Art Studio

Ceramics courses are taught from a fine arts perspective. Our primary objective for students who have chosen ceramics as their "area of emphasis" is that they find, clarify, and strengthen their own voice in communicating ideas through the medium of ceramics. Toward that end, the well-rounded education in ceramics at CSU Chico includes a thorough grounding in the medium's technical processes; a strong awareness of contemporary issues in ceramic art (and the context from which contemporary ceramics has emerged); a firm understanding of professional procedures for the ceramic artist; and a focused development of students’ creativity, sense of aesthetics, critical thinking abilities, and communication skills. Courses emphasize artistic expression and challenge students to explore the range of ceramic processes. From hand-building and wheel-forming to mold-making, in low fire oxidation through high temperature reduction, CSU Chico's ceramics program provides students the opportunity for a comprehensive experience.

Ceramic Studio

Arts and Humanities Building
Rooms 115 and 116
Student access only. Afterhours access for students with permission of instructor.

The Digital Media area offers students a wide variety of art-making experiences in a contemporary digital studio, which includes cutting-edge software, Cintiq monitors, fine art printers, 3D printers, vinyl cutters, and more! If you’re interested in digital art, illustration, 2D and stop-motion animation, or an interdisciplinary approach to art, consider Digital Media!

Within Digital Media there are three areas of focus that help you to establish a professional art practice, expand your skill sets, and create a cohesive portfolio while investigating technical, conceptual, and aesthetic questions.

Digital Illustration
Learn how to make imagery for character design, concept art, editorials, and more with the intent to convey specific messages and meaning. Using digital software and tools, you will learn the art of conceptual problem solving, visual communication, and effective visual storytelling, and discover how illustration shapes contemporary culture. Grow into your career as a book illustrator, graphic novelist, and editorial or freelance illustrator, and learn professional practices needed to market yourself so that you can thrive in the professional world.

Time-Based Media
Explore the art of the moving image using a wide range of techniques, with an emphasis on experimental digital filmmaking, hand-drawn, and computer-assisted 2D and stop-motion animation. You'll examine contemporary and historical works and create time-based art that challenges conventional thinking, inspires action, and elicits emotion. Learn how to turn your vision into a story that can be produced and distributed to film festivals, online, or installed as an exhibition.

Fine Arts
Through self-examination, discussion, presentation, and critique learn how to develop your own visual language, and explore personal yet universal ideas that contribute to social dialogue. the BFA with an emphasis in Digital Media is for the fine art student who chooses to integrate digital media with any combination of traditional media, and/or new media. It is an interdisciplinary degree for thinkers and makers exploring new technologies or hybrid forms. The emphasis allows students to customize their course choices to best meet their creative needs.

Digital Media is for students who want to create their own path. Our alumni have made their mark working as creative professionals and entrepreneurs in a wide variety of ways including publishing successful independent comic books, working as creative directors, directing and animating films and commercials, creating licensed apparel for major film, television, videogame, and media companies, and more.

David McMillian, 2020 BA | Owner & Creative Director
After working as an apparel designer for Fifth Sun and Design By Humans, and a graphic designer at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., David McMillian founded Ensou, a San Jose, California branding and design agency dedicated to creating aesthetic solutions.

More Students and Alumni at Work (PDF)

The Glass Lab in the recently opened Arts and Humanities building is a high quality facility for working in hot glass, casting, kiln forming, and cold working. There are a variety of opportunities for art students to explore the range of glass working as a sculptural medium. Recently graduated artists from the glass program are working in their own practice, in industry, and leading creative lives working with glass and beyond. Students who graduate from the program will be conceptually literate, skilled in art practice, and current in both historical and contemporary issues without restriction to concept, medium, or form.

The Glass Lab in the recently opened Arts and Humanities building is a high quality facility for working in hot glass, casting, kiln forming, and cold working. There are a variety of opportunities for art students to explore the range of glass working as a sculptural medium.

Recently graduated artists from the glass program are working in their own practice, in industry, and leading creative lives working with glass and beyond. Students who graduate from the program will be conceptually literate, skilled in art practice, and current in both historical and contemporary issues without restriction to concept, medium, or form.

Glass Studio

Arts and Humanities, Room 114
Student access only. Afterhours access for students with permission of instructor.

Painting and Drawing

The Painting and Drawing Area is dedicated to the idea that the creative process involves both an artistic consciousness of the contemporary international world and its layers of cultural significance and the making of reactionary work which, in its interpretation, comments upon that world. At the foundational level, we teach the necessary formal two-dimensional elements of design. At the intermediate level, we add academic and modern/postmodern theories concerning the historical context and experimentation of painting and drawing. At the advanced level, we give guided instruction so that students may produce a serious and competent professional body of work. Our graduate instructors successfully push the parameters of the advanced undergraduate thinking into more intellectual reflection and conceptual commentary, help strengthen students’ formal and technical skills, and give strong guidance in career training as professional artists in the art world and as potential academic studio instructors.

Photography

The Photography area supports both digital and analog practices. We have Mac computers with Adobe software packages as well as archival quality ink-jet printers. We maintain darkroom spaces for black & white film processing and printing as well as non-silver and other non-traditional or historic photographic techniques. Students also have access to our lighting studio and we have some loanable equipment.

Photo Lab

Ayres Hall, Rooms 108 and 112
Student access only. Afterhours access for students with permission of instructor.

Printmaking

The printmaking program at CSU Chico offers students a unique educational experience by working closely with the Janet Turner Print Museum, a collection of almost 4,000 original prints that span six centuries. Located in the building adjacent to the print studios, the collection is used for in-depth study of historical and contemporary artwork, special curatorial and research opportunities, internships, and an annual student printmaking exhibition, and offers a generous annual printmaking scholarship.

The printmaking studio courses balance learning a variety of traditional, experimental, and mixed-media techniques with conceptual and aesthetic development. At the BFA and MFA levels, individual expression and technical accomplishment is reached through one-on-one mentoring beyond class meetings. Students work towards developing a cohesive body of artwork for a culminating exhibition and preparation for their career beyond CSU Chico.

The studios are well equipped for intaglio/etching, lithography (with 24 x 36 inch stones), screen printing, relief, and photographic printmaking. The studios are accessible to students 24 hours a day. Additional professional experience is available through work-study opportunities.

The printmaking program regularly hosts a variety of visiting artists to enhance students’ learning and to form connections with the print community beyond Chico.

Printmaking Studio

Ayres Hall, Rooms 122 and 129
Student access only. Afterhours access for students with permission of instructor.

The printmaking area is comprised of two large studios that house intaglio, relief, lithography, and screen printing. There are 3 additional smaller rooms: the acid room for ferric chloride etching, the exposure room for all light-sensitive processes, and a clean space for printing transparencies and matting prints.

Intaglio and Relief Section
The intaglio and relief section houses 3 intaglio presses (66 x 39½ inch Griffin, 55 x 32½ inch Griffin, 48 x 24 inch Charles Brand) and 2 Vandercook proofing presses (20 x 38 inches and 18 x 26 inches).

Lithography and Screen Printing Section
The lithography section has an impressive library of stones up to 24 x 36 inches, a Griffin press and a Charles Brand press for stones, and a Takach table top press for photo-litho. Screen printing has 6 printing stations, a backlit washout booth and NuArc exposure unit.

Woodshop, Metal Shop, and Foundry

The sculpture studio supports materials and processes including woodworking, metal fabrication, foundry, plaster, clay, wax, mold making, sewing, installation, and more.

• Shop Safety Test

Shop

Ayres Hall, Room 126
Student access only. Afterhours access for students with permission of instructor.