Gregory Spaid joined Kenyon's faculty in 1979 after receiving his MFA degree from Indiana University and teaching at Berea College. Spaid has recently returned to teaching full-time after serving for nine years in the academic administration, including six years as Kenyon's provost. He teaches courses in photography, color and design, and advanced studio work.
Spaid's artwork is in many significant collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the International Museum of Photography, and the J. Paul Getty Museum where he was recently included in the exhibition "Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection." Spaid's photography books include Grace: Photographs of Rural America and On Nantucket.
Areas of Expertise
Photography, mixed media, drawing, art education.
Education
1976 — Master of Fine Arts from Indiana Univ Bloomington
1969 — Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College
Courses Recently Taught
ARTS 101
Color and Design
ARTS 101
Color is one of life's great joys. Visual artists and designers learn to orchestrate color and use it in a particularly sensitive and purposeful manner, just as composers learn to orchestrate sound to create music. This course is about the orchestration of color by design. Students begin by doing a series of formal exercises designed to expand their understanding of color interaction and design principles. They then use what they have learned to complete a series of mixed media collages of their own design. Conceptual and formal growth is stressed, as is creativity. Students work with pigmented paper and "found objects." This counts toward the introductory requirement for the major and minor. No prerequisite. Offered once every third year.
ARTS 106
Photography I
ARTS 106
This course is an introduction to the fundamental technical and aesthetic issues of black-and-white photography with emphasis on using the medium for personal expression. Students will work through a series of problems designed to increase understanding of basic camera operation, black-and-white darkroom techniques, and art-making strategies. Regular critiques are scheduled to increase understanding of communicating with an audience and sharpen the ability to analyze and discuss works of art. No prior photographic experience is needed, but a reliable manual film camera is required. Until the risk of coronavirus transmission allows for safe use of our darkrooms, this course will be offered online using digital photography processes. This counts toward the introductory requirement for the major and minor. No prerequisite. Offered every semester.
ARTS 228
Photography II
ARTS 228
This class will extend the student's experience beyond the fundamentals of black-and-white darkroom photography, with projects in large-format photography and artificial lighting. Readings, lectures and critiques will expose students to significant issues in the history and current practice of photography. This counts toward the intermediate requirement for the major and minor. Prerequisite: ARTS 106. Offered every other year.
ARTS 326
Photo of Invention
ARTS 326
The central theme in this course is the inventive use of photography to construct works of art. Students will use photography in creative, nontraditional ways, including mixing photography with other media and using alternative photographic processes, such as cyanotype and palladium printing. The emphasis will be on pictures that are made, not taken. Throughout the course students will explore the relationship of content to process — how does one influence the other? The course will stress creative thinking, experimentation, conceptual coherency and technical mastery. This counts toward the intermediate requirement for the major and minor. Prerequisite: ARTS 106. Offered every other year.
ARTS 481
Advanced Studio
ARTS 481
Required for majors in studio arts, this course is designed to enable students to further develop their personal artistic vision based on the foundation of their earlier studio courses and ARTS 480. Well into their senior projects at the start of the semester, students will continue to refine their concepts and skills into a cohesive body of work for exhibition at the end of the semester. Critiques, discussions and presentations will continue to amplify the studio experience. Professional presentation, writing artistic statements and resumes and visual documentation skills will be part of the course. The senior capstone, an exhibition required of studio art majors, will include artwork made during this course. Prerequisite: ARTS 480 and senior art major or permission of instructor. Offered every spring.
Academic & Scholarly Achievements
2002
Nantucket Geometry Lessons: Photographs of Nantucket Island Architecture by Gregory Spaid, Safe Harbor Books, New London, NH, Spring, 2002
2001
The Man Who Created Paradise, written by Gene Logsdon, with photographs by Gregory Spaid and introduction by Wendell Berry, Ohio University Press, Fall, 2001
2000
Grace: Photographs of Rural America by Gregory Spaid, with essays by Wendell Berry and Gene Logsdon, Safe Harbor Books, New London, NH, 2000
2000
Kenyon Review, cover photographs, vol. XXII 3/4, 2000, vol. XXI, 1-3, 1998-99, vol. XVII, 1-3, 1994-95
1995
Ohio magazine, photography, July, 1995, summer, 1993 and December, 1983