Honors Course Archive

In September 1953, Life magazine published an article that forever changed how critics and art aficionados talked about art in the Puget Sound region. “Mystic Painters of the Northwest,” a high-gloss sweep of work by painters Morris Graves, Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson, claimed that the artists’ visual work had a common thread of Asian “mystical” influences and abstraction. The article generated so much hype that the notion of a “Northwest School” of painting took hold. A “Northwest School” of poetry followed and the region’s art became known through a handful of white artists.

We are going to unpack these myths of a “Northwest School” by investigating more of the artists and poets who were at work at the time in this region.

As a cross between a project-based research studio and a series of field trips, this course will explore some of the artists and poets who worked in the Puget Sound Region in the mid 20th century. We will use the photographer Mary Randlett’s portraits of some of these figures and we’ll investigate who they were and what they made. At the same time, we’ll head into the city to see some examples of the paintings, sculptures and sites of poems. Afterwards, will write short reviews of what we find. The course will culminate with projects conducted in pairs or trios.

Why should people in prison have opportunities for education? What are the benefits and what are the realities and constraints of the institution? This class is centered around a series of visits we will make to the Twin Rivers Unit of the Monroe Correctional Complex (about 45 minutes outside of Seattle). We will meet with a group of prisoners there several times over the course of this class, sharing reading and writing assignments with them (scheduled dates are Wednesdays in B term, departing from the UW around 11:00 am and arriving back by 5). We will also tour the facility and meet with the prison’s administrative staff and correctional officers in order to gain a broad understanding of the complex issues surrounding education within a prison setting (the tour is currently scheduled for Tuesday Aug. 5, and will take all day). UW students will engage in writing and outreach projects with the TRU students. NO MAKE-UP sessions are possible, so please check your schedules.

Add codes required to register for this course, and are available from Claudia Jensen (cjensen@uw.edu). Please provide your student number in your add code request, as well as your acknowledgment of the following.

Students will have to submit information for clearance in order to enter the prison facility and they will be required to sign the UW’s Acknowledgement of Risk form; all students must be over 18. Class size will be limited to 12 students, and transportation to and from the prison will be provided. Please contact the instructor, Claudia Jensen (cjensen@uw.edu), for more information or if you can’t attend the scheduled information sessions (Thursday May 15 or May 29, 12:30, MGH 211E).