the sketchbook

Here I have the chance to be excessive with my metaphors...

The sketchbook is a dance floor - its pages celebrate movement and spirit. The sketchbook is a travel journal - for life's momentary fascinations. The sketchbook is a playroom - with doodles, both spontaneous and goofy. The sketchbook is a closet - overflowing with inspiration and miscellaneous junk. The sketchbook is a modernist home - a neatly stacked archive of ones design aesthetic. The sketchbook is a lab - for the repeated failures, and those explosive moments of creativity...I could go on.

Instead, the following students show it more eloquently - that the sketchbook is about process and not about finished work.

the urban landscape

Year after year, I am reminded of how much the the city has to offer. Through the work of Summer Intensive students, discovering their own New York - often appealing and sometimes graphic - I become the tourist.

splattered paint

Look around. Your choice of subject matter, can be as simple as a paint-encrusted sink, or a splattered board, left against a studio wall. Take a lesson from these former Summer Intensive students: Ignore the model stand. Yes, it may be set, with a classic array of Cezanne-inspired objects, but if you're not feeling it...look around. Discover a place that is often frequented, or a space that is nondescript. Bring our attention to what would have otherwise gone unnoticed. 

life drawing sp '12 | the final class

I searched my locker, for their first drawings. For some, the figure was nothing new - 10 minutes, no instruction, easy - adjust the proportions, and get the model right. For others, new to life drawing, when I brought out the box of pushpins, well...by the end of class, if I had not collected these classic first attempts (more like constrained Minutemen), they would have met with an untimely death. 

At the final class, David Leeper-Schwartz, wisely noted: "the first drawings all look the same". Indeed, what subsequently followed was unfettered life. Congratulations to all!

Andrea's first drawing 

Andrea Ducci

Dani's first drawing

Yidan "Dani" Li

Debo's first drawing

Debo Mouloudji

David's first drawing 

David Leeper-Schwartz

Jonathan's first drawing

Jonathan Pisano

Andrea's first drawing

Andrea Albano Robles

Fred's first drawing

Fred Quintiliani 

Amy's first drawing

Amy Burke

Cecil's first drawing

Cecil Pang

Hedvig's first drawing

Hedvig Carlin

Alex's first drawing

Alex Wang

Cavanaugh's first drawing

Cavanaugh Cutler

Jiaxin's first drawing

Jiaxin Li