Studio Art Courses

Peter Abrami
MW 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Instructor TBA
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Megan Hildebrandt
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

First-Year Core studio class with an emphasis on techniques of drawing. Focus on line, line weight, continuous line, contour line, sighting, figure, gesture, perspective (two-point, three-point, and isometric/orthogonal drawing), value, color, and texture. Course projects will allow students to envision and understand drawing in a contemporary context.

Zach Meisner
MW 2–5
TTH 8–11
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

First-Year Core studio class with an emphasis on creating planar works and exploring formal principles and conceptual concerns. Course projects will allow students to envision and understand planar works in a contemporary context.

Erin Cunningham
MW 8–11
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Ariel Wood
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

First-Year Core studio class with an emphasis on creating spatial works and exploring formal principles and conceptual concerns. Working with space, time, structure, process, and material. Course projects will allow students to envision and understand spatial work in a contemporary context.

Instructors TBA
MW 8–11
TTH 8–11
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

First-Year Core studio class with an emphasis on time-based media and digital technology. Course projects will allow students to gain awareness of media art and ability to utilize digital technology and time-based media in a contemporary context.

Instructors TBA
MW 2–5
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

This class will provide a platform for the continued development of a student’s basic understanding of line, mark, value, surface and composition. Students will experiment with various conceptual and technical methods, traditions, subjects, and expressive possibilities of drawing / works on paper.

Troy Brauntuch
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Students in this course will experiment with various concepts and technical methods and traditions associated with drawing / works on paper. This class will provide a platform to explore expanded aspects of drawing to understand and represent one’s personal voice in relation to histories and contemporary practices of drawing. Students will develop their drawing and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, assignments based on readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of drawing / works on paper.

Troy Brauntuch
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Students in this course will experiment with various concepts and technical methods and traditions associated with drawing / works on paper. This class will provide a platform to explore expanded aspects of drawing to understand and represent one’s personal voice in relation to histories and contemporary practices of drawing. Students will develop their drawing and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, assignments based on readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of drawing / works on paper.

Dan Sutherland
MW 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Students in this course explore various concepts and technical methods / traditions of drawing to understand and represent the human body in relation to physical space, pictorial space, pictorial design, and themes of concern for each student. Students will develop their drawing and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, assignments based on readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of figurative drawing / works on paper.

Instructor TBA
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Students in this course explore various concepts and technical methods / traditions of drawing to understand and represent the human body in relation to physical space, pictorial space and pictorial design. Students will start to develop their drawing “voice” and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, assignments based on readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of figurative drawing / works on paper.

Instructor TBA
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Students in this course explore various concepts and technical methods / traditions of drawing to understand and represent the human body in relation to physical space, pictorial space and pictorial design. Students will start to develop their drawing “voice” and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, assignments based on readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of figurative drawing / works on paper.

Dan Sutherland
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Scherezade García-Vazquez
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Students in this course will be introduced to various painting techniques / methods and histories. Additionally, they will begin an exploration of personal expression. Students will develop their work and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, assignments based on readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of painting and expanded field painting.

Instructors TBA
MW 8–11
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Students in this course will continue to explore various concepts and technical methods / traditions of painting in order to develop their own painting “voice” and to begin to understand the context of contemporary painting. Students will develop their work and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, assignments based on readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of painting and expanded field painting.

Troy Brauntuch
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Students in this course will continue to explore various concepts and technical methods / traditions of painting while further refining their specific concerns or painting “voice” and developing a deeper understanding of the context of contemporary painting. Students will develop their work and critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, readings, art historical references, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of painting and expanded field painting.

Nicole Awai
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Students in this course will continue to explore various concepts and technical methods / traditions of painting with an emphasis on developing an ambitious, mature, distinct body of work that takes into account an understanding of the context of contemporary painting. Students will continue to develop critical thinking skills through discussion, critique, readings, and weekly exposure to global contemporary practices of painting and expanded field painting.

Eli Durst
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Will Wilson
TTH 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

This class will introduce you to the fundamentals of black & white photography. You will learn how to use a manual medium-format camera, expose and develop black & white film, and make gelatin silver prints. You will also study aspects of photographic history and begin to define your individual voice as an artist using photography. For the first part of the semester, assignments will be given in order to challenge how you think about and make pictures, both technically and conceptually. The second half of the semester’s assignments are designed to allow for more of your own interpretation. Your final assignment will be to develop a personal project that consists of 20 cohesive images. Class time will be dedicated to slide lectures and discussions, group critiques, class printing, supervised darkroom time, and field trips. You are expected to work hard, complete the following requirements and be dedicated and attentive to your photography and the class.

Teresa Hubbard
MW 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Eli Durst
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

This studio course is centered around creating film and digital images and serves as an introduction to theoretical discourse examining the multiple roles that contemporary photography plays in our cultural time. Assigned projects will encourage you to create photographs as a mode of personal expression, as well as consider how photographs can obscure as much as they reveal and how what we see is often determined by our beliefs. The core structure of the semester is geared towards gaining knowledge of the tools of digital photography and applying this information towards the creation of compelling images. We will concentrate on the computer and inkjet printer as the counterpart to the wet darkroom. In this class, you will learn about the properties of digital files and how to process images in Photoshop to produce the best possible prints. You will become familiar with the tools available for creating or capturing images (how is the visible made digital?) and disseminating or outputting images (how is the digital made tangible?)

Alexander Birchler
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Inquiry of specific themes in photography which can include: photographic intervention, photography since 1945, photo book making, abstraction in photography, appropriation in photography, and lighting for photography.

Enrique Figueredo
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Annie May Johnston
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

This course will introduce students to a wide range of printmaking processes. Students will be presented with demonstrations and hands-on instruction, with projects using the modern mediums of silkscreen and risography to the more traditional processes of relief, intaglio and lithography. Completion of this intensive course will allow students to choose which intermediate printmaking courses they wish to pursue further.

Annie May Johnston
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

This course will allow students to work with a wide range of silkscreen approaches, starting with stencils, hand-drawn techniques and photoemulsion, to photo-realistic CMYK processes, digital manipulation and repeat pattern. Using demonstrations and hands-on instruction, projects will be framed around the history of print and the multiple, production, publication and popular culture, print as protest, and its role in pattern and decoration. Students are encouraged to experiment and incorporate other mediums as they create and develop their work.

Beverly Acha
MW 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

This course expands on traditional intaglio techniques with an in-depth focus on aquatint, Chine-collé, drypoint, hard ground and soft ground. Students will investigate the possibilities of digital printing methods by creating computerized drawings that will be developed onto photopolymer plates, and study the modern advances of the media. Projects will demand time and dedication and rely heavily on drawing. Demonstrations of the processes will be supplemented by lectures on the historical development of intaglio and its impact on art history. In addition to the hands-on instruction, conceptual ideas will be broadened by readings, group critiques, a visiting artist talk, and a trip to the Blanton Museum.

Enrique Figueredo
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

This course is designed to allow for an in-depth study of the varied methods and techniques of lithography, covering the fundamental concepts and techniques from stone to photo-sensitive plates. The structure will include a mix of demonstrations, hands-on instruction, and lectures on historical and contemporary artists using lithography and its history in advertising. Students are encouraged to experiment and incorporate other mediums as they create and develop their work.

Beverly Acha
TTH 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

This course supports students in the development of an independently driven body of print based work. Students are expected to create work that builds upon and/or hones their pre-existing knowledge of print processes and techniques in the development of a chosen thematic, research based, and/or material focus for the semester. Alongside creating work, students will begin to develop specific language to discuss their work and art practice. There will be an emphasis on research, group critique, and contemporary practice, and time will be allotted for one-on-one instruction to guide students in realizing strong and advanced bodies of work that could be displayed as a curated group or solo show by semester's end. Students are encouraged to experiment and incorporate other mediums into their print work. In addition to the introduction of new concepts and techniques through hands-on instruction, readings, and critiques, this course may also feature visiting artist talks, trips to the Blanton, and short writing responses.

Annie May Johnston
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

What are zines? What are the purposes and motivations behind the artistic practice of making artist books in our modern era? What powers do you retain by publishing for yourself and others? This course will examine the use of artist books, zines and publications as critique or social protest, as narrative or statement, as poetry, and as museum or documentation. Students will predominantly use risography, lino printing and polymer plate technology to create their projects, and will be encouraged to incorporate digital methods and alternative media into their process to develop their own perspective. Inspired by examples from the history of the book, global traditions, the power of the printing press as well as punk and sci-fi culture, we will explore the history of artist books, zines and publications. In addition to hands-on instruction, this course will also feature visiting artist talks, visits to the Harry Ransom Center, readings and critiques.

Margo Sawyer
MW 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Jeff Williams
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

In this course students will receive an in-depth introduction into the field of sculpture and will explore many different methods of making and relating to objects. Students will learn to think of their immediate environment and familiar objects as potential sculptural materials and exhibition spaces. We will cover basic technical processes including mold-making and armature construction as well as general principles on how to develop concepts, finish surfaces, and display completed work. We will read about and discuss various issues and practices in contemporary sculpture and students will work to develop their own focused studio practice as well as the specific language to discuss their work and the work of their peers.

Jeff Williams
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Exploration of the concepts and processes involved in the production of object-oriented sculpture, with emphasis on indirect methods of mold-making and casting. Encourages individual direction.

Jeff Williams
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Exploration of the concepts and processes involved in the production of object-oriented sculpture, with emphasis on indirect methods of mold-making and casting. Encourages individual direction.

Jeff Williams
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Exploration of the theories and methods involved in the production of installation sculpture through the investigation of form and space and of their function in transforming environmental, architectural, or invented sites.

R. Eric McMaster
TTH 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Study of the artistic culture and techniques associated with digital visualization, three dimensional data acquisition, and various forms of digital fabrication including 3D Printing, computer numerical controlled milling, and Laser Cutting.

R. Eric McMaster
TTH 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Study of the artistic culture and techniques associated with digital visualization, three dimensional data acquisition, and various forms of digital fabrication including 3D Printing, computer numerical controlled milling, and Laser Cutting.

Kristin Lucas
TTH 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Introduction to video, digital, net.art, and multiple media art forms with an emphasis on experimentation and a DIY approach to production. Focuses on the history, theory, and evolution of media art practices and their relation to the Internet and social media networks.

Kristin Lucas
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Advanced practice of media art exploring time, space, and reality through multidimensional forms. An investigation of media technologies and networks: aesthetically, formally, theoretically or conceptually using traditional media, new media, and immaterial approaches.

Kristin Lucas
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Advanced practice of media art exploring time, space, and reality through multidimensional forms. An investigation of media technologies and networks: aesthetically, formally, theoretically or conceptually using traditional media, new media, and immaterial approaches.

Michael Smith
TTH 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

An introduction to the practice, history, and theory of performance art in a variety of contexts and spaces, including theatrical, the white cube, and the workaday world.

Dylan McLaughlin
MW 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

In this intermediate/advanced course, students will explore creative performance through collaboration, social practice, and historic and current art movements. Through readings, discussion, solo and collaborative projects, students will explore movement, process, and improvisation referencing the work of BIPOC artists and collectives expanding notions of performance art. Emphasis will be placed on building a conceptual foundation that supports the student’s creative practice. At the end of the semester the class will organize a public event. In addition to performance assignments, preparation and production of a public project, a portion of class time will be devoted to critiques, readings, viewing video documentation and field trips.

Dylan McLaughlin
MW 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

In this intermediate/advanced course, students will explore creative performance through collaboration, social practice, and historic and current art movements. Through readings, discussion, solo and collaborative projects, students will explore movement, process, and improvisation referencing the work of BIPOC artists and collectives expanding notions of performance art. Emphasis will be placed on building a conceptual foundation that supports the student’s creative practice. At the end of the semester the class will organize a public event. In addition to performance assignments, preparation and production of a public project, a portion of class time will be devoted to critiques, readings, viewing video documentation and field trips.

Bogdan Perzyński
MW 8–11
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

Study in digital video, sound, and animation, with emphasis on the exploration of cinematic time and its time-based installation. Guided inquiry into the relationship between video and video projections, and technics and technology.

Bogdan Perzyński
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Study in digital video, sound, and animation, with emphasis on the exploration of cinematic time and its time-based installation. Guided inquiry into the relationship between video and video projections, and technics and technology.

Bogdan Perzyński
MW 2–5
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag

Study in digital video, sound, and animation, with emphasis on the exploration of cinematic time and its time-based installation. Guided inquiry into the relationship between video and video projections, and technics and technology.

Nicolas Dumit Estevez Raful Espejo Ovalles
MW 11–2
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

The subject of art and life, and the subsequent argument on the point at which the two of them meet or not is a topic heavily debated by artists and scholars. The discussion continues to be as relevant today as it was decades ago when Linda Mary Montano, and Fluxus, for example, developed key works that existed within the everyday. It is even more so now, when a considerable number of art practitioners are invested in projects and experiences that make obsolete, at least for their particular implementation, the traditional white cube of the gallery. Instead, they find space within the day-to-day, be it a public or an intimate environment. In 2008, El Museo del Barrio in New York inaugurated Art ‡ Life, a groundbreaking exhibition curated by Deborah Cullen. This pivotal show brought to light documentation of mostly ephemeral projects created from 1960–2000 by artists from the Americas, while addressing once more the relationship or separateness of the two subjects in question. Can art and life share a common ground? Should there be awareness on behalf of the artist on what they are doing in order for their action to achieve the status of art? And does that awareness cancel out life and bring us back to art?

When Arte es Vida is structured as a series of presentations on the works of historical/herstorical/theirstorical figures, with emphasis on artists and collectives from the Americas such as: Melquiades Herrera, Geoffrey Hendricks, Hanna Wilke, Linda Sibio, Jesús Natalio Puras Penzo (APECO), Pedro Pietri, and Nao Bustamante, among others. These presentations serve as the starting point for discussions on topics including, but not limited to: living in art, straying into unknown territories, and non-traditional ways of dealing with ephemerality in art. Class exercises and assignments will lead students to tap into the quotidian. Participants then undertake a careful observation and awareness of overtly mundane activities such as talking, sleeping, and eating.

When Arte es Vida is a lecture-based class with emphasis on readings, discussions, and circles, which invites participants to respond to the materials presented with collective performances, actions, ephemeral and process-focused gestures.

When Arte es Vida (formerly called Nowhere to Go) © 2009 Nicolas Dumit Estevez Raful Espejo Ovalles

Nicolas Dumit Estevez Raful Espejo Ovalles
MW 5–8
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face

As a child of the professional development trend of the 1990s, I have come to seek refuge in other forms of network-building and weaving in the arts which are not centered on pyramidal structures based on competition and stardom. In the mid 2000s, I joined artist, environmentalist Mary Ting in facilitating a series of Non-Professional Development Workshops, which gave us the opportunity to listen to the voices of artists and arts administrators urgently questioning and searching for other ways to counter a system modeled on production, competition and consumption. Prior to that, I attended the Ecosexual Symposium conceived by Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, which offered me an experiential entry into how creatives can build families in their own fields and engage in nurturing lasting relationships. My own testing ground was presented to me when invited by El Museo del Barrio to be a resident artist of some sort for a full year, and I, in turn, invited its entire staff to work as play and to rethink the possibility of looking at El Museo itself as an artwork being shaped by those who tended to it and by the communities who birthed it.

Art as a Tool for Co-creating Networks of Joy, Nurturance and Belonging seeks to imagine art and art-making as a space where the subjects of friendship, illness, aging, death and dying, among others, can find room to be openly discussed. As a group, we will draw inspiration from experts in a variegated number of fields from healing to the arts and to medicine, putting what we learn into practice as in talking, writing, imagining and enacting gestures that can help blue-print restorative genealogies in our areas of work.

Art as a Tool for Co-creating Networks of Joy, Nurturance and Belonging is a lecture-based class with emphasis on readings, discussions, and circles, which invites participants to respond to the materials presented with collective performances, actions, ephemeral and process-focused gestures.

Art as a Tool for Co-creating Networks of Joy, Nurturance and Belonging ©2009 Nicolas Dumit Estevez Raful Espejo Ovalles

Erin Cunningham
W 5–8
Instruction Mode →  Face-to-Face
Fulfills →  Writing flag

The Professional Practices course focuses on the exploration of professional practices as they relate to the field of visual arts. This course leads students to investigate and gain knowledge of the many options available to help achieve their professional goals. Students will go through a series of exercises to improve their writing, presentation and organization skills to best support their artist career.

Restricted to BFA Studio Art majors

Individual projects to be completed under faculty supervision. Requires completion of at least fifteen semester hours of upper-division coursework in studio art and a grade point average of at least 3.00 in upper-division studio art.

Restricted to Studio Art and Art Education Majors, requires approval by Studio Art Assistant Chair to register.

Fulfills →  Independent Inquiry flag