Three-dimensional design à la Wucius Wong: linear structures

© Kit Drennen, 2014
Dordt College—Three-Dimensional Design Foundations
Linear Structures—top view
Wood
photograph by Kit Drennen

Pictured are examples of Dordt College student work from the Three-Dimensional Design course this semester. Artist / designer Wucius Wong writes about linear structures in his book, Principles of Form and Design: Three-Dimensional Design that: “In any geometric form, there are always more edges than faces. Thus construction with lines is more complicated than constructing with planes. Using the cube again as an example, there are only six faces, but there are twelve edges, and the twelve edges become twelve linear sticks which must be connected in order to construct the linear framework of a cube.” (1)

1. Wong, Wucius. Principles of Form and Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993. 315. Print.

© Kit Drennen, 2014
Dordt College—Three-Dimensional Design Foundations
Linear Structures—elevation
Wood
photograph by Kit Drennen


© Kit Drennen, 2014
Dordt College—Three-Dimensional Design Foundations
Linear Structures—close-up
Wood
photograph by Kit Drennen


© Wade Vollink, 2014
Dordt College—Three-Dimensional Design Foundations
Linear Structures, Gradation of shape in a layered construction—elevation
Wood
photograph by versluis


© Kimberly DeBoer, 2014
Dordt College—Three-Dimensional Design Foundations
Linear Structures—elevation
Wood
photograph by Kim DeBoer


© Caleb Vugteveen, 2014
Dordt College—Three-Dimensional Design Foundations
Linear Structures—elevation
Wood — elevation
photograph by Caleb Vugteveen

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Dordt College summer art exhibit features Behrens/Versluis Iowa insects

Dordt College Campus Center Art Gallery (entrance)

Dordt College is hosting a series of 10 large-scale (40" x 60") digital images of the “Iowa Insect Series,” a collection of collaborative work by artists and graphic designers, Roy R. Behrens and David M. Versluis. The exhibit, subtitled, “Attention to Detail,” will be displayed in the gallery until the end of August.

The idea to produce large scale images came from designer Joseph Michael Essex who suggested that the images would have greater impact if presented in a larger format. Essex was in the audience when Versluis presented the project at the Society of Typographic Arts winter retreat in Chicago in 2013.

Dordt College Art Professor Versluis and University of Northern Iowa Graphic Design Professor Behrens combine rich imagery as they juxtapose representational imagery with graphic elements to create a strong visual dynamic, says Larry Bradshaw, art professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha. In addition, Jonathan Neal an Associate Professor of Entomology at Purdue University and author of the textbook, Living With Insects writes this about the show, “Behrens has an interest in camouflage and how people perceive broken images. The works can be appreciated both for overall effect, for the multitude of details embedded in the work and the prominent use of insects.”

“The process began in 2012 with David sending me scanned images of insects from his personal collection. One image at a time, we challenged each other to respond to each image, building a digital montage, using Adobe Photoshop,” said Behrens. “We would then pass the image back and forth, responding to each other’s move.”

The image was built with about five or six back and forth turns, until the two mutually decided that the work was finished. Here’s a link to a fuller description of the collaborative process in a piece published in Behrens’s blog, The Poetry of Sight.

This is one of the first times that the collection will be shown all together. Various images from the collection have been exhibited in group shows at the Washington Pavilion Visual Art Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Northwestern College DeWitt Theatre Arts Center in Orange City, Iowa; Nemeth Art Center in Park Rapids, Minnesota; University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art in Cedar Falls, Iowa; and the 27th McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition at McNeese State University Grand Gallery in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Several pieces have been included in Dordt College’s annual arts issue of Pro Rege.


Gallery East Wall

Gallery West Wall

Exhibition graphics

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Corita Kent: “come alive!”

Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita)
“come alive!” 1967
Silkscreen
Dimensions: 13" x 23"
photograph by versluis
courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles

Corita suggests a parody of brand graphics from the Brillo box and Tide detergent.

The following is from the Corita Art Center:

Text:
come alive! you can make it—The glory of Christ is man fully alive man fully alive is the glory of God the blue cross way is very simple we walk together don’t you need somebody to love jefferson air plane you can make it

Quote by Jefferson Airplane, Pepsi generation ad slogan, Saint Irenaeus

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Corita Kent: “Mary’s Heart”

Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita)
May Mary's Heart Immaculate be Forever Praised (1960)
Silkscreen
Dimensions: 7.75" x 10.5"
photograph by versluis
courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles

Luke 1:46-55

Mary’s Song:

My soul glorifies the Lord
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
        but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
        but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
        remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.

New International Version (NIV)

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Corita Kent: “Lucky Earth”

Lucky Earth (1963)
Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita)
Silkscreen
Dimensions: 25.5" x 30.5"
photograph by versluis
courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles

The following is from the Corita Art Center:

Spring has come back again. The earth is like a child who has memorized poems, oh many!...now it seem worth the effort for she wins the prize. Her teacher was strict. We loved the white hair of the old man's beard when we asked what the green and the blue are, right off she knows every word. Lucky earth, with your holiday, and all the children coming to play! We tried to catch you. The gayest will do it. Teacher trained her until she knew it, and all that’s printed in roots and long unruly stems she sings in a song. —Rilke 

Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, Part 1, no. 21

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