New York Academy of Art: Ian Factor

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Chasing Light - Painting and Teaching Within the Magical Landscape of Altos de Chavon

By Lily Olive (MFA 2015)

I spent this past August immersed in the magical environment of Altos de Chavon as one of the recipients of the New York Academy of Art Altos de Chavon Artist and Teaching Residency, living and breathing what seemed to be some kind of mirage of an idealized ultimate painter's paradise. I along with three other NYAA alumni: Ivy Hickam (MFA 2013), Ian Factor (MFA 2014) and Alfonso Gosalbez Berenger (MFA 2014), were given the fortunate opportunity to be selected to teach and work at La Escuela de Diseño Altos de Chavón, a design school in La Romana, Dominican Republic this Summer as part of an ongoing dialogue and exchange program NYAA and Altos de Chavon established last year. Chavon is an affiliate of Parson ́s School of Design in New York.

Ian and Ivy went down in June for the first residency round, and Alfonso and I followed in August for the second round. Ian instructed a class on anatomical drawing, Ivy gave a class on introduction to printmaking, Alfonso taught a landscape painting class, and I taught a class on art historical modalities and contemporary art, a brief survey of a variety of historical technical processes and painting exercises, lectures and several conceptual drawing exercises.

We all overlapped our time there by one week in the beginning of August. Ian and Ivy, along with the wonderful teachers and staff of Altos, helped welcome Alfonso and I to the school and showed us the lay of the land. It was very special to be able to spend that time together with each other painting outside, printmaking with Ivy and the students, taste testing delicious Dominican foods liketostones (fried green plantains!), and working on my Spanish language survival skills.

One night, we even ate fried parrot fish at Bayahibe, a beautiful nearby local beach, inside a gift shop surrounded by dresses, wind chimes, painted shells, and palm tee paintings, as torrential rain surprised us and had interrupted our dominos game and dinner on folding tables in the sand..the scramble to retreat inside away from the sheets of gusty rain, grabbing plates of steaming hot fish and cold Presidente beers wrapped in soggy napkins as we ending up moving our dinner from beach to open air gift shop was an experience I will not forget anytime soon.

I kept telling the other residents and teachers at the school that the stunning natural beauty was so overwhelmingly gorgeous, it was borderline saccharine. Certainly a nearly impossible feat to try to capture moments of fading suffused sunsets, jeweled sunbeams dancing and diving across frothy turquoise crests, mangos and coconuts weighing down above, hanging heavy amongst the medieval style architecture.

Bright yellow plums dotted the pathways, butterflies darted in and out of huge yellow, radiant magenta, pink and white tropical blossoms, and light flickered in and out of swaying palm trees. Geckos and iguanas roamed in and out of our housing, and stray kittens mewed at us for scraps. “Cheese” the cat, a beautiful
mottled gray and white gregarious feline with emerald eyes befriended me quickly, and he spent days following me around, jumping into my lap and demanding attention and treats.

It was paradise realized as far as I was concerned. Perhaps we had landed in an episode of Lost or were living like Tom Hanks character in Castaway I mused, as I scrambled up trees to grab mangos and coconuts, victoriously smashing them open. Life existed everywhere I looked, cacti sprouting out of red rocks, orangey red flowers from the Flamboyant trees lining the roads, pathways, swimming pool, and lighting up the environment with their fiery chroma.
A brief background on Altos. Recreated as a 16 community, perched upon a cliff above the Chavon River. Construction of the village began in 1976 and the village was inaugurated in 1982 with the concert by NYC's one and only Frank Sinatra at the amphitheater. The village was designed by Dominican architect Jose Antonio Caro, and created by Italian master designer and cinematographer Roberto Coppa.The village, in addition to being home to the Altos de Chavon School of Design, also house shops, boutiques, fine art galleries, restaurants and an archaeological museum atop the picturesque cliffs. The residency consisted of having art studios in a great thatched hut to work out of, and one week of leading and teaching a painting workshop; mine was called History of Painting Techniques and Contemporary Art.

The schools administration and staff were beyond welcoming, Carmen Lorente, the schools academic director, helped us realize and make possible the lessons and ideas we had for our classes and material lists. It was fantastic!
We had lunches together almost daily, and debriefed each other on how our students were progressing, what ideas we had planned for our class lessons, and often lobbying for trips to the beach to plein air.

As a teacher, the experience of having such hardworking and dedicated students was extremely rewarding, and it was a pleasure to push them and see the results. A week is unfortunately not nearly enough time to impart as much knowledge as one would like, but it is long enough to experience very intense immersions into a variety of techniques and experiences together as a class. I gave lectures, painting demos, assisted during lessons, and encouraged the students to keep pushing through the lessons, which were very challenging for them, but they stood up to the demands and dove into their work, with impressive results. It was not uncommon to spend quite a bit of time after class, sometimes hours, assisting the students in continuing to work through their paintings and assignments for that days class. I was touched with how much genuine dedication and love they had for their crafts.

After the classed ended, I spent the rest of my trip outside, plein air painting from life. The time escaped quickly, and I spent entire days working frantically to try to put down color and light and capture as much of the environment as I could.

The landscape, the students, the staff and the entire experience was beautiful and rewarding. We are all so grateful to have been given these opportunities, and I am looking for ways to go back and visit my new Dominican friends as soon as possible.

Mucho Gracias!
Lily

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Ivy Hickam (MFA 2013), Ian Factor (MFA 2014) and Alfonso Gosalbez Berenger (MFA 2014) and Lily Olive (MFA 2013) spent their summer on an Academy sponsored teaching residency in Dominican Republic.

When Plan Change You Go With Them

By IvY HickAM (MFA 2013)

When plans change you go with them. Instead of teaching my planned for week long monotype course I would be teaching a three day intensive workshop. Last minute, Carmen worked her magic and I ended up teaching the most wonderful group of students. I was lucky enough to have a few current students of the design school, going into their second year, and a handful of alumni who lived locally and wanted to be at Altos learning art again. I had painters, drawers, and installation artists. I had the most engaged and engaging students a non-Spanish speaking nervous teacher could ask for. I had assisted teachers all through the past year in various community collages around New York but it was my first class to teach all on my own.

I had to restructure my class the night before, but with the level of artists I had in my class I was able to teach them just as much information in the intense short time we had together. Painting, scraping, drawing with sticks and q-tips--a whirl of monochromatic prints, watercolor, Japanese paper handprints and experiments in viscosity. My students ventured outside to paint from life, using the beauty of their surroundings. They used themselves and each other, still life, found images, and their imagination. I drilled image after image by Degas (an avid maker of monotypes and a favorite of mine) into their heads. I spoke about the importance of contrast, wiping out the lights, and about negative vs. positive. I showed them current working artists as well, showing them how varied monotypes can be. They showed me, that even with a language barrier, I can show a class what I know and in return they will show me their voices as artists. The students worked very hard and the amount of prints they made revealed their excitement for the process, leaving time to joke, listen to music and experiment with accidental prints of course.

The smile on everyone’s face as they lifted the paper from their plate, the moths diving into the water baths where the paper was soaking outside, the tables covered with an increasing number of prints--then suddenly the students hugging me and running to catch a bus, it was Friday and the workshop was already at an end. I left feeling the students were as excited about the monotype process as I am…success! Everyone had helped everyone else, sharing paper and translating and critiquing each other’s work. By the end they were helping each other print on their own and they didn’t need me anymore. They were self-sufficient printmakers. A far cry from the first morning when at the very beginning of my lesson on how the monotype evolved throughout history, I was interrupted repeatedly in the middle of trying to say the inventor’s name, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, by the local cat Cheese’s loud meowing.

Studio Portraits: Ian Factor (MFA 2014)

Ian Factor, Class of 2014

Studio: 2nd floor

www.ianfactor.com

New Britain Art Museum, Final Crits and Studio Visits

By Ian Factor (MFA 2014)

Last week of classes, three more final class crits and then it's summer break.

Last week I had the incredible pleasure and honor to have a piece of mine shown at the New Britain Museum Of American Art in CT. Lily Koto Olive, Zach Brown and I rented a car and drove up for the opening, where we saw our work hanging, met some amazing people and had a great overall road trip away from NYC for the day.

Also last week a small group of students from JP Roy's Painting II class visited him in his studio in Brooklyn. He spent a ton of time with us going through all his studio practices, his new work, and even some science experiments! He also had set out a sweet spread of food and drink, a true host.

Last weekend was the 2nd years' final crits: three full days, I went to all of them. There are too many images to post here at once, but below are a few to get an idea of the intensity of the weekend. Congrats to all the second years for kicking some serious butt. Incredible work all around!

Yesterday, a small group of students went to John Alexander's Studio in Tribeca where he spent several hours with us, talking and showing us his new work for an upcoming Museum show. Wonderful experience. His work is inspiring and his stories are priceless!

Below is a selection of photos from these highlights of the last two weeks. There are many other things to add, but since I have three paintings due this week, I better get back to work!

Till next post, after the semester ends, hope you're all enjoying the spring!

New Britain Museum Of Art

Artist's Reception with Ian Factor, Lily Koto Olive and Zach Brown.

JP Roy's studio visit:

2nd Year critiques:

Ian Factor (MFA 2014) has been blogging here throughout the academic year about his first year at the Academy and moving to New York City. Check the label "First Year Experience" or "Ian Factor" for more posts about his first year at the Academy.

Final Weeks and Final Crits

By Ian Factor (MFA 2014)

It's the final week for many students, the 2nd year's final crits are this coming weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and many of us are working around the clock getting our work together for the end of the year presentations, first and second years alike. Though some classes will be held after this weekend, most of the work needs to be done in the next 10 days or so.

Students working on large paintings in room 201.

Before I get into the photos, here's a brief quote from Robert Henri, the great American painter and teacher, one of the founders of the Ashcan School and the author of The Art Spirit, one of the most important books about art and living the life of an artist ever written. He's always a good source of insight and perspective, especially at times when the artist's emotional mind is at battle with the rational mind ... which is so often.

This is for all the students at the Academy and specifically the second year students getting ready for your FINAL CRITS this weekend. Kick ass!

"If you want to know how to do a thing you must first have a complete desire to do that thing. Then go to kindred spirits—others who have wanted to do that thing—and study their ways and means, learn from their successes and failures and add your quota. Thus you may acquire from the experience of the race. And with this technical knowledge you may go forward, expressing through the play of forms the music that is in you and which is very personal to you."

--ROBERT HENRI

My studio during the MFA open studios.

Sleep and exercise are taking the back seat as I see the impossible task ahead of getting all my pieces done in this limited time. It's strangely like the final push before a solo show, but also much different in so many ways. Different pressure and different expectations. Trying to let go of any expectations at all, it's still difficult, and every day is an emotional roller coaster. I'll just do the best I can, knowing that most of my pieces will have to be "finished" this summer.

More progress on my history painting, "Seppuku", 80" x 96."

In Progress detail of main figure, "Seppuku."

People's nerves are running thin, and the intensity is as dense as the morning fog over the lake in Maine that I'm longing to be relaxing at right now. But even with the stress, there is still a smile and a friendly, helpful and enlightening conversation to share with a fellow student going through similar experiences. The community here at the Academy is beyond special and unique.

Tatiana Ortiz Rubio with her newest painting.

It's interesting that in the midst of all this stress, anxiety and self doubt, I had a bit of a breakthrough in my drawing, which has been an ongoing challenge this year. Once the semester is over, I'll be posting more explicit details on some of the learning and realizations I've had this semester...I'll need some time away from school to digest and process it all before I try to put it to words. In the meantime, here are a few more pics of new work and scenes at the school ... hope to see you soon!