If you’ve ever wondered what art students and faculty do all day, then Nov. 7 is your chance to see. You can even throw a pot, make a print and pour metal.

And you thought art students just sat around and drew all day.
Quite the contrary, said Lindsay McPhail, a ceramics and printmaking senior. Lately, she spends her days researching and mixing glazes, trying to figure out how she can make a print on a clay pot.

“I’m excited to be doing something new,” she said. Plus, it combines two of her loves — printmaking and ceramics.

On Nov. 7, she will be hanging out in the ceramics studio in Lee Hall, throwing pots and helping others who are venturing out to the Clemson Art Open Studios. The tour will be from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

It’s common for artists to open their studios to visitors, but this is the first time the art department has done so.

In addition to the tour, there will be a camera obscura, essentially a black box you can walk into that has a small hole so the image outside will be projected inside. Because it is projecting like a camera, the image will be upside down, said Sydney Cross, interim art department chair.

And don’t forget the free stuff. Drawings will be held for a Syd Cross print, a Mike Vatalaro ceramic piece and a Sue Grier ceramic pot.

Open Studio Schedule

Bowl throwing: Lee Hall, G-32
Camera obscura: Green area between Lowry Hall and Lee Hall
Center for Visual Arts display: In front of Lee Gallery
CNC Routing: Lee Hall, materials lab
Graduate drawing and painting studios open: G-12 and G-13
Painting and drawing exhibit: In Lee Hall and Freeman Hall
Printmaking: Freeman Hall B009
Video screening: Freeman Hall B009

Disco Inferno:  Lee Hall G-37
Sculpture schedule of events:
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  — Sand mold and plaster workshop. You carve it, we'll cast it, you take it home.
1 p.m. — Lighting of the furnace
2 to 2:30 p.m. — Disco inferno (metal pour)
3 to 4 p.m. — We clean up the metal casting; you take it home

Written by Crystal Boyles, Office of Web Services
Published on Oct. 28, 2008