Some images from first year final critiques

Derya Hanife Altan presenting her work.

Ema Ishii with part of her installation.

Rosemary Dardick with her work on the window.

Emily Nachison with her sculpture / installation.


Casey Droege with her prints.


Ashley Allen Short's work.

Rose Pink's critique of her sound piece.


Tricia Stackle with her work.

Third Semester Reviews

December 8-12 brought us Third Semester Reviews which are the old fourth semester reviews moved from February to December. I think I wrote about these last year, but just in case, the reviews are meetings between each student and five Artists in Residence (AIRs). Each student meets with their assigned AIRs throughout the day. They meet and share discussions about the work the students have been doing and how they might move forward. It is a very exciting time because all of the work that has been done by the second year students is on view so the whole community gets to see what is going on and because the students are interested in hearing feedback from the AIRs from other departments. Fiber and Sculpture presented on Thursday and all six of the second year students did very well. I think they also gathered new insights and questions that will propel their work in interesting directions for their degree show and future beyond Cranbrook.


above from Amy DiPlacido's review.



from JaYoung Yoon's review.

Emily's new work

Emily Nachison is one of the first year students and these are images of one of her sculptures and a drawing from a recent critique.

Collaboration at Cranbrook

The intimate size and nature of the Academy and campus helps foster a sense of community and active dialogue between departments within the Academy and projects that connect us to the other parts of the educational community(as evident in the two prior posts). On occasion students discover similar concerns and goals with students from other departments and set about to make work together. Last month Tricia Stackle (Fiber) and Andrew Kline (Architecture) began such a venture that resulted in a large scale project being installed temporarily on the campus. Below are a couple of photos of their nest made of red hand made felt.


To see more images you can check out Andrew's website:

http://web.me.com/andrewkline/Andrew_Kline.com/Work/Pages/Nest.html

Insert Color Here

On November 20 the Fiber Department opened a show of work at the Kingswood Gallery on the Cranbrook campus. The show, "Insert Color Here," is part of the exchange between the Academy Fiber Department and the Weaving Studio at Kingswood mentioned in the earlier post about workshops the Academy students are teaching.
Here are some photos from the opening.

Workshops at Kingswood

One of the exciting elements of working at Cranbrook is the history of textile work evident in the surroundings. At the girl's high school on campus - Kingswood- there is a weaving studio with approximately 65 looms and a full time artist in residence- Lynn Bennett-Carpenter- teaching weaving as well as other fiber processes. Lynn proposed that the students in the Academy Fiber Department have a show of their work in Kingswood's gallery in exchange the Academy students would provide workshops to the Kingswood students. Earlier this semester my students made proposals to Lynn for workshops and Lynn chose several technical workshops and individual lecturers to present to the Kingswood students. The first workshop happened at the end of October and was presented by Casey Droege and Amy DiPlacido. It introduced the students to silk screen printing and sewing as tools to transform the common t-shirt. Here are some photos from Amy and Casey's workshop.




Rosemary Dardick presented a workshop on embroidery and Mary Smull lectured earlier this month. Next semester Megan Heeres has a sewing workshop scheduled and Rose Pink, Emily Nachison, and Tricia Stackle are slated to co-teach a felting workshop.

A Visit From Amy Honchell

We were lucky to have Amy Honchell pay the Fiber Department a visit for a few days in October. Amy is an artist and teacher based in Chicago at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She creates site-specific installations using stretch fabric, found objects and sound and has exhibited in many venues around the country. She spent two full days in the department giving individual critiques and candid advice about being an installation artist out in the "real world". She was extremely honest and approachable with a great sense of humor about life, art and herself. She provided us with thoughtful insight into our work, materials and processes. Amy also gave an artist talk in the Media Center at Cranbrook to the Fiber Department, as well as students from Sculpture, Architecture, and Print Media. We then hosted a dinner for her and her husband in the department. It was a casual evening in which we shared stories and experiences about a life in the arts. Amy wrapped up her visit with a question and answer session in which she encouraged us to continually pursue opportunities for showing and teaching. Having graduated with an MFA relatively recently, she offered very useful, pertinent advice. Amy was generous with all of her insight into and knowledge of her own practice, as well as our own individual artistic practices.