Featured by Prof. Miller

Studio Calendar

Tuesday, Feb. 1: Project 1: Studio Day + Nat King Cole Guest

Tuesday, Feb. 7: Studio day on Project 1

Tuesday, Feb. 14: Critique: Project 1 + Project 2 intro

Tuesday, Feb. 21: Project 2 Studio Day. ArtsFest on Saturday!

Tuesday, Feb. 28: Critique on Project 2

Tuesday, March 7: NO CLASSES – SPRING BREAK

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by Prof. Miller

3D Artist Presentation

Assignment:

On your assigned date – you will give a 10-15 minute powerpoint presentation to the class on a 3D artist from the below list.

Please design a PowerPoint presentation of 10-20 images of their work, aesthetic and methods. One brief slide on the artists background is enough – focus on their work, methods, materials, style, etc.

Please cite each image with the following information: “Title” Medium. Date. Size

Please put one slide at the end to cite where you got the information.

You may include one 5-10 min video in your presentation.

Artist Selections:

Nature/Installation

Fabric/ Paper

  • Ann Hamilton –
  • Do Huh Suh ANGELO MARCH 14
  • Janet Echelman CELESTE MARCH 21

Pop / Contemporary

Contemporary – based on traditional

Large Scale or Small Scale

Minimalism

Contemporary /Mixed Materials

by Prof. Miller

The Art of Assemblage: Guitars

Nat King Cole Generation Hope 

“Yamaha Cares” Upcycling 

Students in the 3D Design classes at PBSC are excited for the opportunity to participate in the Yamaha Cares Upcycling Project. The project, supported by the Nat King Cole Generation Hope, gives students recycled guitars, art supplies and the time and space to create unique assemblage sculptures. Using methods of addition, subtraction and construction, 3D Design students work with their professors to learn about not only the history of assemblage and three-dimensional form, but also concepts surrounding narrative and their own personal experience with music. Students will have the learning opportunity to collaborate with Music and Film Departments as well, to share and document the process of making a new aesthetic object out of the old.

Artists to Study:

From history:

Pablo Picasso – Cubism + video

https://www.theartstory.org/definition/assemblage/

Man Ray, Duchamp, surrealists

Robert Rauschenberg – concept of “Combines:

Now:

Federico Uribe

http://www.marceisenberg.com/

The Box Gallery – on the way to Resource Depot

Project Satisfies the following Course Learning Outcomes:

  • Apply Art Elements and Principles to the design of three-dimensional forms.
  • Create three-dimensional works that incorporate texture, color, light and negative space as a vital part of the form.
  • Create three-dimensional works using a variety of media and techniques.
  • Demonstrate ability to formally analyze three-dimensional works in oral and written form.
  • Demonstrate ability to transpose from two-dimensional design concept to three-dimensional form.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of additive, subtractive, and constructive methods used to create three-dimensional works.
Rauschenberg TM_focus upper, 2/13/13, 4:24 PM, 16C, 12000×15973 (0+0), 150%, Custom, 1/20 s, R45.9, G46.1, B68.7

Material idea possibilities:

Found materials: Buttons, ribbons, bobbins, fabric, old keys, old batteries, old board games pieces, spoons, forks, wine corks, egg cartons

Hardscapes: Legos, cardboard, foamcore, painted styrofoam (although I would steer against cutting styrofoam), wood, metal scraps, etc.

Painting and adding found objects: think – Recycled items from your junk drawer that are then painted over

What can you reveal? What can you conceal? Obscuring the form of the object

Deconstructed musical instruments

In groups of 2-3, teams will decide what kind of materials they would like to use and what the vision of the project is. Planning is an important part of this.. but also using found objects to inform your artistic vision.

We will have music students pop in to play a short musical piece as well as talk about their personal connection to their instrument as a vehicle for creativity.

What is YOUR connection to music?

Materials gathering: Resource Depot field trip on Jan. 24.

p.s. : see previous, related project “Boxes of Wonder” here

Student Examples from Last Semester:

by Prof. Miller

Welcome – First day of Spring 2023

Hello students! I’m excited to be teaching 3D Design again – we are going to delve into the creative realms of many mediums of contemporary sculpture and 3D Design. We will meet IN PERSON at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17 to go over everything you need to know.

Please click here for our syllabus and always refer to this blog for our assignments, video tutorial requirements and due dates.

Things to go over today:

  1. Syllabus
  2. Schedule (see below)
  3. Introductions + special interests
  4. Homework: Explore www.professormiller.art and gather materials

This is our tentative schedule – but again, absolute deadlines + assignments are always going to be posted here. So check back regularly for updates.

WEEK ONE: Syllabus, introductions, gathering materials, etc.

Projects:

  1. The Art of Assemblage: Guitars (teams)
  2. Cardboard Creations
  3. Paper Sculpture Edition
  4. Organic: Soft Not Soft

WEEK 2, 3, 4: Let’s get messy! Design Project 2: Guitar Assemblage

Line, Shape, Color, Form, Texture, Space, Pattern, Composition. Recycled Dream/ Altered Book project

Resource Depot

WEEK 5, 6, 7: Principles of Design + Design Project 1: Cardboard Creations. Unity and Variety, Repetition and Rhythm, Scale and Proportion,  Emphasis, Balance, Contrast

WEEK 8, 9, 10, 11: Design Project 3 Paper Sculpture Edition

WEEK  12, 13, 14: Design Project 4: Organic: #softnotsoft

by Prof. Miller

Project 4: Soft – Not Soft

This project challenges the following course outcomes:

  • Apply Art Elements and Principles to the design of three-dimensional forms.
  • Create three-dimensional works that incorporate texture, color, light and negative
  • space as a vital part of the form.
  • Demonstrate ability to transpose from two-dimensional design concept to three dimensional form.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of additive, subtractive, and constructive methods
  • used to create three-dimensional works

Assignment guidelines:

  • Focusing on numerous materials, create a 3D form, or series of forms, that focuses on organic shapes.
  • Consider experimenting with contrasts : soft vs not soft, flat vs not flat, color vs. lack of color, etc.

Wild About Wire + Textiles

Possible Forms:

  • Vessel
  • Mobile – see Alexander Calder
  • Abstract hanging form
  • Textile / Weaving
  • Site specific / installation

Possible Materials:

  • Soft: Yarn, String, Twine, Fabric, Paper, Clay
  • Not soft: Wire of any kind – floral, picture frame wire, chicken wire, bendable forms to create armatures.

Artists to research:

My recent work

Alexander Calder

Eva Hesse

Judy Pfaff

Ruth Asawa

Sarah Sze

Sally Blake

Janet Echelman – check out her TED Talk here : “Taking Imagination Seriously”

Specifically on Instagram:

Toshiko MacAdam and here

Erik Speer

Courtney Mattison @courtneycoral

Petah Coyne

Soyna Gomes

Kelly Sheppard Murray @kellysheppardmurray_art

Amy Gross – local Palm Beach artist

  • Artist: Judy Pfaff Loretta Howard Gallery, NYC

The Society for Four Arts has a beautiful exhibit up right now – “A Beautiful Mess: Weavers and Knotters:

Some of the artists in this exhibit are:

Windy Chien

Kira Dominguez Hultgren

Jacqueline Surdell

Student examples:

by Prof. Miller

Paper Sculpture Edition

See above for former student examples

This project challenges the following course outcomes:

  • Apply Art Elements and Principles to the design of three-dimensional forms.
  • Create three-dimensional works that incorporate texture, color, light and negative
  • space as a vital part of the form.
  • Demonstrate ability to transpose from two-dimensional design concept to three dimensional form.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of additive, subtractive, and constructive methods
  • used to create three-dimensional works

Assignment guidelines:

Using paper only, build, add, subtract and construct a form. This form should be representational and small in scale. Minimum 3″ all around, maximum 12″ all around.

Paper only – cardstock, drawing paper, newsprint, watercolor paper, paper of any kind.

Make an edition of 10

Principles of Design to consider:

Unity and Variety; Scale and Proportion and Repetition and Rhythm

Visual Elements to consider:

Shape, Form, Texture, Color

Artists to Look at:

Jen Stark

These are crazy!

My Modern Met

Watch this video on “the Ice Book” one of the most stunning paper works I have ever seen by Kristin and Davy McGuire.

Great resources here as well

by Prof. Miller

Tuesday, Sept. 13: Principles of Design

For project 1: Cardboard Creations, we are focusing on the following :

Principles of Design to consider:

Unity and Variety; Scale and Proportion and Repetition and Rhythm

Visual Elements to consider:

Shape, Form, Texture

What can you DO with just one material? How many different forms of texture can you bring about?

3D artists to look at :

Unity and Variety : Annette Messager, Louise Nevelson, Tara Donovan

SHAPE: Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder

TEXTURE: Anselm Kiefer, Alberto Giacometti

This is amazing – life sized cardboard figures

Good compilation

Fun steampunk aesthetic

Phenomenal installation art with cardboard

Stop motion video

An American Tribute to the British People 1960-4 Louise Nevelson 1899-1988 Presented by the artist 1965 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T00796

Louise Nevelson

by Prof. Miller

Cardboard Creations

This project challenges the following course outcomes:

  • Apply Art Elements and Principles to the design of three-dimensional forms.
  • Create three-dimensional works that incorporate texture, color, light and negative
  • space as a vital part of the form.
  • Demonstrate ability to transpose from two-dimensional design concept to threedimensional form.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of additive, subtractive, and constructive methods
  • used to create three-dimensional works.

Assignment guidelines:

Using cardboard only, build, add, subtract and construct a form. This form can be non-representational, representational or abstract. It must have minimum dimensions of 3′ x 2′ x 6″. Can be larger.

Principles of Design to consider:

Unity and Variety; Scale and Proportion and Repetition and Rhythm

Visual Elements to consider:

Shape, Form, Texture

We will not be adding color to this project as we will explore color specifically in other projects.

What can you DO with only the original color of the cardboard?

See this article on the power of the Monochromatic work of Louise Nevelson

Tobias Putrih

Tara Donovan is also a huge inspiration of this assignment. Check out her work below and here

My kids discovering Tara Donovan’s work summer 2021 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “That’s SO many cups!”
by Prof. Miller

Boxes of Wonder

This project challenges the following course outcomes:

  • Apply Art Elements and Principles to the design of three-dimensional forms.
  • Create three-dimensional works that incorporate texture, color, light and negative
  • space as a vital part of the form.
  • Create three-dimensional works using a variety of media and techniques.
  • Demonstrate ability to transpose from two-dimensional design concept to threedimensional form.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of additive, subtractive, and constructive methods
  • used to create three-dimensional works.

Assignment guidelines:

Using a small enclosure (box, shadowbox frame, wine crate, wood box, found object such as a suitcase, book, etc build a narrative, Explore concepts of storytelling such as wonder, surrealism, identity, fantasy.

Any and all materials welcomed! Draw on photographs, paint on objects, clay, anything.

Approx size: minimum: 12″ x 12″ x 2″ maximum: 24″ x 24″ x 12″

Questions to answer:

How do artists use objects tell stories? Can yours tell a story without using words?

What is your visual vocabulary?

What is an assemblage?

Some sites to look at for inspiration:

The Object Ethnography Project –

Significant Objects

Artists to Look at for Inspiration

Joseph Cornell is the big influence from Art History – but you could look at others too such as :

Another video on the magic of Joseph Cornell

  • Untitled (Cockatoo with Watch Faces), c. 1949 Box construction with inoperative music box 16 1/4 x 17 x 4 7/16 inches (41.3 x 43.2 x 11.3 cm) The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection Photograph by Michael Tropea, Chicago © The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, New York

See this link for two great videos on the power of Cornell’s magic

History of Cabinet’s of Curiosity or Wunderkammer

RISD’s NatureLAB

Robert Rauschenburg – coined the term “combine”

Marcel Duchamp and his “Readymades”

Lenore Tawney

Brian Dettmer

Possible field trip to Resource Depot!