Rosenberg Library Exhibitions, Spring to Fall 2013

Why Reinvent the Wheel?

Why Reinvent the Wheel? Kay Russell’s CCSF Painting Students Learn from the Master Works

October 23, 2012-April 6, 2013
Rosenberg Library, City College of San Francisco

Painting from “Master Works:”

Many art instructors teach students by having them copy paintings, drawings or photographs made by experienced and well regarded artists. Painting from different master art works allows students to carefully study different artistic approaches and to experiment with different techniques before settling into their own style. Painting from master works created over centuries offers an infinite range of imagery, color selection and approaches to painting.

Learn to Paint at City College:

Classes:
Check the Art Department class schedule for painting classes for beginners though advanced painters.

Library Resources:

Database, Books and Magazines
ARTstor Image Database:
ARTstor is an online database that the CCSF Library subscribes to. It offers high resolution access to over a million paintings, photographs, maps and other images. CCSF students can access ARTstor through the Library: www.ccsf.edu/library, then choose Articles and Databases and click on ARTstor. Would you like to see the fine strokes of a painting in detail, or examine a photograph’s details, study the curves or grooves in a piece of sculpture? ARTstor offers rich, lush images in extremely high definition so that you can enjoy the details of a work of art, a map or an architectural site. Members of the CCSF community can download ARTstor images for educational use. Ask a CCSF librarian for more information.

Books:
Every library at CCSF has books on painting and drawing.  To see some of the paintings used in Kay Russell’s classes look at books in the library on these very different artists:

Claude Monet: A French Impressionist painter especially known for his landscapes(1840-1926).

Chiura Obata: A Bay Area Japanese American artist interned with his family during World War II during which he founded the Topaz Art School (1885-1975).

Georgia O’Keeffe: An American Modernist artist famous for her paintings of flowers, bones and the landscape of New Mexico, (1887-1986).

John Singer Sargent: An American portraitist who turned to landscapes later in his life (1956-1925).

Magazines:

The Library subscribes to: Art in America and ARTnews come in and take a look!

Watercolor Exhibition Assignment and CCSF Book List

Fall to Spring Library Exhibitions 2012

BYOB(ag)

BYOB(ag):
Creating Nutritional Awareness/Design for Social Impact

Project: Value Reduction and Stenciling

Class: Basic Design 125A
Instructor: Nancy Mizuno Elliott
Recycling an Assignment:

Last year I stumbled upon this project when perusing the blog Apartment Therapy. It was sponsored by AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) and originated from Moore College of Art and Design. I was compelled to “borrow” the concept; it had the rare combination of being both politically relevant and very cool.

Also, I’m a bit competitive. I had a feeling that first year CCSF design students could handle this project; even though it was initially intended for junior level graphic design students attending a private art program. My hunch was right.

Come into the Rosenberg Library and see what CCSF students produced!

The Growth of a Book and the Women’s Health Movement

Celebrate Women’s History Month
+ 40 Years
Of Our Bodies Ourselves

We’re celebrating the 40^th Anniversary of the publication of this groundbreaking book empowering women with health information about our bodies and our selves.  Since 1971 it has grown in size from the skinny black and white (now yellowed) publication you see on the top of the book pile on the right, to the nearly 2 inch thick publication right below it.  It continues to serve, as The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective says “as a tool which stimulates discussion and action, which allows for new ideas and for change….to change the health care system for women and for all people.” 

Multiple women’s voices make Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS) accessible and representative of many points of view.  It has been translated into 25 Languages—but not just translated linguistically, translated culturally—adapted to the culture of the countries by women in those countries.  For example, for the Serbian edition the “experiences of Bosnian refugees who had been raped during the war shaped their book’s approach to sexual violence and drove home the knowledge that women’s health and lives are tightly linked to the social and political context in which we live.”  The Indian Bengali language version published the first health information in Bengali on safer sex practices in same sex relationship “defying the obliteration of sexuality from the common language.”  The Israeli version brought together Jewish and Arab women to publish 2 books, one in Hebrew and one in Arabic. 

“Each edition more closely mirrored what we teach in Women’s Health Issues” says Robin Roth, longtime City College instructor who chose OBOS as a text book for Health 25 classes because of the comprehensive approach to women’s health and for its progressive feminist perspectives on women’s health issues: reproduction, sexuality, aging, nutrition, exercise, body image, relationships, and gender identification, among many. A quick look at the table of contents for issues over the years shows how the field of women’s health has grown and changed. The first table of contents fills less than a page; more recent editions’ are several pages long. Additional publications on pregnancy and menopause expand women’s access to easily accessible and detailed information on these subjects.

Our Bodies, Ourselves in available in print, Braille, audio, digital and social interactive formats. 

The OBOS  Website:  www.ourbodiesourselves.org  has great information, check it out! Go to the Resources page for more information on women and health.

Search Our Bodies Ourselves 40th anniversary global symposium on www.youtube.com to see inspiring videos.

Special Event: One of OBOS’s authors, Ellen Shaffer, will be speaking at a Women’s History Month event in Roth’s class on April 4^th at 2:30 in MUB 361. The topics are Reproductive Justice and also Health Care Reform. You are invited to attend.

Find out more about Women’s Health:
OBOS Book List and Assignment

Hoy Como Ayer: Generations of Latin Music

September 22 2011-March 24, 2012

Hoy Como Ayer, created in collaboration with City College of San Francisco’s Music Department, focuses on 4 styles of Latin Music: Samba, Corrido, Salsa and Afro-Cuban Music. As Professor Rebecca Mauleon, author of the exhibition text, points out, these are just a few of the many styles  within the pantheon of Latin music. The exhibition includes photographs by Stanley Lopez Padilla, student projects, LP covers, CDs and cassettes, handwritten musical scores by Inaudiz Paisan Mallet of Santiago de Cuba, photographs, books and musical instruments.

Check out these resources in the CCSF Library and do the assignment:

Latin Music Assignment and Book List

Photographs by Stanley Lopez Padilla:

John Santos and Orestes Vilató

Olodum in San Francisco from Bahia, Brazil, as Grand Marshalls of Carnaval, 2003

Nicinha Dancing, Santa Amaro, Brazil, 1997

Michael Spiro and Ginga Brazil, Carnaval San Francisco

John Santos and the Machete Ensemble at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, 2006

John Calloway and Orlando Valle/Maraca perform with the John Santos Sextet for the opening of the American Sabor exhibit on August 27, 2011 at the San Francisco Public Library

 

Fall 2011 – Spring 2012 Rosenberg Library Exhibitions

Woven Works from John Adams

Showcasing Textiles From Deborah Corsini’s Tapestry class and Janice Sullivan’s Weaving I, II, III

 
Photos 1 and 2 by Swan Vega from the Floor Loom Weaving class, photo 3: Tapestry weaving on a handmade frame loom

The John Adams Campus Library is proud to host this amazing selection of textiles created right here in our building!
The Weaving classes are offered through the Fashion Department
and a Textile Certificate is now available.

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October 11—December 9
Reception: Monday, November 14
11:00-12:00
John Adams Campus Library
1860 Hayes Street
2nd floor, room 204
San Francisco, CA 94117
415 561-1946

Library Hours and Link:

Monday-Thursday 9:00-6:45

Friday 9:00-12:45

http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/en/library/about-library/library-locations/jad.html

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Tapestry is a hand woven pictorial weaving.  Students build their own frame looms and learn the techniques and language particular to this type of weaving. Color, design and history are all aspects that are examined throughout the semester. This exhibit showcases some recent student work in all of its variety. Deborah Corsini’s Tapestry class is primarily a beginning class, but many students choose to continue studying after their first semester. It is non-credit, and may be repeated as often as the student wishes. Tapestry is offered on Friday, 9:30 -1:30.

The textiles woven by the Floor Loom Weaving classes represent intermediate and advanced students. These students work on looms that are capable of weaving many yards of cloth with very intricate patterns. They also work in a variety of fibers, wool, silk, cotton and rayon. Surface design techniques can be incorporated onto the woven cloth. That means that the cloth can be hand dyed, printed or discharged (color removal) after weaving. These techniques can be applied to the warp and/or weft and enhance the cloth to create a richer, more complex surface. The Floor Loom classes taught by Janice Sullivan are credit classes, Weaving I, II, and III may be repeated a limited number of times. Weaving II & III, Monday 12:00pm – 5:00pm and Weaving I, Tuesday, 9:00am – 1:00pm.

John Adams Campus is a great place to weave!

Tapestry: The word conjures up images of the blue-green forests of medieval times, a thousand flowers, castles, hunting scenes, unicorns, and the tales and myths of knights and maidens, knaves and kings. But the rich history of tapestry is even more prodigious than that imagery suggests.  Tapestry traditions are thousands of years old and are found in cultures around the world: from Coptic or tiraz tapestries from ancient Egypt, Pre-Columbian tapestries of the Central Andes of South American, classical European Gobelin / Aubusson tapestries, kelims of central Asia, Navajo rugs, Chinese kesi, and folk tapestries from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.  All are part of the vast wellspring from which contemporary tapestry artists draw inspiration.

In essence, tapestry is a hand woven pictorial weaving.  It is technically defined as a weft-faced, plain weave using discontinuous wefts. For the non-weaver this means that the weaving yarns are woven in small areas to build up a color instead of traveling from selvedge to selvedge with a shuttle. The weft yarns (the weaving yarns) completely cover the warp or structural threads that are held taught to the loom. The weft yarns create the design of the tapestry. The unique quality of tapestry is that the surface image and the construction structure are intimately connected and embedded. Various techniques are used to join and blend colors including slits, dovetailing, and interlocking. The weaving of tapestry is one of the slowest and most labor-intensive of art-making processes. Despite its time-consuming nature, tapestry is created by weavers around the world because of irresistible qualities — the depth of color, the range of designs that can be created, the challenges of the woven mark — that make tapestry unlike any other media.

- Deborah Corsini, Instructor

See the flyer for this CCSF Library Exhibition

Find books and articles on textiles in the CCSF Libraries

Find more classes in the City College of San Francisco Fashion Department

Group project copying a medieval tapestry, each student creates one section

Scarves woven by the floor loom weaving class, various techniques: Handspun yarn on Peruvian and Navajo spindles, boat shuttle

         

Top: projects from the floor loom weaving class
scarves and runner, double-weave wall hanging, scarf and wall hanging

Bottom: landscape based tapestries

  

Reception event photos,  photo credit: Alan D’Souza

Download: Weaving Assignment John Adams Campus Library

Breaking Boundaries

April 6-October 7, 2011
Rosenberg Library, 3rd Floor, City College of San Francisco

An Exhibition in Collaboration with
the Disabled Students Program

Photographer Richard Bermack visited the  two City College Disabled Students Classes, Arts and Crafts For The Disabled, taught by Carole Fitzgerald at the John Adams Campus and Drama For The Disabled, taught by Judy Goodman at the Mission Campus. He spoke with and photographed Judi Kaplan demonstrating how to read lips and captured images of some of the tools that CCSF students use in class: the viewer that enlarges text and the process for real-time captioning.

See more of Richard’s work at www.RichardBermack.com

The CCSF Disabled Students Services Department:

There are thousands of people with disabilities at City College of San Francisco. They are students, faculty, and staff. Their disabilities include impairments in mobility, vision, hearing, and speech; and less obvious problems such as learning disabilities, post traumatic stress syndrome, psychological disorders, and developmental disabilities. There are also individuals who experience other functional limitations as a result of an acquired brain impairment or other health problems such as arthritis, diabetes, seizure, cardiac disorders, and so on. DSPS  works with CCSF students to reach their educational goals.

Find Resources on Disabilities Through the CCSF Library:
Selected Resources on Disabilities

Contact the DSPS Department:

For Website, CLICK HERE

415) 452-5481 Voice – Ocean campus
(415) 452-5451 TDD (for persons who are deaf) – Ocean campus

or

(415) 561-1001 Voice – John Adams campus
(415) 561-1007 TDD – John Adams campus

Telephone appointments with counselors are available for those who are not able to come to campus.

Revolutionizing Memory, Constructing the Future

March 16-September 16, 2011

Stencil Art from Buenos Aires, Argentina

Rick Kappra describes his photographic exhibition
in the Rosenberg Library:

In the summer of 2007 I went to Buenos Aires to study Spanish for two months.  I knew some of the history, but I didn’t know the details.  I was curious and wanted to learn more.

I found that people were very willing to talk about politics in Argentina, unlike in the United States, where political discussions are not considered appropriate for “polite” conversations, or where our political discourse is often more mythology than fact.  In Argentina, discussions of politics were everywhere – in my Spanish classes, on TV, and among friends.  People were not afraid to talk about the dirty war, the 30,000 or more Argentines who were “disappeared”, the economic collapse or the things that caused it.  After 25 years of being afraid to speak, Argentines believed in the power of their voices, their memories and their political action.

This belief in the importance of political action was reflected in the daily protests that closed streets and schools and shut down train lines.  Direct action seemed to be the greatest political weapon that modern Argentina had, or perhaps its last resort.

I first discovered stencil graffiti in the neighborhood of San Telmo.  I believe it was my second day in Buenos Aires.  “Soy puto y soy feliz” – ‘I’m a fag and I’m happy’ was one of the first that I saw.  “Besa a quien quieras” – ‘Kiss whomever you want’, was another.  Among this collection of powerful statements of queer militancy, were teddy bears and other whimsical figures.  It was my introduction to a world of expression I quickly learned to love.  As I went about documenting it, it became like a treasure hunt.  Each piece of graffiti revealed one more aspect of the tremendous fight Argentines were waging to free themselves from their past while not forgetting it.  Queer rights, women’s rights, class struggle and calls for prosecution of those behind recent human rights violations were some of the many issues that were expressed through the stencil graffiti.  The struggle to save their schools, a cause of many of the street protests, appeared alongside other rallying cries. The graffiti was simple, direct and for me as a learner of Spanish as a second language, easy to understand and digest.  In its simplicity lay its power.

Rick Kappra, Photographer
ESL Instructor, Civic Center Campus, City College

Find Information on:
Argentina and Street Art through the City College Library