FOLIO
Every fall, with more than a half-dozen universities in the region offering art instruction, Northeast Florida welcomes a wave of precocious young art students, each one destined for either an artistic life that’s both creatively and financially fulfilling or a job at a hip, yet vapid creative agency where they’ll presumably manage the social media accounts of gastropubs and gelaterias (OK, there’s certainly some middle ground on this, but there’s no denying that the proliferation of digital media has changed the landscape for prospective artists).
Everyone involved can be grateful that the region’s institutions of higher learning have padded their rosters with art instructors — as knowledgeable with creative disciplines as they are experienced in their own respective careers — who are capable of inspiring these youngsters to shoot for the stars.
Well-known artists like Thony Aiuppy, Jim Draper, Liz Gibson, Jason John, Jeff Whipple (University of North Florida), Liz Bryant, Dustin Harewood (Florida State College at Jacksonville), Lily Kuonen, Tiffany Leach (Jacksonville University) Patrick Moser, Sara Pedigo, and Leslie Robison (Flagler College) are all burning the candle at both ends, so to speak, aiding in the development of their charges’ basic skills and techniques (and earning a respectable rating on ratemyprofessor.com, for whatever that’s worth), while continuing to create and showcase all variations of compelling art.
With the fall semester looming, Folio Weekly Magazine sat down with three local pedagogues to discuss their approaches to art instruction, how art education has changed since they were art students, and the juggling required to be both a productive artist and an effective instructor.
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JIM BENEDICT
Assistant Professor of Sculpture, Jacksonville University
As most undergrads at large public universities can attest, scheduling can be a nightmare. With time tickets and preferential scheduling for student-athletes, just because you’re willing to fork over an exorbitant amount of money for a course doesn’t mean there’ll be a seat available for you.
As an University of Northern Iowa undergrad, Jim Benedict tried to sign up for a ceramics class. The class was full, so he took sculpture. Undeterred, he tried for ceramics again the following semester. Three semesters of sculpture later, Benedict had yet to take a ceramics class. He was, however, hooked on sculpture.
After Northern Iowa, Benedict earned an MFA from the University of Arizona before landing in Jacksonville. He now runs JU’s Alexander Brest Gallery and teaches sculpture and 3D art at the school. As a testament to the impact his own art education had on his trajectory, last fall Benedict brought two of his former professors, sculpture artists Tom Stancliffe and Mark Moulton, to speak at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.
“It was from watching them that I learned what it takes to make art and be an artist,” he says.
Both Stancliffe and Moulton are well-known for their public art projects and Benedict has brought their enthusiasm for public art with him to the JU campus, engaging his students in several labor-intensive, large-scale projects over the years, including 2014’s installation of two life-sized dolphins made of bronze and steel.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation with Professor Jim Benedict.
Folio Weekly Magazine: Is art education different now from how it was when you were in school? Are there skills young artists need to nurture that weren’t as important then?
Jim Benedict: Definitely. One of the biggest changes is technology. When I was in school, no one was really going to show you how to make a website to market yourself. There are also many different computer platforms that students have to be fluent in and there’s a demand for those skills. But the most important change, I think, is the realization that these kids are going to go on to be global citizens. As a faculty, we have to think about how we prepare students to take on their roles as artists in this global community.
Do the students come in with a base of knowledge, though, about how to navigate these new social constructs? They’re already living in the social media age.
Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, young people are already more socially conscious. But when I went to school, I think there was more active participation and dialogue. It seems like it’s more difficult to get students to engage. While they are more open to different ideas or different ways of thinking, it’s harder to get them to actually engage with the world.
Is there a project you’ve done recently that you think coaxed students to start that process of engagement?
One of the projects we do in 3D foundations is the creation of wearable sculptures. We ask the students to create a sculpture that is representative of their identities. We ask them to look inward and explore their personal identity and ask themselves what that means.
Do you learn from your students?
Definitely. If you are in a classroom of 15 students, it’s possible to get 15 different answers to the same question. There is really no way not to be affected by that. It’s pretty easy for older generations to discount younger generations. They [the students] are a lot more interesting than Pokémon Go and terrible music [laughs]. I think we forget what it’s like to be figuring out the world. I’d say our students are facing a much more challenging time than generations previously. We have to remember we are not preparing them for what we were being prepared for. Their future is going to be different.
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MARK CREEGAN
Assistant Professor of Drawing & Design, Florida State College at Jacksonville
Although Mark Creegan often uses mixed media in his art, whether drawing or painting, his exhibitions typically include some mark-making in one form or another.
As a freshman at what was then called Florida Community College at Jacksonville (now FSCJ), Creegan took an introductory drawing class — Drawing 1. Outside of what was a small part of a standard elementary school curriculum, it was the first art class he had taken. It changed the course of his life.
“Previous to that, I didn’t really know that someone could be an artist,” Creegan says. “I had a vague idea of what an artist was like. Maybe a Bob-Ross-type.”
Drawing 1 was all it took. Creegan was hooked, moving on to Jacksonville University, where he earned his BFA, and Florida State University for an MFA. Since then, he has exhibited his work across the country from Tampa to New York City to Los Angeles.
Creegan eventually returned to FSCJ and today teaches Art History and, in an interesting twist of fate, Drawing 1.
In October, Creegan will be showing new works alongside Dustin Harewood and Joanne Cellar in the installation How to Now at the boutique Linda Cunningham in San Marco.
What follows is an excerpt from our conversation with Professor Creegan.
Folio Weekly Magazine: You teach some introductory art classes where you may have freshmen and sophomores who aren’t necessarily seeking to be art majors. How do you make sure that everybody is getting something out of the experience of taking an art class?
Mark Creegan: I think many of the non-art majors come to the class thinking they can’t draw or that this is an easy class. One of the things I hope to impart is that anyone can draw. Once they learn the techniques and apply them, and practice, I hope they see that they are capable of expressing themselves through drawing. I also hope that the students learn a new way of observing the world. I hope they start to notice the negative space between objects, or interesting angles. Once they start to see that stuff, I think they’re better prepared to see the world objectively.
What about your Art History course? Is there an overarching theme you’re trying to communicate?
I think art appreciation is a big part of what we are getting at. Outside of what’s in the textbook, I try to give the students an experience of making art — something tactile so they can relate to the process and what artists do and how they think.
What do art students need to know how to do today that they might not have needed to know in the past?
If you look at different technical mediums, that certainly has changed. I don’t teach digital art, but a lot of my students go on to pursue that field. My experience is that a lot of the fine art skills can apply to not only to those doing a traditional track – drawing, painting, sculpture — but also to the digital art students.
There is a big difference, though, in the opportunities for students to make images. With iPads and camera-phones, the number of opportunities to manipulate imagery is so far above what I was exposed to as an art student. In a way, it could hinder the students’ drawing abilities, since they don’t have to really make marks to render an image. They can just manipulate it digitally or find a new image online.
You make an interesting point. Since we are now so inundated with imagery, is it difficult to convince students of the efficacy of making art?
Most of how we communicate today is much more visual. Even with something like emojis, it’s kind of like we’re go back to using hieroglyphs. It’s a fascinating time. I’d like to think that the students who go on to be artists or designers are just members of society who have an advanced understanding of how to communicate today.
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JENNY HAGER-VICKERY
Associate Professor of Sculpture, University of North Florida
Recently, Jenny Hager-Vickery was commissioned by the Jacksonville Zoo to create a statue for the attraction. Just as she’s gotten deep into the process of assembling the 20-foot-tall, 1,500-pound geometric representation of a giraffe from steel wires and plates, the fall semester has begun.
Over the years, the UNF associate professor of sculpture has grown comfortable working with a wide variety of materials, from steel to wood to digital and video installations.
When Hager-Vickery enrolled at the University of Kentucky, however, she says she did so with the hope of being a painter. She says it wasn’t until she took an undergrad course in sculpture that she found her true passion.
“I found out that I really love to build things,” says Hager-Vickery. “I didn’t really know that before, but I haven’t gone back to painting since.”
Hager-Vickery says that her art school experience inspired many of the community-based projects she has initiated since joining the faculty at UNF. In 2011, she organized a performance art project called Wolfpack Wedding at MOCA, in which students and visiting artists created costumes, masks and other ephemera to celebrate the nuptials of the sun and the moon with the sky. And just this summer, a group of UNF sculpture students, under the tutelage of Hager-Vickery, installed the first structures in the UNF Seaside Sculpture Park on First Street in Jacksonville Beach.
An excerpt from our conversation with Professor Hager-Vickery follows.
Folio Weekly Magazine: What was your undergrad experience like?
Jenny Hager-Vickery: I got really into the foundry process — casting and sculpture art. But I also got a chance to work in digital mediums, which were kind of an emerging art form when I was in school. I did research at the University of Kentucky’s medical photo lab. I was digitally retouching photos from their archives. I got really interested in digital photo manipulation and ended up, when I was doing my Masters, working with a lot of video installations. So the digital thread stuck with me.
Sounds like you had a mix between instruction in traditional mediums and new processes on the cutting edge. Has art instruction changed since you were in college?
One of the things that I think we’re doing more of that I didn’t get to do as much is working in the community, rather than just doing projects for class. I think the current system, especially at UNF, is really supportive of those efforts. I did the sculpture project in Jax Beach. That kind of experience pushes the students. The stakes are higher. And usually when you set the bar high, the students tend to rise to the occasion.
If you weren’t an artist or teaching art, what do you think you’d be doing?
I don’t know [laughs]. I’ve wanted to be a teacher and an artist since I was in second grade. My parents were really creative and active people. They restored our turn-of-the-century house from top to bottom. My mom is a nursing professor. I just always liked the idea of working in academia.
How do you manage to keep a balance between focusing on your duties as a professor and creating your own artwork?
It’s definitely a challenge. There’s a lot of juggling going on. But this is a creative environment that feeds me in my daily practice and inspires me.
Do you learn from your students?
Absolutely. I always encourage them to do their own research and seek out things that are of interest to them. They’ll bring things back to the classroom that I didn’t know about. I’m definitely inspired by their work. We had a student incorporate solar panels into her sculpture for the sculpture garden in Jax Beach. I’ve never worked with solar panels. That was eye-opening experience for me.
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