David Gerhard is a maker, artist, designer, and educator. He earned his MFA in Art (printmaking emphasis) from Clemson University and his BAs (with Distinction) in Studio Art and Communications Studies from Sonoma State University. Gerhard has taught in the Art Departments at Clemson University, Furman University, Anderson University, as well as the Printshop and the Greenville County Museum of Art. Gerhard is passionate about contemporary printmaking, new media art, graphic and web design, art theory and global art history. Providing creative work for diverse clients nationally, Gerhard's work has recently been exhibited as the Twin Peaks Stage at the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco, California. Gerhard also has three public artworks in Greenville, SC. His art is in the permanent collections of universities, museums and individuals internationally. http://www.scgsah.org/david-gerhard.php
For more information about David and his art, please go to: http://www.davidgerhardart.com/
This panel will consist of five short, ten-minute case studies, each of which will examine some aspect of failure and the creative process. As a craft tradition, printmaking is a medium that is often rule-based, with little tolerance for deviation. These formulas are both a strength and liability; they provide systems of production, but can lead the artist to become risk-adverse. Failure offers opportunities to gain insights into new processes and variations on traditional methods while also having the potential to lead to formal, technical and conceptual innovations. Failure also plays a role in evolutionary processes – and the capacity of an individual or organization to adapt through trial and error is central to their fitness. As a friend once told me, “You do not know how good a printer you are until something goes wrong.” This panel proposes to look at the question of failure as a meaningful aspect of a studio practice and the teaching of art. Papers by Leslie Mutchler, David Gerhard and Andy Rubin will look at the role of failure as an intrinsic aspect of the creative process. Erin Zona offers her experience in founding a school as a response to failed academic job searches, and Phyllis McGibbon will argue that risk of failure is one of the most valuable pedagogical aspects of the printmaking medium. The papers will be brief to allow for ample time for discussion.
For more information about the SCG International Portland Conference, please go to: http://sgciportland.com/portfolio/panels-papers/
David will also present as a part of the panel, "Case Studies in Failure," chaired by Beauvais Lyons, at the 2016 SGC International Conference, F L U X : THE EDGE OF YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW, which will be held March 30-April 2, 2016 in Portland, Oregon.
This panel will consist of five short, ten-minute case studies, each of which will examine some aspect of failure and the creative process. As a craft tradition, printmaking is a medium that is often rule-based, with little tolerance for deviation. These formulas are both a strength and liability; they provide systems of production, but can lead the artist to become risk-adverse. Failure offers opportunities to gain insights into new processes and variations on traditional methods while also having the potential to lead to formal, technical and conceptual innovations. Failure also plays a role in evolutionary processes – and the capacity of an individual or organization to adapt through trial and error is central to their fitness. As a friend once told me, “You do not know how good a printer you are until something goes wrong.” This panel proposes to look at the question of failure as a meaningful aspect of a studio practice and the teaching of art. Papers by Leslie Mutchler, David Gerhard and Andy Rubin will look at the role of failure as an intrinsic aspect of the creative process. Erin Zona offers her experience in founding a school as a response to failed academic job searches, and Phyllis McGibbon will argue that risk of failure is one of the most valuable pedagogical aspects of the printmaking medium. The papers will be brief to allow for ample time for discussion.
For more information about the SCG International Portland Conference, please go to: http://sgciportland.com/portfolio/panels-papers/
