Frances Lightbound

Do you want to develop a proposal for a grant, residency, exhibition, or curatorial project? Are you applying to graduate school? This is the course for you! Learn how to research and identify opportunities, write an artist statement, and document and present your work. Upon completion, students will have a competitive advantage when it comes to securing new opportunities in today's contemporary art world.

This class will guide students on a deep dive into the possibilities of monoprint and monotype - painterly printmaking processes that lend themselves to immediacy and experimentation while producing finessed and complex imagery. The class will introduce a variety of monotyping processes, as well as elements of collagraph and chine collé, then cover multi-layer registration, allowing for the planning and production of more complex compositions. Student work may incorporate elements of drawing, painting, and collage in combination with printmaking techniques, with the option to use SAIC laser cutters to produce photo-based printing plates. Students will have the opportunity to draw upon both the collections of the Art Institute and the immediate environment of downtown Chicago in their work as they produce several unique prints and variable editions during this one-week intensive.

Cultivate a regular sketchbook practice to develop new ideas, stay accountable to your creative goals, and refine the direction of your work. Explore sketching, collaging, painting, and writing, as you investigate how the personal nature of an artist's sketchbook can catapult work to the next level. During one class meeting, handmade sketchbooks are made using an array of book construction methods. You will also review the history of artists’ sketchbooks and visit the Art Institute of Chicago for inspiration.

How is print fundamental to artistic practice? Students will have two seven-week sections learning fundamentals, exploring ways in which artists utilize processes to facilitate print media based projects. Projects will encourage students to critically examine how print services concept and context both historically and within the contemporary. Each thematic section is anchored in a specific print process aimed to establish skill acquisition and experimentation. Sections in Room 221 and 222 will concentrate on experimental and innovative processes in Screenprinting and Lithography; the section meeting in Room 223 will explore contemporary practices using Relief, etching, monotypes, stencils, and collagraphs. Faculty will conduct process demonstrations, introduce students to a history of practitioners in the graphic arts, and provide supporting readings. Print processes covered may include screen printing, relief, monotypes, photo plate lithography, book arts. Topics will vary but may include the multiple, seriality, editions, public address, progression of collage, and self-publishing. Learning will be aided with visits to the AIC Department of Prints and Drawings and the Joan Flasch Artists Books Collection

How is print fundamental to artistic practice? Students will have two seven-week sections learning fundamentals, exploring ways in which artists utilize processes to facilitate print media based projects. Projects will encourage students to critically examine how print services concept and context both historically and within the contemporary. Each thematic section is anchored in a specific print process aimed to establish skill acquisition and experimentation. Sections in Room 221 and 222 will concentrate on experimental and innovative processes in Screenprinting and Lithography; the section meeting in Room 223 will explore contemporary practices using Relief, etching, monotypes, stencils, and collagraphs. Faculty will conduct process demonstrations, introduce students to a history of practitioners in the graphic arts, and provide supporting readings. Print processes covered may include screen printing, relief, monotypes, photo plate lithography, book arts. Topics will vary but may include the multiple, seriality, editions, public address, progression of collage, and self-publishing. Learning will be aided with visits to the AIC Department of Prints and Drawings and the Joan Flasch Artists Books Collection

Artists’ Books is a beginning/intermediate level course that focuses on the fundamental techniques of bookbinding so as to be able to design and produce one or an edition of artists’ books and boxes. The class begins by learning a range of traditional binding techniques, discussing material choices, and learning about the history of artists’ books. Later on breaking out of the box to take risks, explore concepts and unconventional materials will be strongly encouraged for individual projects. In addition, the intention of this class is to meld your own studio work and personal expression with the form of artists’ books.

In this course, we'll delve into the intriguing intersection of photography and printmaking, acquiring light and pressure-based printing skills and conceptually integrating them into an art practice that approaches print as a site-responsive medium, sensitive to light, pressure, and context. The introductory section explores the material sensitivity of embossing and frottage, treating them as akin to documentary photography. The second section introduces light sensitivity through cyanotype and gelatin silver processes, engaging directly with objects and surfaces. The final segment employs digital fabrication to create laser-engraved linoleum blocks and printed photogravure plates, enabling relief and intaglio inking techniques and printing processes. The course will introduce pivotal artists associated with taught printing techniques and their historical context. We'll explore the works of artists such as Anna Atkins and Albrecht Durer, who played significant roles in the development of their respective techniques. We'll also examine figures like Alfred Stieglitz and Robert Overby, who influenced the trajectory of their media, and contemporary artists like William Kentridge and Do Ho Suh, who have reshaped our perception of print. Additionally, we'll read and screen 'Contact: Art and the Pull of Print' by Jennifer Roberts from Harvard, and invite her for an online discussion with our students. The coursework will adhere to a media and technique-based structure, with the creation of six bodies of work with separate critiques.

In this course, we'll delve into the intriguing intersection of photography and printmaking, acquiring light and pressure-based printing skills and conceptually integrating them into an art practice that approaches print as a site-responsive medium, sensitive to light, pressure, and context. The introductory section explores the material sensitivity of embossing and frottage, treating them as akin to documentary photography. The second section introduces light sensitivity through cyanotype and gelatin silver processes, engaging directly with objects and surfaces. The final segment employs digital fabrication to create laser-engraved linoleum blocks and printed photogravure plates, enabling relief and intaglio inking techniques and printing processes. The course will introduce pivotal artists associated with taught printing techniques and their historical context. We'll explore the works of artists such as Anna Atkins and Albrecht Durer, who played significant roles in the development of their respective techniques. We'll also examine figures like Alfred Stieglitz and Robert Overby, who influenced the trajectory of their media, and contemporary artists like William Kentridge and Do Ho Suh, who have reshaped our perception of print. Additionally, we'll read and screen 'Contact: Art and the Pull of Print' by Jennifer Roberts from Harvard, and invite her for an online discussion with our students. The coursework will adhere to a media and technique-based structure, with the creation of six bodies of work with separate critiques.

Guided Studies are intensive, self-driven courses of study that have a clear rationale for their configuration and articulate an expressed need in terms of a student's scholarly, material, and theoretical research. As a 3 credit course, a Guided Study constitutes 135 hours of study and production on the part of the student, including four meetings (virtual or otherwise) with a supervising faculty who has expertise in the research areas. On the Guided Study syllabus co-produced by the LRMFA student and supervising faculty, expected research accomplishments must be formulated, alongside a course description, learning objectives, evaluation criteria, a proposed timeline, a communication plan, and a suggested reading list or bibliography. Open to Low Residency MFA students only.