Where I am instead...

Hello, kind and sweet and wonderful and lovely readers of this ridiculously neglected blogsite. Perhaps I should offer an apology (and further beg of your forgiveness) for not being here but I don't believe that to be acceptable since... I'm actually not sorry for being so very not here. And I say all of this not from lack of appreciation but much more of absolutely pure honesty. 

Since last year about this time (maybe even a little earlier), I've had a great deal of challenge in my personal life. Much of this has to do with information I'm not at liberty to discuss openly (because it's information that technically belongs to other people) but some of it belongs to me as well as I have had my own share of some amazingly challenging health issues. This has included (but is not limited to) me having to see quite a number of medical professionals and even have to go through a biopsy in order to determine that I do not have cancer. (I repeat: I do NOT have cancer. PRAISE. THE. LORD.) I have been found to have other things though but... they aren't things that are new and are simply things that I've somehow always had but that still require some very focused, immediate, and steadfast medical attention. *sigh* It's not been fun or easy but I'm happy to report that I'm feeling so much better than I have in a very long while despite the toll it's clearly taken on me (and, in turn, this blog). 

All of this said, I've not stopped teaching art and/or creating it myself. I've simply being doing it in a capacity that is not so openly shared here or other social media conduits I have previously kept up. While not sharing is not so much "fun," it's been enormously instrumental for me and the continued movement that I make toward greater wellness and more solid ground. Not having the requirement or feeling or urgency to share has helped me find much more very real joy in my life and helped me to invest in being less of a producer of moments and a better of enjoyer of them. I'm more truly invested in life and it's paid off in dividends beyond what I could ever count. Basically? I'm less wired into a virtual world and more connected to the real one that always immediately surrounds me which has created richer relationships and greater value across the board and what I do have in my life? None of it is superficial or in excess in a way that I either want to or need to purge to make things more "manageable" let alone more enjoyable. 

The way it's all happened was certainly never planned (by me at least) but I'm happy that it has happened just the same. One any given day I can (and I do) look at my life and feel a beautiful and and wonderful peace which is always followed but a strong but quiet thankfulness. This is because I GET TO HAVE this life that I have. I've not been relegated to it and it's far and away from something that "is what it is." This is something that is beyond what could have been brought by mere luck or coincidental happenstance. Something this good can't and doesn't just happen - per my opinion or experience. And all of this brings me to the latest "development" of the place that I've been so blessed to find myself reveling in...

This was done with prismacolor colored pencil (a 72-count set) and blended with gamsol and then defined and dimensioned with Micron pens. I did not prep the pages (though you can do that) but I did do a light sketch to layout what you see. Also, no - the image or mediums did not "shadow" or bleed through the pages so they are perfectly readable still!

This is my Bible. And other than my family (which includes my husband, child, and our small menagerie of creatures), my Bible is the most treasured thing I own. I actually have a lot of Bibles but this one is very special to me because I bring it with me as much as I can in order to look at it whenever I might want to. Is it odd that it happens to have a huge illustration across the pages? Well... that's called Bible Journaling and it's something I have discovered over the past year where you study it in a way that allows you to visually illuminate the understanding (or even questions) you have right there in the place where it so originated.

Bible journaling is something that I'm only just starting. Prior to this I would highlight and annotate and do very quick drawings in the margins in pen for the sole purposes of explication. Bible journaling is something that I've been watching from the "sidelines" as it's been taking the world of social media by storm. (So... though I haven't been a participator and active contributor? I've still been reading blogs and such to not be totally out of "the loop" with things). In recent weeks though, I've decided to jump into Bible journaling myself and I gotta tell you - it's AMAZING and I love it SO Much because it's reinvigorated my understanding of scripture as well as ignited my enthusiasm to partake of The Word in ways that I don't think I have ever experienced in my whole life. This is something that I feel like I have been waiting for and I'm so glad that it's happened that it's now in my life.

So... this is what I'm doing these days and I'm still not sure that I will be sharing it on here the way I have today or that I will be returning to this blogsite any time soon but I just wanted to say "Hi" at least and say that I haven't totally forgotten about this place (where I once spent so much more time). Thanks so much for the patience, understanding, and support for me to have done what I have been able to do and keep doing as I am doing.

This is what two weeks of painting looks like

Two weeks ago the canvas looked like this...

Underpainting

And then it went to this...

 

And I have revisited it so it currently it looks like this...

 

I am guessing that I have at least another week but more than likely two more weeks ahead of me to actual finish this painting. It's been a tremendous amount of work and very challenging but I have learned just as much too and I am in no major rush to complete this. I just want to be able to paint this well and CORRECTLY. I want the colors to be right, the marks to have integrity, the lines to have obvious speed, and I am not willing to skimp on anything that will diminish how it speaks to glorify creation and the creative process.

How much of your blogfeed is vacationing for the holidays?

Hey there! I know I said that I was taking a vacation from this blog (and I am) but I wanted to let you know that I am not taking a vacation from blogging all together and I am just blogging somewhere else.

Remember that visual Bible study I said I was doing? Well... it's had it's ebbs and tides BUT it's stills standing and I have been attempting to invest myself with doing it every single morning (when the daylight hasn't even attempted to peek itself out!) in order to start my day in His word. Amazingly (but not surprisingly) it has done remarkable things for each of my days that start like this. Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy but I notice my day going in haphazards ways when (for whatever reasons) I don't start it with His words. Even if you look at the record/archive on the visual Bible study, you will notice some pretty obvious gaps when I haven't done it and you can also note what/where I have reported I am in life. The evidence speaks pretty loudly that things have been disordered when I haven't had the Bible study to steady me and I am not trying to Bible thump about this. (Seriously.)

If you want to talk about patterns of human behavior (because I used to work in clinical and behavioral psychology and so I like to look at the life through these types of lenses), my patterns of behavior and ways of my life have   almost always ALWAYS been at their most "crazy" when I haven't grounded myself in some way with my faith. This isn't to say that when my faith is solidly intact and not waning that life is easy but more than when my faith is wavering or I am not looking to it to anchor me, I am floating all sorts of place that I should otherwise never try to venture even with the best map or compass. And so? I feel like it is loudly obvious that the visual Bible study has done a world of difference for me since I started it earlier this year and even in the times when it appeared like I was abandoning it? Well, I have always returned to it and found that I shouldn't be so careless to leave it out of my life.

All of that being said, if you are interested in it (joining it or just watching my adventures with it) OR you are curious about my faith (no matter what faith you are, have, or don't have) OR your daily blogroll is a little barren with this season being Christmas and people taking vacations and all from blogging - I am blogging there every day and you are welcome to have at least it keep your blogroll going until everybody returns from vacation!!! Now, I warn you that I am no Bible scholar and I didn't have a classic Christian upbringing (meaning go to Christian school or anything) and I didn't go to college for ministry but I currently do technically work in youth ministry since the school where I teach/work is a faith-based institution where it is my job to use the gospel of the framework for how I present things to my students so that they learn how to have a Christian worldview.

If you are at all interested OR curious, you can access access my visual Bible study blog called "How Great Thou ART" by clicking HERE or by entering the actual blog address into your browser address bar that is - http://http://howgreatthouartbiblestudy.blogspot.com OR you can click through the screenshot below of the blog posting of today (and just posted less than an hour ago) where I am examining the parable of the sower as it pertains to my own actual brothers and sisters in my family.

And if you end up doing your own visual Bible study similar to how I am doing? (Meaning: you have decided to be your own "How great thou ARTist" (HA!) then let me know so I can link up my blog with yours!!! Strength in numbers right? And(!) to my knowledge and per Google searches, there is nobody else on the web doing this except me. *shrug* and though my searches have confirmed that people have attempted it at their own brick and mortar establishments, this is a new and possibly innovative approach to scripture study that you could be in on!!! So... if you are all about trailblazing and it tickles your fancy to be in the know before everyone else is? You and I (TOGETHER!) could be on to something really REALLY big that the world will eventually catch onto because it is really REALLY awesome.

You game? LET'S DO IT!!!

Special delivery from Jerusalem - Pt. 1 of 2

While the title of this posting could definitely suggest something different since we are officially in December since the next major occasion cause for celebration is the birth of Jesus Christ? That's actually not what I meant. Just the same, it's hard to ignore how timely what I actually am talking about is regarding the aforementioned.

That picture up there is of a package of some items that I ordered around the time I announced my (now old news) retirement from being a working visual artist of the photographic sort. I had just finished "The Covenant" painting and I was feeling both uplifted and overwhelmed by the prospects that the Lord had something different for me to do that would still allow me to answer His calling to be an artist for Him. On top of all of that, I was getting to oil paint again - the one medium of art that I love more than anything else - and I was just in all kinds of bliss because of it.

While I was reveling in the things that the Lord was doing, I was careful to try no to forget to give every ounce of it back to Him. I knew that the only reason why I was suddenly able to create the way I was - the new style and technique of painting, the materials to be able to paint, the time to be able to paint, and the newly established peace, love and support in my life to inspire and encourage me - it all came from the Lord above. And because I am a firm believer that whatever He gives is a gift to us and what we do with what He gives us is our gift back to Him, I prayed and waited for direction about how and what He wanted me to do with it all.

Do you know what it's like to have your prayers answered in such a way that there isn't a shadow of a doubt that God has really heard your requests and cries for help? How about when you can really feel His presence in a moment where you are needing Him? How about when you can really feel His presence AND see Him so much that it feels like the time has stopped and the world has stopped moving and you feel like it is so carefully designed and then orchestrated that it couldn't possibly be happening? Do you know any of these moments? I (and some others who are believers) know them to be "God-moments" and while (in the past) they have been rare - I mean, moments so special as that can't just happen constantly because I am convinced that our hearts and souls couldn't take it - they happening to me and it has only affirmed and confirmed the fact that the Lord is here delivering on His promises and then making even more to deliver upon. The special delivery from Jerusalem? It was all of this put together.

To be continued...

Lesson Idea: Fruits of the Spirit - Contemporary Propaganda study | Graphic Design

 In a little less than one month, the United States of America will be casting their votes to elect the next president. I normally don't involve or concern myself with anything political but it's hard for me not to take notice of the hub-bub of it all. Even I can easily get caught up in the spirit of things and I am perhaps one of the most unconcerned and unlikely political types (for the most part) ever. And for this reason? I decided to do a politically inspired project idea with my Graphic Design students.

*** Feel free to scroll through this to get to the project notes***

A little background: Recently, I made the decision to take myself off of facebook (for personal networking purposes - my business ventures still have a presences there). I had been toying with the idea of doing it for quite some time now both because of my disagreement with Facebook user policies that not only readily permits but also encourages people to overshare things about themselves. This coupled with the fact that the upcoming election has made people almost combative with their personal political platforms and concerns? I don't know. I just think Facebook has become a place that simply isn't for me anymore. Still, even with all of the reasons I feel like it is bad (disguised as good), I didn't leave there without taking some inspiration for an art project idea for my student artists!!

I don't really watch TV that much these days so I have been pretty shielded from the ridiculous political mudslinging that is likely happening and picking up momentum in that way. However, I have been able to witness some it via people I knew on Facebook that very much served as the catalysts that I was ready to be done with it once and for all. Perhaps it's because I am very aware of what can be visually communicated but there were a number of memes out there (from and for either side of the political showdown) that I think are just ridiculous. I won't share them because I don't even want to give them anymore web space than they already take up but basically they take some of the most unflattering pictures of both candidates and then they say some pretty ridiculous things about them that are just plain unnecessary, usually untrue, and definitely unfair. Now, normally I don't feel like this is a problem so much but I started noticing that as people were posting things, it was inspiring one of two things:

1. Serious division between people who were actually friends at one time but had all of a sudden felt like because of their differences of opinion in the realms of politics, they couldn't be friendly or even sometimes friends anymore
2. Certain people who might have been "on the fence" about politics to believe things that were outright wrong about the two candidates so much that it was actually shaping their motivations to vote in one way or the other

You might be thinking, "What do you care what people think? Really! I mean, and what do you care and WHY do you care?" You know what?  I am not ashamed to say that I do very much care about the fact that such a thing is happening and has happened (and easily this is why Facebook is not the place for me). I care about how people interact with one another because I know (as my faith informs me) that what people say and do to one another whether virtually or in-person makes a differences. It can build up or tear down.

I know this all too well, in fact, because recently I believe that I actively and perhaps even subconsciously contributed to the annihilation of what I always believed to be a very deep and close friendship. I can't take any of it back no matter how much I am shamed by it but I know I was wrong and that the situation itself was just wrong (all together) and it only serves as even more evidence to me that people need to be a lot more careful and intentional about the things they are saying and doing. When you say and do things, you can say your apologies but the digs and cuts that you might make leave scars that are painful to deal with long after they allegedly healed. And so? I (even before the aforementioned event) am keenly aware of the importance of saying what you mean and meaning what you say and trying to make that be reflective of the fruits of the spirit as much as possible. I mean, I will get it wrong. I absolutely will but that truth doesn't have to stop me from trying to do it just the same. And so? That's where the idea of this project idea originated.

*** End of background information, start of project notes ***

I am a firm believer that the Lord and His gospel can be found within every and any part of the grand and intelligently designed thing that we know as the world and our lives. With this in mind, I examined and discuss the work of Shepard Fairey as well as the scandal that ensued because of it with my graphic design student artists. Are you familiar with what I am talking about? He was behind the infamous Hope poster done around the time of Obama's election that became iconic of Obama's campaign and actual election to the presidency. Here it is to refresh your memory...

 

Now, I totally think that what happened because of it was warranted and fair with the rulings for the Associated press photographer and against Shepard Fairey but that doesn't mean that I don't still think the work isn't truly noteworthy, successful, and just plain really solid and amazing design work in the way that Fairey turned it and twisted it to be what is. And this is exactly what I told my student artists! We also talked about how so much of what might be swirling about (in the way of graphic and pictorial propaganda and promotion) was bad - both in design and in actual content. I challenged them with the notion that we could take inspiration from Shepard Fairey's creative genius and also learn from what others are doing that is negative (with their political commentary) and do inspired pieces that promote fruits of the spirit just as the gospel promotes it. So? That's what we did!

Each student was assigned a specific fruit of the spirit and they had to take that and then design something that visually encapsulated and intentionally communicated what it would look like similar to what Shepard Fairey attempted to do with the Hope poster design. I created a keynote presentation that "unpacked" the details of the design and explained the anatomy in terms of specifics like the use of only (3) colors, using posterization to transform the the colors/images, using a single word to literally communicate in conjunction with the images itself, etc. I also showed them some very amusing spoofs on the Hope poster and talked about why things like that exist as a result of what happened. One last thing I did with them was to not give them a step-by-step tutorial. I wanted them to see what needed to be done and then figure out (by inquiry-based working mode) how to do it in photoshop. 

Here are some of the finished pieces that they turned out...

 

Now, before anyone says, "You just endorsed them 'lifting' other peoples' work just like Fairey did!!" Calm down. I absolutely did not. They were very aware of the fact that their work was not solely their own AND they would not and could not call it that. They were also made aware that what we were doing was a study and so it was kind of like doing a mastercopy of Shepard Fairey's work and that required them to use what someone else already did BUT they could not take credit for the other person's work and they would need to be able to explain where and how their image originated.

Three points for the WIN

I am just about beside myself because of what the image above shows.

The class I took the image in is Graphic Design. While it might not be so obvious, the student in the center of the two is helping the two students he is between and he is also not sitting on the correct side of the room (meaning at his usual seat) because he previously was sitting there and he physically got up to help the two students pictured above. Before he did this though he helped the two students he was sitting in between at his regular seat.

The Graphic Design class is working on a project right now that seeks to visually communicate what the fruits of the spirit look like if it were to be made into a graphic image. (I will present the lesson idea eventually when they actually finish it.) This is their second major project of the marking period so far but their first one where they are not working from a tutorial.

(Normally, I start out the first month of instruction for Graphic Design with tutorials entirely in order to teach them the functionality of the Photoshop program but this year I decide - like with my other art + design courses - to push them to learn via an inquiry-based teaching/learning approach.)

The above image is of a moment that I believe (for the rest of my teaching career) will easily rank in the top five. It's not rare for me to witness students help one another (because my classroom/school is just like that in the way it works most of the time) but this one time this kind of occurrence was INCREDIBLY noteworthy.

The student who this moment centers around (like all of the other students in this class) was very challenged by this project and sometimes outright gave up because of the challenge. They originally wanted to do subject matter that was far from what the project called for and I really pushed them to get beyond themselves and do something different in order to receive something difference. I pushed them to recognize that this assignment didn't just have to be like any other assignment and they had the unique opportunity to learn about the fruits of the spirit in a way that they never knew possible. They obliged me in the way students sometimes oblige their teachers "just because" they are supposed to and want to stop the lecture already. In the midst of all of the obliging, though, something happened and totally changed the game for them. They didn't only start to really learn what the fruits of the spirit are but they also really learned what they truly looked like (and not in graphic format) because they started to embody what they were so seeking to understand.

I called this posting three points for the win because what happened was a serious moment of win. It was a moment of win not just for me as their teacher but also them as the student. It was a moment of blessing that was paid forth in dividends because they not only figured out a majorly challenging design issue (that so many of their peers were working to try and figure out) but they also sought to help not only some of their peers but MORE of their peers. And why? Because they wanted to share "how good it feels" to really succeed at overcoming the challenge at hand. When they first overcome the challenge themselves, while everyone around them was struggling, they were completely elated and excited at the event. The first thing I said to them was, "How does it feel? How does it feel to do something REALLY HARD and WIN at doing it?" They could hardly put it into words and could only agree that it was a feeling so amazing that it almost left them speechless. I suggested that such a thing would be worth sharing and when they took my suggestion, I KNOW that the feeling they had only increased exponentially.

I pray that your Monday is one filled richly with blessings. I pray that your week brings you a moment as much like what I share as possible. And I thank you for allowing me to share it the way I did.

---

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!!

Just for Fun: Make your own (mobile) Refrigerator (door) ART gallery!!!

So, yesterday I teased you all with a long drawn out story about my quest to obtain a refrigerator door for a uniquely creative personal project I have been working on for a year and a half for my school. I absolutely want to pick up the story where I left it off but I also don't want to be a meanie and delay you from knowing where I am going any longer than I have to. I mean, forcing you all to sit through ANOTHER diatribe of unnecessary verbosity is just cruel - agreed?

SO! Without further adieu, here is a video explaining the saga of the refrigerator door a whole lot better...



And if you aren't keen on videos? Here is a picture from my instagram feed that might clue you in a little better until I tell the whole rest of the story next week (or something).

This will be a gallery within the student gallery that requires people to put their own artwork on it freely!!! Top picture shows the back of the door (on wheels) with a place to archive work that has been displayed for a while and a storage bin for cool magnets. The bottom left shows a full-length view of the whole front of the door. The bottom right picture shows the full-length view of the back of the door.

While I have named this gallery after a specific scripture, I see no reason that this idea couldn't be adapted to have a more secular vibe by using a quote like, "Every child is an artist..." by Picasso or the like. As far as I am concerned I think EVERY SCHOOL (or art museum or street corner for that matter) could use something like this. Don't you?

For that matter if you do agree with me and you decide to join me in this endeavor? Please PLEASE contact me and let me know how it goes for you!!!! I'd love to see pictures of your journey making it happen as well as pictures of the final product.

RoyGBiv day still on my mind

Technically this is day-old news here on the blog but this is a great shot (not taken by me) that is currently parked front and center on my school's homepage...

*sigh*

What a wonderful day and opportunity for fellowship it was!!!

I have been able to speak with a number of folks (administration, faculty, and students alike) about what they took away from it and I have gotten nothing but super positive feedback. Administration has even said that they would fully support (meaning funding and all) for this to be a recurring event at the end of every single year!!!! *SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRE!!!!!!!*

You must realize something: This idea originate from my own "crazy" imagination in the midst of winter when I was also working on getting the ombre experience lesson idea together while also juggling everything needed to do the sound of music set design and fabrication. I casually mentioned it to the one senior student who spearheaded this with me with (sort of) the expectation that he was absolutely "crazy" enough to want to do it. (He's just that kind of awesome and so I kind of wasn't surprised that he wanted to do it.)

Here are some more shots and things to note of how we got from start to finish on the whole thing.

We did a number of trial runs with inflated balloons to see how long they would maintain their ability to self-levitate. We determined that we had a max of 8-10 hours before they would lose their ability so in order to fully utilize that ability, we determined we would have to inflate the balloons the morning/day of the release. Our preferred time frame would have been mid-morning but we ended up being given the tail-end of the school day in the way of the last two periods - so about 1:30-2pm was when we would do the release.

In order to accommodate both the inflating of the balloons, storage until the release, etc. etc. etc., we used our school's performance arts center/venue and gathered over 20 students to help inflate, tie off, and attach balloon clips (with strings pre-attached) to the balloons. We estimated it might take us as long as five hours with two tanks of helium based on some balloon inflating that had been done weeks before for another event for around 300 balloons. We ordered 600 (100 of each color from Oriental Trading) but ended up with less than 550 because of shoddy balloon quality, balloons that burst from being overinflated ("pilot" error, if you will), and ones that just got away from us and floated up to the ceiling while we were trying to inflate them. We had the students come in at 5:15am to do the inflating and we were done and cleaned up by 8am when school started. (Note: EVERY student that came in said it was "totally worth it" and other students that missed out were disappointed that they didn't take the opportunity to join in!!!)

We stored the balloons in this venue until they students would all gather together for the presentation and instructions about how this whole event would go down...

We did provide lots of coffee and other yummy breakfast food as extra incentive for those who got themselves up and into school so early. 

 At the last period of the day, all of the students were gathered in the venue for the presentation about color theory (done by my senior student partner-in-crime) and he capped off the presentation with specific instructions about how each student was to get their balloon off the balloon clips/strings and out to the school quad in formation in order to release them. There were diagrams/maps that showed the path they were to walk and volunteers on-hand to facilitate traffic control and flow. Volunteers were wearing rainbow tie-dyed shirts so though would be easy to pick out from the crowd.

 Once the students got out to the quad, there were more volunteers (donning the requisite tie-dyed shirts) who were holding large poster board signs corresponding with all six colors of the balloons we had.

Students stood in their color group (away from other groups) until they were given the "OK" that every single student had exited the building with a balloon and was ready for the release.

 

 The center of the color "wheel" formation was marked with a duo of balloons (in black and white) where my senior student stood with an electronic megaphone and I was with my camera to document the action.

 When all was clear and everyone was confirmed to be outside with a balloon in hand, the volunteers were given the "yes" to bring their groups toward the center and we all bunch together as closed as we could. A countdown was given from 20 and then the balloons were finally released.

Again, I'm sorry I don't have any video of the actually release but it was truly (for lack of better words) MAGICAL to experience. Even now just looking at the stills of the event above with all of those colorful balloons floating up to the sun, I can hardly put into words how it felt to be there. And that, my friends, was/is the whole point of such a thing as RoyGBiv day in the first place!!!

It's about not just telling but SHOWING the students the gift that is an experience, that gift that is visual art, the gift that is being a part of the creation of visual art, and the gift that is being a part of something so much larger than itself.

A lovely blog reader (Hi, Cynthia S!) left a wonderfully supportive comment on my original posting about this event saying that she was going to "copy" this for her school next year. Friends, folks, blog readers, WORLD - PLEASE COPY THIS IDEA!!!!! Like I said before, to my knowledge (and per Google) no single day like RoyGBiv day exists at all AND IT SHOULD.

My own personal thoughts about this are to maybe not make it one single day that is the same day every year (though the last day of school is a good one for it to be) but perhaps making it a "surprise" experience - so you never know when RoyGBiv day will be - is better since that type of thing better adheres to the whole way that rainbows happen to begin with. Rainbows are kind of surprise to come upon, right? But they are always welcome. Now, for something like a balloon release? Well, that takes some planning so you would certainly require a select group of folks that would have to be "in the know" about it but my thoughts are that it could happen in other ways too. Like, perhaps, one day at lunch rainbow cupcakes could be made and served to surprise all of the students. (BTW - this is also another significant undertaking to make happen. I know from experience!) or you could figure out a way to get a sno-cone truck to come in and serve up those pre-fab rainbow sno-cones (I know, whatever, it would definitely cut down on the labor to make RoyGBiv happen in the first place).

Whatever the case, I'm actually leaning towards making RoyGBiv day a regular occurrence at my school. My reasoning also harkens back to the fact that I teach and live by an establishment of faith and the rainbow is SO sacred as it is featured in scripture. I love being able to draw students back to scripture to remind them of how much of this present-day world still contains the makings of scripture from way back when because it helps them to see how timeless the words of the Bible truly are. For purposes not of faith though? Well, RoyGBiv day is just awesome and that's all there is to it.

So all of this is to say that if it can be done at my school? It can be done at YOURS too and I encourage you to help make this happen because you just have no idea the enormity of the gift that you will be giving your school/students/self/colleagues/administration/community when they witness it. :)

Lesson idea: reMarkable Macro Fingerprints

I originally stumbled upon this project idea on Pinterest.com. The original idea took the artist's finger print, blew it up to macro detailing and then infused the lines of the print with a narrative of the artist's life story. I liked the idea immediately because it opened the door for cross-curricular learning. For my own purposes though? I felt it could be strengthened by doing more than just a self-reflective narrative and I changed that to using Bible verses instead.

To make the project more approachable for my students I identified seven different types of scripture and set up a printable worksheet for them to collect and organize their scriptures. Each student studied  their Bibles and came up with scriptures that spoke to them of love, faith, courage, forgiveness, hope, healing/comfort, and wisdom. The idea of the project was multi-layered with regard to how and why the scriptures were used within the fingerprint:

• God's word is something He hopes will leave a mark upon us so that the marks we leave all over the place (since it's so hard to not leave fingerprints wherever we've been) are marks that are infused with Him.
• God's touch/fingerprints are all over creation and that includes even the tiniest details like our fingerprints. No detail is overlooked and He has taken care to attend to every one of them.
• Every mark we leave behind should be infused with love, faith, courage, forgiveness, hope, healing/comfort, and wisdom. If everybody was doing that, imagine the world that would be created instead of what we have instead.

I've done a few projects with the students where scripture helps to inform the design of their work and since I teach faith-based curriculum, that works well! However, I definitely don't feel as if I do it often enough. From the stand point of teaching from a Christian worldview, scripture always has a place and always should be in place. And when it comes to art, it's a great connection with creativity/creation to the students and always inspires them to be more invested in their project work no matter the difficulty and challenge that might be presented as well.

This project definitely presented technical challenges to the students. There were many steps from start to finish and lots of new types of media and elements of art for them to be introduced to all at once. I started the project with having the students work on getting good clean fingerprints using black ink stamp pads on copy paper. I encouraged them to try and get prints from all of their fingers and thumbs on BOTH hands and then make decisions about what print they liked best. For the smaller fingers, I required them to print the shaft of the finger in addition to the finger pad to yield more fingerprint lines the way a thumbprint would yield.

Once everyone was printed and they had picked their best prints, I invested multiple planning periods standing at the copier blowing them up to fit on an 8.5x11 copy sheet of paper. I first enlarged them by 300% and then I enlarged the new sized print by 150-250% depending on how large they were at the 300% stage. Once I had them all enlarged, the students used them to enlarge them again onto poster board that was about 11x14 in size. I didn't require them to draw the prints line for line but encouraged them to simply section off the fingerprints in parts where the print lines started to change directions and/or naturally divide themselves. It was challenging for many of them (since they are foundational students with not a whole lot of experience) but it was tremendously helpful for me to help them draw out at least one section - for placement - and then simply encourage them to build from that. After the directional lines and parts were established, I had them just start penning their scriptures over and over again and in whatever color palette they felt drawn to use. It took a LONG time for the students to overwrite the fingerprint lines with scripture but they were very invested in it and the further along they got, the more intent they were to keep at it. As encouragement, I urged the students to use the kneaded erasers provided at each table set-up to erase the underlying directional lines so that the scripture lines took center stage. When all was said and done? Every piece that was completed (there were a few who didn't finish due to time management issues) was truly remarkable - hence the name that I dubbed this project reMarkable.

This was the second major project of about 8-10 total that we will do for one semester. Considering the level of challenge and difficulty that was presented with regard to their own limited experience, I definitely feel as if they rose to expectations that were set forth for them. Their next project is focusing on color theory, form, shape, and space in watercolor media and I think they will do very well with it.