Week 1
Week 26
Thought it would be fun to post photos of the first day and last day of instructor Alicia Ponzio’s Life-Size Figure Modeling class (FASCU 360). A fantastic body of work from a set of very talented students! Model Andre, who the life-size sculptures are based on, sits at front-center in the second photo.
As FASCU gets its student work ready for Spring Show next week, a handful of pieces were photographed last week in advance of the show for reference and publicity by AAU photographer Bob Toy. Here’s a handful of the photos taken, which were chosen to represent some of the many disciplines offered by AAU’s Fine Art — Sculpture program. As more finished pieces come in, we’ll be sure to showcase many of them in the days ahead…
By Richard Thoms, Life-Size Figure Modeling
By Emily Allen, Sculpture 1
By Josef Peters, Clay — Advanced Techniques
By Krittachai Srijugawan, MS Ecorche
By Shadoe Delgado, Portrait Sculpture
By Spencer Roland, Welded/Fabricated Sculpture
By Welat Binavi, Relief: Expression and Interpretation
Later this summer, San Anselmo residents and Star Wars/Indiana Jones fans alike will have a new place to soak in the Marin County sunshine and become one with the Force. The San Anselmo Park project, which is being built on land donated by San Anselmo resident George Lucas and will feature two life-size bronzes sculpted by Academy of Art University’s very own Sculpture Chair Lawrence Noble, will provide San Anselmo residents with a new city jewel and visitor destination.
(See also: Lucasfilm’s Yoda Fountain: A Discussion with the Artist)
Life-size Yoda and Indiana Jones bronzes by Lawrence Noble will be installed over a fountain at the new San Anselmo Park
The bronzes – a Yoda identical to the one installed at Lucasfilm’s Presidio and Big Rock Ranch campuses and an all-new life-size Indiana Jones – will tower over an artful stone fountain along the western edge of the park, which is located at the corner of San Anselmo Ave. and Magnolia Ave. While the land has been donated by Lucas, the fountain, benches, lampposts, drinking fountains, trees, landscaping and other features will be funded by donations collected by the San Anselmo Community Foundation – which is where fans and park enthusiasts come in!
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The FASCU exhibit at CCACA
Over the weekend of April 26-28, the city of Davis, CA played host to the 2013 California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts (CCACA), an annual event which showcases the best ceramic work from dozens of California colleges and beyond. This year, works by 30 graduate and undergraduate advanced students from Academy of Art University’s Fine Art — Sculpture program were exhibited, receiving a fantastic response from event attendees.
“This year was a spectacular success,” says FASCU Associate Director Margaret Keelan, who heads up the Ceramics program at Fine Art — Sculpture. “At least 500 people — artists, teachers, and collectors — came through each day, all raving about the show and the quality and professionalism of the presentation and work. This was a huge boost to our students.”
FASCU undergrad Shadoe Delgado, who exhibited one of his signature stylized figures and a trio of ceramic masks – found the CCACA event highly rewarding. “I think looking at all of the different schools and learning from other professional artists is important to our growth as students,” says Delgado. “It’s also really great when you’re talking about your instructor to another school and their response is, ‘THE Margaret Keelan?!?!’ We see her on a regular basis and almost forget how prominent she is in the ceramics world.”
The students are more than mere exhibitors at CCACA – it’s a working professional experience from start to finish. “The students set up the show, which involves cleaning and preparing the space, placing the pedestals, arranging the work and lighting it,” says Keelan. “They work in 1-2 hour shifts for the duration of the exhibition, talking to the public about themselves, their sculptures and our program. This was a profound professional experience for our young artists, who were able to apply their learned skills to a real world event.”
In addition to a healthy dose of public exposure, the students also benefitted from seeing the work of their regional peers. “Our students were able to see work produced at the same level in other programs throughout California,” explains Keelan. “It made them realize the value of what we teach in terms of skills and concepts.”
Check out the AAU student work showcased at CCACA below, and be sure to stop by the Facebook page for California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts to see more work exhibited at the event!
Designer Van Nguyen stands with the steel skeletal structure of “Soul Connection” which will soon be installed at the SF Zoo
Academy of Art University instructor Peter Schifrin’s Maquette to Monument class (FASCU 499) continues its strong relationship with the San Francisco Zoo this semester with several student installation projects currently underway. The following images represent the concepts submitted and approved by the SF Zoo, which we’ll update with a future entry that includes finished images once the installations are in place!
Van Nguyen – ‘Soul Connection’ – steel, stainless steel, cable-steel and mosaic
Melisande Inness-Brown – ‘Animals in Motion’ – copper forms and stainless steel
Deanna Wardly – ‘Voronoi in Nature’ – welded steel and etched copper
Spencer Roland and Evan Benelli – ‘The Helper’, welded forged steel on existing tree.
Kelly Froelich and Kelsey Evans-Lang – ‘Zooprint’ – glazed hand-made ceramic tile
Portraits of model Lanie were the subject of review in FASCU 345 on Monday, and are some of the finest pieces yet to emerge from Lawrence Noble’s Portrait Sculpture class this semester. A possible contender or two for Spring Show next month, we think.
By Gianna Dispenza
By Shadoe Delgado
By Cameron Jones
By Les Bogert
Several weeks ago, Academy of Art University Director of Sculpture Lawrence Noble and Director of Online Graduate Studies Jason Shaeffer had the privilege of visiting Lucasfilm’s Presidio campus in San Francisco to discuss the many bronze statues that adorn the park-like campus. The bronzes, which were all sculpted by Director Noble in the years before his arrival at AAU, have become something of an attraction at Lucasfilm headquarters, none more so than the Yoda fountain that greets visitors at the complex’s main entrance near Letterman Drive.
As the video discussion reveals, each sculpture is the result of a journey from concept to realization as well as a meeting of the minds between artist and client. We at AAU are extremely thankful that Lucasfilm provided this rare opportunity to hear the stories of these bronzes from the artist who created them, and hope that they will inspire students of sculpture to suit up (Noble’s words) and do, or do not — there is no try (Yoda’s words).
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll share some of the other bronzes Director Noble has done for Lucasfilm at the Presidio, including those of Willis O’Brien, Eadweard Muybridge, Philo Farnsworth, and Darth Vader – stay tuned!
For those interested in the Yoda bronze, you’ll be happy to know that The New San Anselmo Downtown Park project will be installing a bronze Yoda — and life-size Indiana Jones — on land donated by George Lucas himself! For details about the park and how you can make a donation to get your name on a plaque installed at the park, visit the San Anselmo Downtown Park Fund site!
Mark your calendar!!
With a new set of lovely French doors recently installed in the FASCU offices at the Cannery, an unexpected blank space was created to the left of the entryway — and what better way to fill it than with a custom relief sculpture created by a FASCU student?!
At the request of Sculpture Chair Lawrence Noble, instructor Scott Donahue (Relief: Expression & Interpretation) set his students to work proposing several different possibilities for the space, which we are showcasing below. The students were instructed to carefully consider the space surrounding the relief (15th century English oak paneling) and the context of its location.
After much deliberation, a fantasy-themed Victorian elephant relief by student Seok Don Choi has been chosen to occupy the void framed by the centuries-old paneling, and is the final piece depicted below. We’ll update this story once the final relief is in place!
Many thanks to the students of FASCU 645 for their dedication and wonderful proposals!
PROPOSALS:
Jihoon Choi chose to incorporate AAU school iconography and an old English font to convey the tone and purpose of the space:
Luotian Zhang incorporated several facial profiles into his design, each expressing a different emotion:
Welat Binavi took a more non-literal approach with a rather pleasant color-scheme:
Wenquing Cui took inspiration from the old walls to create an Egyptian hieroglyphic motif:
Finally, Seok Don Choi’s fantastical Victorian elephant proposal was selected for the space, which was supported by his stunning sketches and 3D mock-up:
Seok Don at work on the relief:
Academy of Art University sculpture student Cameron Jones recently photo-documented the creation of a wax copy from his 24-inch ‘machine-age’ écorché sculpture, which he wants to ultimately cast in bronze. He’s shared the photos and provided some descriptions below, which we’ll update once the bronze is finished!
1. Laying the bed of clay out that surrounds the sculpture.
2. The bed of clay creates a final parting line which follows the general apex of the sculpture from front to back. A wax barrier surrounding the piece will contain the rubber to be applied.
