Devin Kovach, a senior majoring in studio arts, put painting on the back burner during his sojourn at the Glasgow School of Art last year to focus on drawing. He's putting together a show of large prints and drawings at The Stove inspired by the city's architecture. Some of the drawings are bent and curved, attached to an infrastructure of chopstick-like rods.
It's good stuff.
He said there is an enthusiastic art community developing outside of UNM, and this provides outlets for students if they know where to look. Sunday School, the weekly variety show featuring local talent at the Petting Zoo at 1407 Fourth St. S.W., particularly whet his artistic appetite.
"That stuff is super unique," Kovach said. "I was just so psyched when I first went. I was like, 'Man, this is what I've thought about happening here.' It just seemed to cover all those bases, so that's something I feel is a huge strong point that Albuquerque has and that UNM has in a certain way, just because it's in the same community. So, hopefully, more folks within the school and within the art department will seek those things out."
This semester he's taking advanced drawing, introduction to ceramics and independent study.
Daily Lobo: Are any of them electives?
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Devin Kovach: Advanced drawing, I suppose, is an elective. It's good so far. Actually, though, I wasn't too sure on ceramics. I kind of had to take a lower-division class, because I guess you're required to take so many lower-division art courses so you have experience in a wide range of different things. I'm not too keen on it and not for any reason other than it's just not something I really have done in my work in a long time. So that one, I don't know. But the rest are very good. Advanced drawing's pretty awesome.
DL: So what are you guys doing in there right now?
DK: Calculation drawings. Like using mathematical calculations. Just visually, not drawing based on calculations, but just actually just using the calculations as a subject.
DL: So you're talking about, like, Mondrian stuff?
DK: It could be.. I have a couple of these books of different stuff. Like, just taking stuff like this and using that in a drawing.
DL: So are you doing anything with perspective on that? Is this like a subtle way for them to teach math to artists?
DK: No, no, at least I'm not using that at all. I'm doing something like this. There's a lot of these things. And these don't mean anything. Like, I have no idea what that all means. I made that all up. They'll be kind of exploding out. A mathematical -
DL: Map?
DK: Map! Yeah! Perfect, Eva. I'll take that. Maps are something I've been really interested in lately. That's why I have this basic GIS coordinates book that I want to use in my calculation drawings.
DL: So have you done anything with maps?
DK: Quite a bit.
DL: Cool. That segues into our whole "What are you working on right now?"
DK: Exactly. I'm using a map kind of like as a central design element and then going off of that. I got into that after going to Glasgow and experiencing the issues of orientation directly. So, I'm using this transfer of a map and kind of improving my own roads out from that.
DL: How different was it from the art program here?
DK: Very different.
DL: Were they more disciplined?
DK: No, actually it was interesting in that way because, on one hand, it was pretty much up to the students how much they were going to get out of it. So, you could be there all the time, or you could be there hardly ever.
DL: So they didn't have an attendance policy?
DK: Not at all, not at all.
DL: That's so sweet.
DK: Yeah. You met with a tutor two or three times, if you were lucky, every couple of months, and that would kind of rotate. So a lot of it was based on how much effort you put in to seek out. Like, if you wanted help from somebody, you had to go and seek them out.
DL: That makes sense.
DK: Yeah, so in that way, it was really cool 'cause I had to do a lot of those, like, motivate myself I guess, which wasn't too difficult, but at the same time, when you actually just have that much
freedom, it kind of is because you're like, what do I do? And we got our own studio space. You were expected to be there from 9 to 5, but nobody was checking on you, so you'd go and make work and have a tutorial every couple weeks. Yeah, so it was much different. And there wasn't classes or anything. It was just studios.
DL: So if you wanted instruction, you would find someone?
DK: Yeah. You could take, like, I took a couple print tutorials, which I guess if I actually went to that school I probably couldn't do. All this work I've been doing recently has been inspired from when I was in Glasgow and kind of my experience there, I suppose.
DL: So how do you make this?
DK: Well, it starts with Xerox transfers of the maps and the drawing, and then I layered my own painting and ink drawing on top of that and then did some graphite drawing of road systems and stuff and then did some printing just like linocut stamps, just printed on there and then now collaging some just different colored papers on and then probably same more painting.
DL: OK. So tell me about this show you've got on Friday.
DK: It's with my good friend Roman Lopez. He's kind of a strange dude. It's going to be from 6 (p.m.) to 12 (a.m.). And it's of all of the stuff that I was telling you about from Glasgow, and he's been doing a lot of work of like landscape work based on his experience kind of here in New Mexico.
DL: But it's not just boring old landscapes.
DK: No, not at all. Not. At. All. It's got a lot of print work. He kind of takes an interesting take on the New Mexican landscapes and land in New Mexico in general. He's a really great painter, so I think his work is very interesting.
DL: So how did you get that show together?
DK: Roman kind of approached me with the idea.. We really wanted to kind of maintain a theme with the show and with the work, and my angle, of course, was kind of with the built environment and city structure and kind of, I guess, manmade things and such, and his angle was more with the land and what land is, and I guess how land is out in the West and issues that affect land like grazing. He's really into cows. I can't really explain that one.
DL: Do you get any credit in your class for having a show at The Stove?
DK: Unfortunately, no.
DL: Do you think any of your teachers will come support you?
DK: I sure hope so. I really hope so. I'm definitely going to give them the invite. And I think they will because they're pretty nice people for the most part.
DL: So, are you satisfied with where your work is right now?
DK: Pretty satisfied. This stuff I feel is kind of the beginning of a pretty, like a large body of work that I hope to continue throughout the end of my school here at UNM and then wherever I go after that, as well. I'm going to do an honors thesis at the end of my school here, and this is my last year, so this is going to be my body of work that I'm going to show for that.
DL: Tell me some artists you're looking at right now that are kind of your favorites or that are influencing you.
DK: This woman named Julie Mehretu for sure. She does these really interesting drawings of architecture and buildings and things like that - awesome ink and graphite drawings. I've been looking at this book "Vitamin D," and it's got tons of different artists in it who are using drawing as a medium and doing a bunch of different things. That's kind of been a huge inspiration, just leafing through that. Another inspiration would be an architect named Zaha Hadid. One of my tutors in Glasgow told me about that woman. She's actually an architect. She's doing a ton of work in Europe, and I think she's done stuff in the States too, but more than anything, while her designs are pretty incredible, she does drawings and paintings to accompany her designs. She uses perspective in a really interesting way in a lot of those drawings, so I quite fancy them.
DL: And do you have any suggestions or comments or concerns or praises for the art department?
DK: Well, it's a mixed bag. I've had a really great experience there for the most part. I've gotten to go to Glasgow, and I've gotten to go to Wilderness Studio, and some classes like that that have been incredible and by and large my experience with the teachers at UNM's art department has been great. They've been really encouraging and helpful. However, there have been some changes recently within the art department that have been a bit unsettling. A couple of my favorite teachers have moved away, probably for a lot of reasons, but a class of theirs was cancelled last year. And, of course, I don't know if I can really say anything, but the administration at UNM is never that great to deal with.
