Following a Blue Thread
Sonja Dahl
1 week course || FIBER 618 001 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee: $50

To love indigo is no innocent thing. This course, while focused on technical aspects of working with indigo dye, also takes into account the complexities inherent to historical and contemporary infatuation with the dye, specifically within its American trajectory from colonial plantation crop to current fetishization in popular culture. The students will be asked to approach their work with the dye from a critical standpoint, thinking not only about its alchemical and transformative mysteries, but also as a social-political substance, rich in semiotic potential. This class will depart from culturally specific approaches to surface design with indigo like batik and shibori, and instead utilize indigo through experimental, performative, and conceptually-driven means and materials.

FACULTY

Sonja Dahl is an artist, writer, and Research Associate in the Department of Art at the University of Oregon, Eugene. She received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2012 and subsequently spent several years making research and collaborative projects in Indonesia with support from the Fulbright Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles; Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland; Darwin Visual Arts Association, Australia; and Bezirksmuseum Neubau, Vienna. Her writing is published in both peer-reviewed journals and print-based and online arts publications, including PARSE Journal, Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture, and Surface Design Journal. Dahl lectures widely and has attended residencies at Ox-Bow, Caldera, Summer Forum, and ACRE, among others. www.sonjakdahl.com

Alter/Overflow: Garment Making as Studio Practice 
Brad Callahan and Vincent Tiley 
2 week course || FIBER 619 001  || 3 credit hours || Lab Fee: $100

Using the multifaceted and often conflicting traditions of queer dress as a foundation, this garment-based class will introduce students to a spectrum of Fashion industry and DIY garment making techniques. Students will explore methods of alternative pattern making, up-cycling, textile manipulation, embellishment, and hand techniques to create new wearable art that exists between fashion, performance, and sculpture. Themes of gender, race, desire, fetish, and camp will be explored and expanded in both personal projects and group discussion. Artists and designers whose work will be discussed include but are not limited to Leigh Bowery, Narcissister, Claude Cahun, Rebecca Horn, Stephen Varble, Louise Bourgeois, Raul De Neives, K8 Hardy, Terence Koh and Nayland Blake as well as Patrick Kelly, Adrian, Rudi Gernriech, Eiko Ishioka, Iris van Herpen, Charlie le Mindu, Charles Worth, Paul Poiret, Erte, Jean Paul Lespagnard, and Shaye St. John. Experimentation is encouraged and students are invited to present their work as performances, videos, installations, party-personce, etc.

Brad Callahan is a graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For almost a decade, Brad Callahan’s brand BCALLA has been dressing New York nightlife icons and pop celebrities. His work has been worn by Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Nicki Minaj and been published in V magazine, Vogue Italia and Dazed and Confused.

Brooklyn based artist Vincent Tiley received a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 2017 he participated in the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) and was a 2013 participant at Artist Cooperative Residency and Exhibition (ACRE) program. His work has been featured and reviewed in Art in America, the Chicago Tribune, and Performa. The artist has been widely exhibited internationally including the Museum of Art and Design, the Leslie-Lohman Museum, AxeNeo7, CFHILL, and the International Museum of Surgical Science.

Stitch
Melissa Leandro
1 week course || FIBER 620 001 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee: $50

This course explores traditional and nontraditional means of altering and enriching the surface of pliable material using techniques such as embroidery, embellishment, hand and machine stitching, and in combination with paint, adhesives, applique, and collage. Emphasis is on the surface treatment and its relationship to structure while using both conventional and non-conventional materials. Students are encouraged to pursue conceptual concerns; individual and group critiques are integral to the course.

FACULTY

Melissa Leandro (b. 1989, USA) works between the media of drawing, painting, and textiles. She was awarded the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship (2017), the EAGER Grant for research and collaboration (2016, Shapiro Center), both for her studio work at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). She was awarded the Luminarts Fellowship (2017) from the Union League of Chicago. Leandro was a BOLT resident at the Chicago Artist Coalition, and was named one of Chicago's Break Out Artists of the year for 2018. Her work is featured in LUXE, Luxe Interiors + Design Magazine (June 2018).Leandro has attended ACRE Residency, Wisconsin, Roger Brown House Residency, Michigan, The Weaving Mill, Chicago and TextielLab, The Netherlands and the Jacquard Center, North Carolina. She holds a BFA and MFA from SAIC and is currently teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as Lecturer.

Metamorphosing Paper
Andrea Peterson
1 week course || PAPER 605 001 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee: $50

Metamorphosis is an entity’s transformation from its original structure into another form. In this one week course, we will develop an understanding of paper fiber, in tandem with surface modifications, to create works of art. We will be using pulps that can be highly pigmented or translucent to create effects only possible with paper fiber. Watermarking and other techniques will be explored to create the illusion of entirely new surfaces. The transformed papers will be soft, rigid, textured, stained, dyed, marbled, waxed, etc. Handmade papers are strong, durable and lightweight and can handle several alterations—allowing them to reference something entirely new.

FACULTY

Andrea Peterson is an artist and educator. She lives and creates work in northwest Indiana at Hook Pottery Paper, a studio and gallery co-owned with her husband. She teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Andrea exhibits internationally, most recently at a paper arts exhibit Nature I Impression at the Municipal Gallery in Beer Sheva, Israel. She combines paper arts, printmaking and book arts to make works that address human relationship to the environment. She is a recipient of a 2016/17 Indiana Arts Council Grant.

Papermaking
Andrea Peterson
2 week course || PAPER 604 001 || 3 credit hours || Lab Fee: $100

Paper is an exciting and elusive art medium. Paper pulp can be transformed into sculptural works, drawings with pulp and unusual surface textures. It can allude to skin, metal, rock, or represent something entirely unique. In class, we will explore these possibilities as we examine other artists using pulp as a contemporary medium. Traditional and non-traditional processes, tailored to the capabilities of each fiber, will be explored. Stretch your artistic and technical skills to create unusual works of art.

FACULTY

Andrea Peterson is an artist and educator. She lives and creates work in northwest Indiana at Hook Pottery Paper, a studio and gallery co-owned with her husband. She teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Andrea exhibits internationally, most recently at a paper arts exhibit Nature I Impression at the Municipal Gallery in Beer Sheva, Israel. She combines paper arts, printmaking and book arts to make works that address human relationship to the environment. She is a recipient of a 2016/17 Indiana Arts Council Grant.