Note that this is a slightly different screen-grab than the similar one recent appearing on the "Teaching Teaser" post from a few weeks ago. The key difference is in flowchart down the right-hand side of the screen that indicates that the progression of the paperwork for this course (and also in tandem with the Beginning level, ART 220) has now moved from off the desk of the Provost, bearing their signature, and will now at long last appear in the catalog for the fall semester of 2024. Hence the absence of any link to registration for direct enrollment into the class, but it's now just a matter of time for the finishing touches and it becomes formally added to the official UAF catalog as a legitimate part of the College of Liberal Art curriculum in the Department of Art. More after the jump...
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| "Come gather 'round" - The Buffet of Awesomesauce |
And it has been a really, really long time... in the works now for almost twenty years. Over the process of putting a class together, I am continually reminded of how much work from other folks goes on behind the scenes, and humbled by all the mentorship, encouragement and support that's come from fellow faculty, staff and the many students I've had the privilege to work with. In many ways this accomplishment represents a peak in my personal educational experience, though we do live in Alaska, where there are many, many mountains to climb. Rope up!
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| Samples from the smörgåsbord of student class comics + pages |
Regretfully many of my MFA in Sequential Art
thesis committee members are no longer around to share in this little victory: David Gildersleeve and Ted Stearn were a big part of the process. Hat-tips to Mark Kneese and also the department chair Tony Fisher who oversaw my re-admittance + completion of the degree when I returned to tie up loose ends in 2011. I also wish my high-school art teachers Roberta Braen and Charles Wollowitz, both of whom I would have liked
to have had seen my - eventual - ascension from drop-out to professor. Their fortitude and tolerance tempers my teaching even to today when dealing with students who remind me of myself at such a time in my chaotic life.
The Cartoon & Comic Arts course (2018 and 2019 recaps are both good overviews) and to an extent Visual Art Academy cartooning classes and Artist Cartoonist in School residencies (sample write-ups from 2015 here and here) were developed largely from condensing many of the lessons learned while getting the MFA. Many miscellaneous assignments, materials and exercises were culled from other sources including my own background experience, to create a studio course at the college level (F195 & F395). Starting back in 2005 it was offered at University of Alaska Fairbanks at the Beginning + Advanced levels in the Drawing department as a 3-credit studio art class during their six-week summer sessions. It ran for a total of a dozen years before anyone noticed it had exceeded the time limit for a Special Topics class (only by >cough< eleven years >cough<). It was consistently one of the first classes to fill up every time, many times waitlisted, which is no mean feat when our summers in Alaska are only a few months - and so who in their right mind would wanna spend that precious window sitting indoors drawing? My people, as it turned out. Plus there would always be a core of kids who showed up immediately after the earlier art class let out, so an hour before our class even started, and then stay an hour afterwards, which would make for a five-hour session. There were even a few times I tried to let everyone out early, but most wouldn’t leave. Again, these are my people.
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| Which one of these is not like the other... |
This is actually part of a promise I made when I was eventually banned from teaching the Cartoon & Comics Arts course. Eventually somebody in some cubicle somewhere in administration noticed the errant class, and sent an email asking as to why this wasn’t listed in the catalog of official courses. And so when they cut it off, everybody wanted me to make it an official course, and add it to the College of Liberal Arts curriculum, and was baffled when I declined, saying they should perhaps maybe make the instructor, a long-time adjunct lecturer, an actual professor, so as to enjoy that course again, and much more of what I could offer the department. And so now in my second year as a full-time faculty I am so very pleased to see this class become a real course and be listed for the fall semester. And so this is part of the deal, part of the package, and hopefully there will be many more educational opportunities brought about as a result of this.
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| Tools of the trade |
The boots-on-the-ground reality, the nuts + bolts of the class, as with all studio arts courses, is all built up from a solid foundation in skill acquisition. One thing that I'm keen on continuing will be the traditional time: 6-8:30pm, so as to attract off-campus and non-additional/non-degree seeking students from the community. Also of major importance will be the Advanced-level course designation so as to accommodate art majors seeking upper-level electives counting towards their degrees, and the lower Beginning level with no experience necessary, no prerequisites, and open to all levels of skill. A major difference will be that class is held only be two days a week, as opposed to the summer session condensed 6-weel "boot camp." Flexing the schedule out and pacing it over a normal semester's fifteen weeks took some finagling and there will surely be plenty of tweaking after the inaugural offering - as with just about every art class every year. Also in my second year now of full-time faculty, the burning the candle at both ends is still a real challenge, and gives me much pause in empathy for any aspiring art student who, say, maybe has a life outside of school? I dunno, something like maybe friends, relationships, other classes and/or a job (or all of the above). So getting home after another 10-hour day at work and sitting down to do ARTwork can be as hard if not actually harder than making the art itself. Recognizing this is a slight accommodation to the additional demands made of a society that doesn't exactly reward creators with financially lucrative if not just simply sustainable careers. The policy of truth when it comes to the financial, emotional, physical and mental dedication to pursuing one's passion - in any media with any medium, means honest critiques and 100% support for every student.
The continuing struggle to establish the validity of the medium continues, as comics make dual inroads to both bestseller lists and fine art portfolios and exhibitions alike. Hollywood franchises and corporate commodities aside, independent artists of ever-increasing cultures and identities are changing the reputation and widening the welcoming field of contemporary comics. Every single time I see another framed page or sequence of imagery ("images + text juxtaposed for a narrative") in our humble gallery on campus at different shows from the semesterly student exhibition to faculty shows. As has been noted many times on the pages of Ink & Snow over the past fifteen years even every single art class, from Beginning to Graduate level, now has at the least an introductory unit on sequential art, and usually a couple independent-study students who are focusing on developing a cohesive body of comics work for publication and/or thesis show. And every time I wheel out the cart of sample graphic novels and set up a table off to the side that contains the books by former students and friends, I feel a tremendous sense of continuity and community... and creativity.
All this also means that the course itself, the syllabus and everything that goes into the class has now been effectively handed off and anybody can now teach it - it has become the property of the university. And that is indeed the measure of it's true value because all along the end goal was to do just that: lead by getting out of the way. Handing over the reins is an extension of what I always try to do as a teacher, allow students the opportunity to learn and grow as an artist by legitimizing the medium and by acknowledging that what they do counts, it's their story, about themselves, their life, their culture, whatever, they tell it the way it should be told. Nothing nailed this end down for me more than recently hearing a student speak of their own journey for their thesis defense and seeing my own early books that were on the shelves of the local library which in turn led the way to the art department. And aside from the wonderful work of David Glover - pictured below (@curmudgeon_xp), and Chaweinta Hale's (@chawhale) stewardship of VAA and Summer Sessions is amazing, and the inspiration of Sine Anahita's work - and workshops - continues the spread of cartoon and comic arts in Alaska. And then there's the long list of alumni - many of whom are all linked over on the "Local Folks & Friends" sidebar.
And thank you!
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