This past Friday afternoon I drove to Rhode Island for a studio visit with Anthony Crudelle-Janello, (more widely known as Tony Janello) who will be one of the four artists exhibiting in the upcoming show “Transformations” in March 2010.  We first met in 1998 when I was a student in his painting class in the Illustration Department at RISD during my senior year.  I now teach Drawing at RISD in Foundation Studies and he’s continued to teach Painting and Drawing in the Illustration Department since then.  We’ve kept in touch over the years since I graduated, and it was very exciting to visit his studio and get some insight on his thoughts and creative process.

Crudelle-Janello’s process involves many phases and transformations in a range of media. He creates essentially paper mache sculptures which are then lit and photographed, with the sculpture as a means to the photography. The role of photography as the final result allows him tremendous visual flexibility with the sculptures that he would otherwise not have. I was impressed by how much his photographs looked like paintings; they had an incredible atmosphere and depth that transcended the sculptures themselves.

What is astonishing about these sculptures is how low-tech they are in terms of construction and materials. For the interior structures of the sculptures, he uses sonotubes, which are extremely strong cardboard tubes that are used in construction for pouring concrete columns.  You can see in the photo below on the sculpture on the far left an example of one of the sonotubes that he’s sawed into a ring to hold the sculpture up. On top of the sonotube structure, he uses paper towels dipped in elmer’s glue to sculpt the heads into more detail. These materials also allow the sculptures to be highly durable, yet lightweight at the same time.

Below is an example of how Crudelle-Janello uses backgrounds and creates sets for his sculptures.  The backgrounds are created from thin sheets of plywood which are then painted to reflect surface, texture, and writing. Several of his backgrounds feature the visual look of a chalkboard which has writing layered over itself continuously.

Below are some experiments for adding yet another phase in his process: after he photographed the sculptures, he drew on the digital prints using crayons.  In this series below, there is a progression in the images where he is “healing” the “injury” in the sculpture’s head by drawing with cross-hatched marks on the images with crayon. Crudelle-Janello was a portrait painter for many years , and it seems like this is a perfect way to work in his experience in drawing into his current work.  These pieces above are still very early in their development, but we discussed the possibility of creating works with this process for the “Transformations” show.

The back of this sculpture seen in the photo below reveals the interior structure of the sculptures, created from sawed up strips of sonotubes.

Below is a close up view of one of his sculpture heads, where the painting process and surface texture of the sculptures is apparent. For more information about Crudelle-Janello’s work, you can visit this previous blog post which features his artist statement.

The semester is practically over at Wellesley College, which means that the gallery will close until the spring semester starts up in the last week of January.  Over the break, we’re having the gallery re-painted which will get us off to a great start for the second half of the gallery season.  We’ll be back in January with the student photography exhibition “Look at Me”. The show will be curated, selected and designed by Christine Rogers’ Fall 2009 Photography ARTS208 class. The various projects in this diverse class create an exhibition that is divided into three related categories: “People”, “Changing Perspectives” and “Reality vs. Pretense”.

Photo by Julie Aguilera

At the same time, the spring semester will also feature a terrific line up of free Applied Arts Workshops: Digital Photography with Judith Black, Ceramic Mosaics with Kate Oggel, Japanese Bento Boxes with Anna The Red, Storyboards with Alex Hart, Sculptural Weaving with Nathalie Miebach, Photoshop: Photo Retouching with Alex Hart, and Coptic Bookbing with Katherine McCanless Ruffin.

Upcoming Applied Arts Workshop Japanese Bento Boxes with Anna The Red

This afternoon we hosted the opening reception for “SPINE: Senior Exhibition”.  We had an amazing turn out for the show, which made for a lively and festive event.

At the opening reception, each of the artists spoke briefly about their works in the exhibition.

Jessica Planos discusses her artist books.

Eliza Murphy talks about her self-portrait oil paintings.

Jenna Miller discusses her installation “Frame”.

“SPINE: Senior Exhibition” is currently on view in the Jewett Gallery through Dec. 16, with the opening reception scheduled for this Thursday, Dec. 10 at 4:45-6pm.  Hope you can join us at the opening!

Today’s post is a guest blog post from senior Eliza Murphy, who has a series of large scale, self-portraits painted in oil on canvas in our current exhibition “SPINE: Senior Exhibition”. Read below about her experience installing her work in the gallery last week.

This Thursday we set up our show “Spine”. I must say I wasn’t anticipating such a long day, but it was worth it and the show looks great. Early in the day, Clara taught me all about attaching D- rings to my canvases and how to measure and space for my paintings. I am very pleased to have mastered these new skills. After many attempts and adjustments to my measurements, hanging and re-hanging, hanging and re-hanging, everything is in order and looks grand, if I do say so myself. I am excited to see what kind of response our show elicits.

Today’s post is a guest blog post from senior Jenna Miller, who has a large scale installation titled “Frame” in our current exhibition “SPINE: Senior Exhibition”. Read below about her experience installing her work in the gallery over the past two days.

After 12+ hours worth of time in the gallery, I have finally completed installing “Frame”.  I arrived at the Jewett Art gallery around 8:30 yesterday morning to begin moving the components of my installation work from the studio into the gallery.  It ended up taking multiple trips (and multiple people) to move the stack of 2×4 wooden beams and my slabs of drywall into the space.

Once we finished hauling materials and relocated a missing ladder, the gallery looked a bit like a construction site.  Eliza, Jess, and I then began the task of determining the layout of our show based on scale and the way our pieces talked to each other.

When I returned from class, the construction began.  I started building the wooden frame, which composes the structure of my work, with the help of Professor Andy Mowbray and my Independent Studies Advisor, Professor Daniela Rivera.  The 2×4s had warped because of the humidity and definitely put up a fight as we tried to straighten them into an orthogonal frame.  Ultimately, we were successful, and the framework was complete.

We then created cable support mechanisms for my walls, and I attached my drywall slabs and plexi-glass onto the still horizontal wooden frames.  The next step took a couple of us standing up the assembled wall panel as Daniela scurried up the ladder to attach the cables to the beams.  It was great to see the first segment of my work standing for the first time, especially since this is the biggest scale work I have ever created.  I finished up the evening in the gallery by myself, touching up details and tidying up the space after the day’s whirlwind of activity.  Then I went home and slept—what a full day!

This morning, Daniela and I stood up and hung the final panel, helped Jess to arrange her podiums, and adjusted the gallery lighting.  At the end of it all, we just sat back, sipped our much-needed coffee, and admired all of our hard work.

This morning we started installing “SPINE: Senior Exhibition” which features seniors Jessica Planos, Eliza Murphy, and Jenna Miller.  This exhibition has a wonderful diverse selection of work:  Eliza Murphy is exhibiting a series of large scale, self-portrait oil paintings.  Jenna Miller constructed a large scale installation piece which references architectural elements.  Jessica Planos is showing a series of letterpress books.

Jenna Miller and Andrew Mowbray work on constructing a wooden structure for her installation piece titled Frame.

Moving segments of Jenna Miller’s installation work into the gallery turned out to be a five person job due to the fragility of the drywall material the segment was made out of. The segments will be attached to the wooden structure and then made to stand up with a pulley system attached to the ceiling of the gallery.

Eliza Murphy works on figuring out measurements and spacing for her oil paintings. Since Jenna Miller’s work and Jessica’s work are both three-dimensional, this allowed Eliza to have use all of the wall space for her paintings. Given their large scale, this worked out perfectly.

“Transformations“, an exhibition scheduled for March 2010, will examine artists who work between 2-D and 3-D media. Today’s post is a preview of Ken Takashi Horii’s thought provoking works which explore the idea of opposites both in terms of his engagement with materials and subject matter. Horii is a Professor in Spatial Dynamics at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Division of Foundation Studies.  Below you can read his artist statement.

For over thirty years my work has been concerned with the reconciliation of opposites. The objective of resolving dualities is a conceptual framework that permeates my process and all related outcomes by informing my choice of materials, techniques, forms, and historical references.

I continue to prefer working in thematic series. Recent exhibited series include: Biformities (2003) and  Vestigium (2005). Biformities, is a series of thirty-four painted wall sculptures related to the “Jatakamala” (4^th century parables of Buddhist incarnation). Vestigium, is a series of twelve painted wall sculptures each representing a dialog between presence and absence. In an exhibition in 2006 I included a series of wall sculptures using solid, liquid, and atmospheric landscape references within panels that contrasted shaped surface and cut opening, with reflected light and cast shadows.

Work exhibited in September, 2008 at the Chazan Gallery at The Wheeler School in Providence Rhode Island,  is collectively titled “Of Mind And Matter”.  This series of sculptures and drawings incorporate three-dimensional forms and pictorial formats of two branches of Tantric Buddhism, and reference ink-blot psychological profile tests, for an inquiry into allusion and illusion in Eastern and Western concepts of perception.

“Transformations“, an exhibition scheduled for March 2010, will examine artists who work between 2-D and 3-D media. Today’s post is a preview of Anthony Crudelle-Janello’s photographs, shot from sculptures he creates out of paper mache.    Anthony Crudelle-Janello is an Adjunct Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Illustration Department.  Below you can read a short narrative about his artistic career.

My lifelong obsession has been with the human face, its endless variations, its extraordinary capacity for expression.  In the year and a half spent in art school, I learned two things; First, that I would not find what I needed there.  Second, I learned of the contempt many educators had for skills that came naturally to me.

“Painters paint” had become my creed.  I believed I could learn to paint, as so many artists had before me, simply through practice.  Financial reality drove me to choose jobs that allowed me to carve a few hours out of every day to paint.  Among my jobs of that period were sign painter, window washer, chimney sweep, gravedigger, tree surgeon, and apprentice jewelry designer.  I also began to develop a reputation as a portrait painter. In the mid-seventies I joined the faculty of the Continuing Education Department at the Rhode Island School of Design.

The RISD Illustration Department offered me an adjunct faculty contract. It is there I have taught drawing and painting on the undergraduate level for the past twenty-nine years.

Portrait painting is a strange profession. I wanted to create works which spoke to the uniqueness of the individual, works with depth and complexity, as had my heroes, Rembrandt and Velazquez. I found I had a clientele with little sophistication and very different objectives from mine.  I found they grew uneasy if their portraits were too revealing.  They were more comfortable remaining behind their masks.   Often when I captured something insightful I would have to destroy it in order to sell the portrait.  I felt tormented by commissioned work; I often deeply regretted my choice of careers. I came to recognize commercial portraiture as the art of correction. Slowly I turned away from the practice and began painting people I chose to paint, often professional models.  I was making art for myself, art which I believed would suffer no compromise.  However, I found as my work became more subtle, fewer and fewer people were able to appreciate it.  I found that my pursuit of artistic fulfillment was alienating me from the general public, fellow artists and friends as well.  It seemed no one was getting it.  I grew despondent and was unable to finish work.  Eventually I quit painting altogether.

It is out of this death of a long cherished hope that the Crudelle work arose.  The loss of painting left a great void.  My fascination with the human face did not change but the faces did.  These new, three-dimensional faces appear structurally unsound as if in the early stages of a slow implosion. Something at the center had gone wrong and was no longer offering stable support to the surface features. Sometimes the only cure for a great loss is to work with what remains.

Last week I received the photographs shot during the Applied Arts Workshop “Photographing 3-D Artwork”, led by architectural photographer Warren Patterson.  Below you can see a photo of the images, ready to be photographed before the workshop started.  It’s amazing to see the transformation the objects went through in the photography process.

The completed photographs by Warren Patterson: