Artist of the week: Eliza Dunaway
Katie Vallas
Issue date: 11/13/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Skidmore News: What [art-related] classes are you taking this semester?
Eliza Dunaway: Intermediate Painting. Then in Art History, I'm taking East Asian Art History and African Art. I'm majoring in Art History and I'm a Studio Art minor.
SN: What kind of studio art do you tend do? What's your medium?
ED: I do 2-D works. I've done 3-D stuff, sculpture and things, but mostly 2-D. It's hard to take art classes, unless you want to invest a lot of time, if you're not a Studio Art major.
SN: What have been your favorite art classes that you've taken?
ED: Probably the intro classes, because I feel like they were a good base for conceptually understanding composition and formal elements of art, which inform every kind of art, ever. As far as 2-dimensional arts go, learning how to draw and paint is learning how to see things, learning how to work.
SN: What made you look at Skidmore for Studio Art and Art History?
ED: Well, I looked at art schools. But I decided that an art school is sort of like a trade school, where you learn the techniques of art making, the tricks of the trade. I wanted to read and write, which are more intellectual than technical skills. That's why I chose Skidmore. And it has a strong Studio Art program. It's intellectual art, I like to think.
SN: What's your involvement with art clubs on campus?
ED: I'm the VP for ProArts. It's an art advocacy club, so we support visual arts on campus, as well as looking into arts outside of the Skidmore community, helping to inform the Skidmore community about other arts and providing other opportunities for student artists.
SN: What work do you do with the club?
ED: Our base program for this semester is the Open Model Sessions, which are two hours every Thursday night, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., where there's a model available for students to come and use as a reference for painting or drawings. I do a lot of drawing and painting of the model.
SN: What role does that play with students' work?
ED: It's really important, especially if you're working with figurative work, where you need a reference to understand proportions and things. But it's also a classical way of learning, of looking and reporting. As far as representational arts go, it's important to be fluent in figure drawing.
SN: How are they going so far this semester?
ED: Really well. Attendance is really high. We had something like 21 students come two weeks ago. It's been very successful. We've been thinking of moving them from Thursdays to Wednesdays, although then, I wouldn't be the volunteer to set up and take down.
SN: What do you gain from the Open Model Sessions?
ED: I use them to make up work from classes, if I miss a class where there were models used. And also, I think it's a really good networking opportunity for students in the arts at Skidmore. In Studio Art classes, a lot of times there aren't a lot of opportunities for students to work collaboratively, with group projects as in other majors in academics.
It's rarely a group project situation, so I feel like this is a nice opportunity to meet other people who are also involved in the Studio Arts. I feel like my figure drawing has really improved. The time spent drawing out of class informs my time spent in class, so with more practice, I think I've become a better draftsman. Or draftswoman. I've been better at drawing in general and visually recording things.
SN: How do you see your work with the arts continuing?
ED: I went to this thing called, "Living the Liberal Arts" in the Tang the other week, and it was about careers in the studio arts. So there are a lot of opportunities. I think that I want to be a practicing artist.
SN: Do you have any advice for aspiring artists in freshman or sophomore year?
ED: Take advantage of these opportunities. When you graduate, you have to pay $10 for a modeling session, and you only have an hour and a half, whereas here, you have two hours. So it's a big deal. And join ProArts!
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