David Versluis
Enlaced: a Burning Bush, Psalm 19
COR-TEN Steel
18'H x 8'W x 8'D
Dordt College Permanent Art Collection, 2013
photograph by Rick Valicenti
The Dordt College Department of Art and Design was recently asked by the director of Dordt’s Andreas Center to respond to this question, “What art is and how we see God in and through art ?”
The following answer, in 500 words or less, convey the views of David Versluis:
In today’s visual culture art can represent virtually any idea and be made from practically any material. But despite the fact that artworks may look different today than they did in the past, we still mainly experience art by making objects and viewing images.
Art can be figurative or it can be socially relational or contemplative; it can also exhibit a variety of other characteristics.
The best Christian art communicates and projects a world that is implicitly meaningful and poignant. It is sentient and serves humanity in a way that values integrity and veracity.
Art helps reveal and unfold the patterns woven into the structure of God’s creation. It is a gift of life and reminds us of God’s blessing and faithful covenantal grace.
By working out of a biblical framework, Christian artists and their art humbly and sensitively engage the paradox of sin and redemption by representing a world of sorrow and joy with acute awareness and skill. Christian art may allude to the light of hope that can overcome pessimistic distrust. In doing so, artistic action becomes service to humankind and enriches life.
The artistic spirit that drives the imagination of Christian art may evoke images of God’s creative work at the beginning of time. It can also honor the compassionate example of Jesus Christ by challenging indifference and cynicism and by respecting creational diversity.
—David Versluis, 20 August 2014
Saturday, August 30, 2014
what art is; and how we see God in and through art
Monday, February 4, 2013
Frank Gehry on working collaboratively as designers and artists
The Behrens|Versluis 2012 shared art project tried to promote and
raise the notion of collaboration. Working artistically on projects together can be very rewarding yet very risky. As preeminent designer/artist Rick Valicenti has cautioned, “Only work with people you would have at your breakfast table.”
Two pieces from their collaborative montage series “Iowa Insects” have been selected for a juried regional art exhibit, Comedy of Errors sponsored by the Orange City Arts Council at the DeWitt Theatre Arts Center, Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. The works selected for recognition are “Beetle” (shown above) and “Cicada”. The show runs from 15 February to 23 February in conjunction with NWC’s performance of Shakespeare's farcical play, Comedy of Errors.
Speaking about the artistic collaborative process, here’s an excerpt that seems apropos, from the book Conversations with Frank Gehry. The interviewer is Barbara Isenberg.
Gehry describes his working process as: after all the building program research, his favorite part is developing the design per se. At the same time, however, Gehry says, “It’s also the most scary part because it’s the unknown” and adds, “I start sketching and trying things until, all of the sudden, something
emerges that becomes interesting and I sort of follow it. But it’s
intuitive. It’s not preconceived. I don’t have an exact plan of action,
and I always feel like I’m leaping off a cliff.”
Gehry further elaborates about working with others, “I collaborate with people on projects because it enriches the mix and gets you somewhere else that you wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. When it’s really working, it is like holding hands and jumping off a cliff together.”(1)
As for jumping off a cliff together—hopefully you’re tethered to a bungee cord.
- Isenberg, Barbara. Conversations with Frank Gehry. first ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. 154-55. Print.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
California Proposition 34
Pictured are two posters from a series of four produced by artist, activist, and peacemaker John August Swanson in support of California’s Proposition 34, abolishing the death penalty in that state.
Each poster represents depictions of the Crucifixion of Jesus, with a message of transformation and hope.
Capital punishment is an issue that provokes strong opinions on both sides of the issue — empathizing with the grieving families of victims on the one hand while seeing the need for the fair treatment of those on death row and questioning the taking of another life, on the other.
Here in the Midwest I’m proud to say the state of Iowa does not have the death penalty. Several years ago (and to his credit) the former governor of Illinois, George Ryan instituted a moratorium on the death penalty after his administration became aware of how horribly flawed the justice system was for death row inmates.
We are all imperfect and our systems are blemished too. Jesus did say that the first person who is absolutely perfect can throw the first stone. John 7:53-8:11 NIV
Thursday, September 6, 2012
“Look for deeper meanings in life and in art”: a report on artist Steve A. Prince’s visit to Dordt College, September 1-4, 2012
From a photo shoot of Steve A. Prince’s art exhibition at Dordt College. This photograph illustrates Steve standing next to Exodus: Bread from Heaven which is from the Old Testament series, 2012, 24 in. x 36 in., Linoleum Cut. Photos by Doug Burg.
Steve poses next to Job: Take me to the Water, also from the Old Testament series, Linoleum Cut. To the left is
Lamentations: Send your Rain, 2012, Linoleum Cut.
Student recollections (in their words) of quotes from Steve’s presentations:
- Be a Living Epistle
- Keep the light on!
- Be the Ecclesia — “the called out ones”
- MINE your business; dig deeper than the surface
- Confront life’s nastiness
- There are gaping wounds that need to be healed
- Old soil [the past] is doomed to be repeated unless addressed
- Your past may be stained but your future is untouched
Last Tuesday (9.4.12) Steve wrapped up his time at Dordt College as the First Mondays Speaker, visiting gallery artist, studio guest, and workshop leader. Steve has developed a reputation as an excellent and demanding teacher; he's continually producing artwork and commissions that have received international acclaim while managing a full schedule of gallery exhibitions, workshops, and lectures to audiences of all ages.
On Labor Day Steve spoke in the morning to a full house in the BJ Haan Auditorium and had his audience riveted. The afternoon was dedicated to a monoprint workshop with 18 participants. In the evening event Steve’s presentation was both powerful and profound. He went into more detail and deepened the themes of his morning lecture by showing a more complete body of his artwork. Steve is one of the finest storytellers I’ve ever heard and of great interest to me is the way in which he tells his narratives through visual art. Steve’s evening presentation was titled, “Second Line: The Art of Social Justice.” He began by showing a slide of one of his pieces in the Dordt exhibition titled, “Requiem for Brother John” and described the work which is based on the New Orleans funeral tradition of the dirge as a sad song for the one who has passed away. In Steve’s art the dirge is a metaphor for personal and communal sadness, corruption, and loss – the sad fact that things are not right in the world.
Then as a sure sign of hopefulness Steve followed his “Requiem” piece with the next piece called, “Second Line: Rebirth” in which he described the contrast as “cathartic”. In the New Orleans funeral tradition, after the mourning has taken place, the processional continues as a “Second Line” and becomes a celebration of the life of the one who has passed away. In the afterlife the person's life is made new and he/she is reborn. In Steve’s artwork, the “Second Line” is a metaphor for purification, liberation, and cleansing.
In several ways the themes of the “Dirge” and the “Second Line” are foundational metaphors in most of Steve’s work. His work is intense and challenging, symbolized by very strong black and white contrasts; every aspect of the compositions is full of meaning.
Steve has had a very positive impact on each community that he's been a part of and on those who view his work, as well. His artwork conveys the impact of the New Orleans storytelling tradition. Steve speaks sincerely from his heart and is genuinely interested in making the world a better place to live. Steve's abilities and talents are amazing and we were very fortunate to have him on campus.
Steve Prince’s visit to Dordt College was sponsored by the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service. Read More......
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Bridge as a Relational Metaphor
Image from iStockphoto.
The bridge can be thought of as a relational metaphor about establishing connections. Driving along on the Zeeland Bridge, which is the longest bridge in the Netherlands, you feel as if you’re magically riding on water. Writer/designer, George Nelson writes insightfully about bridges in his book, How to See:
Bridges
Of all the structures and machines used for going places, the bridge is unique. Unlike the road, an earthbound strip, the bridge leaps, taking imagination with it. Like the plane, it defies gravity, but noiselessly. It “moves” with infinite grace without going anywhere. It never causes visual pollution; it soars across rivers and chasms, enhancing natural environments. The names of great bridge builders [and bridges] are remembered.
The beauty of bridges, as we perceive the best of them, is related to the fact that they are a single-purpose design, and that all of their components are directly related to this one purpose. Everyone understands what a bridge is and does. The same is true of aqueducts.
Technology, while continually refining bridge design, has little effect on our response: The Pont-du-Gard, built by the Romans a thousand years ago, is as satisfying an ornament in the French landscape today as it ever was. … [1]
Read More......
- Nelson, George. How to See: A Guide to Reading Our Manmade Environment. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. 129-33. Print.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
clean and elegant monochromatic relationships
Herbert Bayer (1900-1985)
Concentric Circles
powdercoated aluminum 6061 T5
ca. 1969/2007
84-108 inches (7-9 feet)
Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
photograph by versluis
Within this structure of a formal rectangular cube are values of neutral white, which are physically rendered as shades and tints. The sculptural circles form stepped and regular concentric circular rhythms as they progressively reduce asymmetrically in scale to punctuate a circular void. On the other hand, one can also sense amplification as the concentric circles move from smaller to larger scale. The sculpture becomes a backdrop for the variations in lightness and darkness by reflecting the environs surrounding this piece.
The dappled light from the tree foliage creates patterns and interesting color combinations that unify color relationships that seem to suggest both literal and an illusion of space.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
hot type and hot dogs full of mustard
“Coney” a photograph by Keith Roghair, Dordt College senior; Doug Burg, instructor. Photo is used with permission – all rights reserved. (select image for larger view).
Although taken during the off-season this picture seems to reflect an organized cacophony of typographic styles found in the amusement park at Coney Island, New York. The strength and order of this type works for emotive effect and utility and not the intentions of educated designers. For the most part the audience are common folk. Whether the work signifies good taste or bad taste, the impact is interesting, compelling and alive.
Seeing this picture reminded me of this poignant passage from The Seven Storey Mountain. The author Thomas Merton, thinking back as a young man to the 30s, contrasts the forebodings about world war in Europe with the fond memories of hot dogs and beer at Coney Island. Merton writes:
The Europe I finally left for good, in the late November of 1934, was a sad and unquiet continent, full of forebodings.
Of course, there were plenty of people who said: “There will not be a war….” But Hitler had now held power in Germany for some time, and that summer all the New York evening papers had been suddenly filled with the news of Dollfuss’ murder in Austria, and the massing of Italian troops on the Austrian borders. It was one of the nights when I was down at Coney Island, with Reginald Marsh, and I walked in the whirl of lights and noise and drank glasses of thin, icy beer, and ate hotdogs full of mustard, and wondered if I would soon be in some army or other, or perhaps dead.
It was the first time I had felt the cold steel of the war scare in my vitals. There was a lot more to come. It was only 1934.
And now, in November, when I was leaving England forever the ship sailed quietly out of Southampton Water by night the land I left behind me seemed silent with the silence before a storm. It was a land all shut up and muffled in layers of fog and darkness, and all the people were in the rooms behind the thick walls of their houses, waiting for the first growl of thunder as the Nazis began to warm up the motors of a hundred thousand planes.
Perhaps they did not know they were waiting for all this. Perhaps they thought they had nothing better to occupy their minds than the wedding of Prince George and Princess Marina which had taken place the day before. Even I myself was more concerned with the thought of some people I was leaving than with the political atmosphere at that precise moment. And yet that atmosphere was something that would not allow itself to be altogether ignored. [1]
- Merton, Thomas. The Seven Storey Mountain. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948. 127-128. Print.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
van de Velde Behrens & Guimard — phytomorphism (plant patterns)
Pictured clockwise starting top left:
Leeuwarden Railway Station, interior column tile detail, designer anonymous, c. 1860s
Leeuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands
© 2011 photograph by versluis
Peter Behrens
Ornamented initials to match the Behrens-Schrift type designs
for Rudhard Typefoundry, 1902. Image source: Mosley, James. “St Brides Printing Library.” Baseline International Typographics Journal, St Bride’s Issue (1990): 32. Print.
Henri van de Velde
Double title page for Ecce Homo, written by Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908. Image source: van de Velde. Nietzsche, Fr., “Ecce homo.” Ketterer Kunst. N.p., 17 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Apr. 2011; http://www.kettererkunst.com/details-e.php?obnr=410805351&anummer=348.
Hector Guimard
Entrance to a Paris Métro station, c. 1900
“le style métro” — railings, balustrades, and lamp-holders
© photographs by versluis
Perhaps the insights of Phil Meggs can help us understand some of the contributions and historical importance of H. van de Velde as a design educator and P. Behrens who began to move design toward more objective geometric forms.
Although van de Velde became an innovator of Art Nouveau, he was far more interested in furthering the Arts and Crafts philosophy than in innovative style as an end in itself. After the turn of the [twentieth-] century, his teaching and writing (The Renaissance in Modern Applied Art, 1901; A Layman’s Sermons on Applied Art, 1903) became a vital source for the development of twentieth-century architecture and design theory. An example of his pedagogy is his observation that when a shadow is cast, a complementary form is created on the light-struck side of the shadow’s outline, and that this “negative” form is as important as the object casting the shadow. He taught that all branches of art—from painting to graphic design, and from industrial design to sculpture—shared a communal language of form and an equality of importance to the human community. Appropriate materials, functional forms, and a unity of visual organization were demanded. He saw ornament not as decoration but as a means of expression that could achieve the status of art. [1]
- Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. 2nd ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992. 209. Print.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Good Taste, Bad Taste and the Amusement Factor
Photograph by versluis, copyright © 2011
Located on the east side of the small city of Pocahontas, Iowa is this monumental, twenty-five foot tall Pocahontas statue. This amusing statue is an attention grabber on Iowa’s Highway 3 where the road is a commercial strip through town. Pocahontas is namesake of the city and county and the statue is an emblematic “signature” of community values and virtues. The legendary story of Pocahontas is an endearing icon of honesty, respectability, and hospitality.
While the statue is not meant for commercialism, it does however fit into the architectural idiom of vernacular commercial forms. Presumably the attraction with its folk-art charm helps the economy of the area.
A plaque on the skirt indicates that Albert J. and Frank W. Shaw erected the statue in 1954. An armature and an applied surface utilizing a combination of cement and stucco, is a stable construction material that readily accepts paint pigments, support the structure.
The Pocahontas statue fits into the vernacular commercial builders portfolio along with “the giant ducks, giant milk bottles, giant coffee pots and other curiosities that once lined America’s highways. Ironically, the elements of this antiestablishment aesthetic have recently been co-opted by arbiters of [good] taste as [unvernacular and outsider art].” [1]
- Rubin, Barbara. “Aesthetic Ideology and Urban Design.” Common Places, Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. Ed. Dell Upton and John Michael Vlach. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1986. 482. Print.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
“cabin of remembrance” in Michigan, no. 2
Hand-lettered sign found in a log cabin memorial built (c. 1956) by Peter Versluis (Henry Koster, carpenter) near Grand Rapids, Michigan. The cabin, in part, memorializes some of the homesteaders in Western Michigan during the 1840s and 50s.
—“May you leave this cabin with a pleasant consciousness that those whom we commemorate have helped to enrich your life.”
Thursday, March 17, 2011
“cabin of remembrance” in Michigan
Hand-lettered sign found in a log cabin memorial built (c. 1956) by Peter Versluis near Grand Rapids, Michigan. The cabin, in part, memorializes some of the earliest Irish settlers in Michigan during the 1840s.
—“Wisdom is a friend which will never fail you.”
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
intrinsic color and pattern
“The Juggler,” a Parisian street performer who seems to be playing for the camera, is performing near the Carrousel Venitien at Place Saint-Pierre in Montmartre. This location is below the hill from the basilique du Sacré-Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart). Photograph © 2010 by versluis.
Besides being one of the best street performances in Paris this performer was also visually compelling by the intrinsic color and pattern of his attire. In addition, this photograph tries to capture the unruffled balance and symmetry of the juggler’s dynamic movements.
One of the things suggested by this photograph is a passage from George Nelson’s book, “How to See” in which he writes, “Just how much any of us sees of the most intimate personal environments is an open question. Can you describe to colors and pattern of any rug in your dwelling? The wallpaper in the bedroom? When were they last looked at?”[1]
- Nelson, George. How to See: A Guide to Reading Our Manmade Environment. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. 224. Print.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Andy Warhol and the parodic model
This year’s Junior Art Show poster is an imaginative parody of the parody by referencing Pop artist Andy Warhol’s reproduction of media stars. It may seem obvious, but the art show poster is based on the parody of multiples in Warhol’s Hollywood imago pieces of the 60s and 70s, which he serigraphed photos taken from glossy magazines. The junior students are using pseudo serigraphy from Adobe Photoshop, but I enjoy the colors and density of typed information in the poster layout. In addition, what I appreciate about the Dordt Student’s poster is expressed by the tongue-in-cheek attitude and bright toothy smiles that critique and mimic Warhol’s work but without the mockery, which seems to characterize much of postmodern art parody. The poster is filled with signs of life, energy, and enthusiasm without the inanimate vacuity sometimes associated with Warhol’s Pop art. [1]
This poster, besides being fun, is also about the relationship of images and their originals.
- Kearney, Richard. The Wake of Imagination. London: Century Hutchinson Ltd. and Routledge, 1988. 254-397. Print.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The close affinity of advertising and art in Holland
In the background of this photograph is the Amsterdam Centraal Train Station as it faces the city centrum. One arrives on the Metro and enters through the station and into the city, which is an interesting transition. Photo by versluis, March 2004.
The extended contemporary billboard contrasts strikingly against the 19th century Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Gothic style architecture. The train station was designed by Pierre Cuypers and A. L. van Gendt, and opened to the public in 1889. The billboard functions as both advertising art space and for covering the back of kiosks of various vendors. Apparently the tour boat is docked because of lack of space somewhere else.
It seems the billboard advertisement or art photography is related to a photo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum or is it promoting men’s outerwear? Perhaps the display suggests “The Old Man and the Sea” theme of body and spirit. The photography sequence describes both the external ocean atmosphere, but also the inner landscape within the soul. The result is when advertising alludes to art and visa versa. However, on the other hand, perhaps the mural is suggesting worries about global sea level rise.
Friday, December 10, 2010
teaching students about linguistic and visual patterns
The literacy and visual examples shown in this blog piece all rely on patterns and spatial relationships for impact. Professor Roy R. Behrens, in his essay “How Form Functions,” has said, “literary uses of repetition and variation (similarity and dissimilarity) provide us with interesting parallels to the use of unit-forming factors in the visual arts.” Unit-forming factors (good Gestalt) which includes: similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure are things we've studied in class that give students a vocabulary to discuss how their work works.
The Herman Miller Furniture Company
Summer Picnic Poster [1970]
Sweet Corn Festival
Stephen Frykholm (American, born 1942) and Philip Mitchell
Silkscreen with lacquer finish, 39 1/4 x 25" (99.7 x 63.5 cm).
This is the first poster in the long running series… apparently Steve printed the first posters in his basement. Image from MoMA. At Dordt, one of the exhibitions we’re planning for next year will be a show of the first twenty Herman Miller Summer Picnic Posters designed by Steve Frykholm.
Listen! Listen!
A children’s book by Ann Rand and illustrated by Paul Rand
Copyright ©1970 Harcourt, Brace & World Book illustrated is from the Dordt College Library’s Teacher Resource Center
Text: Rrrroooaaarrrrr! 12–13.
Text: Listen…
It’s not too polite a thing,
But if you’ll bring
Your ear up close,
You can hear the breakfast noise
I like most.
It’s the crunch crunch
Of buttered toast.
24–25.
Interestingly, Behrens on occasion mentions Alfred North Whitehead who wrote in Principles of Natural Knowledge, “The essence of rhythm is the fusion of sameness and novelty; so the whole never loses the essential unity of the pattern, while the parts exhibit the contrast arising from the novelty of their detail.”
Particularly for art and design students, recognizing patterns is a key to discernment in visual thinking. Whether the patterns are imagined and developed by human beings or are found in the world created by God, perceiving the patterns changes our vision and we begin to see the world in a new way — as wonderful correlations.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Glorifying God with Light, Space and Sound — Eliel Saarinen’s Example of Exquisite Church Architecture in Minneapolis
(1) Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce, Inc. A Look at Architecture. Sixth ed. Columbus, IN: Visitor's Center, 1991. 28. Print.(2) Bruggink, Donald J., and Carl H. Droppers. Christ and Architecture, building Presbyterian/Reformed churches. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965. 58. Print.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Joe Sparano: Visiting Graphic Designer Notes
The following notes are from Joe Sparano’s visit to Dordt College last month and were submitted by Matt Van Rys, adjunct instructor in web design at Dordt. We certainly want to thank Matt for providing excellent minutes. —blog editor
Oxide Design Co., Omaha, Nebraska
Professional graphic designer for 7 years, graduated 2004 from University of Nebraska Omaha.
- 3 Person Staff: (identified as right to left above) Drew (founding member – 9 years), Joe and Adam (newest member – 3 years)
- Building: Old Hardware store with vintage Neon Sign, Wall with giant logo mark, Lego village with radio operated train in front window with OXIDE letters on train cars and The Black Knight Pinball Machine.
- Workspace: Everybody has own workspace, but open to each other. Group space for meeting and concepting designs.
- Open workspace allows for perpetual communication and free form design work. Ownership of individual work spaces, like shelves of toys, lego cup and other personal markers.
- Workplace Dogs: Glady and Rosie!
The ability to solve visual problems with unique solutions is the key to Graphic Design.
- “Ready Collective” — A company based in helping other companies and groups rethink or think differently. Challenge: Designing an identity to capture the idea of non-traditional thinking with clarity of the finished thought. Solution: Camel “R” and Croissant “C” etc. Using colors to relate R & C illustrations to the Ready Collective logo. Using unique marks to link off-the-wall ideas with a polished workable finished concept.
- “The Biatomic Point” — (A feeling shared by two people). Challenge: How do we illustrate a shared experience while combining the idea of science and rocking out. Solution: A simple mark that solves an arguably complicated problem. B + P with the lightning bolt rocking out.
- “BIG OMAHA” — Conference for technical inventors to meet with small business entrepreneurs. Challenge: How do we represent Connecting/challenge, Midwest and something big (the big new idea). Solution: Cow with various illustrations. What do people do with the Cow? Or, how do people react to new ideas? It’s about interpretation, response and problem solving.
Darwyn Cooke (Illustrator)
- Superb action of comics captured in relatively simple renderings.
- Simplicity, don’t over complicate.
- Mad Man (Television Drama) Writing for TV (Showing the Old Pitch) — Season 1 Finale, trying to concept a name for the Kodak slide projector. “Carousel” – captures the magic and fun of photo memories.
- Jim Henson (Puppeteer – Extraordinaire) — Super Creative. Turning a small felt puppet into a character with personality. Solving a problem, with a simple Muppet solution and creating a lasting, memorable metaphor.
- Clint Mansell (Film Score Composer) — Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain… Evoking emotion and experience from raw music.
- The Spork (Plastic Utensil) — Solves a problem – perhaps one of the best solutions ever. Spoon + fork + plastic = giveaway solution to a complex restaurant problem.
- The Oxide Blog: Hey Students Series – Sharing knowledge before it’s too late to learn it or use it effectively.
Q. Did you remodel the hardware store space at Oxide?
A. Actually an architect remodeled the hardware store prior to Oxide’s existence. We kept the huge bookshelf storage and removed the walls between desks to create a more open and collaborative work environment.
Q. Can you describe the collaboration?
A. Working together, specifically in the conception stage. Sometimes divide, but always conquering together.
Q. What’s the balance of Technology versus hands on?
A. The Oxide group starts by sketching together on paper. It creates an easy place to quickly create and also eliminate less than stellar ideas early on before bringing the computer into the picture.
Q. Internships @ Oxide?
A. In Joe’s case, he came to portfolio review night and he was called later for internship. A good way to start with any business is to simply ask for feedback on your portfolio. Also, represent yourself as a student, a work in progress. Most people will respect your honesty.
Q. General Typographic Work…Regular Design, Forms?
A. Oxide participated in the AIGA National Initiative for ballet standards. This project was a true genesis of Information Design, sort of extreme problem solving for an important but possibly confusing form that a wide variety of people would use.
Q. Does Oxide work in web design?
A. Oxide prefers print design, however, designing the look of something (a website, flash site, standalone app, mobile app) is fine, but other developers, programmers and designers can be more skilled and produce a finer finished product. We feel that it is sometimes best to hire a professional for certain tasks.
Q. What applications do you use primarily?
A. We use the Adobe Suite…not much for alternatives, but it is an imperfect solution. We use Illustrator for hard edge artwork and then move into Photoshop.
Q. How do you stay fresh?
A. Try to find design inspiration everywhere; always be on the look out for good problem solving. One example is www.logopond.com great logos and problem solving.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Quotations on creativity — E. Paul Torrance
Photograph of E. Paul Torrance is from the blog Thriving Too in a piece posted by Tessy titled “The Power of Creativity,” May 15, 2010.
“They found a large number of significant correlations between the non-aptitude traits and the measures of ideational fluency and originality. Ideational fluency appears to be related to impulsiveness, self-confidence, ascendance, greater appreciation of originality and inclination away from neuroticism. Those having higher originality scores tend to be more interested in aesthetic expression, in meditative or reflective thinking, and appear to be more tolerant of ambiguity, and to feel less need for discipline and orderliness.” —E. Paul Torrance
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The tension between making art that depends on familiar devices and being honest to an artistic vision.
David Versluis
Spirit Lake, Iowa: Fish with Brush
Digital / Giclèe Print, Framed 31'' x 40''
2005 and printed in 2007
This piece responds allusively to tension between the technical aspects of digital images and the intention of the artist who makes them. Thinking of the fish image as metaphor was the primary goal with these digitally produced pieces. However, the inclusion of the brush image in the composition is a simile that senses the intrinsic tension between the computer as artistic medium and the tradition of the artist’s brush as the painter’s handcrafted tool.
My work is produced through digital photography, digital collage techniques, and eight-color giclée printing. Digital collage is a medium, in the structure of binary data that can shape and express highly personal artistic work.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Alfred Hahn, Abraham Kuyper and Common Grace
Albert Pieter Hahn (1877-1918), Self Portrait, 1915. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
Dordt College has named its newest residence hall on campus the Kuyper Apartments.
While John Calvin developed the foundation and basic concept of the doctrine of common grace, Kuyper worked to expand the idea. The following passage by Kuyper biographer Frank Vanden Berg adequately summarizes the doctrine of common grace:
“In the September 1, 1895, [De Heraut] issue he [Kuyper] began a series on Common Grace, on which he was writing in 1899, which would run to July 14, 1901, a period of nearly six years, and which would appear in three volumes from 1902 to 1905.
What is common grace? Let us describe rather than define it. ‘God’s common grace must be sharply distinguished from His saving grace, inasmuch as it is of an essentially entirely different nature. It does not save unto eternal life. God has made His common grace the portion of all individuals, mankind as a whole, and the cosmos. Even the evil and the reprobate are included. By His common grace God bridles the evil of fallen human nature, restrains the ruin which sin has produced and spread, and enables even unregenerated men to do good, the true, and the beautiful which remain, in spite of sin, in human life which has not been regenerated. It operates in the family and the State, in science and art, in education, society-at-large, in fact in every area, even in the life of men and humanity who have not been renewed by regeneration, although human nature has been corrupted by sin and although nature outside of man lies under the curse. It will endure to the end of time. In the future eternity there will be no common grace of God.’ (This explanation is taken from the Christelyke Encyclopedie, published in The Netherlands.)”
Vanden Berg, Frank. Abraham Kuyper. First ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1960. 206-07. Print.
