Expansive Fields: The Ramble

Open to Art School only.
This course may be open to students at other year
levels, and in other Schools, by Permission of
Instructor.

Students enrolling in this course must be in the
Santa Clarita or greater Los Angeles area. During
this course, we will explore the relationships
between walking and drawing and painting. There
can be a subtle balance between getting lost (in
looking), and keeping your bearings in both your
practice and on the trail. In this class,
experimentation will be encouraged in order to
gain familiarity with the physical properties of
liquid media, dirt, and rocks. We will look
closely at what constitutes these landscapes
through readings on geology, natural patterns, and
artists who implement critical wandering in their
work (eg. Robert Smithson, Agnes Martin, Vija
Celmins, and Michelangelo Antonioni). This
technical and conceptual exploration will involve
studio work, readings, image presentations, and,
indeed, long walks in natural areas. "Quidditites
never rest, they ramble. The meander is more
attractive than a straight shot aimed at a
bull's-eye. Rambling is a strategy that encourages
waywardness, an encounter with the unforeseen and
happenstance, a reaction to the immediate and
local: dailiness and quiddities are integral to
it." (Lynne Cooke, In the Shadow of Robert Walser;
from A Little Ramble: In the Spirit of Robert
Walser, edited by Christine Burgin/Donald Young).