I have done a fair number of college lectures but my recent trip to SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, might have been the sweetest of all.
The vivacious Julie Lieberman, whose invitation brought me in . . .
. . . and Chair Allan Drummond (his brilliant art here) made it all especially easy to get down there and be very much at home with students and faculty . . .
. . . among whom was Kurt Vargo, (art here) an old friend and wonderful artist, from the way-back machine and the floating art salons of the ‘80’s.
SCAD is composed of more than 60 buildings throughout town, many are renovated landmarks . . .
. . . and located around the 21 beautiful squares of the city (in the 18th century cityscape, left untouched by Gen. Sherman who saw the intense beauty of the place. He made of Savannah a Christmas present to President Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.”) Anyway.
The first stop was a demo class. I thought I’d show the evolution of thinking about a face. Allan was the brave volunteer. On butcher paper I drew him from life and then abstracted the face in three stages.
Finally arriving at a place that was probably going to far. Trying to make the point about sketching. Go as far as you can. You can always scale back, but give yourself every opportunity for exploration and discovery (grateful for all photos here to Kurt Vargo).
The students at SVAD are about the most engaged I’ve ever met. There’s something about the place that connects their energy with the school, moving both ways.
The turnout for the lecture at night was very good.
In the dark if they snoozed off but I couldn’t hear them. All right, enough already about the sketching.
On the way home, some interesting notes. The NY Times now has bookstores in airports. They’re now selling newspapers with video screens.
Apparently the dead celeb (deleb?) section is jumpin’. Teddy leads Jacko 7-5.
How long did it take them the pump out Yankee World Series junk?
Then there was welcome home by the Big ERP’s, my gig for Infor. On a lightbox, 4 feet high, these boys still have good faces for radio.
My greatest thanks for the great gang at SCAD for an unforgettable visit. Hoping to return very soon.
