Lee's Artlog

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2008- Once I had finished term 2, I started concentrating on fleshing out my sketchbook. One of my favorite pieces in it was ArtCenter Braintrust.  I have resentment towards the school for its lack of candor on defining requirements for scholarships and at this point after two frustrating attempts at it, I decided to really go after my sketchbook so that it was no longer an area of weakness. It was time to let it all hang out and really go after the school with my artistically sarcastic tastes and styling.  I worked on a series of self portraits, of which I was most pleased with this one. 

A crane scoops around from my hand and drops or removes the brain in the crater of my skull.  Maybe the brain is too big, or they need the metal supports to expand my skull with knowledge?  The crane works and spews pollution about the dreamscape with an ArtCenter logo emblazoned on its hull. Regardless, much damage is being done to my head and an obviously uncomfortable expression is on my face.

I was pointed towards this blog ( http://designercowboy.blogspot.com/ ) by a friend of mine the other day. I love Art Center, the faculty, the students and the administration dearly. I sadly have had many of these same feelings in the short year that I have been here that many of the individuals here have expressed. I got really charged up and had to take action by replying to the post. 

Followed in its near entirety is my attempt at being reasonable:

“I think rationally to me what the problems at my school boil down to are three concerns: Accountability, transparency and education. 

First and foremost, budgets to education continue to be slashed while costs go up, and to me as a student, there is no excuse for this. I work hard to bring my ‘A game’ to this, the best school in the world everyday, but it disappoints me when I see that a class I wish to take is not offered anymore, or the class I am in has inadequate and incomplete services for our usage. Faculty I’d like to learn from, are no longer at Art Center, on a ‘sabbatical’, or splitting time at a local junior college to make ends meet. -I can take any side on this part of the debate as to where the failure is in this, but really, how does Art Center expect to retain its top notch faculty when they don’t even offer them tenure?

There is a developing sense of distrust because there is either little transparency on the budgets, or it is not easily accessable to be understood. How does Art Center remain competitive by continuing to jack up student’s tuition on a consistent basis?  We all wonder where the money is going. I think this is fair to assume and I think many of the students worry about leaving this wonderful school up to $200,000 in debt.

I do not think it is fair to assail the administration or label them completely with all the blame.  I have a hard time believing that they have been aware of the simmering dissatisfaction in the faculty and student body displayed here. I think that is not fair at all. 

I do however, believe it IS the administration’s responsibility to help us and provide us with the best education possible.  I hold them accountable for the skyrocketing costs of going to Art Center. I am asking our administration to take notice and  responsibility to try and fix things for us now. We need their (your) help please.

I want administration to seriously look at why education budgets are being slashed and costs are increasing. (Even small things are going up. The cafeteria and vending machines have even seen rises in prices.  Has our administration tried negotiating with vendors, or trying another one, or are they only intent on setting up tables for 24 Hour Fitness to squeeze more juice out of dried oranges?)

‘Remaining competitive’? What does this mean? Why has there been no ground breaking on the new library and what are the road humps we must overcome to get the dormitories constructed? (I am aware that these projects will probably not be constructed by the time I graduate, -but I do not care about that.) I want future Art Center alumni to benefit from my financial strain. What about the alumni before us who were told previously that our generation of Art Center would benefit from their increased tuition?  Did tuition drop off after these projects were completed or were they justified into a budget somewhere else.

From the viewpoint of a frustrated student, why should the school extend administrative contracts when so many issues now lie before us to fix? 

I constantly hear that the only power here is wielded by the students. Fine, then I ask that administration and faculty come to the bargaining  table with us to negotiate and fix what lies before us now. An open and sincere dialogue needs to be created between not only the students and administration, but the faculty as well in an equal triumvirate.

My name is Lee Bolton and I don’t care who knows my name on this blog.  I stand for every man, every woman, faculty, student and administrator and I am afraid of no one.” 

Please if you are an Art Center student, alumni, faculty or adminstrator, take up the cause to make our school better than it is each day. I know there is no magic wand or special elixir that will fix things overnight, but let’s find a way to make solutions happen on the dividing issues and place personal ones aside. 

I can not stand our situation any longer and implore each of us to take action and rectify our glaring failure of not working together.

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2008- As a child I was obsessed with geography and dinosaurs. I remember after Saturday Morning Cartoons, I’d head straight to the encyclopedia, and obsessively look at the color photos of the flags and the maps of the different countries. I’d look at them for hours on end, particularily drawn to the line and color composition of the designs. Then I’d dive deep into my imagination and my parents would occasionally splurge and buy me a book on dinosaurs or two, that I’d then try to draw into. One in particular, I somehow have managed to keep in relatively miraculous condition over the years (and minus any homegrown drawing commentary,) called “The Dinosaurs” (illustrated by William Stout), has been a bellweather of information, from reference and styling to my visions of texture. 

I got this idea for my sketchbook when I was looking for some inspiration. I wanted to do something out of the ordinary and size relations seemed apt based on also the dimunitive size of my sketchbook. I came up with The Egg, while I was looking through some dinosaur books in my reference library. I thought it would be coy to draw a miniature Tyranosaur Rex curled up against an egg that was bigger than he was. 

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2008- I picked up some markers from the overpriced student store at Art Center. On a rare occasion they have breakneck deals on supplies, and I had been on the prowl watching some markers go down in price, strictly because they were last year’s models. I got about 60 off color Tria Letrasets for literally a tenth of the price.  Doing so addressed a calling need to work in color in a media that I highly enjoy but had been working in less and less since the millennia: marker.  It took me a few weeks to really work into using them in my sketchbook. I dabbled a bit here and there on pieces of paper to familiarize myself with the marker company’s media. A few small complaints arose. A few of the makers were dead on arrival, and some were hard to open, however, at the price I got them for it was a high bargain considering they are much like Prismacolors but with an extra adjustable tip. 

I saw this picture that I really liked on the web of a person draped in the American flag. The imagery resounded strongly with me, but I felt it was missing something.  I stylized the look and aged the face even more and added color only for the American flag and they eyes, but withheld dynamic line curvature.  I gave the name America to the piece because it represents the space and time that I feel that we have come to in the United States.  -An aged, solemn, superpower, a baby boomer cresting into old age, or a prize fighter showing the scars of the ring. There’s a sense of proudness and weariness that embodies this piece, and it calls forth a variety of mixed emotions.

America is over the hill now, and falling behind other countries in advancement and economy. Our cavalier and sometimes ignorant behavior is becoming less tolerated by other countries. There is a sense of belief in the world that America is evil, and despite our best efforts to appear as peacemakers, we are like a bull in a china shop.  America understands all too well that we are precariously sitting on top of a pin needle over the rest of the world. In many respects we have grown too comfortable with beating down any that would not agree with us in a milataristic fashion or through embargoes.  (I find it ironic, that America, land of the free, has more embargoes against other countries, than any other country in the world.) Doesn’t it make some sense though that through the ostracizing of other countries we have made them eachothers’ friends so they can band together against a common enemy?