Learning to listen and then let go

Some weeks back, I started oil painting again after taking an unintentional sabbatical for quite some time. I was able to complete two 36 x 36 pieces in one weekend. I felt pretty uplifted by them both.

And then something happened with the second one I did. The longer I looked at it, the more I become convinced that it wasn't as it was supposed to be. There was an unnatural darkness about it that made me feel uneasy and prompted me to try and make adjustments to help illuminate it. Everything I did only made it worse and spread more darkness over it. My husband tried his best to convince me that I should just let it be and friends of mine gave me plenty of affirmations that is was "pretty good." I wasn't convinced though I ended it quickly by rubbing it down with turpenoid and not even thinking twice about it. I knew that finishing it and then wiping it clean was absolutely essential to the creative process for what this painting would be.

This is why I paint and why I should be painting a lot more often

This weekend provided the first opportunities in months for me to really invest some time and paint in my home studio. Here are the fruits of my labor...

Both were done in Gamblin oils on stretched canvases that are 36x36 in size. Both are completely original works for me and this is a huge first for me. Both were also done - start to finish - within less than 48 hours of time. I have no titles for them yet but I am working on that. The inspiration for the subject matter should be obvious enough but largely it is informed by my Christian beliefs and experiences so far in my life.

The ROYGBIV Project :: Hiccups and Snafus :: Part 4 of 5

If you've been following me from the beginning of this series, you might notice something rather curious: It's all gone swimmingly well!!! Well, I hate to break it to you all but I'm about to show you some of the nitty-gritty that has gone on in spite of all of the stuff that has been really cool and incredible.

As I said in yesterday's posting, this project was chock full of "teachable moments." I find that most all of the project endeavors that I attempt to steer my student artists through provide more than enough fodder of that type but this one? Well! THIS one really provided!!! I'm going to discuss two of the biggies today.

 The first one was helping the student artists to deal with the challenge of figuring out the best technique and materials to be used and that this can sometimes only be figured out by way of trial and error. This meant that they did what they felt like was a lot of work only to have at least half of it fail "epically" (as they like to put it) after discovering that of the three different types of string we used, the one that was the colorful acrylic yarn (donated by me from my ridiculous "yarn stash" at home) would not hold up on the balloon forms even after it was coated in both of the different types of adhesive mixtures - one modge podge and the other watered down white glue.

The sad stringy mess of modge podge that had they attempted to salvage but in the end was just thrown away in the end.

They used watered down glue mixture but the  yarn just would not soak up the mixture in order to hold the balloon shape.

I predicted that this would happen and that they needed all cotton yarn/string to do the balloon wrapping but I withheld this information because their reasoning to do different types of yarn was for them to try and stay within the supplies budget and I wanted them to try out their alternative idea to save money. In the end, when they discovered that they had to have all cotton string, they were still able to stay in budget because the 100 or so balloons were cheap as they were sold in packs of 30 and were only a buck a piece. It was a good learning experience that taught them that even the best laid plans can't be totally sound and sure-proof. I was really proud of how they all handled the setbacks they experienced which required them to lost almost entire class periods of work just because of the type/quality of materials.

The second very important lesson of this project was a real biggie. It did not focus on supplies or really anything art related and was completely about interpersonal skills and the importance of effective and diplomatic communication. 

A little background that I haven't mentioned until now: 

The student artists worked in two different class periods - that sometimes didn't even meet on the same days - that I affectionately called East Coast division and West Coast division. I likened this arrangement to a large company that worked in different time zones but were expected to work on the same project because it was such a large endeavor that one division alone couldn't manage the whole thing. There were subdivisions within each division (sun, rainbow, clouds) and each of those worked in tandem with the subdivision from the division/class period. They coordinated the workflow by communicating with one another through handwritten notes that they wrote to each other. No names and personalization were allowed and they could only recognize the other group by simply addressing in a collective and general way. This was so no one student artist could demand that they were the one in charge and then call whatever was going on THEIR work that others were simply making happen for them. It wasn't about individual glory. It was totally about working together as a team and being unified.

So, the communication system mostly worked until individual egos started getting inflated and some student artists took it upon themselves to take up a real passive aggressive tone toward the other group (in written note form, of course) that started inciting some serious animosity between one subdivision across the two classes. (I won't tell you which one though. That's not important.)

A sampling of some of the note exchanges from all of the subdivisions.

I was monitoring the communication exchanges pretty carefully - both the written ones as well as the verbal and non-verbal ones that precipitated the written ones - and I addressed all of the issues almost immediately with redirections and reminders about what should really be focused on instead of what was being stirred up. The students had difficulty with accepting my pacification of all of the incidents but they did it with as much grace as you can expect they would seeing as how they are high school young men and women.

Then I ended up getting the stomach flu that has been going around everywhere and I was out of school for three days plus one more when school was out for inclement weather and when I came back? Well... I discovered that things had gotten UGLY and one subdivision found out what class and what individuals were in their partner subdivision and they started accosting each other outside of the art classroom in order to criticize about work being done/not done according to certain individual standards. My return from being so sick I lost seven lbs in less than a week that almost landed me in the hospital because of dehydration was me walking into what had become a pretty hostile warzone between two classes of one subdivision. I wasted no time addressing what needed to be addressed and in the midst of it all I discovered that one of the students actually tried to write an apology letter to the other group/class and their fellow group members tried to rip it up and throw it away to keep the reconciliation and apologies from happening! It was a MESS!!!

I devoted one day that could have been working time to each of the class periods and we had a discussion where I re-established what was most important and I offered them some wisdom to help establish PEACE and ensure that it be kept and maintained. I told them that for the rest of their lives it would never be important who started what in whatever situation but that it was only the reaction that you might have that could ever stop what was allegedly started. I told them that I was not concerned with who was pointing fingers or where those fingers were being pointed and that if ever people wanted to reconcile? That had to be permitted to happen because peace and reconciliation is way more important than "being right."

The students all took "the talk" very well and I think this was, in large part, due to the fact that I focused on the big picture of the problem instead of micromanaging the issues. This is actually how I approached most all of the issues that cropped up throughout the project and though the students were frustrated at times in the beginning, the quickly got used to me presenting things back to them with questions like, "Well... what do YOU think we should do?" or when I responded to some of their multi-layered questions that were loaded more with their lack of confidence than anything, "YES. *smile*" From the get-go I wanted them to feel like they could handle things and that I trusted them to handle things in whatever way they needed to be handled and by and large they did this with everything except the communication issue. I kind of expected something like this would happen though and I was prepared to deal with it.

And that's about it for the hiccups and snafus for the most part. Come back tomorrow for the last day of this series when you get to finally see everything all put together in the gallery!

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This installation art study was student-centered and collaboratively designed and constructed (across two classes). It utilized paper sculpting and papier mache, string wrapping, spray painting and brush painting, fiber application in order to create a sun, clouds, and rainbow display suspended from the ceiling of the student art gallery hallway. It was originally presented in a week long series that showed the planning and creative processing, the beginning part of the sculpting/working stage, the point just about when everything was done being sculpted, and then some notes about when things went awry and how those things were dealt with. The final view of it can be found HERE. This project was meant to be a re-imagining of The Ombre Experience project idea.

The ROYGBIV Project :: Making it happen :: Pt. 2 of 5

This stage was the absolute messiest of all of the stages but it also was the one that the students really enjoyed because it allowed them to really explore and experiment with the creative process and truly give life to the ideas that they were tasked with. Here is a little of what each of the groups were attempting to work with...

Sun group

Idea was pretty close to THIS idea that I had originally shown them

• Wanted to paper mache in order to sculpt a single extra-large spherical structure
• Needed an exercise/yoga ball for their form
• Wanted to pull in some texture by adhering muffin/cupcake paper cups to the outside of the structure after it was completely sculpted
• Wanted to use lighting in order to illuminate the structure from the inside out

Clouds group

Idea derived from THIS I found and showed them during the lesson intro

•  Required them to do paper mache to sculpt multiple different but similar structures
• Needed lots of balloons for the form of each structure
• Required cotton batting/stuffing for the texture of the clouds
• Wanted to do at least seven clouds in order to fill out the gallery hallway space

Rainbow group

Idea was inspired by THIS that I found and showed them during the lesson intro

• Required them to use watered down glue mixture to soak string so that it could adhere to individual forms
• Needed lots of balloons for what would be over 100 individual forms suspended from the ceiling
• Required paint in Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet

We spent at least a week and a half total of class time doing just the fabrication/sculpting of all of the different elements of the total installation. It was definitely messy and that's not something that all of the students were keen on but with lots of encouragement and redirection from me that this was a GROUP effort and we needed to be unified in order for it to really be successful, it became a rare thing for any of them to sit and be idle for too long. Most all of the students wanted to play an active role because they fully understood that the effort we had to put forth was major and collective. They truly started understanding that if one person didn't invest themselves, the whole of the project would ultimately suffer.

Two groups needed newspaper for papier mache so they banded together to create triangles - because that's the best shape for seamless and smooth coverage - in order to prep the paper.

The sun group gets started on the first of many layers!

The clouds group also got to work but they had an easier time than the sun because there were multiple cloud clusters to work on.

The rainbow group had perhaps the most challenging of all of the elements of the installation to work on both because of the sheer number of items that needed to be sculpted - they were shooting for about 100 total to fill the space we have - and because working with string coated in glue mixture? Well... it's just way messier than papier mache. Surprising that anything could be that way compared to papier mache but it was true! Also, wrapping and layering the string had to be done a little more strategically (read: it was less forgiving than papier mache) so there was a bit of a learning curve for everyone in the sun group.

The sun group discovered it required at least two people to coat the string and then wrap a balloon with the glue coated string. They tried to have at least two stations of this going at once.

One of the balloons that they did as a "prototype" to figure out if it would work, how long it would take to dry, etc.

One of the major challenges from this stage (as with almost every project endeavor I do) is dealing with how to store things when they are in the WiP (work-in-progress) phase. I share the studio art classroom with a part-time faculty member and while it might sometimes seem like I have a pretty cushy set-up (based on what I share on the blog) the room I share with the other teacher is about 2/3 the size of what I know most art classrooms are that are not shared. This always creates problems when it comes to storing supplies or student works on top of the fact that I know my colleague is not usually thrilled with some of my zany endeavors. (They are much more neat and tidy than I am.)

For this project I solved some of the project by storing some of the bags of balloons behind this huge canvas that another student has been trying to work on when they can...

Far from ideal but making the best of what I have is all I can do

Tomorrow I will show you the next phase of the project when we were getting to the stage of finishing up the sculpting and fabrication of the different elements and starting to install it all in the student gallery hallway.

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This installation art study was student-centered and collaboratively designed and constructed (across two classes). It utilized paper sculpting and papier mache, string wrapping, spray painting and brush painting, fiber application in order to create a sun, clouds, and rainbow display suspended from the ceiling of the student art gallery hallway. It was originally presented in a week long series that showed the planning and creative processing, the beginning part of the sculpting/working stage, the point just about when everything was done being sculpted, and then some notes about when things went awry and how those things were dealt with. The final view of it can be found HERE. This project was meant to be a re-imagining of The Ombre Experience project idea.

The ROYGBIV Project :: Sneak Peek of a series!!!

I am so delighted to bring a whole week/full series starting next Monday of a look at the start-to-finish of an installation art study and project I just completed last week with the 3D Design students. Two classes did the project together and it took about a solid month to do it and while collaborative learning can sometimes be a bit of a nightmare for both the teacher and the students involved, this project was a HUGE winner overall. Not one student felt excluded and wasn't whole-heartedly invested and I also didn't feel like I was ever trying to push or shove the efforts of the over 45 students that did the project together.

This project is one not totally different from what I did last year with The Ombre Experience endeavor but it twisted and expanded it some with the intention for it to be totally student-centered in how it established and unfolded itself. It was quite intense and consuming and for that reason I don't feel like I could come close to sharing it and discussing it with you all in just one or even two blog postings so that's why I am stretching it out. Anyway, come back and check in on Monday! That's when I will be kicking everything off. 

Quick Sculpting is AWESOME for Summative assessments

[This is from a while back but it's taken me a bit to get caught up so pardon me.]

 Do you do pre-tests/assessments in visual art?

This is from the very first assignment for the 3D Design class as a way for me to assess where each of them was starting from - skillsets, general understanding of art and design, etc. The inspiration for each of the sculptures was for them to sculpt what it feels like to look at a rainbow. Essentially, they were each sculpting an emotion which was challenging for some but at the same time many of them enjoyed the challenge and really sought to tackle it well. They were only allowed to use paper and simple adhesives like tape and white glue and they were instructed to do their best to make it as clean in construction as possible.

After they spent about three days working on it I had another class (a 2D Design class) critique and visually "read" what the sculpture was attempting to communicate while the 3D Design classes critiqued and read the 2D Design pre-assessments. All of the students were very interested in find out what the other students read from their work and I was able to read where they were in their art understandings and abilities! It was pretty successful overall.

Lesson idea: Extra-dimensional | 3D Design OpArt study

It's been quite a while since I shared a lesson idea and/or a video with you all so you all are in for some real treats today!! ;)

This lesson idea is a spin on something I have been doing with the 2D Design classes (OpArt studies) that pairs with things I have seen on Pinterest as well as it being something that has made the rounds on the art education blog circuit. It takes the geometric 3D form (the cube) and  expands on the idea of dimension by applying Op-art patterns and designs on the different faces of the cube so that the finished piece looks incredibly dimensional. You can see some of the works-in-progress of this project HERE and also HERE.

This project was incredibly labor intensive for all of the student artists because OpArt needs to be so carefully thought through and then even more carefully created and colored. Whenever I do OpArt projects it always takes me a lot time to evaluate the work because looking at it makes my head spin and I have to take a whole lot of breaks. I told the students this and they thought I was being dramatic but when they started working on their pieces? Well... they totally understood. Ultimately, the project ended up taking almost a solid month for us to complete (including a bunch of random days when our class time got shorted for one reason or another). Just the same, I was fine with it. I'm doing my best to just go with the flow these days.

While I could show you only still photos of the finished pieces of student work, I don't feel like still photos will do the presentation of this lesson idea the justice it deserves. As a collective and the way it is being displayed is quite something to see in real life and the closest way I can come up with to show it to you would be to do a video. And so? Here it is! The school's senior visual art prefect joined me for this one and in the video I will be sharing with you some of the inspiration behind the overall collective of work. It's quite thought provoking in the way it all came together and it might be my most favorite exhibit we have done so far. Go figure - it's pretty much another exhibit of installation art!! (It just happened like that.)



Just in case it was hard to see the student work, here are two stills I also took in the midst of taking the video...

And because outtakes are always fun and it IS Monday, here is a quick outtake that otherwise would have ended up on the "cutting room" floor because I am so bad at using my video camera on my phone. *shrug* ENJOY!!! (at my expense)

Drive safely, right?

And as if all of the previous from yesterday and the day before isn't enough, over the weekend I was surprised by the Lord with an even more thought provoking and heart inspiring prospect...

A new member of my church congregation and a long-time friend/supporter of the school where I work reached out to me via email last weekend and offered me something incredibly unique: a full set of organ keys from the 1970s that once belonged to his father.

???????????

When I opened the email I was immediately catapulted in thought processes of how this was happening and what I was supposed to do with it all. I, of course, graciously welcomed the opportunity to take these keys (to what, I am asking the Lord) in order to give them a new purpose and life by way of visual art! I have an inkling of how and what the Lord wants me to do with this all but (again) it has not totally solidified yet so I am going to hold off on sharing any of it just yet.

So exciting. So amazing, exciting, and mind-boggling strange and wonderful this life of being an artist is sometimes.

The crucible of painting for The Crucible

Yesterday was my first day back to school after two days of cancellations for Hurricane Sandy and I ended up having to ditch out on almost all of my classes because of set painting for The Crucible.

(-__-)

Well... I didn't really ditch out on all of them, some of them I were drafted to join me in the endless pursuit of dry brushing every surface to make it look like distressed wood grain. Also, my department head covered some of my classes (like study hall) and I took some of her students in addition to some of the ones I had and drafted them into painting as well.

TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!

The official shirts for this production are so choice. Praise the Lord for a marketing and design team that shares the same vision as I do by doing things stylistically in a minimalist fashion and VERY WELL at that. 

As it turns out, we have sort have been doing what we've been doing wrong and after much contemplation, I am going to try and turn this set building ship on a dime and lighten up the wall panels so they look more like the three separate vertical planes (on each side) that we wanted them to be to begin with. It just makes more sense that way!

I was sitting back in the sound booth and it just occurred to me that it should be done but rather than being the killjoy and telling the students, "OK... we are going to have to do at least two more... MAYBE three... more rounds of dry brushing to light the value on some specific sections."

Before I made them all do it, I took a picture with my phone and then burned and dodged it in photoshop to have an actual example of what we were going to be doing when we changed it all up. I say: Work SMARTER not HARDER!! 

This might be the most frustrating and rewarding set design and painting I've done so far. It was conceptualized to be as original as possible - though the two faculty directors/producers did cull and give me inspiration images to (literally) draw the set designs from. The craziness that was Hurricane Sandy has definitely set us all back a little but Lord-willing we will make this all happen and it WILL be AWESOME.

Lesson Idea: Form of the formless - Subtractive sculpting | 3D Design

This lesson idea included some of the following learning objectives:

• Create original works of art using minimalistic style and non-objective forms
• Visually communicate an emotion, idea, thought, suggestion, or experience from a Christian worldview in 3D form that is can be mounted on a pedestal and then be free-standing in presentation
• Learn the creative process required to design and create a non-objective sculpture from start to finish
• Understand and experience the challenges of unique sculpting material (in this case, a large very porous block of foam)
• Successfully utilize techniques such as subtractive sculpting and painting to intentionally create and communicate a specific message

This was only the second project for the 3D Design class and it was very challenging for them. Thankfully, they really rose to the challenge and (I feel) really invested themselves in order to create works of art that are original in nature, thought provoking and compelling, and carefully crafted.

This project was supposed to take a little more than two weeks and it ended up taking nearly a little more than three weeks. The thing that pushed it over the two week limit was the thought processing itself because for at least half of the class, I had to help steer their ideas so that they wouldn't be so obvious when they were fully created. To help them, I modeled (via me talking aloud and then illustrating things on the board in front of the class) a creative thought process I might go through that takes something concrete and turns it into something abstract. Some of the students understood what I was going for after that but plenty others were still lost.

Each of the students had to draft (3) different views of their sculpture idea and they had to tell me their inspiration and thought processes behind their idea. If what they presented to me was too obvious and I could figure it out (based on what I saw) because it was contrived or cliched, I would push them back to the "drawing board" and rework their idea. Some students had to go through this as many as half a dozen times. When the deadlines drew closer for the different stages of the whole project, I would talk with each student 1:1 and attempt to help them cultivate and develop their inspiration into something that would satisfy the requirements of the stage they were in. Here is a posting I did some time ago of the students working on this project.

The students were allowed to paint their pieces any one color they wanted but (for differentiated instruction and learning) if they wanted to use two colors (two was the limit) then those colors needed to be painted and blended in a gradual and seamless fashion to show an almost ombre effect. The pedestals (bases and posts) of the pieces could only be of a neutral color that included black, white, brown, or gray.

I (personally) feel like they did a really outstanding job with this project despite the fact that I really put them through the paces to design and create works of art that took them a week longer than the projected due date to create. Here are some of the completed pieces that the students worked so diligently to create.

Lesson Idea: The OneLiner | 2D Design

One of my favorite things to do with the students is continuous line blind contour drawing. It almost always yields works of art that are interesting and intriguing. The element of surprise and leaving the act of creation up to a little bit of chance helps the students to let go of themselves and learn to trust themselves as well. It also proves to them that successful pieces of artwork don't always come in moments of highly-controlled planning and preparing and some of their best (and most favorite) works sometimes come organically and spontaneously.

This project was called the "One-liner Modern Art" drawing but I decided to just call it "The OneLiner" because I felt like for my purposes? That just makes more sense. The idea of taking the continuous line drawing and melding it with the technique of blind contour drawing aimed to teach them to learn to do mastercopy type work as well as drawing from still-life observations. They were also able to experiment with mixed media and they used crayon, watercolor, graphite, charcoal, ink, and marker for the coloring of their line drawings.

I adhered to the same framework I started with and introduced to you all last week with the Drawing from the Abstract lesson idea and this project idea (like the aforementioned) was inspired by something that I found in the Drawing Lab book that I love so much. I tried to preserve the essence of the drawing exercise but I expanded upon what it suggested and then fit all of that into the framework I am continuing to use for the creative process the students are learning to follow:

1. Explore & Experiment - The students did speed drawing exercises both from still-life set ups as well as masterworks (I used this one from Picasso that is so popular - yes, the students did this upside down)
2. Figure Out & Focus - The students did multiple peer reviews in order to help them consider techniques that they might have tried OR identify which technique they have used so that they can use it again and then intentionally create a work of art using that technique. They also did trials of either mastercopy works and/or working from a still-life set-up. They also tried out color palette ideas and different mediums.
3. Stick or Scrap - The students looked critically at their own work and they decided whether they liked what they had been doing or if they wanted to go back to step #1 or #2 in order to create something that they felt was a little bit more successful and adhering to their goal with the work of art. Some of the students decided to abandon their mastercopy efforts and decided to go with one of the still-life set-ups and vice versa. They used intentionally decided upon color palettes and applied the color in specific ways.
4. Know & Go - This is when the students got their final support to work on (watercolor paper) and they went confidently in the direction using specifically decided upon techniques and color palettes. 

I differentiated instruction with this project by offering them four different drawing examples for them to choose from if they did mastercopy works and two different still-life set-ups if they wanted to work from observation. I also allowed them to use whatever medium they wanted to work with as informed by their creative processing. Here are the two still-life set-ups that I gave them to work from...

I encouraged the students to get up from their seats and position themselves as they decided would output the best and most interesting perspective of the still life they selected. They had large drawing boards and I also allowed them (on some days) to listen to "personal music" in order to help them stay focused on their task at hand.

Some of the final works the students created are here! I am SO proud of them for what they both learned, figured out on their own, and created INTENTIONALLY vs. just making for the sake of making something. They worked very hard and it definitely shows (I think)...

Mastercopy work

Still life

Mastercopy work

Mastercopy work

Still-life

Still-life

Still-life

Still-life

Many of the students initially thought that they wanted to do a mastercopy but then they changed their minds because they realized the creative liberties they could take by creating something completely original (and in their unique styles) by working from observation. It was very exciting to see this discover this and also watch their technique and individual works develop from trial to trial and then make it to the final work that they turned in. I am having an especially difficult time picking pieces to go into the student gallery and that makes me so excited!! Now if only I could have the wall space to be able to show them all.

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Don't forget to enter the contest 

of this blog's first ever giveaway of my "favorite things!!!"

REMEMBER: You have to leave your comments on the blog post that announced the contest found HERE VIA THIS LINK in order to be officially entered and considered in the final count to be randomly chosen for the prize package. Don't forget that there are TWO ways to be entered in the giveaway and the cut off time/date is Tuesday, Sept. 25th at midnight EST!!

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Giving form to the formless

This is how we started what we are working on!!

The one thing I continually take away from my concurrent graduate studies is the need for me to always be willing to re-evaluate what I am doing in my classroom and with my students to ensure that it is something that is the "best practice" (so to speak). 

So here's a confession: Before this year I started to get a little bit complacent with what was going on with my teaching and art happenings in my classroom. Well... I mean, maybe it wasn't super evident that something like this occurred but in retrospect I just really feel like that is what occurred. And for this reason? I decided that starting this year I am going to start thinking of myself as a first year teacher EVERY year that I teach. That means that this year I am a sixth year, first year teacher and the road is wide open for me to do brand new things in my classroom because technically I shouldn't have last year and the year before and the year before that to push me back so I can rest comfortably on my laurels.

Approaching teaching this year has been a really positive thing. Yes - it's created a lot more work for me. It's been worth it though because what it has always created is much more successful student artwork. At the beginning of all of my classes I made a very big point a emphasizing that the overarching goal this year was to not just make artwork but to CREATE it. Per the dictionary, this is one in the same thing but as I adhere to Biblical teachings and I teach in a setting that grounds itself and fully embraces the intent to approach things with a Christian worldview creation and creating is a BIG deal. I mean, the book of Genesis starts off the entire Bible with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth..." For this reason, I take my job of teaching creativity and creation VERY seriously. To me? It's pretty much the ultimate in answering the call to be an imitator of God.

The 3D Design class has been working VERY hard on their first major project which is to do subtractive sculpturing with foam blocks. The subject of each of their sculptures is determined by the individual student artists but all of them must sculpt something that is an abstract idea or question rather than just picking something that "looks cool." I know this is confusing how I have presented it but basically, each student artist is being tasked with giving form to something that might otherwise be formless. An example might be something like "What it feels like to be at the beach" or "What does someone's life look like when they are living a life without a moral compass of any kind." Sound a little crazy and amazing that my students are doing this? Well... yeah. It IS a very ambitious endeavor. But you know what? They can do it and they ARE doing it. They are absolutely coming up with original ideas, they are cultivating what is emerging from their own curiosities, and they problem-solving beautifully.

Now, I'm sure one question you might have is this: How in the world are you doing this? Well, I started out with something VERY basic and with lots of conditions (read: exact directions that couldn't not be followed and standards that weren't open ended and hard to achieve). They sculpted the "puffy" heart for the Explore & Experiment stage of the project and then I instructed them to take their hearts and use them to intentionally make a statement where the heart was the vessel of the message. I have them the cliched suggestion (just for example purposes) of how a heart could be split into two with jagged edges and it could be called "broken hearted."

Some of what the students came up with were the following...

The student artist said this about this piece: "When you give someone a piece of your heart, your heart remains your heart but it might be a different shape depending upon how much of it you gave away. This doesn't matter though because so long as the person is willing to know it's a piece of your heart and they really shouldn't just run away with it, then your heart can still be as big as it always was and the bonus is you have shared it (literally) with another person."

The student artist of this one declared that "My heart has a door that can be opened by something/someone so that something could be put inside (and behind) the door because if not? That space would remain empty and otherwise vacant."

It is hard to tell but this heart has a cross shape carved into it and it also sort of resembles a key hole. The student stated that "The key to [my] heart is a cross which is symbolic of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The students were each required to sculpt the heart and then do something like what you see above with it and then they were required to sketch a front, side, and back OR aerial view of their idea as well as be prepared to explain and defend the design decisions they made. They have been sculpting for two solid days of class and they are expected to have all of their sculpting done so that their pieces are ready to be sealed, painted, and mounted on pedestals at the start of next week.

So far they are doing very well and learning a lot but I will say that my sinuses are not loving all of the styrofoam dust being scraped and whittled and then kicked up in the process. Oh well. It's totally worth it if you ask me.

Lesson Idea: Drawing from the Abstract

This lesson idea originated from that one book I love so much Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun.

I believe (in the book) this one was called Imaginary Creatures or something of the sort but I decided to call it drawing from the abstract because that is exactly what it instructs to do!

What students do is they watercolor paint abstract forms in three colors - the book suggests limiting the palette to the primary triad, waiting for it to dry and then turning the finished painting around and about until you (the artist) can see forms within the painted abstraction.

The book suggests this as an exercise and not necessarily a full project but I adapted it's instructions so that it is something of a much longer running project endeavor. I did this by taking the general idea of it and adapting it into an inquiry-based learning experience. This is because I am learning that the best practices for the art classroom I am teaching in is when it is 1) inquiry-based and 2) allows for the following stages of learning to occur in order for them to understand what their own individual creative process so that they can ultimately become more independent and autonomous in their visual art idea cultivation and creation. I came up with this framework just this year and it is working so well even with their second project that I am going to use it the whole year in the studio classroom at least with the plans to come up with something for the digital classroom ASAP. The names are just what I like to call them though there might be a formal name for them that I am unaware of...

1. Explore & Experiment - When the student artists get their hands immediately on and into art mediums and can try them out with little interference of direction from me other than, "I don't know. What do YOU think it does? Maybe you should try it?"
2. Figure Out & Focus - When the students are starting to have a better of what the medium does (or doesn't do) and they take that and align the project objective with it in order to make informed decisions about what they may (or may not) want to do in order to achieve the results they are striving for. This process involves peer review and critique of work that has been done in different stages, me doing demonstrations of possible best practices, and answering questions they may have formulated based on the Explore & Experience stage.
3. Stick or Scrap - This is basically the single defining stage that either forces them to go back to Explore & Experiment a little bit so they can go through the Figure Out & Focus at least one more time (that's usually all it takes) OR for them to know and believe with confidence that they want to go in one direction with their project or another. It is usually known (by them individually) subtleties as much as how they should be holding their paintbrush to achieve a certain effect on the support they are working on, what exact color palette they will use, etc.
4. Know & Go - This is the final stage of their creative process where they are confident to step up to using finally and high-quality/grade art materials in order to create something intentionally that will be complex in it's presentation and also show evidence of good technique that is obviously apparent, the subject matter will say something as much as show something (meaning they are being a visual communicator instead of making something because "it looked cool"), and, finally, they will be completely confident to stand by their work and defend it as a successful work even if someone challenges it and calls it unsuccessful.

Definitely, this approach to teaching/instruction/learning is student-centered and requires a LOT of time for it to happen as it does. I have the time to do it though (or rather I am permitted that sort of luxury) because I work in private school education and I teach high school student artists (who are incredibly high level in their abilities and understandings already). I have found that doing long-term projects is better and teaches them more than shorter ones. It allows me plenty of time to do demonstrations (as I did for this project already) without leaving out opportunities for them to do speed painting that forces students to let go of themselves a little especially when I know they are having a hard time doing it.

The students worked through all of the above stages and this is what they came out with. This project is considered mixed media since the bottom most layer (that informed the top layers) was water color painted freely and then the top layers of ink, marker, charcoal and wax/crayon were applied because of what the watercolor layer looked like initially. The supports I used were the following and in this order - white drawing paper, watercolor paper, and then aquabord.

None of the student artists knew what their pieces would look like in the end and that was the point because I wanted to kick off with a project that would require them to throw a little caution to the wind and TRUST both me for asking them to do "outlandish" things as well as themselves that they could create and not just make. Enough of all of my verbosity - Want to see their finished works?

Overall I believe this project was successful and I would definitely use it again. The final pieces were only 5x7 but I would love to try it on a larger scale and adapt it to be less about just living creatures and more about their environments as well. A larger scale would make this creative endeavor even more like the long-term project I was going for initially and it would certainly demand a lot of investment of each student artist both in the way of thinking very creatively as well as demonstrating solid technique to make sense of the "mess" that they might see before them.