Through their eyes
6/14/2007
For a unique and wonderful set of student perceptions of our campus please click here. Really, go ahead, it's great. You'll like it. Let's try this again—Miles Davis in the background. Click it and I'll wait.
…
This is student work. The assignment was “to create full-value charcoal drawings of Dominican University spaces in one and two-point perspective. Each drawing must accurately describe a real space and the light within. The drawings must show a clear understanding of all the concepts presented throughout the semester.”
Here's what's really amazing about this student work. It's from Art 105 Fundamentals of Drawing, the most basic introductory class, with no prerequisites and taken by many to fulfill a general education requirement. It's not a "majors-only" class. Students walk into it, sometimes in their first semester in college, because they want to learn to draw. They receive instruction and encouragement and they produce this superb work. I'm just in awe of these students! Their professor isn't too bad either. That would be Jeffery Cote de Luna, who's also chair of our department of art, art history and design.
I just love it when students try new things. In advising them, there's the major (of course), but also the core curriculum (general education) and the electives, that incredible zone of freedom wherein they can explore possibilities and pursue what fascinates them. I just love it when students say “I have no artistic talent” but we get them to try a drawing class, or painting or photography or ceramics or dance or creative writing or apparel design or piano or voice, and they just come alive to new possibilities.
In my stump speech to new students, which I'm getting ready to deliver to incoming transfers in about an hour, there's this slide in my show:
I love our students, and I love seeing Dominican through their creative eyes. Throw in some Miles Davis and it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. New students? Come on in and pull up an easel.
Meanwhile, feel free yourself to play it again. Enjoy.
For a unique and wonderful set of student perceptions of our campus please click here. Really, go ahead, it's great. You'll like it. Let's try this again—Miles Davis in the background. Click it and I'll wait.
…
This is student work. The assignment was “to create full-value charcoal drawings of Dominican University spaces in one and two-point perspective. Each drawing must accurately describe a real space and the light within. The drawings must show a clear understanding of all the concepts presented throughout the semester.”
Here's what's really amazing about this student work. It's from Art 105 Fundamentals of Drawing, the most basic introductory class, with no prerequisites and taken by many to fulfill a general education requirement. It's not a "majors-only" class. Students walk into it, sometimes in their first semester in college, because they want to learn to draw. They receive instruction and encouragement and they produce this superb work. I'm just in awe of these students! Their professor isn't too bad either. That would be Jeffery Cote de Luna, who's also chair of our department of art, art history and design.
I just love it when students try new things. In advising them, there's the major (of course), but also the core curriculum (general education) and the electives, that incredible zone of freedom wherein they can explore possibilities and pursue what fascinates them. I just love it when students say “I have no artistic talent” but we get them to try a drawing class, or painting or photography or ceramics or dance or creative writing or apparel design or piano or voice, and they just come alive to new possibilities.
In my stump speech to new students, which I'm getting ready to deliver to incoming transfers in about an hour, there's this slide in my show:
I love our students, and I love seeing Dominican through their creative eyes. Throw in some Miles Davis and it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. New students? Come on in and pull up an easel.
Meanwhile, feel free yourself to play it again. Enjoy.
