While foundation students don’t sell any work in the end-of-semester show, they do create some very entertaining art. This year, Russell Ferguson had his students build a race track constructed out of scrap lumber and packing tape. The scrap lumber was intricately wedged and woven together and erected using tension and friction as a study of the complexities of engineering and as a lesson in working in groups. Earlier in the semester, students built wooden tool boxes which they planned to place on carriages and race along the track. Each “car” was supposed to contain five eggs, which the students had to pack so they wouldn’t break during the course of the race, which included a jump at the end of the track. I don’t know how successful the racing was or how many eggs were broken. But Russell did promise complimentary fried eggs to his students and visitors, so I’m sure that made up for any mishaps. Here’s a picture of the race track the day before the big event!

KCAI animation students recently visited the Airline History Museum at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport. Steve Mayse, a professor in the animation department, took students from his “Drawing for Animators” class to the museum to draw late 1950s airliners. Students completed about 30 four-minute drawings using viewfinders previously created in the studio. Using the drawings created on this field trip, the students produced a short animated film. Below is an short animated film by Isaac Ahloe, a sophomore animation student.

View animation of drawings from Airline History Museum - by Issac Ahloe

The KCAI campus was swarming with visitors Friday night for the opening of the end-of-semester exhibition and sale Dec. 5-7, 2008. Here are a few photos from the event, so you can see some of the great work that was on view. Photos by Mark McDonald.

Here are some pictures from the party. Enjoy!

The deadline to vote for your favorite artist featured in the Art in the District program is quickly approaching. The online voting poll will close at midnight Oct. 15. The public is invited to vote for their favorite entry at www.artinthedistrict.com. Voting will determine the three cash prize winners, with first place receiving $1,000 and second and third places receiving $250 each.

Art In The District is a new program in the Kansas City Power & Light District featuring the creations of Kansas City’s emerging artists. The 3-month exhibition consists of over 35 boulevard banners hanging on street-posts throughout the District; making for a very colorful and arty outdoor experience. Juried vote determined this year’s Featured Artists, which include four KCAI alumni: Kevin Howdeshell (’08 animation), Laura Morris (’05 fiber), Kristen Phillips (’08 animation) and Erick Warner (’92 design).

Russell Ferguson’s foundation students have been doing some intense studies of horses. The students traveled to the West Bottoms to sketch from live horses at the American Royal’s Quarter Horse Show and at a private owner’s paddock. Using these figure studies, the students have created large, three-dimensional sculptures of horses using brown butcher paper. Their creations are currently suspended from the ceiling of the studio and serve as inspiration for additional sketches. This week, students will focus on creating wearable horse heads for use in a parade in October at the Dolphin Gallery.

Here’s an unusual way to spend the weekend - hanging out at the Harley-Davidson plant near KCI Airport, handing out information about CE classes at KCAI and watching students sketch pictures of motorcycles. The plant was hosting its annual factory tours and open house, and they invited KCAI students to draw pictures of motorcycles, dozens if not hundreds of which were parked in the huge lot.

On Friday, Sept. 5, three students participated, and on Saturday, Sept. 6, five students were there, doing sketches. People were intrigued at the sight of students with their sketch pads. I guess it’s only human nature to want to peek over someone’s shoulder and see what they’re up to.

Harley workers got off duty at 3:30 p.m. and came streaming out of the factory, in some instances to find an artist drawing a picture of their motorcycle. Naturally they wanted to wait for the artist to finish sketching, and several workers walked off with an original artist portrait of their bike.

Our literature table was located next to a Shell Oil promotional booth, and one of the Shell staffers commissioned Josh Zink to sketch a picture of the entire team, under their tent. Over the two-day period, the following students participated in the project on a free-lance basis, underwritten by the president’s office at KCAI and supplementing their income by selling their sketches to bike owners: Erica Batton, Ben Dallman, Alison Duncan, Clarice Elliott, Eric Hibbeler, Justin Rulo-Sabe, Ashley Wick and Josh Zink.

Today marked a major milestone in the lives of KCAI foundation (freshmen) students. It was move-in day here at the Art Institute. A steady stream of cars loaded up with family, a student and his/her stuff lined up all morning, ready to fill up one of the dorm rooms in the Student Living Center.

Watching the process as a volunteer helping to direct the traffic made me think about how much these freshmen had ahead of them — how excited, nervous, anxious and just plain happy they must be to start on this new path in their lives. Our foundation students will soon become part of a studio-intensive sequence designed to deepen students’ awareness and understanding of basic artistic and design-based principles. (And by the way this program was designed at KCAI and is emulated by art colleges throughout the nation.) But for now they are just freshman at KCAI. They are meeting their roommates, signing up for campus jobs, staying up late talking with new friends and enjoying the many activities the orientation staff has set up.

Sounds like fun. I wonder if I can sneak into the “Back to the Future” movie marathon tonight.

Last night, I attended a theater event that was part of the Kansas City Fringe Festival. It served as a reminder to me of the activity level of our arts community. The festival — now in its fourth year — features live theater, dance, performance art, visual art, spoken word, puppetry, storytelling, film and fashion over seven days in various locations in midtown and downtown KC.

I decided to see “Six,” a piece by Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s new assistant artistic director Kyle Hatley, which was originally conceived for Chatterbox Audio Theater, an audio theater group based in Memphis. Six actors performed the radio play while Kyle and UMKC theater student Melissa Fennewald handled the sound effects. I found myself listening to the actors but watching Kyle and Melissa do the effects — it was fascinating.

A friend of mine recommended another piece in the festival, “The Coppelia Project: A Clown Ballet in Three Acts,” which sounded so intriguing that I hope to go back this weekend to see it.

Even if I don’t get back to it, I am glad that the Fringe Festival happens. Celebrating emerging and established artists by allowing them to explore new material is a terrific way for a city to embrace its arts community.

The Art Institute and the Plaza library have collaborated for the past three years to provide fun summer art classes for children and youth. The classes are taught by a KCAI student and are connected by a common theme. This summer, Courtney Meiselman, a painting major who graduated this spring, taught the bug-themed classes. Wiggly Wonderful Art — very clever title — met once a week during July. There were two separate times, one for kids ages three to five and another for kids six to 10; can you imagine the mass chaos that would have ensued if they had done one big class…YIKES! The library also offered Catch the Art Bug for older kids, 11 to 15.

Since I’m a sucker for little kids, I visited the three- to five-year-old Wiggly Wonderful Art class twice. The first time, the kids made insects, and by insects I mean indecipherable but nonetheless adorable blobs, out of play dough. However, while I saw shapeless blobs, I heard the kids talking about fish swimming in the blue ocean and ice cream on cones. I guess I no longer have that pure imagination that can transform something mundane into something magical. At the second class, the kids painted rocks. The idea was that rocks provide bugs with warm, dark places to hide and live. I think the kids were too excited about the sparkles in the paint to make the connection. All of them appeared to have fun globbing on thick layers and adhering to the principle that more is MORE!

FYI, the Art Institute and the library plan to offer art classes again next summer.