Michele Kishita! Painter, Sculptor, and Mixed Media Artist

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the artist who hosted me during this wonderful internship experience.

Michele Kishita is a Painter and Mixed Media Artist living in Philadelphia. She recently graduated from The University of the Arts' Graduate program for painting. She is currently First-Year Writing professor at the University, and she also works with students as a counselor by helping them handle the problems college life throws at them. She describes this specific job as difficult but highly rewarding.

I had the opportunity to read the Michele Kishita’s master’s thesis. In it, I learned about the Japanese philosophy of beauty called wabi-sabi, American painter Milton Avery, and about the ideas behind American paintings of the fifties.

Wabi-sabi is an idea of beauty stating that the elements of time can only add to an objective beauty. This concept is very complex and is not limited to this definition. I am not even sure how accurate mine is but this wikipedia page seems to define it well. Professor Kishita was greatly influenced by the time she spent in Japan. This influence can be seen in her work through the beautiful, intrinsic papers she collages within her paintings.

Her interest in Milton Avery comes from a sense of calm evoked from his work. In her thesis paper, she tells a story of when she was teaching her class about the American 1950's. She taught the class that within this tense period of life for Americans, there was a need for a serene sense of calm that the artist of the time, like Milton Avery, delivered.

She notes this specific work of art.

Milton Avery, Offshore Island. 1958

I was fortunate to see this Michele Kishita painting progress to its final state.

Michele Kishita, Sudden Downpour. 2012

There is so much to say about Michele Kishita; I feel I am cutting myself short. To be continued? Perhaps a Biography?


-Michael Knaub

Self Promotions

One of the projects I took on for Professor Kishita was organizing her emailing list. This is something I have already done for my internship at Wendy's Art & Frame Shop so i'm confortable with the process. She tells me that I should start organizing my own emailing list so I may better promote my senior thesis Show.

She introduced me to another useful online resource called Mail Chimp. It is a website that offers many templates for newsletters.

This website is excellent for self promotion via email and proves useful to any artist or gallery that want their newsletters to be made and sent quickly so as to save time for those other important tasks.

Professor Kishita also showed me other important documents for studio artists. She stresses the importance of keeping detailed invoices of everything an artist may sell, and keeping recepts of every art production expense to document them into spreadsheets so the expenses may be written off as business expenses durring the tax season. She also showed me her cover letters that she sent to different galleries in her pursuit for gallery representation.

-Michael Knaub

Online Resources

Professor Kishita introduced me to some useful internet resources. They are called Kick Starter and USA Projects. They are fundraising websites for art projects that I will definitely use in the future. Kick starters is a website that anybody can join and start fundraising projects. They have a system where with every pledge someone makes, they receive a trophy from the artist like artwork, services, and acknowledgment. These sometimes fun and quirky rewards encourage people to pledge money for their projects.  

For Uarts students considering using this website, It is best to do it through the university to get the most exposure. 

*Examples of trophies. 

Professor Kishita strongly encouraged me to use this website responsibly if  I decided to use it. She told me stories about people she knew using this website for personal gain. They would start by claiming a need for certain resources that require large sums of money only to find other means to gain these resources so they take the money that was funded to them and used it however they pleased. 

USA Projects is a more exclusive site. The people who wish to start a fundraising project must first be backed by one of their associated organizations. I would prefer to use this site because there is no pressure to offer rewards to the people who pledge and every pledge made by the public is match by the website. 

These sites inspire me to make a project about connecting people. Coming from the technology of skype and facetime, I want to propose an installed FaceTime connection between two distant cities where the connection is 24/7 and available to the public at all times. It would be installed in a highly public area so as to give everybody the opportunity to connect with a stranger form a different culture, or even meet with friends. 

-Michael Knaub

Hello Everyone! I'm Ryan Berardi

Hello everyone!

       My name is Ryan Berardi and I am currently a Sculpture Major at The University of the Arts about to enter my Junior year in this upcoming Fall semester. This summer I am interning with local artist and sculptor Anthony Visco. He specializes in sacred art and devotional art. His main focus currently is a commission for a Pennsylvania Church in which he will be producing a life-size bronze sculpture of Mother Theresa.

    I met with Anothony for our first official day this past Tuesday. When I entered the studio he was in the middle of unwrapping the Mother Theresa clay sculpture. I helped him unwrap the figure, while he explained to me the importance of keeping the clay at a certain stage of moisture in order to ensure than the ideal clay modeling could be performed. He then taught me how to properly spray the figure with a spray bottle full of water in order to allow the clay to absorb the water and not let it get too dried out. He also explained another very important factor of keeping the clay wet is so that we can  stick shim walls into it during the future mold making process.

       The rest of my day consisted of Anthony teaching me clay modeling skills on another sculpture in his studio. The sculpture is being done in oil-based clay, different from the Mother Theresa figure that's being done in water-based clay. With oil based clay you do not need to worry about keeping it wet or wrapping it, as it will always stay wet and pliable. The sculpture is a figure standing on top of organically shaped rocks that are cloud-like. Starting from the figure down to the base, the rocks become more and more geometric and have harsher edges. When I first approached the sculpture, the rocks were all bumpy and had holes exposing the styrofoam base. Anthony told me to focus on the rocks and smooth them out, while filling in the holes. What you think would be an easy task, becomes very daunting when you begin to work on it. My job was to rough out all of the bumps, while trying to make every rock unique and different from one another, without making a "pattern" in the sculpture, but still making everything work cohesively. Anthony explained to me to work with the natural light in the room, to focus on the lights and darks, and to create varying light throughout the space in order to create more depth and make it more dynamic.

    I met with Anthony again on Wednesday, where he had me working directly on the Mother Theresa sculpture. The sculpture is Mother Theresa, a standing elderly woman figure, with her arms flexed at the mid point of her body, all dressed in drapery. Anthony had me focusing on the drapery of the sculpture. He taught me how to use a rake tool to both smooth out the bumps and holes in places I was working, and also create a lined pattern on the drapery. He explained that the lines are both a by-product and a function for the final sculpture. The lines in the sculpture are intended to catch more light and to create more variation of light in the darks of the sculpture. By doing so, you create more light variation throughout it.

    In the afternoon, Anthony took me to the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia, a few blocks up on S. Broad Street. There, he showed me the Shrine of St. Rita, which consisted all of his work. In the center of the Shrine was a  bronze sculpture of St. Rita. Around her in the corners of the chapel were sculptures of the three patron saints John the Baptist, Nicolas of Tolentine and Augustine. The shrine also had two large murals, and plaster relief sculptures. All of the works were absolutely amazing and beautiful to see. They were the perfect context for the Mother Theresa sculpture I had been working on, since it was also going to become a bronze sculpture just the St. Rita.

    On Friday I met with Anthony at his studio where we continued to work on the Mother Theresa sculpture. The day consisted of some final modeling work on the sculpture, in order to prepare for the mold making process, the next step. Anthony taught me how to properly mix plaster in order to ensure the ratio of water:plaster is correct. We created a wall out of plastic around the base of the sculpture and filled it with plaster.

    The next time I post will be after the mold-making of the Mother Theresa sculpture, which I am very excited to learn about. I will also have pictures of the stuff that I have been working on too, instead of just describing everything.

like painting a masterpiece, it's a work of heart.

This past weekend marked the opening of The Comedy of Errors!!

A shot from Tech Rehearsal!  (Courtesy Endstation Theatre Company)

        Our original opening night was rained out because of a threatening storm that covered the entire East coast (which was a pretty big deal since it was the first time a show has been cancelled in the 4 years of the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival's existence).  To raise our spirits, a large majority of Endstation Theatre Company enjoyed an intense, two-hour game of Aliens!, which involved a spaceship, a lost captain and crew members, water guns, aliens (duh!), and a cloak of light..
        Saturday, June 2nd became our opening night, and turned out to be a PERFECT day; sunny but cool, and the house was packed!  It was a lot of fun, and nice to see other company members and my old host-family out in the audience!  Now that we've had a handful of preview performances and two "real" performances, it's neat to see how different each audience responds to our show.  

The cast of The Comedy of Errors!  (Courtesy Amy Rauchwerger)

        Macbeth rehearsals have continued, and I am happy to say that I have lines!  :)  It's a small section, but I think it will prove to be a rather intense part of the play.


        This week, I've also started attending the master classes for the Acting Interns.  These master classes occur every Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of the summer season, and are taught by rotating company staff members.  The first was a "Linklater" Voice class, in which we touched upon voice, but focused primarily on breathing, correct alignment/posture, and releasing tension throughout the body.  It was interesting to see how the technique builds upon itself, and also to realize a freeness in my body and a connectedness to my breath.  It always takes a while to get myself to a place of breathing deeply from the diaphragm, and is something that I've been working on all year, so it was nice to focus an hour and a half on just that.
        Our other class focused on improvisation.  Improv is naturally challenging, and has always been a bit of a weakness for me personally (not to mention the fact that it's been a while since I've done it), so the class was... difficult.  But, I'm trying to be mindful of the fact that it takes professional improv actors years and years of training to get good at it.  It's a difficult class to track progress in, but I'm just focusing on doing the best I can, which is probably what I should focus on anyway.  But to make myself feel better, I will say that we've already learned many things from this first class, like creating information that is as specific as possible in each scene.

        Lastly, I've enjoyed growing friendships and having way more fun than I deserve...
Some of this may have been caused by the Disney movie weekend marathon that we happened to create (just Lion King or Mulan would have been enough to set me off!).
Also, the lengthy discussions/listening sessions regarding musical theatre that I've enjoyed may have added to that.
And the fact that I converted 10+ people over to "The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall" 25th Anniversary Performance might have been an added bonus.  

Unfortunately though, I've also had to say goodbye to the Assistant Director of Comedy who is taking on another internship for the rest of the summer!  Good luck with everything Blayze!!

Gallery Fun

On Sunday, we had a fun day going to different art related places. I spilled wine on the floor at the Davinci Alliance. There, Professor Kishita introduced me to an artist who she met by chance and became a friend like one she had all her life. Judy Engle is her name. Her work consists of collaged photos that create interior spaces with the undertone of object displacement. 

Then we went over to 319 N. 11th building to see he other friend H. John Thompson's installation. She explains how his work is in homage to memories of building things with his father. His installation includes windows from his parents house before they were replaced. This sentimentality towards these objects of his past speak so clearly about nostalgia which strikes me as warm hearted and true.  

On the same floor in a gallery called Marginal Utility, we talked briefly about the model sized architectural sculptures then took fun photos. 

There was a tiny sculpture in the gallery space, Grizzly Grizzly, that I thought to be very curious. 

Its meaning and purpose is a mystery to me. I just appreciate its play on visibility. 

Hello Blog Fans,

I'm Michael Knaub and i'm a Senior Multidisciplinary Fine Arts Major. I am currently working a summer fellows internship with artist Michele Kishita. She introduced me to a documentary that has inspired me to think more about the context in which art can make a change in the world. It is called Waste Land by director Lucy Walker. This film follows artist Vic Muniz to his homeland of Brazil as he puts a spotlight on the modest, hardworking people who call themselves "Pickers". They sort through trash piles in a landfill to recover recyclable materials. Muniz helped them gain recognition so that they may have better working and living conditions. 

In her studio, I explored fabric as a means to make a painting. My first work is fabric on board. It is a text piece showing the words, "For your eyes only", I want to explore the meanings behind textile and apply them to my ideas. To me this work suggest words that can be taken from an intimate conversation, ironically, the work is meant to be displayed publicly so the word 'your' describing something seemingly private becomes a conversation that is not so secretive. 

I received a question sheet from Michele that would allow me to think more about my work. I am answering it in essay form so here is a preview of the document.

         The first material I ever used for art was the crayon. Whither it was on paper or the wall, I can’t remember. My older brother often made drawings for our grandmother so they had always been in crawling reach. I was told by coloring books that I should apply a certain color to certain shapes based on what they depicted, I ignored these suggestions by drawing grass orange, pants green, and dogs blue. I used more than one color in a designated space. I never stayed in the lines. My current oil paintings are created in a process similar to that of filling a coloring book. I’m told how I should not treat my work like it were a paint by number but I cannot yet separate myself from the literal narrative I achieve through drawing to aid my concepts. I create my own cartoons and fill in the pattern appropriately. 

There will be more to come. Until next time...

-Mike