STUDIO ART (ARTS)

Class examines how to advance and sustain artistic production, focusing not only on being a successful artist, but also on the importance of creativity and hard work in any successful venture. Honors version available.

This class will study one of the lesser considered, but most intriguing, visual components: the element of time.

This class looks at the theory and practice of telling stories through photographs.

This course will investigate how photography is inextricably entwined in our lives and histories.

This class will investigate the idea of personal histories in visual art. As a studio class, the course will be organized around several art making projects. As a catalyst to our own art making, we will explore the idea of personal history and memory through readings, as well as looking at contemporary artists whose work functions in an autobiographical framework.

Content varies by semester.

Studio course investigates concepts and strategies of two-dimensional image making. Introduces design elements of visual language (line, shape, value, texture, color). Considers the cultural codes that accompany visual information and how they combine with organizational structures to determine a variety of effects, influence responses, and inform meaning. Foundation requirement for studio majors.

Studio course introduces concepts and strategies of working in three dimensions. Project-based coursework develops understanding of ideation process and creative problem solving. Ideas about sculpture are further expanded by considering works by contemporary artists. Students develop aesthetic sensibility, analytical capacity, and fundamental skills in sculptural media. Foundation requirement for studio majors.

Working out of an observational tradition, this course provides an introduction to the concepts and techniques of drawing. Paying attention to both representation and interpretation, the course is designed to develop fundamental skills, aesthetic sensibility, analytical capacity, and creative problem-solving in two-dimensional media.

Focusing on creative digital photography, this course provides an introduction to the concepts and techniques of digital imagery and lens-based media. Includes methods of interpretation, analysis of images, scanning, retouching, color correction, basic composition, and inkjet printing. Honors version available.

This foundation course introduces concepts and techniques of temporal art making. Through projects designed to develop an understanding of the creative language unique to digital media, students will learn various software programs and basic digital strategies to realize time-based works of art. Foundation requirement for studio majors.

Introduction to black and white photography in the darkroom through photograms, pinhole, and SLR cameras, processing film, and making gelatin silver prints. Concepts are developed through making, reading and writing, engaging with established and historical artists, and critiquing peers' work. B&W process and aesthetic is approached as tradition, genre, abstraction.

Basic computer skills required. This course investigates the emergence of Web, interactive, and mobile technologies as artistic tools, communication technologies, and cultural phenomena. Students will design and produce interactive Web sites. The course covers principles of Web-based programming and design via HTML and CSS.

Collage is both an artistic technique and a way of thinking. Even though its historical roots stem from the early 20th century, it is an image-construction strategy that is almost ubiquitous today. Using a variety of conceptual and media approaches, this course explores strategies of collage in contemporary studio practice.

Recommended preparation, ARTS 104. This course will introduce the fundamentals of painting and various painting techniques through studio lab activity, lectures, demonstrations, and discussions. The course intends to guide students through developing their technical, formal, conceptual, and creative sensibilities to the painting process.

Continuation of ARTS 105 with continued focus on advanced creative digital photography techniques.

In this intermediate-level class students expand on video production strategies and concepts such as lighting theory, location sound recording, montage, and sound design while developing individual and collaborative processes for moving image production.

Introduction to four basic approaches to printmaking: intaglio, relief, planographic, and stencil processes. Students will explore creative strategies unique to the printed process.

This class explores several techniques of 2D character animation, including storyboarding and conceptualizing, pencil testing and timing animation, animating simple sequences with Photoshop, experimenting with coloring and materials under a film camera, and compositing in After Effects.

An investigation of clay as a medium; developing technical skills, aesthetic awareness, and historical perspective.

Through the study of anatomy and observation of the human form, students develop the ability to create powerful, realistic figure drawings. Fundamental skills and concepts include expressive use of line, value, weight, and volume plus classical techniques in shading, gesture, sighting, and composition.

Continuation of ARTS 115 with advanced focus on conceptual topics and techniques of black and white analog photography. This course will provide students with proficiency in the operation of medium and large format cameras and advanced printing techniques. Concepts are developed through making, reading and writing, engaging with established and historical artists, and critiquing peers' work.

This course explores the intricacies of color theory with regard to perception, systems, and application in visual art. Further, the course considers color as subject and concept in contemporary art. Previously offered as ARTS 121.

This studio course will focus on immersing students in the culturally rich practice of narrative painting, and emphasize integrating BeAM space technology and equipment in the conceptual and creative process.

This class examines wood sculpture from both a technical and intuitive perspective. Students are taught woodworking skills and are then encouraged to use these skills to discover their creative potential.

Recommended preparation, ARTS 104 and/or ARTS 105. An intermediate studio course focused on creating stencil-based print images. Students explore a range of technical approaches and will investigate art making concepts specific to screen printing as well as the intersections of screen printing with other two-dimensional art forms.

This class examines metal sculpture from both a technical and intuitive perspective. Students are taught metalworking skills and are then encouraged to use these skills to discover their creative potential.

This course engages students in an artistic investigation of the landscapes along the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Using the path as a metaphor, the class will explore journaling as a way to document, while traversing the diverse topographical terrain of this ancient path. The journey envelops many ancient and medieval histories and perceptions of the path, documenting our experiences and experimenting with various artistic strategies. Study abroad only.

Required preparation, any introductory studio art course or permission of the instructor. Selected topics in studio art.

This course aims to continue guiding painting students through developing sensibilities to paint handling, color, composition, and spatial design, with an emphasis on experimentation. Students will develop their work in context to themes that are significant in painting history, relevant to contemporary art, and their personal lens.

This course takes students on a tour of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, and Raleigh's grassroots visual arts scenes, exploring everything from commercial galleries to artist-run non-profits to craft fairs to artists' studios. We will use our local arts scene as a case study to map out how art worlds function. Students' final assignment is to contribute to an ongoing digital web-based - an interactive local arts map. This class is especially beneficial for student artists.

The primary goals of this class are to introduce students to three-dimensional computer modeling and animation in Maya. While the particular focus of the class is 3D character animation and most students will produce a short 3D animation as their final project, students may also explore a broad range of creative applications and avenues for development, including special effects, compositing with video, and motion graphics.

Continuation of ARTS 213.

Students will explore themes in the vast history of narrative paintings by researching and responding to these themes, and create narrative paintings through their own personal lens. We will explore topics of the genre, from historical works, to how contemporary artists are interpreting and creating narratives that mirror the diverse spectrum of identities, materials, and histories in our lifetime.

This class builds on predominantly perceptually based concepts of basic drawing and introduces abstraction, interpretive, and conceptual drawing strategies. Class assignments develop understanding of the language of drawing and provide a foundation that aims to support independent investigation and personal approaches to drawing's unique capabilities.

Suggested preparation, ARTS 103. This course examines the connecting trajectories of artistic and technological developments from early modernism to the contemporary. While addressing the interconnected nature of technology, technique, craft and art, students will work with our new technologies (Laser and Vinyl Cutter, 3D Printer, etc.) to create 3D work.

This studio course will explore the vast visual language of abstract painting. Students will examine abstraction through creating paintings within a historical, visual, and cultural framework, and acquire context about the emergence and persistence of painted abstraction.

This course will be organized around four art making/art building projects, culminating in a class presentation of a multimedia phantasmagoria. Students will research early light/shadow, pre-cinema techniques, hauntings/horror and artists whose work is influenced by these tropes. We will work with Maker's Spaces to produce components for this course. Previously offered as ARTS 253.

How does one tell a story in the form of a drawing? This class will investigate narrative composition as a genre using diverse and analytical methods in drawing. From life drawing sessions to exercises in diverse environments and public events.

This course examines the practical and theoretical issues of portraiture. Students will learn technical skills and conceptual strategies to engage with issues of representation and notions of identity. We will explore the history of the photographic portraiture as well as work of contemporary portrait artists working in a post-modern age.

This class explores the concepts and craft of letterpress printing. Technical skills include typesetting, linoleum carving, and digital interfaces for making image and text matrices. Projects explore the special relationship of image and word and are designed around specific text/image forms: broadside, poster, portfolio, and book.

Art at the Edge of Life: Art, Space, and Ecology is a course organized around 2-3 art making/art building projects, culminating in a class presentation of a final public art installation. Part seminar and part studio, students will research early ecology, sustainability, green movements and artists whose work is influenced by these tropes. We will work with BeAM and with experts in the field to find solutions for the issues that we face today.

Recommended preparation, ARTS 104. This seminar engages students in a territorial investigation of the North Carolina landscape. Meandering through the landscape we will explore different art mediums while simultaneously fostering an appreciation for the natural environment. Through hiking and backpacking students will foster a means for understanding their location and documenting their experience.

This course continues an investigation of print techniques and concepts. Projects develop an understanding of print strategies, focusing on the affordances of processes unique to printmaking. This approach positions traditional techniques as a point of departure for seeking an expanded definition of printmaking.

This course is an introduction to the culture, history and contemporary context of pilgrimage and the Camino de Santiago through the lens of performance art and other embodied aesthetic experiences. Several performative projects form the core of the coursework with the Camino de Santiago-specifically, the Camino Francés, becomes the site and our studio for both cultural and artistic purposes.

This course will investigate the idea of a lived practice. As a class in studio arts, the course is organized around several perspectives on what it means to be rooted in social engagement. As a catalyst to our own art making and understanding of our mediums and fields, we will explore the proximity of art and social action and the utility of social engagement through service-learning projects set in the global landscape.

Required preparation, any intermediate studio art course or permission of the instructor. Selected topics in studio art.

This course focuses on the historically rich practice of painting, and is designed to guide the advanced painting student through the research, conceptual, aesthetic, and technical components of a comprehensive studio practice, and developing and maintaining a studio work ethic.

This class explores the intersection of two disciplines, art and science. Research skills intrinsic to both include curiosity, close observation, experimentation, and visual analysis. Organized around printmaking projects informed by specific topics in biology, students adapt theory and practical skills from both disciplines to create artworks using several printmaking techniques. Permission of the instructors. Honors version available.

This studio class explores public art from historical and critical perspective. Students will propose and create works of public art. Opportunities to implement projects will be explored through the Department of Art and other resources.

Continuation of ARTS 313. May be repeated for credit.

An advanced photography course for students interested in contemporary photographic practices, critical theory, art history, and experimental processes: theory and practice, formal and conceptual investigations, and historical and contemporary strategies will all be given equal attention.

An introduction to the creative and technical processes in producing video art. Students will shoot and edit their own independent video projects. Some class time will be devoted to viewing video art and other media-based work.

Cultural production and practice, theory, and criticism. Pursuit of individual visual projects, formally and conceptually, through theoretical, poetic, art historical, and autobiographical texts, critiques, collaboration, and discussion using all media.

This course is appropriate for students who have had a minimum of three semesters of prior printmaking experience. Students submit a proposal outlining technical and artistic goals for the semester.

Required preparation, one additional two-dimensional studio course (drawing, photography, or printmaking). Defining the book as a "multiple and sequential picture plane," this course considers a range of traditional approaches and conceptual departures of the book as a format for creative expression.

This course combines a technical approach (making printing matrices using photographic processes) with a conceptual framework (the photographic "voice" and its interpretation in printmaking). Artmaking projects explore salient ideas such as appropriation versus capture, documentation, truth-telling and fabrication, or narrative invention using specific technical processes such as photogravure and cyanotype.

Required preparation, any intermediate studio art course or permission of the instructor. Advanced consideration of selected topics in studio art.

Required preparation, 15 hours ARTS courses. Allows studio art majors to pursue unpaid practicums or internships for credit. Examples include working as a studio assistant or working in art-related fields, such as galleries, design firms, architectural firms, and nonprofit arts organizations. Work undertaken must comply with Federal criteria governing unpaid internships. Departmental approval required.

May be repeated for credit.

Permission of the instructor. For students wishing to pursue additional media or thematic study beyond the advanced level. Students register with section numbers designated for faculty. May be repeated for credit.

This projects-based seminar will introduce students to the fundamental optical and technological principles of motion pictures. By using the Maker Space to design and fabricate pinhole cameras, zoetropes, and 16mm film strips, students will gain a deep understanding of the material and technological foundations of the cinema, and the operating principles that are behind not only the classic films of Hollywood's past, but the high-definition digital imaging technologies of the present.

Required preparation, any intermediate studio art course or permission of the instructor. Selected topics in studio art.

Permission of the department. ARTS 691H is designed to enable studio art majors to pursue serious and substantial work. In addition to working with the instructor of record for ARTS 499/691H, students work under the supervision of an individual thesis advisor and committee.

ARTS 692H is taught concurrently with and by the instructor for ARTS 500. In addition to the classroom component, students continue to work with an individual thesis advisor and committee. Successful completion of ARTS 692H allows students to graduate with honors or highest honors.

Graduate Studio Art Seminar

Teaching Practicum

Qualifying Review

M.F.A. candidates meet weekly for organized group analysis and critique of their art work. Each candidate presents work on rotating basis before a panel of faculty and peers.

Master's Project in Studio Art