Student Magazine Collection No. 1 (May 2022)

Hi everyone!! We are the Wellin Museum Communication Assistants, as well as the editors of “Collection”. We are SO excited to bring to you our new Wellin Museum Magazine! We’ve spent the past semester working incredibly hard to bring to you our first edition of this magazine, and can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

We hope you can use “Collection” to discover all of the great things that we love about working and experiencing the Wellin Museum at Hamilton.

Through the Wellin, we were able to connect to the art world, meeting and learning from artists whose work was displayed in our gallery. Creating this newsletter has been an incredibly rewarding experience, in which we learned from each other, tried new things, and truly got to know the wonderful group of people at the museum.

We want to say a big thank you to everyone at the Wellin who has contributed so much to the making of this edition. A huge thank you to Marjorie Johnson for all of the time and guidance you have given us. Also, thank you to Yashua Klos and Will Haynes, who dedicated their time and talents to making this magazine ever so special.

As the semester comes to an end, and summer approaches, we hope you can come visit us at the Wellin, and discover some of the awesome artworks and events we’re about to show you.

SPRING SEMESTER REVIEW

Open Studio

January 27, February 24, March 31, April 21 Open studios are student-led art-making events meant to engage Hamilton students in the art world.

This semester, we have had four open studios: Abstract Painting Party, Drawing Big Faces, Funky Figure Drawing, and Wonderfully Wonky Ceramics. Today we’re highlighting our personal favorite open studio: Funky Figure Drawing! This event centered around the topic of figure drawing. Student docents served as the models, and all Hamilton students were welcome to drop-in and learn a few tips and techniques to improve their figure drawing skills. Pictured here to the right.

Photo by Janelle Rodriguez.

Art Walk for Black History Month February 21, 2022 This event served as an opportunity to learn about American history through an artistic lens. This event highlighted the work of Black artists and creators, using both artworks from the Wellin’s collection and “Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR.”

Evening of Art for Educators

April 8, 2022 The Evening of Art for Educators was an interdisciplinary educational event for K-12 teachers and administrators.

This event featured a lively and exciting performance by the Hamilton saxophone ensemble. It combined music, artmaking, and student-led exhibition tours. In addition, this event involved discussions and ideas for virtual K-12 workshops.

Photo by Janelle Rodriguez.

Wellin Kids April 9, 2022 Wellin Kids are family friendly events meant for children ages 5 and up. This is a great way to introduce to kids not only the fun and excitement that comes with making art, but also to the world of museums.

At Wellin Kids events, student docents help organize and display various forms of art. Students aim to support and encourage kids to have fun and be creative. One event this semester centered around Super Stamps, and involved children learning to use stamps and prints, inspired by the “Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR” exhibition.

Will Haynes

Docent & Student Collections Assistant

By Miriam Lerner April 10, 2022

Photo by Janelle Rodriguez.

Class year: 2024 Majors: History and Art History Minors: Japanese Hometown: Houston, TX Activities: Photography, Cello A Little Bit About Will

I am a double major: History and Art History, and a minor in Japanese. Making my concentration decision was a very arduous and long journey. I originally applied to Hamilton as a Public Policy major, but it evolved, by the end of my Fall semester, into History. My interest in Art History really started with my job at the Wellin, starting to learn about the different parts of the industry. I was introduced to this very broad world that I really wanted to participate in.

I’m half Japanese, my mother’s side of the family is from Japan. This meant that I grew up speaking Japanese casually with my mother at home. I used to live in Japan, for about seven total years, but usually at International Schools, so most of my life was still in English. So it’s been a personal goal in college to improve my Japanese skills, especially to get to know my family in Japan.

Working at the Wellin Museum

I was always keen to work at the Wellin, ever since I came to Hamilton. I began working last June in a summer internship position. The summer project continued into the Fall semester, as I continued my work from cataloging to digitizing. This role was created in order to organize and present a new gift received by the museum. This gift was given in 2019 by Thomas Wilson and Jill Garling, and encompasses a group of 305 prints. The prints are mainly mid-century street photography, but also include some 19th- and 21st-century pieces as well. I just finished this project last week, and am starting the next. Because of this work, the new artworks can be found on the Wellin website, both with a detailed description and an associated image.

In addition to working in cataloging, I also work as a Wellin docent. I started training in Fall of 2021, and started working this past semester. That has centered around attending and participating in WellinWorks events. I’m also preparing for my first tour, which I’m excited to give in about three weeks. I love talking about art and was very lucky that my family shared that love.

Being a docent means I can share that with new friends too. It’s a great communal environment, and a way to meet and interact with other people who similarly have a passion for the art world.

Moving Forward

I’m hoping to study abroad in Japan next Spring, which will help solidify my Japanese language skills. Maybe in the future I’d like to live in Japan as well. After college, I’m hoping to get my masters in Art History and work somewhere in the museum industry, while allowing myself to explore different options in the industry.

By Sae Gleba March 7, 2022 The team’s conversation with Yashua Klos happened midmorning on a dreary Monday during the artist’s first day at Hamilton, where he led tours, gave talks, and spoke with students about his first solo museum exhibition. Born in Chicago in 1977, Klos has developed a career creating large-scale printbased collages that highlight notions of identity, oppression, and family. He works in multiple mediums, spanning sculpture, collage, and printmaking.

THE INSPIRATION Bold text denotes a quote from Yashua Klos

Yashua Klos: “I used to hear something a lot that I think everyone hears, which is ‘If you do something you love, you never work a day in your life.’ I’m here to tell you that’s not true. It’s still work, and there are still days, weeks, time, where you’re not totally motivated.”

Labor is a central theme in the exhibition “Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR”, which focuses on themes of identity, family, and representation. So how does an artist, like Klos, balance the dichotomy that exists when his job, his labor, is also his passion? “I show up.” Klos says: “The business is my art practice [...] But along the way, I catch inspiration. I remember the things that made me an artist in the first place, all the things that motivate me, the things I love, the passions that you talk about, that’s all along that route. But that doesn’t happen unless I get my butt to work.”

Like many artists, Klos spent his early career trying to “figure it out.” He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Northern Illinois University, then studied Renaissance painting at L’Atelier Neo Medici in France before earning his Master’s degree in Fine Arts at Hunter College in New York. “What I’ve realized is that being an artist, there’s no one way to do it. There’s no handbook, there’s no prescribed route that works for everybody the same way. It really is a ‘choose your own adventure’ journey.” Klos credits the community found in art school to be one of the most formative and important in developing his artistic talent and ability. “The main resource you have when you’re in school is each other. And when you graduate, you realize how precious that is because you don’t get studio visits without reaching out and getting that community to come visit like you have in school. It’s built in, to have a critique every couple of weeks or whatever the schedule is. And once you leave school, nobody is tasked with coming to see you and talk about your work. It’s good to start building that community early.”

Those art critiques are how you grow, states Klos. “You’re vulnerable to all these interpretations and opinions about what you’re making. I think as you’re discovering what your practice is, the challenge is in filtering some of those voices. So you start to realize you get closer to understanding what your core purpose is with the work.”

That “core purpose” drives Klos’ work, inspiring his creativity. Like all artists and creators, Klos has failed. “A lot.” He says, “I fail a lot and I’ve come to understand that I have to fail a lot in order to get to something that’s really good. So when I fail now, it’s easier to move past it because I just go, ‘Oh, that just means there’s something good coming after this.’”

THE PROCESS

Klos is revolutionary in the way he examines and utilizes his primary medium: printmaking. “My experience with printmaking was that it was very static and rigid because the printmakers I learned from, they would figure out the image ahead of time and then translate that image through the printmaking process. Once they got their master print, so to speak, every following print would be identical. I wanted something much looser than that. I wanted to not have to know ahead of time what the work would look like. So I thought printmaking for me wouldn’t be the product, but it would be the process and I could make a whole bunch of prints, and some of them could be perfect.

Some could be imperfect. Some could be a mess. [...] That’s what collage did. It opened up printmaking into being much more experimental.” Deviating from the norm of printmaking, a process in which the print is to be pulled again and again, Klos chooses to destroy the blocks he uses, only printing from them once. He adapts a medium created around the idea of permanence, of consistent duplication, and creatively reinvents it. “I’ll never use blocks the same way. So you see in the show, we left some of the blocks there. That hand which you see in Vein Vine, if I were to reprint that hand, I would do it differently. I know I can move the fingers to articulate the hand totally differently. I can print it in different colors. It can just be a whole new piece, right? So I can reuse the block, but it will never be used the same way twice, which is the opposite of printmaking.”

THE OUTCOME

“Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR,” Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, February 12 – June 12, 2022.

Photo by Janelle Rodriguez.

Photo by Janelle Rodriguez from Evening of Art for Educators.

1. Justine Kurland. New York in Color, 2021. Collage (hardcover), 20 1/4 × 11 3/4 in. (51.4 x 29.8 cm). Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Purchase, The Wynant J. Williams ‘35 Art Collection Fund. © Justine Kurland.c 2. Atong Atem. Fruit of the Earth, 2016. Archival inkjet print, 15 in. × 9 15/16 in. (38.1 × 25.2 cm). Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Purchase, The Wynant J. Williams ‘35 Art Collection Fund. © Atong Atem.

3. Henry Ossawa Tanner. Moonrise, Tangier, 1912. Oil on plywood, 19 1/2 × 23 1/2 in. (49.5 × 59.7 cm). Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, NY. Gift of Elihu Root, Jr., Class of 1936. Copyright estate of the artist or assignee.

FROM THE COLLECTION... We chose this artwork from

the collection after having experienced the Yashua Klos exhibition. This work, “Iron Will” by Margarita Cabrera, reminded us of the exhibition in many ways.

Firstly, it similarly uses mixed media and collage to bring together various forms of artistic expression. The work also engages with print-making by incorporating a background layer of print. These two artworks aim to represent those whose labor is often unrecognized, especially women and people of color. Both Klos and Cabrera incorporate figural representation in their works, using faces and bodies to display different forms of identity, focusing on invisible labor.

Incorporating the tools of factory and domestic workers connects labour to artistic visibility. Though both “Iron Will” and the works of art featured in “Yashua Klos: OUR LABOUR” incorporate similar techniques, the final results are very different. Understanding the differences between the mediums used and the end product was fascinating.

Margarita Cabrera. Iron Will, 2013. Screenprint with vinyl and thread, 30 × 22 in. (76.2 × 55.9 cm). Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Purchase, The Wynant J. Williams ‘35 Art Collection Fund. © Margarita Cabrera.

Upcoming Events Spring 2022

May 5th: Senior Thesis Exhibition Opening May 11th: Art History Thesis Presentations May 14th: Wellin Kids Event May 17th: Senior Soirée May 21st: K-12 Educator Workshop The Wellin Museum of Art is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm.

Photo by Janelle Rodriguez.