FASU - Free Art School University

Yup, we interview Team Rolfes, a digital performance and image studio led by Sam and Andy Rolfes.

I reached out to them with a manic email about my post-graduation crisis, and they were kind enough to hop on to help out. Why is the art world so yuck? How does a terminally online artist find community IRL? What the heck does Sam mean when he talks about "strategies for experimentalists"? How shredded IS Danny Elfman? In Season 2 of FASU we tackle these important questions while continuing to play around with live-streaming.

They have collaborated with Lady Gaga, Danny Elfman, Danny L Harle, Nike, Netflix, Adult Swim and performed at music festivals across the world. The studio specializes in figurative animation, VR puppetry, and mixed reality collage. They create works across multiple formats, including livestream improvisational comedy, live motion capture animation on large festival stages and in underground rave bunkers, print design for fashion collections, album covers and music videos.

Team Rolfes IG - https://www.instagram.com/team.rolfes/?hl=en

Youtube FASU VOD - https://youtu.be/gyc7p-6-VCg

For this lesson, Gabriel and Alex talk to yet another artist couple Jenny and Lázaro. They are illustration and education majors studying to become art teachers, but also doing some sikk drawingz and graphix. We discuss thesis projects, art products, children's books, and retell several stories that leave our heads throbbing from laughing. Audio clipped a little so it'll sound like we're talking in the halls of a really nice, expensive school.

Guest Info: Jenny De La Cruz & Lázaro García

https://www.instagram.com/jennydelacruz305

https://www.instagram.com/lazmgarcia

Lesson Plan:

00:00 - Intro talking about random students

03:00 - A proper? introduction

05:20 - Folk-art class, and other studies

18:25 - Bring Your Own Horse (BYOH) and talking about thesis

35:30 - Laz's Rudy and Biden illustration story

42:18 - "Ay, you got some big nuts." story

54:55 - Children's books, pitching, how publishers pay

73:10 - Inspiring artists / writers, AR points, and outro

For this lesson, Gabriel and Alex talk to visual / multitalented artists Matt and Chloe and inadvertently dox a whole lotta stuff. Is it still an art conversation if you discuss GTA, THC cooking shows, Jackass, funky roommates, and online antics as a 7 year old? We think so.

Guest Info: Matthew Grand + Chloe Azcuy

https://www.instagram.com/ovum.regia

https://www.instagram.com/soggysphaghetti

Lesson Plan:

00:00 - Intro where we plan on switching chairs by throwing each-other off the futon GTA style

02:40 - Cooking shows

04:52 - Guests describe themselves through Jackass

14:02 - Gossiping about Gabriel and greasy roommates

25:38 - Crazy Christian girl roommate at SVA

39:45 - Gossiping about Gabriel part 2

44:02 - Tupac

47:51 - YA novels, the Hunger Games, and B movies like The Platform

57:40 - Unironic concept art for Nostalgia Critic + DeviantArt

1:02:40 - Being fearless in art and life

1:08:00 - Spot-a-friend and other social media

1:16:49 - Conclusion, singing outro

For this lesson, Gabriel and Alex talk to Fabi Villa (They/them pronouns at the time of recording). Fabi viciously got stung by a bee at the start and we discuss how Van Gogh is OVER-RATED, though, our new hit broadway show Rataways is the best ever. Also we talk about artistic process, or whatever.

Guest Info: Fabi Villa

https://soundcloud.com/fabivillaa

https://www.instagram.com/_fabivilla

Lesson Plan:

00:00 - Intro introducing show-notes

01:00 - Fabi got stung by a bee

09:34 - Cat falls to death

14:48 - Salad is the most dangerous food

17:27 - The famous painting Starry Sky

28:46 - Rataways is born

48:46 - Rataways the game

55:15 - New York altercations

1:07:07 - Art discussion: natural progress

1:22:24 - Contexts to view art for Fabi

1:36:57 - Standup art critique

1:42:55 - Alan Resnik

1:55:57 - Singing outro

For this lesson, Gabriel and Alex go back to basics and give a lil' life update. We discuss taking gap semesters, going part time, and how it's affected our ~sanity~ but also our craft. Going crazy? Try meditating. Is your life an absolute mess? Try a google calendar. It'll definitely (maybe) work. Near the end, Gabriel talks about pitching animation to Adult Swim and the nerves but mostly utter identity-crisis that follows being approached by them.

If you wanna see the LIVESTREAM version of this lesson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRe6ktKfVaE

If you wanna see PART 2 where we react to experimental animation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PelveTxSm3Q

Shownotes:

00:00 - Intro

01:12 - Recap (Alex & gap semesters)

07:21 - The Alex Cult

08:35 - Recap (Gabriel & part-time)

13:55 - Surviving off of Discords (Dinosaur Planet)

18:40 - The exciting world of google calendars, time capsules, and meditation

27:21 - Why would I ruin this day by writing???

36:59 - Game designing your art life

51:44 - How to get the most out of a pitch?

54:22 - Gabriel's Adult Swim pitch

1:02:51 - Outro and the future of FASU

For this lesson GABRIEL digs up an old recording of Alan Licht, a sound artist, guitarist, composer and critic. Since Alex got his hand stuck in a pringles can, Gabriel interviews Alan and gets to the bottom of “what the heck is sound art”? and his book Sound Art: Revisited. How does one talk about it? How do you display it in a gallery or public space? What is the art historical backing to this relatively new auditory medium? Is Lady Gaga sound art???

For this lesson we facetime Violeta Encarnación, an illustration student studying at School of Visual Arts (SVA). We interview her to see if she’s got the right stuff to design our school cafeteria mural, asking questions about her semester, authoritarian critiques from Steve Brodner + Thomas Woodruff, and what grinds her gears in art (Britto, among many things).

For this lesson we listen intently to Tzipi Trope, an Israeli NYU Documentary professor and practicing filmmaker. We discuss the art of C I N E M A, getting into film festivals such as Berlin, Montreal, London, Kadis, Munich, amongst others, and how the heck she got success as an Israeli female writer, director, and producer. Tzipi’s feature films include: "Tell Me That You Love Me", HBO; "Tel- Aviv Berlin", Best Israeli film Award, Best Script Award best supporting actress award: "Chronicle of Love" (which she also produced): "Six Million Pieces": Movie of the Week; "Adela".

For this lesson we chat with Fetcher (Louey and Jason), a Maryland band, discussing their most recent LP Growing Pains. We also talk about performance as art, making music videos, and how to get a record deal from Mr. Sony himself.

For this lesson we focus on Josh Leong, a NYU student Filmmaker and Director, discussing his upcoming short film The Other Side starring Ethan Herisse from other works such as Ava DuVernay’s Emmy-winning Netflix series, When They See Us. Awarded by President Barack Obama and the House of Representatives for his United Nations film campaign on human rights, Josh was named Best Young Filmmaker at the Worldview Film Festival in San Antonio— and we definitely make some comments on this. We also talk about the power of the camera lens and silly videos we’ve made as kids leading up to now.