Student Work under the Instruction

of David E. Harmon

•Teaching Statement•Drawing 1-3

•Life Drawing 1,2•Painting 1-4

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

By

Professor David E. Harmon

The classroom studio, for me is a special place of participation. Persons who occupy this space are students who, in their search for visual form, desire to become artists. The other participant is the professor. It is interesting that the meaning of the word studio (from the Latin studium) is a place for instruction and experimentation. Thus, a student is one who studies, investigates and examines thoughtfully. Artists are, by definition, people who are full of zeal in their drive to visually express. The studio art professor has, in their experience, found art forms that they teach their students from their own creative expertise in the production of their respective media. They themselves have been students in their own studios. Art professors are still on a quest (like a student) to find more forms and solutions in image making. The differences between faculty and student lay in experience, years perhaps, and identity (the professor as productive artist). I believe in the symbiotic relationship of professor and student to insure interactive dialogue. I have found that the greatest creativity on the part of faculty and students can be engendered by example. The outcome of effective teaching is bathed in an atmosphere of mental, physical, and, spiritual energy that is revealed in the pursuit of art forms that approach original statements. The produced work of students, as revealed in slides or especially in a student exhibition demonstrates this fact. This is, of course, reality, not merely theory, as I have seen it in action in my own teaching experience at several institutions. Contemporary Yale University philosopher, Nicholas Wolterstorf, in his 1980 book, Art in Action, on page 91, upholds a similar sentiment in the following quote:

“The fundamental fact about the artist is that he or she is a worker in stone, in Bronze, in clay, in paint, in acid and plates, in wood, in sounds and instruments

In states of affairs. On some bit of the concrete materials of our stage he imposes Order. He “humanizes” clay. He masters bronze. From those enormous arrays of

abstract entities constituting our arena, he extracts an ordered few....As the artist works with his chosen medium, he gradually comes to know it. He learns what can be done and what cannot be done with it, what can be done readily and with ease

And what only with great difficulty. He discovers new things to do with it, things that never occurred to anyone else to do....”

I am in agreement with painter Wayne Thiebaud, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in 1980 at Penn State University. He said that for him art making and the

teaching of art are intertwined. Open dialogue should exist between student and professor. Undergraduate students should be given projects by their professor designed to foster or awaken individual creativity. These projects, especially at the foundation level, need to be specific and direct. These individuals are learning how to see and perceive form as artists. Intermediate through advanced undergraduate students with more developed perception, can be challenged with project topics which can be more conceptual leading to more original expressive visual work. My teaching methodology includes lectures replete with contemporary, and past master slide examples. I also believe in the classroom studio demonstration of materials / technique mastery .One such demonstration challenge is the introduction of the element of color in drawing. I introduce pastel, usually dry, in drawing 2, only after black and white media has been explored. I demonstrate the use of vine charcoal which is first applied as a structural under drawing .Then pastel is applied in layers which are successively built up and spray fixed. There is usually some initial fear to pastel on the part of the student, as it is a direct color media, which is perceived to be “hard to control.” In time students begin to realize the “fluidity” of this dry media and proceed to use it boldly.I expect students to develop a personal studio ethos that involves research and much studio production involving control of materials and techniques. That the artist uses eye, mind, hand and time to produce art which contain the aesthetics that are traditional and/or contemporary in scope is well founded. I have always set the pace for my students by sharing my studio work with them in both slide and actual work. I have also urged advanced students to be competitive outside of the studio classroom by entering juried competitions and by planning exhibitions in many local, regional and national venues. This I do in my own life as a practicing and productive artist in the art world.

Drawing 1 ,charcoal on paper,18” x 24”

Drawing 2(cross hatch study), graphite on paper, 22” x 30”

Skeletal Rendering ,mixed media, 25” x 40”

Life Drawing 1, graphite on paper, 22” x 30 “

Life Drawing 1,Planar analysis ,graphite on paper, 18” x 24”

Life Drawing 2,(Chiaroscuro Study), pastel on Canson-MiTientes,30” x 40”

Life Drawing 2, (Figural abstraction)mixed media on paper,18” x 24”

Life Drawing 2, charcoal on arches, 22” x 30”

Life Size Self portrait, graphite on paper,48” x 60”

Life Drawing 2, pastel on paper, 19” x 25”

Life Drawing 2 , oil pastel on paper, 22” x 30”

Drawing 2 , pastel on paper , 19 “ x 25”

Painting 1 , acrylic on canvas 18” x 24”

Painting 1, acrylic on canvas, 24” x 24”

Painting 2 (vanitas theme ), oil on canvas, 24” x 36”

Painting 2( personal interior), oil on canvas, 26” x 34”

Painting 4, oil on canvas, 36” square

Painting 4 , oil on canvas , 36” x 48”

Painting 4, oil on canvas, 48” x 60”

Advanced Studio, mixed media on Masonite,40” x 50”