ART 4390 Carved Ceramic Mural Making

Meeting Times: Tuesday -Thursday 6:30 - 9:20
Final Exam: December 14, 7:00 -9:30

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1. To become competent at building and carving ceramic murals.
2. To become competent at design of ceramic murals.
3. To learn to fire thick ceramics.
4. To learn about South and Southeast Asian figurative sculpture and world mural traditions traditions.
5. To integrate a mural into your other art work.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Carved Ceramic Mural Making will provide the student with the knowledge and experience to produce large scale ceramic murals. During the semester the student will also experiment with different surface treatment techniques and determine which might be appropriate for their work.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

• -Complete all projects
• -having a HEPA respirator for use in class by the HEPA due date.
• -having a pair of rubber gloves available for glazing
• -Preparation of clay. This class will require a fair bit of physical labor to complete the clay making. It is suggested that the students find a partner in the class to help them with this. Clay making for the large mural will not all be able to take place during class time. The student is expected to use outside of class time for this.
• -Participation in loading, firing, and unloading kilns. Each student must load and participate in firing.
• -Studio Hygiene and Safety: read, sign, and hand in student agreement, attached. Students using equipment or materials in an unsafe manner may be prevented from using the ceramics facility even if this results in a failing grade. All students are required to clean up their work areas before leaving the studio and do other studio cleaning as necessary.
• -NOTEBOOK-Students are required to keep a notebook with all class information, all handouts including this syllabus, results of glaze tests, and notes from class lectures. It should also contain the Class Work Sheet. Students will be expected to have this notebook every day in class with a writing implement. The notebook will be checked during the final exam. It is not expected that the notebook will be finely presented or worked on other than it containing the above mentioned information.

ATTENDANCE:

• - This is a studio class. Attendance is mandatory. There is no "make up work" to compensate for missed class time. Some information will be imparted only during class. Absences will only be excused for reasons outlined by the provost and the university catalog.
• -LATENESS- It is essential that students come to class ON TIME. Important information will be given each class during the first few minutes of class. Arriving for class late four times is equal to one unexcused absence. To avoid being marked absent when you are late, it is your responsibility to speak to the instructor to make sure your attendance is accurately recorded.

GRADING:

• attendance and class participation will constitute a large portion of the grade.
• Using interlibrary loan each student must checkout a book on Thai art, and provide a brief synopsis of this book or a book on murals of another culture.

This course will be graded on a 100 point scale

1. 90-100 points
2. 80-89 points
3. 70-79 points
4. 60-69 points
5. 59 and below points

Attendance 20 points

All students will be expected to attend part of the OSO Bay XI Workshop and Slide Lectures

Absences will be deducted from the attendance portion of the grade as follows:

• first absence minus 1 point
• second -2
• third -3
• fourth - 4
• etc. (negative numbers will be counted in final grading formula)

Participation will be graded as follows:

• excellent participation in critiques and group activities- full credit (10 points)
• good participation (8.5 Points)
• acceptable participation (7 points)
• poor participation (6 points)

Ceramic Projects (50 Points total ) will be graded as follows:

Tentative Assignments

1. Easel (0 points)
2. Tile Project ( 10)
3. Mural (30)
4. Small Bas Relief (20)
5. Plates (10)

 

• Design (25% of the project grade)
• Visual Quality (how it looks) (50% of the project grade)
• Technical Quality (25% of the project grade)

Book Synopsis: 10 points, Excellent 10 points., Good 8.5 points, Acceptable 7.5 points, Poor 6.5 points, no assignment 0 points.

Example:

A student missed 3 days of class	20 -(1+2+3)=14
acceptable participation	7
Excellent Book Synopsis	10 points
Mural (30 points) design Excellent 1*.25*30=7.5 visual Quality Good .50*.85*30=12.75 technical Quality Fair .25*.75*30=5.625 total	25.875
Small Bas Relief design Excellent .25*20=5 visual Quality Good .50*.85*20=8.5 technical Quality Fair .25*.75*20=3.75 total 17.250	17.250
Plate(s) design Excellent .25*10=2.5 visual Quality Good .50*.85*10=4.25 technical Quality Fair .25*.75*10=1.875 total 38.625	8.625
TOTAL	82.750
GRADE	B

STUDIO HOURS:

• -You may use the Ceramics Studio any time the building is open except during floor cleaning and other ceramics classes.

SUPPLEMENTAL MEDIA:

• Traditional Thai Pottery Video Part 1 (Available in the Library Media Center)
• The Mexican muralists in the United States by Laurance P. Hurlburt (on reserve)
• Ceramics Monthly Magazine (suggested)

LOCKERS: See Art Office to reserve a locker in the hallway.

TOOLS: HEPA Respirator, rubber gloves REQUIRED.

Materials: Clay is provided as are most glaze materials and firing. The clay ordered for this class was purchased at a great discount but still comes to 100 dollars per student. It is a great deal.

Each student will be required to purchase materials for building thier own easel. A 4x8 foot easel requires:

3- Stud length 2x4's

1- 8 foot 2x4

1 piece CDX plywood sheathing 4'x8'

2- metal nailing plates

The art department will provide screws, and nails.

SUGGESTED TOOLS: this list is intended only as a guide- you may find you need or want other tools.

• -notebook: must be with you every day in class
• plastic for covering murals.
• an assortment of clay carving tools, such as loop tools, trimming tools, linoleum carving tools etc.
• -work clothes: You might want to keep a change of clothes that you can get very dirty in your locker, also your required closed top, sensible shoes. You work in the studio with open toe or high heel shoes. See student agreement.
• -hair control devices: long hair must be tied back when using potter's wheel, mixing clay, using the grinder, or firing kilns.
• -Scarf or cap: to cover your hair when mixing clay or glaze, sweeping, or other dusty jobs.

Assignments

1. Easel
2. Large Bas Relief Mural
3. Small Bas Relief
4. Plates

Ideas for Murals

1. Depiction of an emotional event from your past or an possible emotional event in your future.
2. Insertion of figures into an imaginary landscape.
3. Depict a political event and its precursors or consequences.
4. Depict a real landscape from a photo or composite of photos distorted in Photoshop®

Book Report

Check out a books on modern murals, or Souh or Southeast Asian Sculpture and give a short presentation on it. The presentation should last between ten and twenty minutes. Visuals will be recorded using a digital camera or a scanner and will be projected with a computer projector.