By Armando Sultan
Many general courses taught here might seem unattached to NJCU and the college community as a whole. Art Professor Margaret Murphy decided this disconnect was not beneficial for students or the university. Using the techniques and materials taught in her Drawing and Composition 1 class, Murphy asked her students to come up with compositions related to NJCU’s history.
Murphy said, “The drawing itself incorporates elements the students learned throughout the semester, i.e. materials we used throughout the semester in drawing such as charcoal, white pencil, toned paper, drawing with light and shadow, ink, portraits, one and two-point perspective and composition.”
Artistic ability is a major part of this project, but another important aspect was the accurate research for their pieces. This was a collaborative work that required the class and individual groups to work together. With the help of Patrick Shalhoub, who is a librarian and co-author of From Greenhouse to Campus: The Foundations of New Jersey City University, students researched the architects of Hepburn Hall.
As an addition to their artwork, each student also had to write a paper to support the design elements used in the pieces. This particular project also included two Drawing and Composition 1 classes; however all their works were displayed together as a collective. (Their work was eventually displayed on the ground floor of the Visual Arts Building in Spring 2013.)
“I also decided to do this project … because my drawing students showed a real ability to work together and they were very focused and involved in the class. Their determination to make this a strong collaborative project demonstrated a high level of skill and shared goal setting made it possible,” said Murphy.