Student works from the painting, drawing and printmaking classes are currently on display in the Spingold Theater Dreitzer Gallery. Students from the beginning and intermediate levels have self portraits, still-life paintings, ink drawings and other works showcased at the gallery. It is exciting to see such a wide variety of student work out on display. JustArts interviewed three of the artists whose work is featured in the show: Estie Martin '14, Paul Belenky '14 and Lenny Schnier '13.

JustArts: What do you have in the show and what was the assignment?

Estie Martin: I have three drawings that I made in "Intermediate Drawing" with [Prof.] Susan Lichtman (FA). My favorite is a black and white ink painting of bones. The assignment was to draw something from life and work on the negative space. I had to start with the negative space to keep the bones white.

Paul Belenky: I have two paintings in the show. One is a painting of a man holding a fish. This was my final project for "Intermediate Drawing." We had to make a series of six drawings from one newspaper photo. I liked the project. My other painting is of a pair of my dad's hiking boots. We had to make something that looked [photographically] realistic.

Lenny Schnier: I have six paintings up in the show. Two were done during the fall semester and four were done during winter break. ... I wouldn't necessarily call these paintings "projects," rather they are stages in my growth as an artist. The way "Intermediate Painting" is designed is not like any other art course I have taken before. You have a lot of free reign with your paintings, you can pretty much go in whatever direction you feel you want to explore. [Prof.] Graham Campbell (FA) assigns a title for you to choose from, you pick a title and you make a painting. So what is on display in Dreitzer are the pieces that I selected to be shown: "The Gathering," which is the big one, and my self portrait done in the style of an artist who paints with broken brush strokes. … The four paintings were from a series of ten [pieces] I did over the break. Graham gave us nine titles to interpret in any way we wanted and the tenth was free for us to come up with.

JustArts: What did you learn from the project or from this class in general?

EM: I learned a different approach to ink and to working with negative space. It's a lot harder, because ink is very permanent.

LS: I have learned a lot from Intermediate Painting and Graham and my perspective on art and how it's produced has also been altered, in a good way. I have been shown more complex ways to make paintings and think about paintings.

JustArts: Any final thoughts?

PB: I took my first painting class at Brandeis and I have loved all my art classes here so far.

LS: I love art and I love the Studio Art program … but in a perfect world we would have a bigger Goldman-Schwartz [building], seniors, post-baccs and underclassmen all in one location, and more classes—we only have painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing and a few photography [classes] now.

Martin, Belenky and Schnier are all Studio Art majors concentrating in painting majors and have taken an extensive range of art classes while at Brandeis.