Rutgers–Camden Art Professor Helps Students "Get Real" With Their Art

CAMDEN --  In an era of Facebook and MySpace, today’s teenagers are pros at doing intricate digital designs.

And that’s a shame, says a Rutgers—Camden art professor, who believes that an entire generation is at risk of losing the physical connection to art that has sustained cultures for thousands of years.

This summer, a group of Gloucester Catholic High School students and Rutgers—Camden art students conducted a six-week “master class” session with Margery Amdur, an associate professor of art at Rutgers—Camden.  Throughout the summer, the students worked with Amdur at the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia, where they got their hands dirty and learned about printmaking, screening processes, and so much more.  Their works will appear in an exhibit this October.

“There’s so much emphasis on electronic media that we’re losing the inherent romance of art that happens when you’re actually touching material and creating art with your own hands,” explains Amdur.  “Technology isolates us. The tradition of art is for us to learn collaboratively.”

Jessica Wisniewski, an undergraduate art student at Rutgers—Camden, credits the program for expanding her horizons.  “I never would have discovered various materials, including the use of celluclay, resin, wax, and frosted mylar,” she says.

The students recently completed work on a silkscreen print.  “We took an old tradition and brought it up to the moment,” explains Amdur.  “The entire notion of a print has really expanded.  These students are applying their contemporary imagery to a tradition that is centuries old.”

“It’s sort of radical to think that these artistic traditions, taken for granted by artists for millennia, are pretty much entirely new to today’s young adults,” says Amdur, who herself takes an innovative approach to painting by starting with paint-by-numbers works.

The students also learned from another master:  Bob Franklin, the 78-year-old expert who runs the printing press at the Brandywine Workshop.

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