EXPLORING CULTURE

I really enjoyed the way From Ordinary to Extraordinary contained a lesson in which encouraged students to explore their heritage and take three weeks before the project even began to collect stories, pictures, and icons that represent the information they gathered. This emphasis allows students to understand that their family, no matter how different from their peers’, has a history that is important to symbolically portray to others. Students should be inspired by cultural icons to make their own representations and versions tailored to the stories they obtained about their particular family. These images are extremely important paths leading to an informative and interpretive representation about our students’ backgrounds. If a student wants to include an image that is culturally significant but deemed inappropriate, then I would encourage them to use an aspect of that symbol to be portrayed in that work. For example, in one of our past experiences in class a student wanted to make a stain glass window of the confederate flag. We had to encourage her to recognize that the recreation would be offensive therefore she could make a star from the flag, but not the flag itself.

THE CRAFTING OF AN ARTISTIC SELF

I would say I have developed an artistic self in the manner that I allow my person to be surrounded by the exact environment and emotional state I am in at that very moment. For example I believe oil painting is a process of falling in love. Entering the room, I slowly put my belongings down and set up my easel station. Lately the room has been all askew, easels, chairs, drawers all around, but in no particular order. Before I begin my search I like to have my easel adjusted, my chair securely behind it, table top to my right, and my handy stool in the northeast corner of the compass of items to elevate my still life. After that is entirely set up, I excuse myself to unlock my materials. I head toward locker number 44, fumbling with my keys to find the right one, all the while pondering which item will strike my fancy today. Nike box and new board in hand, I head back towards the classroom, usually in a careful manner seeing as the maintenance men are hard at work mopping the tile floors. Escaping the death trap that lurks in the halls of the cubical maze, I enter the room to set up my supplies; small DRF board (no bigger than 8 by 8 inches), small tear of freezer paper held down by masking tape, two jars (one of medium, one of terpenoid), and my bouquet of paint brushes rolled up in an old towel.
With my station set up I begin my journey across the room to the shelves of inspiration, to meet my mate. Gazing at each shelf in a daze, I stand there waiting to feel a connection with a particular object. It is a process of finding an object that encapsulates me to the point at which I am in a love spell for the next two hours. Usually I am inspired by just one object, one lonely piece. Sometimes the piece chosen will have a flaw I am attracted to that makes me inquire what it may represent in me or to me. The actual painting process is time for me to explore the questions that the still life inspired.
Once the object is selected, I head back to my station to start the positioning process. Artist in chair, I meticulously begin to move the object around on the stool in the northeast corner. This is an important process for me because falling in love with an object, also means falling in love with the scenario I put it in. Examples of this include a violin lying on its back, a severely broken tea pot wrapped in a cloth, and a ladder facing the corner of a room.
Finally I begin to paint. I choose my brush, one color of paint, and start to manipulate its pigment with medium. Choosing one color challenges me to use different brush strokes and hues to get the desired effect. I paint deliberately, and then observe, repeating the process over and over again until the image is finished. One class period, that is all the time I will allow myself to ferment over the painting. I feel that it would only be detrimental to spend too much time trying to perfect the raw image that came from my inspiration. One is only in love once, and I am only in that exact frame of mind once.

LGBT ISSUES

If a student came out to me, I would discuss with them their options for support as well as whom else they had made aware. If they did not feel their family or friends would be comfortable with his/her sexuality then I would suggest to them a support group that could prepare them with the skills to handle such a situation.
Before I even accept a job placement at a school I will ask in the interview their views on LGBT students and the efforts they put forth to make them feel more comfortable in the school environment. My ideal school would have a well established GSA that students were accepting and well aware of.
In order to make my art room a safe space for all students I would make sure to have a safe zone sticker up, enforce the rules about derogatory comments including ‘that’s gay’, as well as include LGBT artist’s work of all ethnicity so that students can see that not all artists are straight painters from France. I want all my students, gay, straight, bi, mixed, white, Hispanic, Black, and Asian to feel that their interests are represented in my lessons.

TWO IMAGES BY LGBT ARTISTS TO INCLUDE IN FUTURE LESSON PLANS

A Conversation with Oscar Wilde (1998)
Green Granite and Bronze
Maggi Hambling


An Image of Celia
Size (''): 39.37 x 26.38
David Hockney

THE ROLE OF ART AS A REPOSITORY FOR COLLECTIVE MEMORY

Prior to the invention of photography, art was a way of recording important events and people usually in a painterly manner. Even before the use of modern written language, cave art depicted hunts in Lascaux France. The French Revolution inspired many paintings of battles, heroes, important leaders, and icons that symbolized the historic event. But after the invention of the photograph in 1839 the need for depicting such historical events did not have to be fulfilled in a long drawn out manner. Photographs could capture soldiers, royalty, and events the way they were at that very moment. Painting pictures meant seeing the event how the artist chose to depict it according to composition and color scheme, but a photograph had the ability to capture the moment in a more literal sense. Even though both pieces are seen through the artist’s eyes, photography gives the audience a sense of realism that cannot be distorted.

DESCRIMINATION

When pondering over a time I was discriminated against, height came to mind. In my adolescent years volleyball was extremely important to me and earning a spot on a highly competitive club team had caught my eye. As one of the stars of my junior high team I felt completely confident in my abilities and fairly sure that I had what it would take to earn my place. Well aware of my height deficiency, I knew that I had to be on top of my game. My friend who was well over six inches taller than me was also trying out. She did not have as much experience, nor did she prove to be consistent on our school team. The day of the try outs came and we had to fill out a sheet asking us for our age, height, position desired, and experience on other teams. Immediately I knew once they had my height in writing that it would be very difficult for me to get noticed. Try outs began and the coaches with clip boards began to circulate and gather stats as we ran through drills. During one of the best passing drills of my career I noticed that none of the coaches with clip boards were coming my way. That was one of the first times I remember feeling discriminated against.
A time where I discriminated against someone else stemmed from junior high. There was a boy who had an odor that did not make it easy for him to make friends. Our last names were close together in the alphabet and put us close together in locker order starting in junior high and lasting all through out high school. His smell deterred me from conversing with him and actually led me to believe he must be a grotesque boy that came from a family that did not care about cleanliness. Finally during my senior year we began to chat during passing periods because of a class we had together, despite his odor, and I got to know him better. His friends also gave off a similar vibe and I would group them together as an awkward group with questionable hygiene skills. By the end of senior year that group of boys became some of my favorites around school. This experienced taught me not to judge people based on their appearance and even their smell.
During one of our Human Relations activities we had to judge students from their pictures and there was a student who looked just like one of the boys I discriminated against. Looking at that picture I smiled and knew what other kids may be writing about his goofy hair and dark make up. To me he was the exact opposite of what others may have thought of him because of the lesson I learned in high school. I will carry this lesson with me through out life and especially in the classroom.

RESPONSE TO TINGUELY & MORALES, EXAMPLES OF…

Artists that exemplify the audience’s relationships with:
A STATIC, HARMLESS ART OBJECT
Méta-mécanique sonore II
1955 exhibition at Galerie Samlaren in Stockholm
Jean Tinguely

AN ACTIVE, HARMLESS ART OBJECT
The Crown Fountain
Millennium Park Chicago, Illinois
Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa

AN ACTIVE, DANGEROUS ART OBJECT
Dreamspace
July 2006 Chester-le-Street, England
Maurice Agis
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wear/7964916.stm

AN ART OBJECT THAT INVITES PARTICIPATION
BP Bridge
Millennium Park Chicago, Illinois
Frank Gehry

AN ART OBJECT THAT IMPOSES PARTICIPATION
Cloud Gate
Millennium Park Chicago, Illinois
Anish Kapoor

ACCEPTING IMPERMANENCE

In our reading Skip Schuckmann discusses his acceptance of impermanence and in my search I found the artist Andy Goldsworthy to feel the same. He too is inspired by the natural environment that surrounds him.

He states, "I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and "found" tools--a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn."

Andy relies on pictures to capture his work. To view some of his photographs click on this link
http://www.morning-earth.org/ARTISTNATURALISTS/AN_Goldsworthy.html

When looking over his pieces I felt alive in remembering the beauty of ordinary objects that most people tend to look over in their busy lives. This reflection reminds me of Skip's definition of bulldozer consistency. We really do need to take a second and reflect on the gift that nature creates around us, to appreciate the gladness or satisfaction that may result from this purposeful pause.

DRAWING

This is one of my drawings that was a product of the key components that I believe to be necessary to teaching the art of drawing. It is one my favorites because it depicts still life as well as motion through line, shade, scale, and stroke. When I look at it I feel the model in motion, the weight of her limbs shifting before the class and the emotion the body portrayed as it created the traditional poses. This drawing depicts my passion for capturing the human form and the art of using line and shape to build what we see as life.

KEY COMPONENTS TO TEACHING DRAWING

I think the key components to teaching drawing include observation, investment, composition, and scale. Students need to be able to first create an appealing composition that will not only hold their attention but also the attention of their audience. Once they have mastered this technique of personal investment in object and composition they will have to become skilled in observation. Each object hold a place in the composition that will need to be represented effectively. Finally students will need to learn the skills that go hand in hand with depicting still life realistically as well as abstractly which includes measuring object relations with a pencil, observing negative space, color, and line.
Adolescents have the desire to achieve naturalistic renderings but also need to understand the importance of abstraction. In Vieth's third chapter of 'From Ordinary to Extraordinary' he discusses a technique in which students enlarge the scale of an ordinary object until the image is no longer recognizable; all that one will see are the shapes and colors the artist chooses to depict the object in. I believe this to be a technique strong enough to balance the need for naturalism while achieving abstraction simultaneously.

IDENTITY

I'd say my identity from a high school to college student has changed in the sense that I am more aware of the world around me. High school was a world in itself with each day presenting a new challenge. But once I found my place there I was reluctant to look elsewhere for confirmation. As a college student I am constantly looking to resources both within and outside of the University to confirm my ambitions, my goals, and essentially my identity.
In high school my artwork was more of a release for me. Whether it was through poetry, hand-sewing, sketching on notes, or my bedroom wall (started behind the door so my parents would not see)making art was my alone time to express what was going on in my life, how certain events made me feel even though my pieces do not come out and say just that. Constantly busy with sports and friends I rarely had time to evaluate my emotions and really think about what was going on and I liked it that way. But when I began to notice that something just did not feel right inside of me I would look to some form of art to get back to that balanced state.
Becoming an art student in college allowed me the time to tap into my emotions and portray them through even the dullest of objects, a rat/cat/squirrel plastic form is coming to mind. My artwork now reflects not only the time I have to reflect, but also the technique and skill I have learned from many talented influences. I'd definitely say that my artwork in college has led me to more breakthroughs in my identity than it ever did in high school.