UPCOMING
Starting March 2, 2012 I will have a window display of artwork at the Downtown Gallery in Kent, Ohio
http://galleries.kent.edu/seco
Starting March 2, 2012 I will have a window display of artwork at the Downtown Gallery in Kent, Ohio
http://galleries.kent.edu/seco
ART CLASSES & BOOKMAKING WORKSHOPS FOR KIDS AND ADULTS- SUMMER 2012
Please email me at julief1@earthlink.net for dates for all classes being offered this summer.
Or call 330-334-3316
Adult classes need a minimum of 4 students. Gather your friends together and schedule a class now!
FOR ADULTS:
One-Day Book Workshops ($75) 10-4 pm Saturday
(Blank Hardcover Journals) (Pop-Up Books) (Non-Adhesive Books)
Weekend Book Workshops ($150) 10-4 pm Saturday/ Sunday
(Non- Adhesive Books) (Pop- Up Books) (Concept & Imagery)
Weekly Summer Teen / Adult Art Classes (14 and up) ($95) 1:00-3:00 pm Tuesday- Friday
(Still Life) (Portrait) (Sketch the Square)
FOR KIDS:
Weekly Summer Kids Art Classes (8-13 years) ($95) 9:30-11:30 am Tuesday- Friday
(Still Life) (Portrait) (Sketch the Square) (Imagination) (COLOR/WOW!)
(Books For Kids!)
DESCRIPTIONS OF CLASSES
Bookmaking Workshops
Non- Adhesive Book Structures Simple structures, folded books, Accordion & variations, Pamphlet stitch, Japanese Stab Binding
Pop- Up Book Structures Learn step by step how to make a variety of basic pop up structures to compliment your book
Blank Hardcover Journals How to choose the right paper, grain, supplies, sewing a hard cover book (journal or sketchbook)
Concept & Imagery w/ Printmaking Using transfer methods & simple print techniques we will create artist books with strong thematic content
Books For Kids! Simple books that kids (9- 13) can learn to make. Great for budding writers, poets and artists
Art Classes (Ages 8-13)
Sketch the Square Our classroom is the Medina Square & we draw large (buildings, landscape) & small (insects, flowers) enjoying our discovery of the outdoors.
Still Life Drawing We will touch on perspective & basic drawing skills. This is for you if you want to draw what you see!
Portrait Drawing Learn to draw portraits of yourself & others. Using mirrors, photos and observation we’ll create life- like & more imaginative renditions of those we love
Drawing From Your Imagination What crazy things do you dream of- dinosaurs, unicorns, outer space? If you can think it- you can draw it.
COLOR! WOW! Colored Pencils & pastels will be used to create vibrant abstract design oriented compositions. Basic color theory.
Art Classes 14 years to Adult
Descriptions from the children’s classes are applicable but will be taught on a more adult level. Good for beginner or intermediate student. Individual attention assured.
Still Life Drawing
Portrait Drawing
Sketching on The Square
Or call 330-334-3316
Adult classes need a minimum of 4 students. Gather your friends together and schedule a class now!
FOR ADULTS:
One-Day Book Workshops ($75) 10-4 pm Saturday
(Blank Hardcover Journals) (Pop-Up Books) (Non-Adhesive Books)
Weekend Book Workshops ($150) 10-4 pm Saturday/ Sunday
(Non- Adhesive Books) (Pop- Up Books) (Concept & Imagery)
Weekly Summer Teen / Adult Art Classes (14 and up) ($95) 1:00-3:00 pm Tuesday- Friday
(Still Life) (Portrait) (Sketch the Square)
FOR KIDS:
Weekly Summer Kids Art Classes (8-13 years) ($95) 9:30-11:30 am Tuesday- Friday
(Still Life) (Portrait) (Sketch the Square) (Imagination) (COLOR/WOW!)
(Books For Kids!)
DESCRIPTIONS OF CLASSES
Bookmaking Workshops
Non- Adhesive Book Structures Simple structures, folded books, Accordion & variations, Pamphlet stitch, Japanese Stab Binding
Pop- Up Book Structures Learn step by step how to make a variety of basic pop up structures to compliment your book
Blank Hardcover Journals How to choose the right paper, grain, supplies, sewing a hard cover book (journal or sketchbook)
Concept & Imagery w/ Printmaking Using transfer methods & simple print techniques we will create artist books with strong thematic content
Books For Kids! Simple books that kids (9- 13) can learn to make. Great for budding writers, poets and artists
Art Classes (Ages 8-13)
Sketch the Square Our classroom is the Medina Square & we draw large (buildings, landscape) & small (insects, flowers) enjoying our discovery of the outdoors.
Still Life Drawing We will touch on perspective & basic drawing skills. This is for you if you want to draw what you see!
Portrait Drawing Learn to draw portraits of yourself & others. Using mirrors, photos and observation we’ll create life- like & more imaginative renditions of those we love
Drawing From Your Imagination What crazy things do you dream of- dinosaurs, unicorns, outer space? If you can think it- you can draw it.
COLOR! WOW! Colored Pencils & pastels will be used to create vibrant abstract design oriented compositions. Basic color theory.
Art Classes 14 years to Adult
Descriptions from the children’s classes are applicable but will be taught on a more adult level. Good for beginner or intermediate student. Individual attention assured.
Still Life Drawing
Portrait Drawing
Sketching on The Square
Article in COLUMBUS ALIVE magazine in November 2011
http://www.columbusalive.com/c
Julie Friedman is always on the lookout for lone trees. She lives outside of Medina and drives more than 400 miles each week to teach art classes at various schools in northeastern Ohio, so she has ample opportunity to enjoy the landscapes outside city limits.
Friedman photographs her subject, projects the image onto a giant roll of paper and then cuts out its silhouette. Trees, telephone poles and roots are the subjects of her exhibition, “Convergence,” at the Cultural Arts Center.
The title hints that these subjects are related: Roots resemble inverted trees, and telephone poles supplant trees as civilization radiates outward into the countryside. Though many people consider poles and wires ugly, Friedman said she finds the way wires cross and coil appealing.
“It becomes beautiful, just because you want it to be,” she said.
Trees are easier for us to embrace. The image of a tree is ubiquitous in art and design, perhaps because there aren’t many trees around us thanks to urban development, Friedman said.
“People just feel comfortable or familiar with it, or it takes them to another place,” she said of trees.
The negative spaces created by the holes in Friedman’s works are just as important as the silhouettes. Scrolls of white paper on white walls become a forest when the gallery’s lights flick on. Delicate branches and leaves cast shadows that give the works dimension and depth.
Friedman started working with cut-outs of trees and poles years ago in artist books, some of which are also featured in “Convergence.” Stand-alone shapes of clustered roots are a newer direction for Friedman, the idea harvested from the soil of her garden and a desire to break free from paper’s rectangular format.
Though this exhibition features her paper cuttings, Friedman works with many other techniques and media, which she says is both freeing and more challenging than working in one medium.
“I want to get an idea and then explore it in different media. For me, it’s harder to find the idea than to figure out what to do with it once I find it. I don’t like to limit myself,” she said.
Julie Friedman is always on the lookout for lone trees. She lives outside of Medina and drives more than 400 miles each week to teach art classes at various schools in northeastern Ohio, so she has ample opportunity to enjoy the landscapes outside city limits.
Friedman photographs her subject, projects the image onto a giant roll of paper and then cuts out its silhouette. Trees, telephone poles and roots are the subjects of her exhibition, “Convergence,” at the Cultural Arts Center.
The title hints that these subjects are related: Roots resemble inverted trees, and telephone poles supplant trees as civilization radiates outward into the countryside. Though many people consider poles and wires ugly, Friedman said she finds the way wires cross and coil appealing.
“It becomes beautiful, just because you want it to be,” she said.
Trees are easier for us to embrace. The image of a tree is ubiquitous in art and design, perhaps because there aren’t many trees around us thanks to urban development, Friedman said.
“People just feel comfortable or familiar with it, or it takes them to another place,” she said of trees.
The negative spaces created by the holes in Friedman’s works are just as important as the silhouettes. Scrolls of white paper on white walls become a forest when the gallery’s lights flick on. Delicate branches and leaves cast shadows that give the works dimension and depth.
Friedman started working with cut-outs of trees and poles years ago in artist books, some of which are also featured in “Convergence.” Stand-alone shapes of clustered roots are a newer direction for Friedman, the idea harvested from the soil of her garden and a desire to break free from paper’s rectangular format.
Though this exhibition features her paper cuttings, Friedman works with many other techniques and media, which she says is both freeing and more challenging than working in one medium.
“I want to get an idea and then explore it in different media. For me, it’s harder to find the idea than to figure out what to do with it once I find it. I don’t like to limit myself,” she said.
JULIE FRIEDMAN'S BIO
Artists all have memories of childhood drawings and stories about pictures they made. I took art classes as a child and still have pastel drawings I did as an 8 or 9 year old. I had encouraging relatives and remember getting positive feedback from a revered cousin who claimed one of my drawings for her office wall.
I took commercial art classes in high school and went off to Kent State University sure that art was my thing. It wasn’t! The artwork I did in my classes was mediocre at best. I stayed with it for about a year and a half and then decided to major in Interior Design. I really liked the classes I took as they encompassed architecture, textiles, design and color.
After I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in 1980 I had some jobs that were tangentially Interior Design related. I did drafting (before computers); I sold furniture and decorative hardware and bathroom fixtures. I worked retail and I traveled to Europe a few times. Once I went on an archeological dig in England, once to London to intern in a museum. And just to travel. I felt that Interior Design was not a good fit for me- I am too quiet, I am not a sales person and you have to constantly sell yourself. Each time I came back to Cleveland from my travels I was in a quandary about what to do with my life…I had many ideas, textile design, window displays, museum studies, historic preservation, move to New York or Boston or London.
But finally I decided to return to college and work on getting an art education degree and becoming a teacher. I went back to Kent to take another try at art classes to work on getting together a strong portfolio for the program I wanted to enter. Well this time around, older, wiser and more intent on success, I loved art classes and did very well. After a couple classes in painting and drawing I decided to complete an art degree before choosing a career. I spent 3 years taking painting, drawing and printmaking and feeling good about being in school. I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in printmaking.
I had to make a huge decision at that point- Go for the Art Education program or for a totally impractical Master of Fine Arts degree. I chose the unsafe, unpredictable, expensive, Fine Arts Degree. After a few false starts in finding the right school I went off to the University of Wisconsin- Madison where I spent 2 very happy (and cold) years. I made some good friends. Madison is where I discovered artist books and Walter Hamady and a whole new world opened up to me. Read more about my feelings for books in my statement under the artist book gallery page(in Older Work).
I graduated in 1991 with an MFA, got married and live on 10 acres of land in Medina, Ohio with my artist husband, Charles Basham, and an ever changing number of dogs and cats. We each have a studio here on the farm and I have an additional space on the historic Medina Public Square.
Since about 1996 I have been an adjunct professor teaching drawing, printmaking, painting and design at a variety of colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio. I drive a lot! Some semesters I drive 400 miles weekly to my teaching jobs. I enjoy teaching in a way that I never enjoyed making a living before. I am also the co- director of Gallery West at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio.
I try to spend a couple days a week in my studio so that teaching doesn’t become my life instead of art. Some semesters it is harder than others. In the summer I am sometimes able to find a teaching job but more often I get a chance to spend more time in the studio (but not making much money) and the garden. It is a trade off. But this lifestyle is the right fit- finally.
Artists all have memories of childhood drawings and stories about pictures they made. I took art classes as a child and still have pastel drawings I did as an 8 or 9 year old. I had encouraging relatives and remember getting positive feedback from a revered cousin who claimed one of my drawings for her office wall.
I took commercial art classes in high school and went off to Kent State University sure that art was my thing. It wasn’t! The artwork I did in my classes was mediocre at best. I stayed with it for about a year and a half and then decided to major in Interior Design. I really liked the classes I took as they encompassed architecture, textiles, design and color.
After I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in 1980 I had some jobs that were tangentially Interior Design related. I did drafting (before computers); I sold furniture and decorative hardware and bathroom fixtures. I worked retail and I traveled to Europe a few times. Once I went on an archeological dig in England, once to London to intern in a museum. And just to travel. I felt that Interior Design was not a good fit for me- I am too quiet, I am not a sales person and you have to constantly sell yourself. Each time I came back to Cleveland from my travels I was in a quandary about what to do with my life…I had many ideas, textile design, window displays, museum studies, historic preservation, move to New York or Boston or London.
But finally I decided to return to college and work on getting an art education degree and becoming a teacher. I went back to Kent to take another try at art classes to work on getting together a strong portfolio for the program I wanted to enter. Well this time around, older, wiser and more intent on success, I loved art classes and did very well. After a couple classes in painting and drawing I decided to complete an art degree before choosing a career. I spent 3 years taking painting, drawing and printmaking and feeling good about being in school. I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in printmaking.
I had to make a huge decision at that point- Go for the Art Education program or for a totally impractical Master of Fine Arts degree. I chose the unsafe, unpredictable, expensive, Fine Arts Degree. After a few false starts in finding the right school I went off to the University of Wisconsin- Madison where I spent 2 very happy (and cold) years. I made some good friends. Madison is where I discovered artist books and Walter Hamady and a whole new world opened up to me. Read more about my feelings for books in my statement under the artist book gallery page(in Older Work).
I graduated in 1991 with an MFA, got married and live on 10 acres of land in Medina, Ohio with my artist husband, Charles Basham, and an ever changing number of dogs and cats. We each have a studio here on the farm and I have an additional space on the historic Medina Public Square.
Since about 1996 I have been an adjunct professor teaching drawing, printmaking, painting and design at a variety of colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio. I drive a lot! Some semesters I drive 400 miles weekly to my teaching jobs. I enjoy teaching in a way that I never enjoyed making a living before. I am also the co- director of Gallery West at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio.
I try to spend a couple days a week in my studio so that teaching doesn’t become my life instead of art. Some semesters it is harder than others. In the summer I am sometimes able to find a teaching job but more often I get a chance to spend more time in the studio (but not making much money) and the garden. It is a trade off. But this lifestyle is the right fit- finally.
