears, a 24 inch band saw, and air compressor tools. The well-ventilated welding room has two 15 amp arc welders, a plasma cutter, and a Tungsten Inert gas (Argon) welder capable of welding 1/8 to 1/2 inch stainless steel or aluminium. The computer room has seven mac computers with scanners and two HP 3700 laser printers. Four of the computers are connected to the internet and run SketchUp an inventive Cad program used to inspire beginning sculptors.
