Inspiration board

I'm working on a surface design self-portrait in fibers. I chose to do mine on who society says I am based on ideologies set forth in our visual culture.

Developing a knowledge base: Walker Ch.3

In this chapter, Walker is discussing how just as professional artists build a knowledge base of their subject matter before creating a piece, our students need to do the same. Developing this deeper understanding of a subject pushes the artmaking process further and creates a richer piece. I think at this collegiate level as student artists we often do this building of a knowledge base almost subconsciously, depending on how conceptual are piece is. I know we are often doing artist research, and learning historical and social contexts before working on a piece. Or at least in some cases we are. But elementary and secondary students really need that push to learn more about their subject matter. As teachers we have to foster that synthesis by creating opportunities for them to make connections.

I liked Walker's suggestions of ways to do this in the classroom, such as having the students compile all that they know about a topic. I think we've already started learning how to do this with big ideas. When we introduce a big idea to students and ask our essential questions, these conversations are getting them to think about the topic and awaken that "dormant" knowledge. Creating word associations is a great way to think about big ideas. I think, as a class, having students compile as many words that they associate with that topic as they can could be a successful way to gauge prior knowledge, as well as help them to make connections.

Graphic organizers are a great way to brainstorm and focus on those ideas. Creating word lists or mind maps allows the student to get all ideas on paper -- quantity over quality, of course. Using digital software like Inspiration is another interesting way to brainstorm. I especially like this because you can include text with images.

In Walker's example of the class studying the Motherwell piece, I thought it was a great idea to have the students read literature to gain social, emotional and historical context. This not only gave them a greater understanding of his work, it provided an informed way of viewing abstract art, which some students have a hard time doing.

As we are creating our mini lessons, I think this is something to keep in mind. With Anna's idea of creating a movie poster based on fear, it's important for the students to think about cultural references, as well as historical, cultural and emotional cues and contexts. Students could do a lot of research on fear, finding the history of common urban legends, folklore, myths and ghost stories. This allows the students to put their own fears into context and create content-driven designs.

It's also important to include artist exemplars and discuss the knowledge base from which they are working. Understanding the thinking behind an artist's work, helps the students to approach their work in the same manner. Art21 is a great resource because in the artist videos they often discuss their inspiration along with their working process. It's important for us, especially now going into student teaching and soon our own classrooms, to keep these techniques in mind while we plan lessons and push our students in their artmaking processes.

Artist Inspirations: resource

I was thinking about resources that I would find helpful as a student artist and my instinct was to go to sites with contemporary artists and their works to use as inspiration. I found two that I like. The first is a blog called Brown Paper Bag. They have an assortment of current working artists featured in their posts. The cool part is they have a "you might also like" section featuring artists that work in the same style.

The other site is deviantART, which is a site for ar

tists to publish and sell their work. This site might be great for high school students especially, because the artists are often younger and working from the same ideas and inspirations they have.

FEAR

Our first big idea is fear and my medium is drawing or painting. I decided to do "shadows" inspired by our fears. I want to ask the students to explore questions, such as Why are we afraid of the dark? Why do shadows play tricks on us? What is it about shadows that are so frightening? How can we tell stories with shadows? etc. I think it would be great to look at Kara Walker and her silhouettes, exploring how she includes so much detail in a solid black figure and how she tells stories with her figures. Also exploring the work of Josh Hoffine who is a horror photographer, looking at how he plays up our fears in his work. Also how he is telling stories in a single image. I'd ask how can we combine the work of Hoffine and Walker?
The students will create life-size shadows by drawing outlines of figures on black paper. I envision them completing the work by creating an installation with props or continuing the unit by photographing their shadows/installations or doing a digital piece. There is a lot of way to push this idea.

artistic practices: a response

In ch. 7 of Walker's Teaching Meaning in Artmaking, there are several artist practices discussed, including purposeful play, risk taking, experimentation, postponement of final meaning, and searching; questioning. I was so excited to read about these ideas as I find them all essential to artmaking.

Play especially stood out to me. Students must have opportunities to play. This becomes important when a new media is introduced. They need time to explore the media; practice mixing paint colors, blending colored pencils, molding clay, etc. Comfortability with media only comes with practice and the ability to play.

In one of Kathy's classes, the entire lesson was devoted to play. We explored paper, a basic media that is often taken for granted. She asked us to come up with as many ways to sculpt with paper in 5 minutes and then we were asked to create a sculpture by combining all of the pieces. To push the play aspect further, we had to switch with our neighbors and create something new out of their piece. The time restraints, the exploration of material, and the detachment from our own artwork allowed for us to play and to discover new ideas.

In Walker, I enjoyed how Skoglund was highlighted for her exploration and play with unusual materials. Many artists today are working with odd materials, such as gum, foods, coat hangers, zippers, plastic detergent bottles, styrofoam, etc. I think it's important in our own classrooms to allow our students opportunities to explore new materials. Fresh and exciting ideas can be created through this type of exploration and a breakaway from traditional media.

One thing I had a hard time wrapping my head around is the postponement of meaning. I understand allowing for ambiguity and individual interpretation, but it's hard to not allow the meaning to direct the piece. We teach big ideas, don't we? Those ideas drive concepts and artmaking that visually bring them to life. Starting with meaning pushes the piece to be conceptual and meaningful. Perhaps the reading is approaching the idea of being too literal in making meaning. The art doesn't need to be literally displaying the message, but can direct the reader through visual cues. Art can start with an idea and concept and then as it develops the meaning changes. I think the reading was trying to draw attention to that. It is easy to become preoccupied with the predetermined final product, but we must allow the process to shape the end result.

I like the idea of creating meaning through series, in which the students are further exploring and pushing an idea asking, "What more can I say? How can I say it more complexly or deeply? What can I say that is different?" This seems like a powerful approach. As artists, we often get attached to several ideas and continue to create artwork based on them. This allows for further exploration and new understandings. It also gives us the opportunity to synthesize what we've already done, to synthesize new ideas and combine them to form a brilliant new outcome.

A rollercoaster of a process

Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts and keep all hands and feet inside of the vehicle at all times. Please be aware that during this ride you will experience flips, turns, epiphany moments, self-doubt, discovery and high speeds. Should you feel anguish at any time during the ride, remember that it's just your imagination. Now sit back and enjoy the ride.

If my artistic process had a disclaimer, that's what it would be. As an artist, the ideas are usually the beginning of my process. I'm constantly asking "what if?" My mind bounces back and forth between ideas, and often times the ideas aren't even connected or if they are, they cover a broad span. I visualize my ideas as flying around above me; there are tons of them jetting around my imagination sometimes bumping into one another and creating new ideas. It's my job to reach up and grab one, to pin it down so I can move forward with it.

Once this is done, or at least I've pinned down a few, I tend to stock up on new imagery for my "inspiration board." This is usually done through an extensive Google image search. At this point, I'm grabbing visual inspiration: figures, stories, concepts, colors, forms, compositions, etc. This is a crucial process for me. It allows me to visualize my ideas and synthesize preexisting images of my ideas so that I can appropriate or create something new.

After the research aspect of my process, it's time to create. Depending on my concept and my media, I usually have to play with the materials. This is especially true when I'm working with collage. Often I spread everything out in my work space, which is usually my coffee table, and just look. In the array of magazine ads, scrapbooking paper, typography stencils, ransom note-style letters and embellishments, my idea comes to life. I layer one composition, add to it, take away from it, decide I don't like the whole thing and start completely over. It is a bumpy ride of twists and turns. Just as amusement park goers are at the mercy of the rollercoaster's crazy ride, I am at the mercy of my artistic process. I don't fight it. I hang on tight and enjoy the ride.

inspiration through materials: Nancy Spero

I found that Nancy Spero and I work in similar ways. In the videos of her at work, she wanders around her studio digging out multiple images from her vast collection. She lays the various disparate parts out on the table and begins to synthesize the imagery. Spero layers her imagery, then removes them and relayers them. It's a visual process, a discovery. In this process of play, she gains inspiration from her materials, which leads to the final composition. The idea is there to begin with, but the visual outcome is not yet conceived. It's through the hands-on creation process that the idea becomes reality.

visual metaphor... a work in progress

As my visual metaphor for teaching, I've decided to carryout the theme of my philosophy: celebrating imagination. I approached the project with the idea of art teacher as party planner. Like a good party planner, teacher's are responsible for inviting their guests (the students), setting up a good atmosphere for those guests to interact and become a collaborative community. Teachers must also use the perfect recipes for the party (lesson plans) and insure that the guests leave with party favors. In my metaphor, I was trying to show aspects of teacher as party planner but creating a complete pARTy planning package. This all-in-one is complete with recipes, invitations, games, center pieces, party favors and more. It isn't quite finished, but I'm happy with the direction it has taken.

art in progress

For my Speak-inspired piece, I plan on combining magazine ads and typography to create an anti-ad or a collage that comments on ideologies, especially those of beauty. Often times in adolescence, well in our entire lives actually, society and our visual culture speak for us. They set the mold of how we are supposed to look, what beauty is and, essentially, who we are supposed to be. This starts at birth when we're put in a blue blanket or a pink one depending on our gender. Right from the start of our life we are subject to ideologies, and it gets worse as we grow up. Adolescents are the most sensitive to these "requirements" and often feel obligated to fulfill these unrealistic ideologies. With my piece I want to speak against these ideologies, speak about body image and loving yourself.

Wikispaces

In this multimodal society, we as teachers have to come up with ways to meet the needs of the ikids in our classrooms. Incorporating technology in the curriculum is important. There are endless ways to explore technology but one I have yet to check out are wikis. Wikis allow for collaboration between several people on a single site. It's constant creating which allows the group to control the landscape of the website. Wikispaces is one site that allows for the creation of a wiki.

I think this could be a great project for students especially in the art classroom. They can create, communicate and collaborate. It gives them the capability to have a student-run site that is essentially their own. They could create a wiki of exemplar artists and research or their own site of artwork. This is an option I would like to learn more about and potentially use it in my future classroom.

Adolescence was...

Adolescence was getting lost on my way to class the first day. It was having the assistant principal help me open my locker. It was that mini panic attack of "Oh My God, who am I going to sit with at lunch today?" and then devising a plan to meet my BFF by the soda machine before hopping in the line that files its way out of the cafeteria.

Adolescence was football fridays. It was purple, silver and black spirit all over my clothes and accessories. It was insisting that my best friend and boyfriend would be on either side of me in the stands. It was: "Go! Fight! Wiiiin Jaguars! Let's. Go. Zumwalt Jags!"

Adolescence was being a good student, having a new found obsession for French and, as always, loving art the most. It was being friendly and talkative, but not as outgoing as I would become. It was the few years before I discovered my confidence and my need to be involved.

Adolescence was discovering myself, joining organizations and having new experiences. It was Student Council, newspaper, yearbook and Senior Class officer. It was powder puff and TP'ing the juniors. It was losing yourself to the music, dancing and socializing of Homecoming, Coronation and Prom.

Adolescence was exploring Europe in the summer with my mom as a chaperone. It was falling in love with Italy and being in a dream in Paris. It was having an experience that brings a mother and daughter closer.

Adolescence was finding out what a "serious" relationship is and all the choices that come along with it. It was peer pressure and "everyone's doing it." It was making mistakes too young, but growing from them.

Adolescence was loving me, but hating my body. It was a mess of emotions, breakups, heartaches, new relationships, drama with friends, adventures with friends, driving, cell phones, first jobs and thinking about college. It was setting my goals and determining to stick to them, no matter who told me I couldn't.

Adolescence was what I thought would be the best years of my life, but then I grew out of adolescence and discovered there were better years to have. It was, however, years of memories, learning and growing.