Contemporary artists use their talent, imagination, and skill to create works of art that add beauty and richness to the world. They produce work for a vast global network of museums, commercial art galleries, publicly funded arts organizations, and artist-run spaces. Taught by a faculty of active professional artists, students in Fine Arts delve into each of the core disciplines—Painting, Sculpture/New Genres, and Photography—before selecting an area of emphasis.
Program Learning Outcomes
Students in the Fine Arts Department will:
- Formulate questions and ideas clearly and precisely based on relevant information and research and to come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions. Students will develop the ability to think open-mindedly with the ability to consider alternative systems of thought that challenge received notions and social cultural bias.
- Effectively express abstract concepts in concrete form.
- Skillfully create artistic form using techniques and methods appropriate to the intended result.
- Consider the role of art making in the larger social context.
- Understand that the meaning of a work of art is conditioned by the manner in which it is exhibited or otherwise presented and distributed. They will have the ability to consider methods of presentation and distribution in innovative ways that respond to, and potentially influence, existing conditions in the field.
- Have an awareness of current professional standards in their chosen media and in the larger field of contemporary art as well as the ability to effectively meet those standards.
Course Sequence
Course Title
Course Number
Credits
Fall Semester
Form and Figure
FNDT 100
3.00
Course Description: This course provides a comprehensive study in drawing from observation. Students begin by learning to draw a simple geometrical form, progressing to rendering objects within a compositional setting and drawing the entire human figure based on an investigation of its anatomical structures. Students will develop an awareness of the playful, rhythmic relationships between various components of a compositional setting and the human form, constructing drawings which reflect their unique vision. Drawing techniques such as perspective and isometric projection facilitate successful form generation. Skills of relational measurement, compositional organization, and the accurate placement of form in space, will inform all drawing activities such as drawing objects, figures, and environments, which will enhance students’ perceptual abilities.
Color and Design
FNDT 101
3.00
Course Description: Students will create innovative and impactful designs by learning and applying essential elements including, line, shape, color, texture, space, balance, contrast, and rhythm. Utilizing digital and analog tools, students will engage in diverse design challenges, enhancing their problem-solving and critical thinking skills, as well as developing their visual literacy and communication abilities. Through this course, students will learn fundamental concepts relevant to today’s creative industries, laying a solid foundation for further explorations
Contemporary Studio and Creative Action
CAIL 102
3.00
Course Description: Students explore the built environment, analyzing its physical, spatial, and temporal elements. This course introduces students to art and design fundamentals, including scale, material, measurement, context, and function. They will explore innovative and sustainable solutions using fabrication, technology, studio labs, and joint activities with other classes. This course includes the Creative Action & Integrated Learning (CAIL) component, which encourages engagement with the city of Los Angeles. Students will participate in site visits, lectures, and relevant readings that highlight cultural, social, political, ecological, or economic aspects of responsive design. Throughout the course, students will also develop professionalism and collaboration skills.
Visual Culture 1: Gateways to Art and Culture
AHCS 122
3.00
Course Description: This introduction to visual culture will address the history of visual communication and the changes that visual culture has undergone up until the 19th century across geographical boundaries, while providing students with the tools to understand the visual culture of the present. The class will address formal analysis, the study and history of materials, techniques, and genres. Students will also learn the semiotic language of visual culture and the socio-cultural contexts framing the history of art, both in the past and present. This course will help students understand how visual objects reflect the cultural context in which they were originally produced and consumed, and how the meaning assigned to them changes over time. This will create bridges for the students to connect to the present visual culture while understanding that images are fluid signs which help create and maintain cultural, social, and political discourses.
Writing as Discovery: Thought Lab 1
ENGL 108
3.00
Course Description: How does the world influence you, and how do you influence the world? In this class, you will discover narratives and other texts that reveal the complexity of your identity. You will apply that understanding to a broader exploration of the necessity of empathy in navigating difference in today’s global society. You will be invited to turn your curiosity into a research question about a topic that captures your interest. By the end of the semester, you will have completed a personal narrative, learned how to critically analyze diverse texts, and developed research techniques that will be valuable during your academic career and beyond. You will continue to hone these skills in a specialized Thought Lab 2 course of your choosing during your second semester. A minimum grade of "C-" is required to pass this course. Prerequisite: Successful completion of ENGL090 or placement through the Writing Placement Assessment.
Spring Semester
Choose ONE of the following courses from the dropdown
3.00
FNDT 103
Credits: 3.00
Course Description: These drawing courses are designed to support students in preparation for their chosen majors. Students will experiment with various materials and mediums while exploring a broad spectrum of approaches to drawing as an active form of thinking, seeing, and understanding. See the schedule of classes for course offerings and course descriptions. Students must complete 6 credits from the following course options: FNDT103,FNDT104 and FNDT105. Students may take 2 courses with the same course number if the topics are different, for example FNDT103A and FNDT103B.
Expanded Studio Dimensional Studies
FNDT 104
Credits: 3.00
Course Description: Dimensional Studies explores the tangible world, built environment, and object making. Courses are offered in a variety of mediums and investigate a range of topics including spatial analysis and thinking, material experimentation, form design, digital fabrication, hand skills, and building strategies while creating in 3 dimensional and 4-dimensional space. See the schedule of classes for course offerings and course descriptions. Students must complete 6 credits from the following course options: FNDT103,FNDT104 and FNDT105. Students may take 2 courses with the same course number if the topics are different, for example FNDT103A and FNDT103B.
Expanded Studio Transmedia
FNDT 105
Credits: 3.00
Course Description: Transmedia explores strategies for visual communication. A range of cross-disciplinary studio courses investigate multi-model applications for conveying bold ideas through form. Courses invite innovative approaches to contemporary media, strengthening fluency in design principles and cultural literacy. See the schedule of classes for course offerings and course descriptions. Students must complete 6 credits from the following course options: FNDT103,FNDT104 and FNDT105. Students may take 2 courses with the same course number if the topics are different, for example FNDT103A and FNDT103B.
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Visual Culture 2: Unpacking Art, Power, & Modernity
AHCS 123
3.00
Course Description: Planned as a continuation of Visual Culture 1, Visual Culture 2: Unpacking Art, Power & Modernity offers a transparent chronology to continue but deepen an investigation of art, design and world perspectives from roughly 1800 to 1960 -- years loosely associated with "modernisms." It explores Western and non-Western, dominant, and marginalized histories during this proposed 200-year time frame, broadening and reinforcing first-year students’ historical awareness, while de-centering dominant canons. Visual Culture 2 uses multi-cultural artifacts, readings, seminar-like discussions and experiential collaborations to explore and critically analyze key works and key themes like colonialism, structural racism, xenophobia, industrialization, technology, capitalism and consumerism from multiple perspectives. By the end of the semester, students should have the necessary critical tools to become empathic citizen-artists who can engage an equitable, trans-global, diasporic, technically creative and environmentally demanding present and future.
Exploration into Making: Thought Lab 2
LIBS 115
3.00
Course Description: Where do your curiosities in the world lead you? How can you transform general interest in a subject into specific knowledge that can fuel a creative practice? Building on concepts from Thought Lab I, Thought Lab II will allow you to take a deep dive into a themed seminar of your choosing. Seminar themes may range from environmental and social justice to narrative to technology. These courses will invite you to explore a special topic through a variety of media to deepen your understanding of key events that have shaped its history. By the end of the semester, you will complete assignments which may include an exploratory essay or a research paper, and ultimately, a creative translation of course themes. Four Potential Themes: Narrative Story & Culture Technology: From Industrial Design to AI Media: Materials and Meaning Environmental + Social Justice
Fall Semester
Photography I
PHOT 204
3.00
Course Description: This course introduces students to the technical, aesthetic, and conceptual aspects of the medium of photography. Basic skills, including digital and analog (film) camera operation, the fundamentals of image exposure, black-and-white film processing, black-and-white and digital color printing, and basic presentation techniques, are covered in regular lab sessions. Group critiques, slide lectures, and field trips help students to develop a critical vocabulary. Offered fall semester only
Choose ONE of the following courses from the dropdown
3.00
PNTG 204
Credits: 3.00
Course Description: This is a hands-on investigation of technical and formal issues in painting (oil, acrylic, and mixed media), focusing on developing technical abilities in collaboration with concepts and exploration of different methods of achieving visual “dexterity.” Offered fall semester only
Sculpture/New Genres I
SCNG 204
Credits: 3.00
Course Description: An introduction to the history and practice of sculpture and new genres (new art forms that use time and space). Students are introduced to technical and contemplative approaches to commanding space and material to produce meaningful objects, events, or places. Technical instruction covers introductory use of wood and metal shops (including digital 3D printer), adhesives and joinery, basic mold making and casting, as well as contemporary new genres forms such as performance and installation art. Offered in Fall semester only.
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Digital Media
FINA 217
3.00
Course Description: Digital Media is an introductory course in new media – exposing students to a wide range of digital art-making practices while providing the technical fundamentals that enable students to begin integrating digital methods in their respective practices. The course consists of lectures, demonstrations, and computer lab experience. Particular attention is placed on balancing technical skills with creative content and experimental approaches. We will explore the evolution of new media and the corresponding social and cultural impact. The core software is Adobe Premiere, InDesign and Photoshop.
Sophomore Seminar: DEI in Global Art and Culture
AHCS 237
3.00
Course Description: With diversity and equity at its core, Sophomore Seminar engages the western and non-western philosophical canons as a way to critique and de-center eurocentrism, white privilege, ableism, misogyny, patriarchy, systemic racism, power and exclusion at the very root of Western culture. The class asks the following: How do officialized and unspoken philosophies or worldviews shape our most essential and normalized standards/canons of beauty, value, "truth," as well as produce our centuries old privileges and prejudices? Who/what is advanced by these entrenched ideas; who is excluded? Who are the non-dominant but powerful voices that oppose philosophical givens? This is an interconnected two-semester class. Sophomore Seminar 1 introduces key concepts in ancient and modern, European, and non-western philosophical systems, to trace the impact of these ideas on current art, thought and racial/gendered biases. Then Sophomore Seminar 2 critically considers contemporary theorists, non-western and LGBT creatives who challenge the classical and modern philosophical canons covered in Soph Sem I. In both courses/semesters, students learn to evaluate the ideological impact of power, gender, economics, and social class on social and artistic norms. This course may be taken in either fall or spring, must be completed in the sophomore year.
Electives
PHOT GNRS: The Mirror Image
PHOT 335
Credits: 3.00
Course Description: Genres courses provide students with the opportunity to explore a variety of topics within the context of photography, targeting specific conceptual, aesthetic, and material approaches in-depth, offering theoretical and vernacular driven investigation. Recent topics offered include Text and Image, Photography and Space, and Our Private Selves. Offered on a rotating basis. See schedule of classes for course offerings and course descriptions.
Section Description: “If you stare through binoculars, you sneak after someone. If you look through a camera, you are also sneaking after yourself.” -Boris Mikhailov In this course we will concentrate on photographing our close environment. We will research the potential of this kind of work to portray the personal and autobiographical. Simultaneously, we will consider the personal as a construct and a platform capable of expressing wider ideas. How can making work focused on our own narrow environment allow us to comment on the social and political? These issues are especially relevant today. With the presence of social media exposing us to a nearly infinite number of images of people’s lives and surroundings, how can we still succeed through image making to formulate ourselves as authors in response to our environments? Prerequisite: Photo I or with instructor's permission
Editorial Photography
PHOT 336
Credits: 2.00
Course Description: Editorial photography refers to images that help tell a story or educate readers, often appearing in publications alongside the text but often independently. The various types of editorial photography include; fashion photography, photojournalism, and forms of documentary work. Each semester this course focuses on a different type or topic in editorial photography (fashion, photojournalism, or documentary), introducing students to various approaches and preparing students with both the practical and the theoretical aspects of providing vivid images for print and online publications.
Section Description: The constant shift in editorial/commercial photography with regards to methods of working, style, trends and other external factors makes this form of working exciting and unique. The need for responsibility in the wake of an ever-tumultuous relationship to press, culture and narrative makes it clear that photographers needed to shift their work to accommodate change and become inventive within this landscape. This class focuses on students’ paths towards a career in editorial/commercial photography, and considers ways of working flexibly, understanding expectations of the field, and re-imagining in times of extreme flux. Assignments include shooting for clients, understanding layout, time management, marketing/ self-promotion, and staying current with what the demands of the editorial/commercial field might bring. Prerequisite: You must have already taken Photo 1 and Lighting Studio to be enrolled in this class.