There is a slideshow of art and artists at end of post.

What’s this? How do you– Ooooh, I get it. Cool!

New technology inspires apprehension in some people, but not in the EC artists.  They’re explorers.  They are used to learning and exploring new ways of artmaking.  The iPad screen is just a new surface, like paper or canvas.  A stylus is just a new tool, like a paintbrush, pencil, or pastel stick.

The Enrichment Center introduced a new Media Arts component this summer. Twice-weekly classes introduced media devices, such as Apple iPads, Apple TV, Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus (styli?), and all the fixin’s.

Use it or lose it

All of our lessons are designed with the sole intent of building the artists’ toolboxes of skills, concepts, and ways of artmaking, which expand their abilities to express themselves during their Personal Projects studio classes.  For the majority of artists, learning how to use digital art devices has added a great deal to their artist’s toolbox. For a couple of artists, digital art has become their new preferred medium.

The EC’s schedule is already pretty full, and the artists don’t like it when you cut into their studio time. (Oh no you didn’t!!) But, we needed to continue learning and practicing digital artmaking, or risk losing the skills we just added to the toolbox.

Hi, I’m Paul.

In November, we contracted a Visiting Artist, digital artist Paul Longo, to teach a Digital Arts class on Fridays.  With support from Visual Arts Teaching Intern Ashlee Chan, Paul has been expanding on the artists’ summer introduction to digital art, with lessons which delve more into various ways of using the equipment and exploring new software applications, while mirroring concepts being taught in the Visual Arts class on Thursdays.  The Digital Arts class also includes an optional Social Media forum, led by Music/Performance Teacher Lulu Gamez.

Images from the EC’s Digital Arts class with Paul Longo:

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