Category: Art & Design

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Life Changing Electives: The Pottery Program at Grove City College

Grove City offers many worthwhile majors and minors to pursue, but if you are like most students, you will have a few general electives to fulfill as well. “General Electives” are classes of your choosing! This requirement gives students a great opportunity to explore topics and activities beyond their regular area of studies, and you can have a lot of fun doing this.

One of the most fulfilling and satisfying electives that I have ever taken is Pottery. Professor Rhoades has maintained a quality program for students with courses encompassing handbuilding, wheel throwing, sculpture, pueblo, raku, and advanced ceramics. When you are using the medium of clay, the process is always the same, but you get to choose what the final product will be. Here are some examples of the work you can create and keep at the end of the semester:

The following is a very basic description of how you begin to work with the medium of clay. You begin by wedging, the technique of mixing and rolling clay to make it consistent and remove air bubbles (air bubbles can cause problems when you fire the clay, mostly by turning your new piece of artwork into a mini explosive in the kiln). Once you have wedged your clay you can begin to create its form. There are two main techniques for doing so – handbuilding and wheel throwing. Your clay will slowly dry over time, and you can work with it until it reaches the texture of leather, at which point you cannot make any further alterations (aside from starting over again). Once your pottery is bone-dry you are ready for the kiln! First, you will bisque fire your work, then you are ready to glaze with a variety of different colors. Once you have glazed your pottery, you place your work back in the kiln for a glaze fire. If there are any runs that you do not like from your glazing then you can sand them in the studio to polish them up!

For anyone who is hesitant because they don not believe in their artistic ability, I would encourage you to take a look at my first piece of work. It is by no means a masterpiece, in fact it is an embarrassment! But Professor Rhoades is very generous and will reward you for your efforts and improvement! Yes, even this humble piece of pottery was A-worthy.

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ART 207 | Advanced Ceramics

Interested in taking some art electives during your time at Grove City College? If so, ART 207 might be an interesting opportunity for you. ART 207, also known as advanced ceramics, is a course for students who either have already taken a ceramics course at Grove City College or who have experience outside of the College working in the art setting with clay. Why this course requires such qualifications is due to the fact that it takes the basic concepts of both hand building and wheel throwing and elaborates and expands on technique, use of equipment, and creativity involved in each type of art production. In doing this it allows you to truly test your ceramics skills and to improve your knowledge and abilities to create different and more complex pieces of art with clay.

How this is accomplished is through the use of assignments that focus on different aspects of improvement. One example of this can be seen in the first assignment given to the wheel throwing section of the class. Students are asked to perform the basic task of producing cylinders while not focusing on the creation of the cylinder itself, but rather on the space inside the cylinder. Such an exercise takes a skill learned in Beginning Wheel Throwing (making a cylinder) and elaborates on it by providing the artist the opportunity to envision the use of the piece and its effectiveness in accomplishing its end goal of holding something. This provokes a different thought process in creating the cylinder. This assignment and various others (the hand-building and wheel throwing sections of the class receive different assignments simultaneously) provide students the ability to not just maintain and improve their ceramics skills, but to also learn new skills and thought processes when thinking of the art.

If this sounds interesting to you be sure to check out ART 207 when scheduling your next semester of classes, or during your meeting with your advisor as an incoming freshman at Grove City College!

 

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ART 103 | Beginning Hand Building

Whether your artistic abilities are horrible, great, or somewhere in between, ART 103 could be an intriguing option for you! This class is a three-credit art course at Grove City College where students are given the opportunity to work with clay to create artistic pieces.

The class covers the basics of creating art with clay and walks you through the process of making various types of pieces. As you become more and more accustomed to the machinery and processes, bigger, more specific projects will be given to you, allowing you to show both what you have learned while also providing an opportunity to express your artistic side and personalize pieces to be and look like whatever you want within the confines of the assignment. This course is a great option for people who have never worked with clay and also for people who may have years of experience working with this artistic medium because grades are given based on your progress and efforts rather than comparing one student’s piece to another student’s. While this class can be difficult for some, the professor (Kathy Rhoades) is very understanding, motivational, and caring towards her students and willing to help them in any way.

With this brief overview of ART 103,  a comparison can be made between this course and a normal elective. This course requires creativity rather than constant learning as in a normal course. This aspect is something that some people may look for as an elective during a busy or more difficult semester but could also be something that may not interest you. Another aspect to take into consideration is the course fee that comes with this and all other ceramics courses at Grove City College. The fee varies slightly each year but can be something that deters some students from this class over another. When considering this fee, though, it is important to also keep in mind that your textbooks for another elective may be more or even equal in price. In conclusion, this course is one that I love as it provided me a time to relax and use my creativeness to create art that I can look at and actually be proud of, which I cannot say I am able to do when drawing or painting, while being in an environment where I am surrounded by others creating themselves, inspiring my works, and that is led by a very encouraging and helpful professor.

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Discovering My Artistic Abilities | Ceramics

Are you one of those people who has always had a profound interest in art? The kind of intense intrigue where you look at the piece of art and cannot help but wonder what the artist was thinking or how it is even possible that the creator was able to make such a complex and beautiful work simply with paint, a brush, a canvas, and their mind? This type of curious mind was one which I possessed and which always drew me to art… no not as some artist who loved to draw and was extremely gifted, but rather a terrible artist incapable of drawing a simple shape but who was simply intrigued by the work and precision others were able to produce in their works. In having never possessed the capability to draw or paint I somewhat gave up on exploring the field of art and had just stuck to simply observing and enjoying others pieces, that is until my junior year of college when I found a form of art that I had not had the opportunity to experiment with earlier in life. This new medium for art supplied me with the opportunity to use the strength of my hands and machines to create my art rather than the steadiness of my hand or my ability to blend colors. This new opportunity supplied me with confidence that I could in fact contribute something artistic for once.

The medium I was introduced to in the second semester of my junior year was ceramics, more specifically wheel throwing. For those of you who do not know what wheel throwing is, it is a form of art in which one uses clay, a spinning wheel, and various other tools to create pottery. Being that a wheel is used this allows symmetry in these art pieces to be acquired quite easily and allows for enhanced focus on other areas of the art form. As noted above, this form of art allowed me to avoid my shortcomings and inability to be steady, blend, and draw and allowed me to focus on new skills and techniques. In one semester of work I had fallen in love with this form of art as it supplied me the ability to contribute and inspire others as I had been my whole life.

After the close of the semester my interest only grew greater for this field of art which drove me to pursue more classes and more opportunities to work with this artistic medium known as clay. I am now in the second semester of my senior year and before graduation have made space for a few elective credit hours which have allowed me to add two more ceramics classes to my college transcript and which allow me the opportunity to both work with clay in a different manner and to hone in my wheel throwing skills one final time. The two ceramics courses I am currently taking are beginning hand building where I will be able to use different equipment to make more intricate and varying shaped pieces and advanced ceramics where I will be able to keep improving my wheel throwing abilities and creating new more complicated pieces.

With my story I hope that this encourages you to pursue your interests in college, whether these interests are something you already enjoy or something you did not know existed. Explore the various opportunities of your college or university and use your elective hours to learn about things that interest you, you never know what you might learn or what you might grow to love.

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Foundations and Filmmaking

The Kelly Barnes Dam broke loose and Greg Bandy’s life shook. The whelming flood took 39 lives on the morning of Nov. 6, 1977. As most people would after witnessing such a horrific event, Bandy asked the question “Why am I still alive?”

The scene sounds like a movie. And maybe one day it will be. Professor Greg Bandy specializes in teaching multimedia. He joined the Grove City College faculty this fall, previously working at Asbury University, where he received his undergrad in Secondary Education.

While at Asbury, he co-founded the Highbridge Film Festival in 2005 with Jeff Day. They were both professors in the Media Communications department at the college.

Before Bandy found his passion of filmmaking and screenwriting, he practiced journalism on a smaller scale. While writing a local newspaper, he developed a skill set which can be beneficial in business, non-profits, education, research and many other fields. “At the heart of solid creation is journalism skills,” Bandy said. But journalism is not bound simply to newspapers. Instead, journalism includes design, writing, production and multimedia. “Journalism today is content creation,” Bandy said.

“It starts with knowing how to write a story,” Bandy said. Therefore, he teaches his classes building up from the basics. First, his students will learn how to write a story. They may acquire six or so new skills. Then the next class they take they will add six more skills. The progression continues until students are fluent in the language of multimedia.

“We are not swimming in content, we are drowning, but liberal arts education is the key to that,” Bandy said. Learning about science, math, writing and language all aid in writing good stories. Though science may be difficult to fully grasp, it is an avenue for new writing. It is a new network for content creation. The liberal arts education at Grove City is one reason Bandy accepted a position here.

He currently teaches Journalism, Video Production, and Documentary Film. “The school has invested nicely in the production tools in the TLC,” Bandy said. These tools assist students in creating their own documentary films by the end of the semester. “Production is different,” he said. “It includes technology, people, art, writing, problem-solving, and creative, narrative production.”

He looks forward to building upon the Communication and Visual Arts department and driving it in a new direction. He hopes to create an intersession course in which students produce a film from screenwriting to the finished cut. Bandy loves story-telling and hopes his Rhodesian Ridgeback dog will join him in Grove City soon.

Check out Bandy’s Instagram at profbandy. He also has his films on Vimeo of his first and most well-known films is on C.S. Lewis. Find the film and others here: https://vimeo.com/16791969

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Having Fun with Your Electives: ART 104

Most majors at Grove City College leave some room for electives hours, and if you are lucky enough to be in one of those fields of study, I would first and foremost suggest you to take courses that interest you. But I would also encourage you to branch out and try new things. That is what I did when I took ART 104 the first semester of my junior year. ART 104, also known as beginning wheel throwing, was definitely not one of those courses that is related to my major and applicable, or so I thought.

Beginning wheel throwing is a pottery class where you build things such as bowls, vases, and mugs using a ball of clay and a wheel that spins. Now, most people in hearing about this class would think that it is applicable for anyone in the arts, or even sciences, in that it works on and demonstrates hand-eye coordination, imagination, and, through the medium of clay, artistic ability. For an accounting major like myself I thought, “Is it really a great applicable elective to take?” Some may say no, but I would disagree. Though I did not learn anything about debits or credits, I did learn a lot about myself and this course supplied me with the opportunity to get into something I would have never thought I would have when I was a junior or senior in high school. This class changed my outlook on the field of arts and supplied me the opportunity to use the ideas and themes of the required Humanities course known as Civ. Arts to practice and create art as an accounting major. This course provided me and my fellow classmates the opportunity to not just follow the various rules and laws of our future fields of study but to create new exciting things.

This class supplied me personally with a form of art that made me feel as if there was some artistic ability in my body. Allowing me to discover things about myself that I may not have discovered without the combination of the both this course and Civ. Arts. So, Beginning wheel throwing may not be for everyone but do not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. That is part of the liberal arts experience that Grove City College provides.

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Student Spotlight: Ashley Raine

“I originally wanted to go to school to do graphic design/animation like a few of my friends, but I knew I wanted to go to a Christian college close to home, so I came to Grove City. I really started learning more about design and what it really is and encapsulates here and I’m so glad I’m pursuing something more graphic instead of artistic,” Ashley says.

Ashley Raine, a junior at Grove City College, shows her passion for the Department of Communication and Visual Arts through her many related interests. Ashley is a Communication Studies major with a Marketing and Design minor. She started her freshman year as a Marketing major but soon realized that she had an overwhelming interest toward classes in the Department of Communication and Visual Arts. The fact that communication is all about interacting with people made Ashley specifically intrigued to make it her main focus.

Professor Mucha, Dr. Powell, Dr. Mobley, and Professor West have been some of Ashley’s favorite professors through her three years at Grove City College. She stresses how the Department of Communication and Visual Arts has changed her perspective in that they have given her hope and the tools to get where she would like to go after graduation. The impactful professors have been very helpful in showing her what she needs to do, even outside of class, to succeed and learn more. The relatability of classes to real life is something that has really impacted her, too.

Her passion for people and connecting with them shows especially through her Instagram page. It is filled with aesthetically pleasing photos that encompass her enjoyment of family, friends, a love of cute coffee mugs, and nature, just a few of her favorite things.

“I’ve always been a very visually inclined person and was attracted to Instagram for the pictures and visual communication. I use my personal Instagram to connect to others who share similar goals and values like minimalism and faith. I think one of my favorite things I’ve done recently is take over the Gamma Chi Instagram and used it in our rebranding by showing content about who the new Gamma Chis are, why we joined, information about the group, slice of life posts, and basically using social media as a way to connect with other campus groups, alumni, and potential girls,” Ashley smiles.

Ashley’s ideal job after college would be doing something in either graphic design or advertising. Her favorite classes so far have been Design Thinking and Intro to Marketing, mainly because they introduced her to the design aspect in marketing. Although she switched her major to Communication Studies, she highlights how important marketing still is to her. The nice thing is that she is still able to take classes that are not directly in her major and give her room in her schedule to add the minors she has. Ashley smiles excitedly as she sees the department reaching a full Design Major someday for the students especially focused in that subject.

“For me personally, I consider myself an aspiring minimalist. I’m not sure if that has anything to do with communication yet, but it’s definitely a big lifestyle choice. As a Christian and a minimalist it has allowed me to spend less focus on stuff and possessions and more focus on experiences and relationships,” Ashley says. Her minimalistic attitude is important in her studies because she can use her knowledge and skills to their full potential to go toward her future. Ashley is excited to see where the next year and a half take her, especially in her journey as a Communication Studies student.

 

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Forefront: In Faith We Create

18238922_1320117271411861_5427032072239208109_oRecently, creatively-minded Christians have produced art that, while not intentionally bad, speaks only to the redeemed. This movement has managed to appeal to Christians but has altogether remained unappealing to those who do not feel welcome to the church. This does not mean the art is bad; again, I think it has tremendous value to those already in the church. However, this type of art has only a certain market it can reach.

Two Grove City College alumni realized this, and in 2015 Nate Mancini ’13 and Johnny Sikma ’13 sought to reach out to the community of Christians in the arts. They created a festival geared toward faith-driven artists called the Forefront Festival. The end goal was to bring together Christ-followers who are passionately pursuing the arts and offer them an encouragement to strive for excellence while still being accessible to those outside of the faith community. The result of their efforts was an event that produced worthwhile art while not pandering to a faith-based market.

“We wanted Christians to return to the forefront of the arts — to be the kind of people who shape culture and start art movements — so Forefront Festival seemed an appropriate name,” says Mancini. You look at many of the art movements of yesteryear, and there is a distinguishable pattern of strong Christians striving towards a universally recognizable standard.

I had the privilege of attending the first festival, and I can attest to the caliber of excellence. Photographers, authors, painters, dancers, and critics alike came together to discuss the profound impact their faith had on their work, be it explicitly faith-based or not. Nate and 18209056_1320754578014797_2428433757382773533_oJohnny premiered a film that they co-wrote and produced, not about a Christian’s struggles, but about a human’s struggles. Despite the lack of “I am a Christian” message, it still spoke to the need of a greater fulfillment and purpose that Christians only truly find in their relationship with God and, as artists, in displaying his truths.

Not long after the first festival, Nate approached Rich Christman ’14, and the event began to form into a second incarnation. Johnny moved to Los Angeles, and Nate “asked [Rich] if [he] would like to come as his partner in Johnny’s place.” Rich said of course, and they quickly began to form a greater vision. They didn’t just want events to be the premier resource Forefront had to offer, but the people who would attend the events. They created an online platform for Christians in the arts to connect and collaborate.

Sadly I wasn’t able to attend Forefront ’17, but they upgraded the experience significantly. Not only was there a festival to exhibit artists, 18216787_1321083947981860_8383942365351858937_obut also a conference to host lecturers (primarily the featured artists) to discuss their craft, be it directly related to their faith or not. While Forefront ’15 feature Pittsburgh-based artists and favors from friends, Forefront ’17 featured “artists from six different states… as well as two different countries,” including a TED Fellow.

Forefront has grown significantly, with a drive not only to promote the creators, but rather the creatives. Who knows what the next Forefront may hold? Maybe you could be a part of it.

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Create Conference

Not sure if you’re cut out for the corporate world after graduation? Me either, and that’s okay! Grove City College prepares students to enter into a variety of fields following graduation. Some students will go to grad school to pursue medicine, while others land jobs teaching. Some students will land jobs at large marketing firms, while some accept positions at corporate banks. But others will take a less traditional route. Some will start their own business or turn their hobby into a career. In recent years the College has been working to develop its fine arts program in an effort to educate and train students interested in skills pertaining to painting, drawing, screen printing, graphic design, pottery and more. As someone who loves art, design, and the ability to create, I started asking myself how GCC could play a role in helping students to see how they could use their creative abilities following graduation.

In September of 2016 I began working closely with the chair of the Communication and Visual Arts Department, Dr. Jennifer Mobley, to plan a one-day event that would inspire, educate, and connect students hoping to pursue a career in creative communications. We called the event the 2017 Create Conference. Soon after the planning process began, Alexis Marnejon (‘17) hopped on board to join our efforts in planning this event.

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TJ Mousetis – walk in love.

One amazing part of going to school on a small campus like Grove City is that students have the opportunity to work closely with their professors. While planning the Create Conference Alexis and I met weekly with Dr. Mobley  to update her on the planning process, brainstorm and seek her advice.

The Create Conference was held on March 18, 2017. We brought seven speakers to campus to host seminars, main stage talks, and workshops. Our speakers each own small business focused on some field within creative communications. These fields included clothing design, graphic design, photography, music production, cinematography, and painting. Topics covered throughout the day included social media use, how-to’s, dreaming big, and being a Christian business owner. Our speakers were the following individuals: Tim & Brooke Mousetis (walk in love.), Andrew Williams (Neighborhood Film Co.), Cynthia Stanchak (mixed media artist), Taylor Courtney (Bring on the Bash), HB Mertz (wilderness photographer), and Megan Smalley (Scarlet and Gold).

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HB Mertz – wilderness photographer

The event started at 10 a.m. and seminars concluded at 6 p.m. Following the day-time events, we hosted an evening concert in the Student Union where student performers played and audience members enjoyed coffee, brownies, and cookies.

The Create Conference was a success. The speakers were fun and brought a lot of knowledge, wisdom and creativity to share with students. Throughout the day we had about 75 students attending events. The feedback was positive. An event like this has never been done on campus so  students found the opportunity to engage and learn about the creative field exciting.

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Taylor Courtney – Bring on the Bash

Putting on an event like this was hard work but Alexis and I learned countless lessons. It took us about six months to plan the event, so you can bet we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw our hard work come to fruition on March 18. Although we worked closely with Dr. Mobley, Alexis and I handled a majority of the planning. We took care of emailing speakers to invite them to campus and to negotiate accommodations and day of details. In addition we took care of reaching out to various on-campus organizations to help us fund the event. We also connected with various departments and services on campus to help organize details for the day of the event. One of my favorite parts of planning the conference was meeting with a senior graphic design student to develop a promotional theme for the conference.

 

PWhen you’re at Grove City, dream big. There are numerous resources available on campus to help you accomplish your goals. Whether you want to carry out some form of research, plan an event, or complete a big project, connect with your advisor and professors to see how you can turn your plans and dreams into a reality.

My dream was to bring more attention to the creative communications. Use the college as a resource to do big things. The faculty will support you and push you to work hard and to execute your plans with excellence.

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5 Signs You Belong in Communications

Choosing to be a Communications major was one of the best decisions that I have made in my life so far. Despite some wrong turns in the beginning of my college career, I was able to eventually come to find a career path that fits me, what I’m good at and what I want to do with my future. The Communications Department at Grove City College offers a close-knit, encouraging community of creative and hard-working individuals ready to make the world a better place. Many people find their way to Communications after struggling with other majors, just like I did, to find their rightful place among like-minded people. The possibilities are endless with Communications, and the skills that are acquired through its study can open many doors to help achieve all your goals and dreams. Not sure if Communications is the right path for you? Listed below is a short list of qualities that are common among Grove City College Communication majors:

1. You have a wide variety of interests and talents

Instead of just one thing that you are gifted in or find interesting, there are many! You are a well-rounded individual who likes the arts as well as politics, or reading and keeping up with sports. You find that you don’t “fit” perfectly into just one category. This can make it hard to pinpoint a good career path for you, but rest assured that Communications is broad enough to be able to highlight and provide opportunity for all your gifts and interests. After all, if you do what you love, you will surely love what you do.

2. You aren’t entirely sure what you want to do with your life

College is the best time to try new things to try and figure out what you like to do, and how you can turn that into a career. The best part about Communications for some people is that it offers so many different avenues of focus that the likelihood of finding something that fits you is very high. Grove City College has such a great Communications Department because they work hard to get to know you and your interests, and help you find compatible opportunities that help you figure out viable career options. Finding out what you’re meant to do is what your college journey is all about, but choosing Communication Studies is a great start in realizing your career potential.

3. You enjoy people and value relationships

Communication Studies is all about the why and how of interacting and connecting with people, which is essential to so many aspects of life. Communication majors understand the importance of studying and improving upon human connection in all its many forms, which is prevalent in the kinds of projects and works that they tend to be involved in. Collaborative work is valued. Relationships and the way people work together are interesting and deserve attention. In communication, there is a communicator, a message and a receiver. Within this simple model, there is so much to discover, create and study. If any of this is interesting to you, you may find that Communications is a study that could engage you and help you learn more about things that you find important.

4. You are interested in social media, current news and other kinds of entertainment

Social media and other platforms of entertainment have become staples of our society and one of the focuses of Communications is to study and master its features and capabilities. Finding the most effective means of creating valuable images, messages and other content is a priority. You recognize the importance of social media and its impact on commerce, news and media and want to be able to use those skills for a productive purpose. Grove City College does a great job at maintaining and innovating new ways to incorporate social media and other media-related experiences and opportunities to Communication majors that seek it. Students that are well-equipped with the skills and the passion for impacting the media with creative, influential and honest content are the type of people that can find a home within Communication Studies

5. You want a career that is creative, social and important

By this point, I hope to have convinced you that Communication Studies is a broad spectrum of talents and opportunities that can fit a wide range of people. Regardless of the direction that Communications takes you, you can be assured that it can offer you a viable and exciting career that seeks creativity and innovation, willingness to effective communicate and interact with others and the chance to make a difference with effective communicating. This is where your interests in art, photography, sports, theater, social media, writing, talking with people, or volunteering can transform into a meaningful and tangible career path. With Communications, you are giving yourself the platform to begin to make your dreams and goals a reality.

For more information about Communication Studies at Grove City, please check out the Communication Studies Department at Grove City College webpage.