“Inspiration is everywhere. Learning to draw is basically learning how to see, and once you know how to see, the world is never boring,” Kell Black said when describing where his inspirations come from when designing paper.

Black began to work with paper at the age of 5 when his father came home from the New York World’s Fair with a paper model of a Dutch village.

“After watching him build it, I went out to the driveway and drew our VW bus from all sides on a big sheet of cardboard, cut it out, folded it then glued it together,” Black said. “I’ve been making things ever since.”

Throughout his education, Black excelled in subjects such as geometry and drafting and used classes such as sculpture, drawing and mechanical drawing to refine his skills in paper engineering. Black has created everything from realistic paper structures to, recently, a chess set.

Last spring, Black received an e-mail from Kate Shanahan, an editor at Ivy Press in England, who was looking for a paper engineer to work with Ivy in creating a paper chess set.

Black just happened to be on the top of Shanahan’s list of paper engineers Ivy would like to work with. Black accepted the job and began working on models of chess pieces which would be featured in his first book.

“I had made literally hundreds of things [from] paper, but never a complete chess set. I had made one piece, though — a knight — over 25 years ago. It seemed like a great challenge,” Black said.

After months of designing, building, redesigning and building again, Black finished the project. “We had dozens (of pieces) around the house,” Black said.

Black said the hardest part was “creating elegant designs that can be built by a beginner.”

With the release of “Paper Chess,” Black is once again in the beginning stages of creating a book. This time around, however, he will be creating “Paper New York,” which will be followed by “Paper Cut.”

“‘Paper Cut’ [will] examine the work of ten international artists, designers and illustrators who work in the medium of cut paper,” Black said.

“I’ve been interviewing the artists and then creating tutorials that examine a technical or conceptual aspect of their work.”

Black also devotes his time to large-scale charcoal drawings and blackandjones, which is a new media in sound and video collaboration.

“I have upcoming exhibitions in all the areas I work in — paper, drawing and new media,” Black said.

“I’m exhibiting new paperworks in a group show next month at the Cumberland Gallery in Nashville; I’ve an upcoming solo drawing exhibition at Belmont University; and my colleague Barry Jones, and I have a new media show this spring at the Renaissance Center in Dickson.”

APSU’s art department received a phone call last spring from Jim Robertson, a resident of Dover, Tenn., that would change the way photography students learned.

During the phone call Robertson asked if APSU would like to inherit a private collection of original photography by photographers such as Bill Brandt and Bruce Barnbaum.

“I didn’t really know whether to take him seriously when he contacted me,” Bill Renkl, APSU art professor, said.

“I thought a smaller school would probably make better use of it, and maybe display it and use it better than a larger school with greater access and resources,” Robertson said.

He and his wife Nan, had been given the pieces by exhibited artists while they owned the Fifth Avenue Gallery of Photography in Scottsdale, Ariz. The photography pictured landscapes, architecture, interiors, figure studies, portraits and other abstract art.

“One of the featured artists is Andre Kertesz, who is internationally known for his work which was mostly made in Budapest as a young man in the early 1890s, then in Paris in the ’20s and ’30s and then in New York City after moving to the U.S. in the ’40s,” said independent curator and art critic, Susan Bryant.

“I don’t know any university in Tennessee that has an original Kertesz and Bill Brandt,” Bryant said. “For middle America, or the South, this is probably one of the best collections I’m aware of.”

The exhibit “Modern Light: Selections from the Jim and Nan Robertson Collection,” opened Monday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. with a gallery talk presented by both Bryant and Robertson. The exhibit will remain open through Wednesday, Oct. 28.

“After the exhibit is closed, the photographs will be used in the classroom,” Bryant said. “I will be able to pull certain photos from the flat files in the gallery storage room and take them to class (or bring the class to the gallery) so that the students can look at them closely to discuss print quality and to encourage a discussion about content.”

Gym class is often students’ favorite class of the day. It’s a chance to get out of the classroom and spend some time playing games like dodge ball and soccer with their friends.
However, most students who are home-schooled miss out on this experience. They lack the company of a classroom full of students, and their parents don’t exactly have a gymnasium in the back yard for their private to use.
However, APSU hosts a physical education class for home-school students ages four to 14 years old. The students of HHP 3210 (methods and materials for teaching elementary education), under the instruction of Marcy Maurer, currently teach this program, which has existed for over 10 years.
Maurer’s students are interested in teaching physical education at an elementary, middle or high school level Maurer said, “We want the Austin Peay students to be able to experience what it’s like to teach students activities and work on class management skills.”
The focus is skill-based learning, not recreational like soccer or basketball leagues that are offered in the community. While these programs focus on a single sport, and are often very competitive, the skill-based learning program focuses more on a wide range of activities and sports, as well as focusing more on camaraderie than competitiveness.
The program, hosted by APSU, is the only educational, or skill-based, program in the community, and “This has been a big success for the home-school students to be in a structured physical education class,” said Maurer. “The feedback has been very positive.”
In order to meet the needs of every student, those enrolled are divided up in to four groups by age. From there, the classes participate in many different basic-skill activities, such as throwing and catching, as well as playing soccer, basketball and volleyball.
Some of the activities are exclusively for certain age groups, such as the rhythmic activities with the younger age groups, while some of the activities are for all ages, such as soccer, throwing and catching.
Classes start on Oct. 7, and will continue for six weeks, ending on Monday, Nov. 9. Registration for the classes starts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7, in the Dunn Center, Room 282. The cost of the class is $10 per student and $5 per additional sibling.
– Erin Upshaw, Guest Writer