When blacksmithing is depicted in popular culture, the image tends to be one of brute strength rather than finesse: A male of Wagnerian proportions wields a hammer overhead as veins bulge and sweat drops from his protuberant brow.
Read the restPosted on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 by Ace Lehner
CCA alumna Kate Klingbeil (BFA Printmaking 2012) was awarded an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute. While at California College of the Arts Klingbeil became enamored with the traditional print processes of stone lithography and monotype.
Coming from Milwaukee, it was at CCA she also discovered the magic of stop-motion animation and the similarities between the multiple of the print and the many frames within the moving image.
Read the restPosted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 by Allison Byers
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three years, odds are you’ve heard of Angry Birds. That horribly addictive smartphone game in which you fling a variety of “angry” birds at mischievous, thieving pigs was downloaded eight million times on Christmas Day alone. It’s undeniably entertaining.
Read the restPosted on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 by Allison Byers
When I phoned Bryan Nash Gill last Thursday morning, he was on his way back from a boneyard. The New Hartford, Connecticut-based artist uses the term not in its traditional sense, but instead to describe a good spot for finding downed trees.
Read the restPosted on Friday, January 11, 2013 by Jim Norrena
It's been 100 years since instructor Harry Dixon taught the first jewelry and metal arts course at what was then called California School of Arts and Crafts in 1912. One hundred years later, the Jewelry / Metal Arts Program, housed on the historic Oakland campus of California College of the Arts, is one of the oldest and most recognized in the field.
Read the restPosted on Wednesday, January 9, 2013 by Allison Byers
Michael Cronan, a San Francisco-based graphic designer and marketing executive who placed his stamp on popular culture when he created the brand names TiVo and Kindle, died on Tuesday in Berkeley, Calif. He was 61.
Read the restPosted on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 by Allison Byers
We head to San Francisco for this month’s Designer Dailies to visit with Rachel Gant and Andrew Deming of Yield Design. The co-founders met at California College of the Arts, where Gant studied Industrial Design and Deming studied Design Strategy. Gant leads us through a day as they prepare for their first product launch—the Yield Picnic Bag, a nifty bag that unfolds into a picnic blanket.
Read the restPosted on Sunday, January 6, 2013 by Lindsey Westbrook
"Vanya Da Dua" Glimpses of a Lost World: An American Boy in the Liberian Bush
CreateSpace, 2012
Paperback/ebook, 176 pages, $33
Erik d'Azevedo (MFA 1976) authored this window into the intimate daily lives of tribal peoples in the interior of the West African country of Liberia in a time before everything was changed by 20 years of civil wars. It is more than the experiences of American children living in the midst of a foreign culture; it is an in-depth glimpse into the deep interior of a region almost unknown to most people. Many of the indigenous villagers and their children had never before seen a white person. This journey chronicles the stories of a six-year old boy, and his personal relationship with the children he befriends, and his integration into a culture he embraces.
Read the restPosted on Sunday, January 6, 2013 by Lindsey Westbrook
Square Book 2012
Blurb, 2012
Hardcover/paperback, 66 pages, $40.95/$23.95
Kenneth "Kip" Bryant (MFA 1976) recently retired from how he made a living and has put together this book to documents things he did in 2012.
Read the restPosted on Sunday, January 6, 2013 by Lindsey Westbrook
Institutions by Artists
Fillip Editions, 2012
Paperback, 224 pages, $20
Visiting scholar Kristina Lee Podesva edited this book, which includes texts by CCA alumni Peta Rake (MA Curatorial Practice 2012) and Ola El Khalidi (MA Curatorial Practice 2012). Artist-run initiatives in North America provided a space for the presentation and legitimization of experimental work and for the assertion of socially progressive and politically radical ideas and questions. In making such spaces available, artist-run initiatives have operated alternately as flash points for heated debates and controversies, as well as platforms for social understanding and remaining for their audiences. The book presents a collection of texts addressing the performance and promise of contemporary global artist-run centers and initiatives within the historical contexts that saw their emergence. Texts address centers in Amman, Jordan; Brisbane, Australia; Vancouver; Zurich; Tokyo; and Barcelona. The book is published as part of Fillip's ongoing Folio Series, which presents anthologies of new and previously published questions on international contemporary art.
Podesva organized an international conference of the same name as the book. Sessions of the conference are available for viewing at www.arcpost.ca. The Curatorial Practice alumni involved were Peta Rake (2012), Ola El Khalidi (2012), Matt Post (2009), and Chris Fitzpatrick (2009).
Reports on the conference:
http://new.a-n.co.uk/news/single/new-and-old-futures-talking-artist-self...
http://www.canadianart.ca/features/2012/10/17/institutions-by-artists/