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Class in the Spotlight
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Elliott probes European, artistic roots in exhibition
 Photo courtesy of Dominique Elliott Dominique Elliott — shown with one of her cats — unveils a series of paintings and collages in “Scriptorium,” opening Feb. 1. By Monique Bos Published: Friday, January 26, 2007 Dominique Elliott, a professor in the Savannah College of Art and Design broadcast design and motion graphics department, demonstrates her artistic versatility in the upcoming exhibition “Scriptorium.” The exhibition hearkens back to Elliott’s European roots. Born in Belgium, she grew up in Paris, and after graduating from the University of Rhode Island, she spent two years working on European theater productions as a theatrical stage manager and designer. “During this time, I developed my first exhibits of large paintings inspired by Antonin Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty,” she said. Elliott, who received a presidential award from URI for excellence as an undergraduate student, returned to the United States to study digital media. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in visual design from Southeastern Massachusetts State University. During graduate school, she also taught courses and seminars in graphic design, desktop publishing, 2-D animation and video production throughout New England. “My interest in using new media technologies as a pedagogical tool led me to design interactive training resources for the department of academic computing and technology at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, as well as for the Massachusetts Higher Education Computing Conference,” she said. In 1991, she joined SCAD as a full-time faculty member in what was then the video department. She served as chair for two years and also has taught visual effects at the college. When the broadcast design and motion graphics department launched in 2003, she made the transition to that program. Teaching is definitely in Elliott’s blood. “My grandmother was a big influence on my interest in pedagogy,” she said. “After World War II, she developed some tools and guides for children and adolescents that would allow them to increase their knowledge base more rapidly and enable them to regain some of the time [they had] lost during the war.” The family tradition continued with her parents. “My mom taught courses in oceanography and my dad taught courses in sociology of literature and international law,” she said. “So they are equally committed to education.” She said being in the classroom provides continuous challenges for her, both as an educator and as a professional. “I have never found myself to be bored,” she said. “I am finding that I have had to challenge my own skills, knowledge and perception on a regular basis and improve upon them.” She said cultural shifts also have affected the way she teaches. “Interestingly, changes in technology have also had an impact on the approach I take to my classes and my students. Students today are quite different from the students I had, say, 10 years ago,” she explained. “They are much stronger in some areas, such as visualization, editing and overall technical expertise, and they are perhaps a little weaker on conceptual development. So I have to continually learn how to reestablish a balance by adjusting lecture material, assignments and demonstrations.” Elliott also is taking her digital-media expertise in a new direction as an online instructor. She worked with SCAD e-Learning instructional designers throughout the summer and fall to develop a Cinematography and Editing course, which she is teaching for the first time during winter quarter. “In that process, I researched and acquired many case studies from the major players in the broadcast design industry to make the materials more relevant to the students,” she said. “I must say that I was a little scared at the beginning of the process; however, we ended up with a great course. Additionally, the large number of higher education professionals enrolled is making the online experience that much more interesting.” In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Elliott said she also works as “a producer and director of documentary films that explore various forms of societal displacement and chasms within mainstream culture. “ Most recently, she has created the exhibition “Scriptorium,” for which she received a SCAD Presidential Fellowship for Faculty Development. “This series of fragmented landscapes, doors and secret windows reflects my European artistic roots,” she said in her artist’s statement. “The Alyscamps of Arles, for example, is a vast passage of graves, sarcophagi and mausoleums erected during the classical Roman era, which has been literarily and artistically prominent since the Middle Ages.” In “Scriptorium,” Elliott said, she also takes a multicultural as well as a multidisciplinary approach to her subjects. “The exhibit integrates Chinese and Japanese hardware, underlining the concept of doors and windows as passageways, both architecturally and psychologically,” she explained. “In the 19th century, the so-called Orientalists, mainly pre-Impressionists such as Ingres, mixed sensual moods with a classical technique, a synthesis of Asian calligraphy and European romanticism.” The exhibition also includes old letters and photographs, which, Elliott said, form “an epistolary collage — scriptorium — on the subject of persistence of memory. Aesthetically, I merge ancient techniques with contemporary digital manipulation. Technically, the process involves combining wood, metal, gold leaf, bole, oil paint and photographic imaging.” Combining technology with more traditional techniques also is important for students to learn, she said. “This generation of students is extremely tech-savvy; therefore, it is important that they be introduced to alternative methods of image-making,” she explained. “This partially motivated my work on the ‘Scriptorium’ exhibit. Young artists should not feel like they are pigeonholed into a narrow vision or definition of their field.” Elliott also is an aficionado of cats — she and her husband share their home with four “oversized” felines — and Belgian chocolate. A member of the American Hemerocallis (daylily) society, she breeds her own daylilies. “Scriptorium” will be on display at La Galerie Bleue, 3515 Montgomery St., Feb. 1-26. The exhibition will have an opening reception Feb. 8, 6-8 p.m.  |
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