Beginning Color Drawing Spring 2011 Group Project

Posted on April 26, 2011 by matt ballou under Art, Life, Teaching

Once again, my Beginning Color Drawing class at the University of Missouri has created a large work together as a capstone to the semester. Seeing these big drawings happen has been a very rewarding aspect of my teaching.

This one is obviously a copy of one of Chuck Close‘s self portraits. And below is how it looks from the hallway. Click on the images to see them in larger glory!

These are mostly fun, low-pressure way to create something unifying after spending the whole semester developing and practicing skills. I love this project. Click here and here to see some past efforts!

Classic Studio Shots

Posted on April 16, 2011 by matt ballou under Art, Life

April 2011

On Intuition and Analysis

Posted on April 10, 2011 by matt ballou under Art, Life, Writing

My latest essay, On Intuition and Analysis, is up over at Neoteric Art. Click HERE to take a look… and leave a comment there if you’ve got thoughts to add to the discussion!

“The ways that the human mind manifests itself in creative activity are vast and various. People have theorized about and argued over modes of creative impetus for millennia. Artists and lovers of art are constantly attempting to plumb these depths, always looking for some elucidation of the mechanisms and maneuvers our minds utilize when we are in that universally recognized but seemingly undefined state that is creation.” Click the link above to read more…

Collage, by Zeinab Chaichi Raghimi

Posted on March 30, 2011 by matt ballou under Art, Teaching

One of my grads has developed a booklet containing a number of her collage works from last year. Please go over to Lulu and check it out by clicking the image below (it’s one of my favorites of the ones she made last summer). The booklet is pretty cheap to purchase (you can download a full-color, 25 page version for a couple bucks) and has some excellent images as well as a statement in English and Farsi. I think Zeinab is doing some great work here at the University of Missouri and I hope a few people will support and encourage her by picking up a copy of the booklet. Just click on the image below to go to the Lulu page where it’s for sale.

On Spirituality: Emerging Visions of the Spiritual

Posted on January 15, 2011 by matt ballou under Art, Life

“On Spirituality: Emerging Visions of the Spiritual”

Marshall University, Gallery 842,
842 4th Avenue, Huntington, WV

Jan. 21- Feb 18th.
Opening Reception: January 21st, 8-6pm

Included Artists:

Matthew Ballou
Jared Clark
Jeff Guy
Stacy Isenbarger
Leonor Jurado
Natalie Larsen
Casey Smith
Rusty Wallace
Charles Westfall

My statement for the show:

“These works on paper are part of a series exploring the formal elements of an ancient geometric form called the dodecahedron. Made from twelve pentagons, the dodecahedron was thought by Plato to be the physical shape of the universe. It was the fifth – the quintessential – of his famous Five Solids. This Solid carries with it a number of metaphysical meanings, not the least of which is the notion of an amoral stage or arena within which the machinations of reality take place. In my works, the angles, shapes, and semi-tessellation of the layered dodecahedra bridge the distance between the organic and the mathematic, between the known and the unknowable, between physical description and metaphysical intuition. These contemplations re-imagine those of Saint Augustine, who saw spiritual epiphany as inherent in rational inquiry.”

One of my works in the show, Quintessence #4:

Shades of Gray: Drawings in Graphite

Posted on January 10, 2011 by matt ballou under Art, Life, Updates

Ridderhof Martin Gallery
SHADES OF GRAY: Drawings in Graphite
January 21 – February 25
Preview Reception
Thursday, January 20, 5-7 pm

Included artists:

Lea Anderson
Matthew Ballou
Gianluca Bianchino
Elaine Kaufmann
Darice Polo
Lana Stephens
Christine Weir

Show Statement:

Shades of Gray: Drawings in Graphite presents the work of seven artists from Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Washington, DC while exploring a variety of ways that graphite is used by contemporary artists.

In the past, graphite was relegated to use as a medium for preparatory studies that would later be reworked into more finished work in other media. However, due to a renewed interested in drawing among contemporary artists, it is no longer only a means to an end. The use of graphite provides a surprisingly common ground for the realization of each artist’s vision despite such diverse inspiration sources as architecture, contradiction, filtered memories, irony, isolation, obsession, phobias, scale, scientific inquiry, and social consciousness.

Above, one of the works I’ll have in the show, Established (Job 38, Strapped), graphite on paper , 2008, 16 inches in diameter.

Teaching Close Encounters

Posted on October 31, 2010 by matt ballou under Art, Teaching, Writing

I’ve got a new piece up over at Neoteric talking about a project where I use Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind to teach art-making concepts. Check it out and if you teach, give it a shot. I’d love to know if others get good results with it.

Teaching Close Encounters

Dodecahedron Bronze, Part 6

Posted on March 3, 2010 by matt ballou under Art

The Weld. Last month MU Grad student Ian Shelly helped me weld the pieces of my Dodecahedron together – it had been cast in two pieces back in November. Thanks to another MU Grad Natalie Hellmann for taking the photos!

The set up…

The glow…

Wire-brushing the soot..

Sandblasting…

Triumph!

Nearly done…

New Tondo Works

Posted on February 13, 2010 by matt ballou under Art

I’m ramping up for a large solo show next year. Have been in the studio working in gouache on paper, inventing and reinventing figures, adjusting colors, fiddling with shapes, etc. Two of the studies are below.