Department of Art Courses

Core Studio | Art & Technology | Ceramics | Fibers | Jewelry and Metalsmithing | Painting and Drawing | Photography | Printmaking | Sculpture | Visiting Artist Lectures

Note: For the complete list of classes available each term, please visit the UO Class Schedule.

 

Core Studio—The First-Year Sequence

The Department of Art's Core Studio course work reflects the faculty members' commitment to interdisciplinary art inquiry. These courses form the first-year prerequisites preparing students for studio work and are required for all majors in art, art & technology, and product design. This structure includes an intensive studio investigation of techniques, methods, and concepts common to all areas of studio practice. Core Studio strives to stimulate a community of students and teachers who understand and can cross boundaries of conventional art disciplines.

ART 115 Surface, Space and Time

A weekly lecture delivering discursive content directly and indirectly relevant to projects, which are then explored in two weekly studio labs. This is a visual literacy course designed as an introduction to studio discipline, content, and form. Students develop four primary projects to examine motif, iconography, semiotics, color theory, critical theory, forms of expression, communication, and dynamic form and composition. No prerequisites and open to nonmajors after initial registration period.


ART 116 Core Interdisciplinary Laboratory

In this intensive, interdisciplinary studio course, students develop three rigorous projects. These engineer and shape 3D structures and concerns as well as move through interdimensional shifts exploring spatial transitions and how this can influence meaning. This transition can be a powerful introduction to hybrid art practice exposing students to the inter-relationship of perception, systems of representation, and their limitations in two, three, and four-dimensional form.


ART 233 Drawing I

Drawing has always played a central role for artists because it is the closest coupling between thinking and making, and lends itself to the processes of experimentation and invention that are so critical to making art. This course is an introduction to the language of drawing. Central to the practice of drawing is learning to see, to perceive, and to make choices with conviction. No prerequisites and open to nonmajors after the initial registration period.

 

Back to Top


Art & Technology

ARTD 250 Print Media Digital Arts

Examines the application of print media in contemporary visual culture and explores its use in a fine art context. Introduces digital drawing, digital photo editing, and typographic layout to visually communicate expressive concepts. Laboratories, lectures. No prerequisites and open to nonmajors after initial registration period.


ARTD 251 Time-based Digital Arts

Explores the notion of time as a medium in relation to contemporary art through which concepts of sequence, narration, scoring, and motion are expressed. Laboratories, lectures. No prerequisites and open to nonmajors after initial registration period.


ARTD 252 Interactive Digital Arts

Introduces resources that the computer offers the artist. Concentrates on animation, interaction, and the web as expressive mediums. Laboratories, lectures. No prerequisites and open to nonmajors after initial registration period.


ARTD 350 Digital Drawing

Applies technology as a drawing medium to communicate concepts visually. The entire creative process is researched in an experimental studio environment. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233 and ARTD 250


ARTD 360 Digital Imaging

Intermediate-level focus on the proper preparation and presentation of digital images for use in print and on-screen. Covers color theory. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233 and ARTD 250


ARTD 361 Introduction to Animation

Introduction to principles of animation, timing, sequence, key frames, in-betweens, and metamorphosis. Uses various methods to record and edit animation tests. Prerequisites: See course schedule for prerequisite listing


ARTD 362 Digital Letterform

Concepts in the history, use, and appreciation of digital typography. Considers issues in communicative power of type and situations where it functions as message. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233 and ARTD 250, 251, 252, 360.


ARTD 378 Multimedia Design I

Introduces multimedia design and authoring; use of motion, duration, and time-based interaction as a means of artistic expression. Students build navigational structures and explore stochastic principles in developing an individual approach to interactivity. Sequence with ARTD 478/578. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233, ARTD 252


ARTD 379 Introduction to Video Art

Intermediate video-audio production and nonlinear editing, including camera, sound, and lighting techniques. Key theoretical, historical, and aesthetic approaches to time-based art in video and sound are surveyed. Prerequisites: See course schedule for prerequisite listing


ARTD 410/510 Web Art

Involves study and creation of Internet-based artwork. Students engage with conceptual systems of interactivity, scripting, hypermedia in current and developing forms. Discussions, short readings.

 

Back to Top


Ceramics

ARTC 255 Intro to Ceramics

The specific skills focus changes each term. Subjects include the processes related to design development, forming and fabrication, firing methods, and glazing. Repeatable up to three times for a maximum of 16 credits. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233


ARTC 355 Intermediate Ceramics

Advanced processes and concepts. Areas of technical focus include slip casting, glaze and decorator surface embellishment, architectural ceramic, low fire, and raku. Prerequisites: ARTC 255

 

Back to Top


Fibers

ARTF 270 Introduction to Fibers

In this introductory level studio course, students develop skills and cultivate conceptual concerns related to the fibers medium, specifically pertaining to structural forms and embellished or manipulated surfaces. Traditional and experimental materials are used to explore such techniques as knitting, crochet, looping, felting, spinning, off-loom weaving, dyeing, shibori, embroidery, piecing, and appliqué. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233


ARTF 368 Textile Printing

In this upper-division course, students develop skills and conceptual concerns pertaining to screenprinting. Basic techniques are introduced for printing on paper, fabric, and alternative flexible substrates. In addition, fiber reactive dyes, discharge, and nontraditional inks are addressed. The relevance of screenprinting, its relationship to decoration and repetition, and what it offers the expanded contemporary art field are discussed and explored. Prerequisite: ARTF 270


ARTF 369 Woven Structures

This course introduces students to the basic skills needed to design and create a woven structure while engaging with traditional and experimental materials and methods. Lectures, readings, critiques, and discussions enable students to consider historical examples in relation to contemporary weaving practices. Students are exposed to a variety of techniques and strategies that range from traditional weaving on floor looms to the use of alternative materials and processes both on and off the loom. Prerequisite: ARTF 270

 

Back to Top


Jewelry and Metalsmithing

ARTM 257 Intro to Jewel & Metals

Explores developing and constructing jewelry and objects rooted in material culture. Introduces historical and contemporary work through image presentations, lecture, and independent research. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233


ARTM 357/457 Metalsmithing & Jewlery

Further exploration of techniques related to conceptual problems. Content varies by term with a focus on individual processes: hollow-ware, forging, connections, casting, aluminum anodizing, enameling, stone setting. Prerequisites: ARTM 257

 

Back to Top


Painting and Drawing

ARTP 281 Introduction to Painting I

Basic visual elements and their application to painting as a means of expression. Incorporates traditional subject matter: still life, landscape, figure. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233


ARTP 381 Introduction to Painting II

Integrates concepts and approaches introduced in ARTP 281 to develop more individual and complex strategies of form and meaning. Prerequisite: ARTP 281


ARTP 390 Intermediate/Advanced Painting

Advanced painting concepts and technical processes. Independent initiative is encouraged. Prerequisite: ARTP 381


ARTP 391 Intermediate and Advanced Drawing

Continued study in observation related to visual and spatial phenomena. Prerequisite: ART 333

 

Back to Top


Photography

ARTO 250 Introduction to Photography

Covers basic elements of photography using a DSLR camera and provides a broad-based understanding of photographic practice in a fine art context. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233.


ARTO 350 Film and Darkroom

Technical and aesthetic consideration of black-and-white analog photography. Basics of camera, film development, and photographic print controls in the darkroom. Prerequisites: ARTO 250


ARTO 351 Constructed Image Photography

Studio course explores processes and concepts extending beyond the single photographic image. Narrative and formal strategies within manipulation and sequencing; exploring the materiality of the photograph. Prerequisite: ARTO 250


ARTO 352 Creative Large Format Photography

Introduces large-format cameras and their aesthetic possibilities. Four-by-five and eight-by-ten view cameras provided. Includes camera use, film and development, printing skills. Prerequisite: ARTO 250


ARTO 410 Studio Lighting

Introduces a variety of controlled lighting techniques and styles. This course covers the technical aspects of using strobes and continuous light inside a lighting studio and on location. Prerequisite: ARTO 250


ARTO 450 Digital Photography

Addresses the narrative and conceptual concerns involved in editing and sequencing photographic books. Instruction in Adobe InDesign as a means to design and output digitally printed, bound materials. Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop is assumed. Prerequisite: ARTO 250


ARTO 455 Conceptual Strategies in Photography

Studio course guided by study of 1960's conceptual art movement and its influence on contemporary photography practice. Open-ended projects respond to various conceptual frameworks. Prerequisite: ARTO 354 or ARTO 250


ARTO 476/576 Alternative Photographic Practices

Exploring historic and antiquated processes, this course combines painterly concerns with printmaking ideas and photographic principles in a mixed media approach to contemporary image making. Prerequisite: ARTO 351 or ARTO 352


ARTO 484/584 Advanced Photography: Topic

Capstone course that investigates photographic practice and philosophy through critique, readings, discussion, and external activities. Students engage in personal studio practice and class critiques. Prerequisite: ARTO 250 or ARTO 350

 

Back to Top


Printmaking

ARTR 245 Introduction to Printmaking

This introduction to printmaking methodologies explores the unique print, multiples, and variable edition. Techniques may include monotype, linocut, collagraph, etching, and screen print. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233


ARTR 346 Relief

Creative exploration of graphic and conceptual possibilities through woodcut and related relief printing methods. Techniques include block cutting, registration, single, and multicolor printing. Prerequisites: ARTR 245


ART 381 Letterpress

Experiments with lead and wooden type as related to graphic composition and communication. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233


ARTR 348 Screen Printing

Creative exploration of graphic and conceptual possibilities through screen printing; techniques include registration, color, edition printing, and stencil-making using hand-drawn, photographic, and digital methods. Prerequisites ARTR 245

 

Back to Top


Sculpture

ARTS 288 Sculpture I: Mixed Media

Investigation of 3-D forms in space using a range of processes. Introduces the rich potential of a material, historical, and technical engagement with sculptural work. Students work in wood, metal, plaster, and everyday materials to address conceptions of space, site, history, audience, and time. Prerequisites: ART 115, ART 116 or ARTS 288, ART 233


ARTS 393 Sculpture: Topics

Integration of concepts and materials in sculpture; investigation of individual methodology. Courses are thematically focused on a different topic each term. These courses are intended to situate and highlight the lineage of contemporary sculpture, and to broaden the conceptual framework of each student’s individual practice. Prerequisite: ARTS 288

 

Back to Top


Visiting Artist Lecture Series

ART 407 Visiting Artist Lectures

Introduces students to innovative and prominent artists, curators, critics, and historians invited by the Department of Art to lecture about their influences and processes within their current practice as part of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series. Students attend lectures and write brief responses to the lectures. No prerequisites required.

Back to Top