OCA Showcase 09 issue 03

8/14/2019 OCA Showcase 09 issue 03

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SHOWCASEOpen College o the Arts

2009 No. 3

Cover storycontinued...

3

Student: SarahScales - The ThirdWay

4 & 5

Tutor: Jim Unsworth- Elephants asmetaphor

6 & 7

Inside

One o the joys o the OCA is that there is never a

slack period. Unlike traditional education, which

pulls down the blinds in July and decamps until

the autumn, our students continue to start new

courses and complete existing courses twelve

months o the year. The one annual cycle is the

production o a new Guide to Courses. Even in

the web age, many people and institutions still

rely on a paper prospectus and this is our annual

opportunity to set out our stall. It is one we take

seriously because we know that, or example, a

Guide in a busy public library could be consulted

many times.

So what has changed and what does this say

about the way the OCA is changing? Firstly, all

o the courses in the new guide are accredited.

They all orm part o a pathway to a qualication.

This is not because we are against learning or

personal development. Absolutely not. As an

earlier Secretary o State or Education, David

Blunkett, once said:

[learning]...helps us ulfl our potential and opens

doors to a love o music, art and literature. That is

why we value learning or its own sake.. .

We want to oer progression, opportunities to

develop skills and creativity that we can support

over time to enable students to fourish.

Gareth Dent, Chie

Executive refects on

18 months in post

Continued on page 3...


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Showcaseis published by the Open College o

the Arts.

Open College o the Arts

The Michael Young Arts Centre,Unit 1B, Redbrook Business Park

Wilthorpe Road, Barnsley S75 1JN

Telephone: 01226 730495

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.oca-uk.com

Registered charity no: 327446

Company limited by guarantee no:

2125674

OCA welcomes contributions to

Showcase but reserves the right

to edit materials at its discretion.Views and opinions expressed in

Showcase are not necessarily those

o OCA, nor does the inclusion o

an item, insert or advertisement

constitute a recommendation.

To amend your contact details or to

give eedback please contact Dee

Whitmore, Marketing and Events,

on 01226 704364 or

email: [email protected]

Andrew Watson

Andrew joined the OCA in April 2009 as

Director o Development. He will be working

with Gareth Dent on strategic planning,

and helping to push orward developments

such as the prison

education project

unded by the

Lankelly Chase

Foundation. He

will also take

a particular

interest in music

provision (alongside Course Leader Patric

Standord), as he is both a harpsichordist

and (aspiring!) jazz pianist. Andrews CV

includes experience with the voluntary

sector (working with homeless alcoholics),

the public sector (a ormer local authority

Education Ocer and Careers Adviser)

and the private sector (consultant with

Pricewaterhouse Coopers and as director o

his own business).

Kathy PettsKathy joined the OCA on a temporary 8

week contract in 1991, packing the guide

to courses (it

was all done

by hand back

then). 18 years

later she is

an invaluable

member o the

ullment teamas warehouse

manager.

Kathy has two children and has recently

become a grandmother. Her interests

include reading, walking and exotic pets

including snakes, bearded dragons, spiders

and crazy cats.

Whos who at OCA

Success by degreesThe OCA would like to congratulate the latest students on

their degree success:

BA Honours in Creative Arts

Joan Barker: First Class Honours

Valerie Rath : Second Class Honours (upper division)

Parthenopi Mouskatou Christodoulidou : Second

Class Honours (lower division)

Anthony Hobbs : Second Class Honours (lower

division)

BA in Creative Arts

Caroline Hockley

Speaking about her achievement Joan Barker

said:

I have been studying with the Open College o

the Arts since 2004. I am absolutely delighted

to have achieved this award. It would not have

been possible without the support o the OCA

tutors. I would like to thank Rhonda Fenwick and

John Cartmel Crossley (sadly deceased) or their

guidance and encouragement. I ound the work

I produced under their tutorage both ascinating

and progressive. I am just so thrilled.

The graduation ceremony will take place

at Buckinghamshire New University, High

Wycombe on Monday 7th September


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Continued rom cover...

For this reason we have widened the range o level one

photography courses, introducing People and Place as a successul

new course which leads directly into our level 2 Landscape and

Social Documentary photography. It is why we have added Digital

Film at level 1. It is also why we have added Visual Studies to theart history stream and why we will add Illustration to the ne art

courses later this year.

Secondly, we are reviewing and updating

courses, ensuring the content is

relevant to todays learners.

Nowhere is this more obvious

than in our composing music

courses. Quietly, and with

ar less anare than

in photography, the

business o composing

music has changed.

No longer is it the

preserve o a tousle haired

individual at a grand piano

with sheets o manuscript

paper, rather the keyboard

has replaced the keys and the

score can be emailed to the

tutor, listened to, tweaked andreturned. Equally radically the

nature o music has changed and a

key component o the course is that it recognises that intended

output may be a short piece to support a video on YouTube or

Vimeo rather than a symphony. The third change is even less

obvious when ficking through the pages o the Guide. We are

now working ar more closely with our tutors. New course leaders

assist the head oce team to understand what works and what

doesnt and what tutors need to ensure students can get the best

out o their courses. Course leaders are also increasingly active

in the OCA student orums, clariying points or students and

provoking thought around the courses.

Emphasising the changes has the danger o appearing to say

everything needs to change. Yet there is a powerul case or

continuity, since the OCA still provides - now as ever - a highly

fexible way or students to develop their creativity and skills.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the work chosen to illustrate

the guide, some o which is reproduced here. The OCA head oce

is a strange place, oddly distant rom the experience o artisticendeavor, and yet three times a year when work arrives or

assessment it becomes like an oasis in the desert ater the rain, as

work o outstanding quality emerges rom the packing materials.

We know how good our student work is and that doesnt change.

You will however be seeing more o it over the coming months.

Detail o a piece byPenelope Stevenson

Detail rom a photograph byShirley Plowright

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When I decided to work towards a

degree with the OCA, I was intrigued

by sculpture as I had never done any

3D work beore, and decided to give it a

try, even i it meant getting a low mark,

because I know I would be trying out

something completely dierent. I have

always enjoyed experimenting with art,

and I am happy to make mistakes i it

means understanding new approaches and progressing.

The Sculpture 1 course oered a whole range o sculpting

techniques using dierent materials such as; relie work, carving,

casting, construction and modelling. Having ace-to-ace tuition

was really helpul, and I looked orward to meeting my tutor Alan,

who is very supportive and motivates me tremendously. I think

that it is really important to be tutored by a working

sculptor, one who is also progressing their own work and

is excited by new ideas.

When I rst looked at the course notes I was

concerned about the overall cost but I

managed to source some materials

really cheaply, such as wood

carving tools rom the

internet, and wood rom a large cedar tree near to my home which

was being made sae and cut back. So although the materials

described in the course notes seemed daunting, you can nd

what you need cheaply i you shop around.

What I really started to understand rom this course was how

to see something three-dimensionally, what it looks like rom all

angles, and how it ts into its surroundings. This approach has

really helped me with my drawings and I think about what I am

drawing or painting quite dierently now, my style is much more

reed up and when I draw I am automatically thinking about the

three-dimensional orm, how it will translate into sculpture, and

what techniques and materials to use. I attend a lie drawing

group weekly and ound that it is the quick warm up sketches

that oten become sculptures because they have more vitality and

movement in them.

Student: Sarah Scales

The Third Way

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The other aspect which I didnt consider beore doing

sculpture is that they are oten ree standing and you have

to think how your sculpture will stand and balance, not just

the nished piece, but all the time that you are creating it

too. Every sculpture has its ownindividual challenges presenting

new questions with dierent

solutions. I sometimes visit the

V&A museum to sketch and learn

about sculptors, and when I am

there I also visit the architectural

section too, as I think the logistics

behind architecture translate into

sculpture.

My avourite pieces that I have produced are oten the

simplest, least complex and most expressive. I enjoy sculpting

with plaster, and the speed with which I have to work; or

using windall branches without cutting into them. I nd that

striving to be accurate is restrictive and sometimes its the

imperections o a piece that make it work and give it energy.

With the Sculpture 1 course, I know that I have learned somuch in such a short space o time. I would now like to nd out

more about how to go about possibly exhibiting and teaching

sculpture, there are no classes in my area, and I am sure that

people would be interested in learning.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to starting

Sculpture 2.

5


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Elephants eature heavily in your work, what draws you to

them as a subject?

Essentially it is mans relationship to animals, in particular toelephants that inspires me to want to express my ideas through

them. I use the elephant as a moti or vehicle to express complex

ideas about the world we live in. I see them as a metaphor both

or mans relationship to animals and or mans relationship to

himsel: the nature o wild, captive or tame; the nature o reedom

and control; the nature o partnership and individuality.

My personal relationship to elephants is particular; childhood

memories, early experiences o the circus, o seeing an elephant

or the rst time and re-living the wonderment that something so

visually awkward yet ultimately so sophisticated could exist in the

world.

The orm and spirit o elephants are ascinating - prehensile trunks

that oten become serpent-like; large, padded, silent eet; olds

o skin; a beady eye. They possess a great sincerity and humility

oten tinged with humour. They have immense strength yet are

very gentle. They have both male and emale attributes, can be

aggressive or placid. They engage with us as equals, and they

relate to us with a closeness which is always awe-inspiring and

oten acutely disarming.

Elephants are a great challenge to make.

You work at both an intimate and massive scale. Could you

describe how you go about planning and making one o the

large pieces?

There is little dierence in how I approach making large sculptures

or small ones. The intention is the same. I try to create work

with a sense o lie and movement, and with a response to the

material being used which enhances the idea being expressed.

The inventive use o material is crucial in giving the objects that I

make vitality and spirit.

Making large sculptures takes more time. They are heavier and

inevitably the cost o production is greater. Small sculptures are

easier to exhibit and produce in bronze. Oten the small works are

made ater the large ones. Smallness does not possess exclusive

rights to intimacy, hopeully some o my larger pieces have this

also.

Tutor: Jim Unsworth

Elephants as metaphorJim Unsworth has been an OCA ne art tutor or 4 years. Ater gaining a rst class honours degree inne art at the University o Reading he has worked rom studios in London and has sculpture in public

collections in the UK and the United States. Jim is one o a small group o tutors running the OCAs

webcam sculpture tuition pilot.


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Is the use o recycled materials driven by

economic necessity or is it a statement?

Recycled material, scrap steel, does have quite

a dierent eel rom steel bought straight

rom the actory. It has usually been through

the manuacturing process and, more oten

than not, is crushed and misshaped in someunpredictable way. This gives me great

opportunities to nd more natural and rhythmic

orms to make use o as I make my work. Steel

that I nd in the scrap yard is appropriated, cut,

welded and sometimes orged to construct my

sculptures. The materials original properties are

part o the sculptures ormulation as it would be

with clay, wax, wood or whatever. New steel is

better or representing more architectural orms

such as the circus podiums which act as oils or the movementabove.

Who would you say have been the biggest infuences on your

work?

Initially the sculptors who infuenced both my work and my

approach to making were David Smith, Anthony Caro and

Philip King, painters such as Terry Frost, Clyde Hopkins and

Mali Morris all o which except Smith taught me at Reading

University. I have always looked at and gained so much insight

rom Matisse, Picasso, Rembrandt, Rodin and Michelangeloespecially in their use o material and expression o ideas. How

one is ormed as an artist is rich and complex and is not always

readily understandable, nor should it be. Living ones lie, likes,

dislikes, prejudices, personal history all contribute to what

orms you as an artist. The amount o stimulus that you get

rom looking at artists work, o all types, periods and cultures

is incalculable and invaluable. Ones precursors are infuential

though.

Finally what are you working on at the moment?

I have just picked up several bronzes rom the oundry, some o

which have places to go, others dont.

I am continuing to work on a large seated elephant holding a

ball in steel. It is about three metres tall. I like to have at least

one large piece on the go in the studio where it will be worked on

intermittently over time until it is complete.

I have just begun a new series o smaller sculptures, some made

directly in wax, others in clay. I am hoping to broaden the circus

theme to some extent but I dont know ully where this will lead

yet. I am excited though.


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OCA Showcase 09 issue 03