Visual Arts Toolkit

Painter Robert Tharsing talks about how he became interested in abstract painting.

Artist Andee Rudloff describes her process for painting a large-scale mural, from planning the work to transferring it to a building.

Derrick Riley talks about what inspires him, how he transferred his drawing skills to printmaking, and his approach to teaching.

Arturo Sandoval takes viewers through the process of creating the Millennium Project hanging in the Singletary Center of Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky.

Photographer Uwe Ommer tells the story behind his international photography project.

Tom Myers discusses how he has traveled the world photographing primarily animals and the challenges of wildlife photography.

Chris Strecker demonstrates how to throw a pot and discusses the ceramics-making process, from shaping the clay to glazing and firing the pot.

Stephen Rolfe Powell demonstrates the process of glass blowing and talks about the physicality and team aspect of this art form.

Dan Barnes talks about his evolution from creating more traditional stained glass pieces to exploring mixed media,

Garry Bibbs talks about his background, his role as a mentor of art studio students, and his influences and inspirations.

Chris Casey and Tony Higdon describe how they use ancient techniques to create one-of-a-kind functional pieces and sculpture.

Russell Dawson discusses how rocks have a special appeal to him as an artist and a stonemason.

In this profile, Damon Farmer displays his tools and reveals how he creates sculptures within the limitations of sand.

Jess Myers, Carrie Christensen, and Nora Christensen, founders of Squallis Puppeteers, discuss the history of puppetry.

Kentucky artist Helen La France captures her memories of the rural South on canvas.

Folk artist Minnie Adkins talks about how she came to carve the roosters and other animals she is known for, including a creature she originated, the “Roach Terminator”.

William McClure and his son Randy make wooden shingles the old-fashioned way.

Jennifer Heller describes how she designs and creates fine baskets that are both functional and artistic.

Anupama Sahasrabudhe creates elaborately designed mehendi on women’s hands for weddings and other special events.

Teaching artist Catherine Rubin explains warm and cool colors, demonstrates the effects colors have on one another, and shows artworks using warm and cool colors.

Artist Thomas Freese shows examples of accordion-fold books, demonstrates how to make one and provides calligraphy tips.

Maude Alexander shows how to make an ancestor mask—from the materials needed to the process involved.

Artist Thomas Freese defines tessellation and shows examples.

Artist Thomas Freese shows how to make a tessellating stamp and use it to create an interlocking pattern.

Truman Lowe, a contemporary sculptor, works with students to create a collaborative art project at Wickliffe Mounds.

Elizabeth Jewell illustrates how artists use the elements of art—color, line, value, space, shape, form and texture—in their work.

Host Elizabeth Jewell explores the principles of design—balance, proportion, emphasis, contrast, pattern, repetition, movement, rhythm, and unity—using artworks at the University of Kentucky Art Museum’s collection.

Martin Rollins describes the four-part process of responding to visual art

Kentucky artists Sheldon Tapley, Ann Tower, and Robert Tharsing, and Speed Art Museum curator Julien Robson talk about three works of art.

This video excerpt features curator Brion Clinkingbeard and artists Sarah Frederick and Wayne Ferguson discussing their unique perspectives on art.

In this interview, Rude Osolnik maintains that what makes a good craftsman is what makes a good artist: control of their material and techniques.

Diane Heilenman visits an exhibit at the Louisville Visual Art Association and talks about how to look at and write about both an exhibit and a work of art.

Artist and University of Kentucky art professor Arturo Sandoval discusses his approach to teaching and advising art students.

Two contemporary painters of realistic landscapes describe the progression of their paintings.

Gaela Erwin talks about her interest in the genre of self-portrait.

Painter Sheldon Tapley talks about his process, from preparing the masonite panel to the laying on of paint to the decision about what to paint.

This exploration of the expressionistic style featured three contemporary artists.

Artist Mark Priest talks about his influences as well as the importance of composition and how he likes “to put the viewer in the painting.”

Artist Ann Tower was trained as an abstract painter. She says her work is “rooted in the realistic world, the observed world” and that she responds to a painting that makes the viewer take a different look at the...

Artist Gerald Ferstman says he plans his abstract paintings, but as he works, he becomes more spontaneous.

Artist Nancy Cassell talks about the importance of landscape, nature, and place to her as well as the influence of the Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists.

Painter and filmmaker Dionisio Ceballos discusses his work, the subject matter, palette he is drawn to, and the connections between his life’s spiritual and artistic journeys.

Martin Rollins talks about the challenges and advantages of his chosen medium—oil pastels—and gives viewers a peak into his sketchbook.

For artist Carolyn Whitesel, books are more than words on paper; they are works of art that showcase the book itself.

Artist Stephanie Potter demonstrates how she creates relief prints, starting with an idea, then cutting an image into the wood or linoleum she has prepared, and, finally, printing the surface.

Juanita Yeager shows how she creates patterns and selects fabric for her original quilts.

In this profile taped at her farm along the Kentucky River, artist Dobree Adams describes the age-old process she follows in creating her contemporary tapestries and rugs.

Louisville, Ky.-based sculptor Ed Hamilton reflects on the evolution of his work, from his Junkology series done in the late 1970s to the large monuments for which he has become known.

LaVon Williams, a fifth generation wood carver, talks about the influences on his work, which include his family, the tradition of wood carving in the African American community, and jazz.

In this video segment, ceramic artist Wayne Ferguson explains how a teacher’s interest—and the clay that teacher gave him—helped him through his troubled teenage years and how his work helped him deal with a car accident that robbed him...

This video segment takes young students into a little girl named Manuela’s home for a close look at her grandmother Miriam's paintings. They learn about painting techniques and find out about life in Columbia.

Several artists present a variety of Chinese crafts—including paper cutting, painting, and kite making—to youngsters as part of a Chinese New Year’s Celebration at the Explorium, a children’s museum in Lexington, Kentucky.

Susan Mullins Kwaronhia:wi, a Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve in Canada shows her grandchildren how to create a dreamcatcher.

Artist Maude Alexander shows some of the African masks in her collection and talks about how African masks are more than aesthetic artifacts.

In this segment Nirmala Sathaye and Suhasini V. Bapkar, who live in Kentucky, show how they use a mixture of rice flour and sand or salt to continue an honored custom from their homeland by creating a rangoli.

Using the best chair-making traditions, Berea, Kentucky, craftsman Brian Boggs creates works of art that can be sat on. This segment explores the painstaking process Boggs uses to make his chairs—from locating and cutting the wood to designing and...

An avid recycler, Pauline Proffitt of Paint Lick, Kentucky, turns rags to riches as she transforms old clothes into rugs and quilts.

Truman Lowe is a contemporary sculptor working primarily in wood that he often scavenges from the landscape. This segment is from the KET documentary From the Shadows of the River, which chronicles Lowe’s visit to Wickliffe Mounds, the site...

In this video segment, contemporary Native American artist Truman Lowe discusses his visit to an ancient Native American community in Western Kentucky, Wickliffe Mounds, and how it influenced his work. The segment also includes a tour of art works...

This segment focuses on Ellis Wilson’s travels to Haiti in the 1950s and their effect on his work.