Geeking Out

I was super thankful to be featured on The Jealous Curator's blog last week!



If you aren't familiar with her blog, you should really follow it.  I've been a longtime follower, and was so grateful for the exposure.  Please feel free to pop over there and check it out. :)

Recent Watercolors

I've been doing some small watercolors in-between working on my larger oil paintings.  Here's a few of the most recent ones that I've finished:

{Rabbit}

{Unicorn}

{Brass Doe}

{Kitten}

I've also listed these paintings in my Etsy Shop. :)

-Cassie 

The Impact of a Mentor and an Educator – Remembering Ron Weaver

Mud Flat and Harbor - (c) Ron Weaver

As some of you know, I got my BFA in Painting/Drawing at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.  When I started I was an Art-Education major.  It was my second semester there, and I enrolled in the Drawing II Color course with Ron Weaver.  He had gotten his MFA at Yale, painted and exhibited his work nationally, and it was his last year of teaching before retiring from teaching. 

(c) Ron Weaver

This class became a pivotal class in my education, and my life for that matter.  Ron not only pushed us to be better artists, but better people as well.  I can remember every assignment for that class in great detail even though it has been close to 10 years since I took his course.  We started out the course by doing color exercises – cutting up Color-Aid packets, and discussing Josef Albers (who he studied under at Yale).    

(c) Ron Weaver

I recently found out about his passing after battling cancer.  I’ve had a heavy heart the last few days when remembering such a great man, and his impact on my life. 

This semester I am teaching the same course – Design II Color – here in South Dakota – we are working through the Albers exercises right now in class, and just last week, I told my students how lucky I was to have studied with Ron Weaver when I was in undergrad.  His love of color and painting were so apparent in his every action – when he spoke of the art he loved the room would be captivated.  He was definitely a ‘painters painter’. 

Black Horse and Barbara - (c) Ron Weaver

One day later in the semester in Ron's class we were doing a drawing exercise where we were to sit next to a partner and draw their profile in line in about 10 minutes to test our observational abilities.  I drew my friend Dan, and was pretty happy with my drawing.  When Ron came around checking all of the drawings he smiled when he looked at mine and asked me to stay after class. 

Mudflat Rock - (c) Ron Weaver

I stuck around and he asked me a barrage of questions: why did I choose art education?  Why not studio art? What did I want out of my life?  What did I want out of my education?  He strongly suggested I drop art education and become a painter.  I was already shying away from K-12 education at that point – I loved teaching, but was not a fan of bureaucracy and restrictions (much of which were creeping in to K-12 education at a high rate even then).  Up to that point, no one had really said that painting and studio arts would be a good career path for me– I had always been steered towards something more ‘practical’.  But none of the practical options were good options for me.  This conversation lit a fire within me.  It gave me the permission to let myself do something risky – to embrace the unknown, and to pursue the thing that had always made me the happiest.  It was a changing point in my life.

(c) Ron Weaver

There were many more after-class conversations that happened that semester – ones in which he told me and a few other students about his experiences as a painter – his education – his ‘adventures’.  He taught not in the classroom, but by example as well.  He was a prolific painter – working both in and out of the studio.  He set an excellent precedence for what it meant to be a committed artist, not just a Sunday painter.  He was completely enthralled and engaged by painting, color, light, and sharing beauty with those he came in contact with.  I don’t think ‘passion’ is a strong enough word to describe his relationship to painting.

Kneeling Nude - (c) Ron Weaver

It has always been my belief that the best thing we can do with our time on this planet is to be kind and always do our best to help others.  When our physical bodies fail us, our actions and shared kindness is what is left of us.  I am honored to have worked with Ron at Oshkosh, and hope to continue his kindness, his generosity, and his teaching through my own art and in my relationship with my students. 

Thank you Ron.

Recently Finished Paintings

Snail
18x18"
Oil on Canvas

Wire Hair Terrier
Oil on Panel
12x18"

Remember Me?

Hi -

It's been a long time!  I've been doing things I swear, but blogging has been on the back burner this last semester as teaching two new studio classes last semester managed to eat up a good deal of my free time.

So here's my attempt at an update!  :)

First, there's the teaching - Last semester I taught Figure Drawing, 2D Design, and Art History I.  This semester I'm teaching two sections of Design II - Color, and Art History II.  I've been re-vamping the courses quite a bit to really fit the mission of our department which educates students in Digital Arts and Design Fields (graphic design/ audio production/ animation/ digital storytelling/web design).

Those of you who work in education know that re-designing courses can be a huge time commitment - but it is really important for me to make sure my students don't see their foundations courses as something they can breeze through, or don't need.  I try to teach them the essentials of design while also pushing them to start finding their creative voice and develop conceptual skills early on.  

I've been spending a good chunk of time over 'break' developing new projects, learning new skills, and putting together example/sample images.  I'm really hoping it will pay off this semester. :)

I've also been plugging along in the studio.  Last semester it was a challenge to make the time to get work done - and in addition, I was working on this GIANT PAINTING OF DOOM that was really testing my control issues with paint.

(detail from the painting of doom)

I wasn't letting myself work on other paintings until it is finished, and as a result, ended up avoiding my studio for a month.  I'm still working on it, but I'm letting myself off the hook a little bit and working on some small fun watercolor paintings in the meantime.  I've got five oil paintings that are halfway finished - those are my priority once I get a little further into the semester.

My hope with these watercolors is to re-populate my Etsy shop (which has been neglected for a while now...) and to get some lower price-point pieces out in the world for those who would want to purchase a piece directly from my studio.  :)

Other than art-teaching and art-making we've been hunkering down at home quite a bit - it's been an especially cold winter thus far, and we've been taking full advantage of staying cozy.

Part of that plan is making as many batches of homemade ravioli as possible. :)

Rascal thinks part of this plan is sitting on her brother for warmth:

Hope you are all having a great new year!

Studio 301 - Washington Pavilion

I participated in this year's annual Washington Pavilion one-day-art-making-extravaganza last weekend alongside 40 or so other artists from the region, and had a blast despite the massive head cold that was trying to kill my spirits.

I really love participating in this event because it gives me a chance to meet a whole bunch of new people who are passionate about art.  We also get a chance to talk to a lot of kids who are all wonderfully curious (and blunt - which is hilarious especially in the beginning stages of my pieces where the painting hasn't really taken shape yet) about art.

Although it was a small piece, I still used the full 10+ hours that we were there that day to really buckle down and finish my painting.  It is always a challenge to push through and get the pieces finished.  I really loved seeing everyone else's pieces too!  

Boundary Waters

Well, this is a totally belated blog post, but I didn't want this experience to slip by without being recorded!  In August we went to the Boundary Waters in MN for a backpacking/canoeing trip with some good friends of ours.

When we got to Minnesota, they were experiencing record low temps - we had thought we'd be enjoying a nice, warm, summertime excursion, and it started out more like a late-fall backpacking trip.  Luckily, we all had warm clothes and pretty good wet weather gear.  The only way we suffered was with wet cold feet due to flooded portages!  The first day it was rainy and windy with a high of 48, and a low of 38 degrees!  There were not many pictures taken the first day. Hah.

Luckily, the second day it warmed up a bit, the sun came out, and we had a chance to dry off.

We got a chance to fish while paddling and while hanging out at the campsites.  This girl loves fishing,  Nate, on the other hand, was not really a 'fishing' kid - but I think this trip has converted him.  

We did a lot of paddling over the four days - averaging about 8 miles a day.  It was great fun and greatly exhausting - especially for this pair of motley paddlers!  

We'd carry our boat and gear alongside of any rapids in the portages - some brave souls would go though the rapids, but we decided to be wimps and not dump all of our gear in the 'drink.' :)

John - helping us navigate the twisted rivers.

My favorite campsite was the first campsite we stayed at - we were situated on a rock face that overlooked the water.  Sprawling on the arched rocks the second night by the fire with the stars above us was pretty wonderful.  

If I could fish every day I probably would. :)

The only night the mosquitoes got bad was the last night (thankfully!).  You can see us here in our full mosquito garb.

Our last night there was especially beautiful - the water was almost completely still.

And here we are after arriving back at the outfitters!  The last day of paddling was definetly the hardest - we had a ton of distance to cover, and after a while, we thought we'd never get there!  We paddled full force for about four hours.  Talk about a good workout!  Luckily we had some delicious burgers and a pint awaiting us once we got back.  

I'm game for going back anytime!  We had a great time with John, Deana, Giles, and Angie - our good pals and lucky for us our co-workers as well. :)

Living

So, I've been a bad blogger, but, I've also been on some amazing adventures in the last month-and-a-half that have occupied a great deal of my time!

My inlaws and my uncle and his girlfriend visited, followed by my dad, then we helped one of our good college friends move to SD to teach at our university, then we were in the boundary waters, then other friends from college came to visit, then we went back to Wisconsin for a week and a half where we visited family, attended birthday celebrations for adorable one-year-olds, recorded a spot for Wisconsin Public Radio, went to Door County, and then made the trek back to South Dakota just in time to start meetings at DSU.

I'm sure I'll write about these things in greater detail within the next few days, but for now, I thought I'd assure you that I had not vanished from the face of the planet.

-Cassie