Do I have to go back to the future?

This morning (Tuesday, 9/23/14) in the studio classroom

Clearly,  I have not held up any bargain/promise/proposal I have previously made to resume blogging. I am not even going to try and apologize about it anymore because I'm actually not all that sorry.

I mean... this blogsite has been really important to me. (Don't get me wrong on that.)  It has (more than) served its purpose of connecting me with other art teachers and working artists and designers. It's also been a terrific resource for folks if/when they have really REALLY needed it - be it for lesson plan ideas OR set/scene design ideas/how-to's/graphics for the many theater productions of which I have worked. I have gotten some awesome emails and comments from readers (about all of the aforementioned) and with every single one, I'm constantly humbled and amazed that anybody else thinks what I have done here has been useful or good.

(Please don't read all of this as a cry for validation and passive-aggressive request to feed my ego. I just seriously feel like I am 1) not that great of a writer to begin with, 2) OK enough at sharing what I have shared and 3) still learning so much myself that I am hesitant to "consult" because I'm still figuring things out myself/for myself - basically, I know I don't have the "answers" so I'm not trying to give anyone anything that is "half-baked.")

Related to all of the previous, the "fasting" I did years back from social media and then eventually from my electronic devices at large, I have found that since I have tried to return from that fasting, it's been hard for me to have very much of an appetite to keep up this particular blog anymore. I find that what I really crave (and am drawn to do) is to be more present in my classroom and with the incredibly talented (and hungry) student artists that I have been blessed to come to know. Despite how contradictory this sounds (especially since I am sharing this with you via digital social media), I find that one of the first things I want to do in order to start and end my days, are things that are not digital/virtual and are as tangible as possible.

In the past I used (and hated) using a teacher planning book/notebook. While I had lesson plans, I disliked writing them and I preferred using any (even every?) number of digital mediums/apps to write and archive them. Over at least half a decade later, I'm admitting that "my way" - of doing as many things digital as possible - is not nearly as productive or useful as I once thought. Through much too much trial and error, I've discovered that actually WRITING lesson plans in tangible ways (on real paper) has made teaching and learning (for both myself and my students) that much more tangible and REAL than it ever has been in digital format. This isn't to say that I have now decided that technology is bad but just... I have a new understanding of what it is good for and it's no longer as good for me (and my teaching efforts) as it once was.

My very well used Teacher Planning notebook - NOT digital!!! Thank you, Erin Condren for this amazing teaching tool. 

I've applied the understanding of the need for tangible things and organization in other areas of my life too. While I still use iCal across all of my devices, I don't rely on it as my sole means to keep me on track and on time. I have alarms and reminders set for things but I don't require them because I am actually remembering things before they remind me to not forget them. This is all because I'm using a paper planner (also from Erin Condren) for my non-teaching life...

I have no idea how my life was ever functioning at all without this Life Planner. Seriously. How did I do it? (Answer: I didn't)

The above looks fancier and like it requires more work to maintain it (as seen above) than what it actually does and I'm so thankful for that. I've come to find that it is true that when I fail to plan, I plan to fail and this has a domino effect in every direction of my life. This isn't to say I've become this incredibly regimented and "by the [planner] book" type of person of routines that cannot be deviated from and structure that is so rigid it hurts. Quite the opposite, I'm more relaxed and at peace and fully present than I ever have been in all of my life. I don't get worked up over stupid things and I'm truly able to do things like keep little things little because I have taken the time to better know the size and weight and TIME that most things take up in my life. And if something unexpected arises? I know how much size/weight/TIME I have leftover (or not) in my life in order to be able to squeeze/fit it into the time and energy that I DO have because I can see it so clearly as it's laid out in my planning notebooks.

None of the previous was ever possible for me when I did things digitally. Perhaps there's something wrong with me that doing this digitally has worked like this but I have found I just can't do things digitally as much as I have thought I could. I feel like doing things digitally (and thus asking less physically and cognitively of myself) has ended up giving me less HEART and SOUL to actually LIVE life as I know I have been called to do rather than giving me "convenience" and saving me time, energy, or money the way I have thought it worked when digitizing is used to its greatest degree.

Anyway, all of this is to say that 1) I'm still not clear about what I'm to do with this here blogsite though I know I'm not taking it down and 2) I'm still choosing to be more present in my actual and physical life more which consequentially means I am also choosing to be less present here (on this blogsite) and until further notice.

I hope you all understand. I hope that even what I am sharing now (in addition to what I have already shared) is relevant and useful in the dreaming, Praying, and CREATING of your own decision. In the meanwhile, I am being still and remaining in a holding pattern where I'm praying for each and every one of you, this blogsite, and myself so that I can better understand where/what I should create next.

God bless you, all! Have a great rest of your week and see you whenever I see you...

Working my way back

Hello everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your summer with however you are selecting to spend it. Despite my best intentions to spend my own summer doing things of relaxation and leisure, I have been doing nothing of the sort. :-p Sometimes divine callings and the complicated demands of life simply require things that deviate from your best laid plans. 
Despite the aforementioned, I'm definitely thinking about the start of school (in less than 25 days!) and returning to the classroom AND blogging here. *YAY!* As always, I have grand dreams and great intentions. However... it's safe to say that that sort of stuff always lands me within my own embarrassing failures (AND in front of quite the audience at that). I'm doing my best to avoid the previous though and one way that I have learned aids in such prevention is coming up with a reasonably sound and executable plan. Does this make me sound like someone who lacks the ability to dream and spontaneously create? (Which is an individual who is far from the one I have known myself to be most of my life) I don't know. All I do know is that I have learned very much that it IS true that failure to plan all too often lends to me planning to fail no matter how/what I might intend, hope for, dream of, or scramble to make happen. 
All of this said, this coming year marks the 9th year of my teaching career and the 7th year at my current school where I am in my 2nd year as department head but incidentally? It will be my FIRST year as the sole Visual Art Teacher and having my very own classroom (though I had my own classroom years ago when I was in public school). 
It's all very exciting but also quite daunting at the same time. I'm going to be teaching all of the courses that I have been teaching in addition to three other intermediate/advanced courses. I will also be working closely with the principal and the academic dean to "chart" a better path for the visual art curriculum which will likely involve a huge overhaul of the courses offered (including new course descriptions, clearly defined and communicated study "paths" for art students to navigate, and other things that fall into the realms of "etc."). Does all of this sound a little like chaos waiting to happen? I am being realistic and saying that it quite possibly does. Still, I'm determined to take all of what I have learned and know I'm able to do in order to steady myself so that when the waters (that I'm metaphorically on) start becoming choppy, I don't end up so motion sick that I cannot do what I am determined to try and do - which is stay the course!
For the past couple of months, I've been anticipating all of the things that I know I will need to do better and one of those things is being more organized, concrete in my forward thinking ways, and documenting all of because my memory and retention isn't nearly what it used to be. Truth be told, I don't use a Teacher Planning book despite trying to use one year after year only to have the thing be crushed at the bottom of my teacher tote bag before even half the year has arrived. In thinking back on my failed attempts to do this better (because I NEED to do this and I don't deny it), I came to some conclusions about what my natural work habits are and how to adhere to those so that it's not such a chore to do classroom and teacher planning.
One thing in particular that I learned is that the teacher planners/organizers that I have used in the past aren't that well suited for the curriculum/content that I teach and/or the approach that I take in the classroom. I was able to identify the things that I believed would be essential for the unique things that I sort of require that seemed like they should be readily available. I set out to find a teacher planner that would as many of these things as possible and despite my best efforts (and they're pretty decent and it's safe to say that if something is out there I. WILL. FIND. IT.), I was turning up empty handed and becoming increasingly frustrated. 
As things happened, I was about to give up after MONTHS of dealing with this and then I finally found what I believe is a bit of a "holy grail" for my finicky teacher planning needs... HELLO, ERIN CONDREN TEACHER PLANNERS!!!!!!

I don't know where these things have been and why I haven't ever heard of them before but I know about them now and I have already ordered my own planning book and I am IMPATIENTLY awaiting its arrival - that should come just in time for teachers work week a week and a half BEFORE the first day of school. 
Please know that I'm not plugging this product because I'm getting any sort of compensation from them at all and I haven't even gotten mine yet (but I hope to share an initial review and then follow-up review eventually) about my thoughts on it. If you know anything about Erin Condren products, you might note that they are a bit on the pricy side but honestly? I am not a big shopper and so when I do spend money, I am always willing to have it be something that is worth the money (however much it might be) so that I don't have to spend any more money again because I have to replace what was supposed to work to begin with. 
I've ordered my Erin Condren teacher planner and I'm so excited to get it soon!!! If you don't need a teacher planner, she also has a life planner (that's still pretty amazing if you ask me) and a wedding planner (also amazing and I recently bought one for a friend as her engagement gift). If you are interested in ordering an Erin Condren planner (of any type) too, you can do so and get a $10 coupon toward it by way of THIS LINK (which is a referral link from me and it allows me to accrue credits toward my next year's planner). 
Anyway, I'll let you know when I get my planner but just wanted to pop on here to say hi with an update of how things are in my niche of the world and also let you know that I am certainly interested (and thinking deeply about!) how I will get back on here more often than not (at all). 

Please continue to hold -- Thank you!

Original works of art by my almost 6yo daughter (left) and an artist I just love named Katie M. Berggren (right)

Popping on here to say hello just to see how you all are doing (albeit) without me.

Despite the quietness that has remained here on the blog, plenty has been going on for me! In my time away, I have still managed to occupy myself with more than enough that makes it even harder for me to want to come back - though I AM wanting to do that eventually and not just close this blog completely.

In my time away, I have come to realize how important it is to take the leave of absence that I have. I haven't been here on this blog and I even "pulled the plug" on my instagram as well!! My pause in blogging was something that I knew I needed but doing so on instagram too? That's something that just ended up happening just because I must say, it's been really Really REALLY nice. It's given me back something that I have lacked for quite too long - which is the real opportunity to be much more fully present in my life. Just as blogging stole that from my teaching and professional life, instagram definitely did that in my personal and family life. By taking myself offline though, I have reclaimed all of the things that I so willfully gave up without realizing that I ever did so in the first place.

I have a little more than a month and a half of teaching left and then I will be brought right to the start of summer - which already is chock full of all sorts of things to do. It's a wonderful and glorious thing to realize not only how full my life has become but also to not feel like I can't fully enjoy any of what I have been so blessed to receive. If you have ever considered taking a "leave of absence" from the online world? I would encourage you to not be afraid to just go for it. It will give back you in dividends what you never realized you were already giving endlessly of yourself within the virtual realms.

What to do now and next

Hi! Sorry for not being around for a long while. I don't have any good excuse of how/why it happened like this other than to just note that I really really needed a break from this blog.

I have been blogging on and off (but mostly on) for over a decade now and (if you've never tried to before) it can be quite a lot of work getting in the habit, staying in the habit, and delivering fresh content. This is especially true for content specific or niche blogging (which is what I do here). After I finished my masters degree (about October/November time) I found that I really and truly needed a mental break from writing papers and doing research and trying to get back on the metaphorical horse after doing such an amazing amount of blogging last year was only harder because of the break that I needed. So? I took the break and that's why it's been so radio silent here.

So I'm back here today to post this but honestly? I don't know when I will be back again and I am still trying to pray about what to keep doing beyond me just feeling like I need to be still and focus on other things (than this blog). I find that by not blogging here, I am much more connected and present with my 5.5 year old daughter and husband and students. I am thinking a lot less about how to churn the life and art teaching on my everyday into blog content and more about just being fully present and focused. This year for the One Little Word campaign I decided on the word "treasure" and I think it's going to work much better than last year's word of "joy" because it's been a focus of mine most recently in what I do, how I do things, and how I regard things before me. I've become so much more aware of the need for me to have less of a life virtually and more of a life actually.

I have loved this blog so much but I really and truly feel like I will probably not return to the posting schedule I had last year because it made it really difficult for me to have the time and energy I now know I want to have for my family and my students and to serve my school community. Blogging so much also makes it difficult for me to create artwork for my own professional development. I haven't painted in months and having realized this I decided that I needed to change that by trying to do something of my own art creation because I was starting to feel stagnant.

I have never kept up with a sketchbook OR done watercolor painting in all of my life but I recently started to do both in an effort to get beyond my own prejudices and learn something new that I had previously been so staunchly against. I got a visual sketchbook for both myself and my daughter and we have been trying to do a page a night in our books with either ink and watercolor or just plain watercolor. We both have less than a half dozen finished pages but it's been amazing so far and I am amazed that I was ever so against daily art creation (like in a sketchbook or visual journaling) OR watercolor. I have been "doing it wrong" the whole time. Thankfully, I have seen the light.

A page I finished last evening in my journal after everyone in the house was sound asleep.

I know I don't want to abandon this blog but I also know that how I have done it in the past is not a way that I can keep doing it in the present or in the future. I have a lot of content on here and I am regularly getting unique hits because of people finding things I have archived in the way of art lesson project ideas. (I'm so glad that what I have shared continues to be so useful to others!) Still, well... maybe it's time for me to deliver less that ends up being much more because it has greater substance at least as it applies to what I originally create - either in my painted sketchbook or with my own explorations of the creative process, creative callings, or what I am learning about the art of teaching art.

In any case, I hope you all are doing well in your classrooms and with your own artwork. I have previously "preached" the importance of being an artist as being actively creating art pushing yourself to do better design and stretching your creativity. I think perhaps it's time for me to do that sort of thing rather than giving myself endlessly to the efforts of others, the development and understandings of their creative processes, and enabling them to create beautiful works of art. That's what I do every day and when I leave work, I need to do a better job of allowing myself the same sort of gift.

So, I'm not quitting this blog or even taking it offline in any way. It'll keep being here. I just might be here less often but perhaps at the same time with a more worthwhile presence.

Save the Dry Erase Markers!

At my school, we don't have blackboards and instead we have white/dry-erase boards. When I first came to this school over five years ago I was really excited about this fact because in public school I had blackboards that I had a real love-hate feeling toward for all of the reasons you might imagine if you have any experience dealing with blackboards. Still, having white/dry-erase boards wasn't nearly as awesome as I thought it would be. They soon became just as annoying to me as the blackboards were but just in different ways.

(Now, I understand this is totally a "first world problem" that I am referencing but just please bear with me.)

One of my biggest issues with having a whiteboard in class is the marker issue. Markers go missing all the time but if they aren't missing, we have issues with them because the ink seems to run out very quickly. For this reason, I barely use my whiteboard and I'm almost always fussing about not being able to actually use it.

All of this in mind, a week or so ago, I started noticing that even though I wasn't using my board, the markers would always be arranged and positioned the way they are pictured above. While it seemed a little strange that they were like that (and seemed to always be put back to be like that), I didn't think much of it and I wouldn't disturb them either. Then the other day, I found the individual who was putting them like that! It was a STUDENT ARTIST!!! And almost every day, if the markers weren't like that, he would arrange and position them like that. While in the midst of him doing it, I commented and laughed and said, "Oh YOU'RE the one who is doing that! I was wondering what was going on!" The student artist, who is actually also one of our star football players and who is a really big and burly guy and sits very close to my teaching station in the front of the room, smiled sheepishly and said, "Yeah... it's me." And then I asked him why he was doing it and he said, "Well... Mr. *so-and-so* does it all the time and it makes a big difference and makes it so the markers always have ink. It really does make a difference so I was trying to help you to have markers that wouldn't be so hard to use."

I gotta tell you - when he said this and said why he was doing it? It just about made my whole month and I feel like it's one of the nicest things any student has ever done for me - however small it might seem because it makes such a big difference. And OF COURSE it works, y'know? Because it helps to keep the ink flowing toward the writing tip vs. having it settle in the middle of the marker. Why didn't I think of that?

Anyway, surely you all have been doing this and I am the only one not doing this but I just wanted to share this little "feel good" anecdote because this kind of stuff is always nice to hear about in my book.

Keep calm... and... what was the next thing?

It's Friday. And I needed some serious comic relief because sometime life is so complicated for me that I have to make myself laugh so I don't explode instead.

*sigh*

Nothing like a little graphic design geekery to give me the hearty chuckle I needed. The only thing that would have made me laugh more would have been if there had been a mention or an appearance of Comic sans.

...

...

Actually, that might have made me feel even closer to exploding. Nevermind. ;)

Teach with [the stories of] your life :: The ART of a good story

Year after year, there are a few project ideas that I keep around because of how much students enjoy them. For 2D Design, the two that rarely get scrapped are the printmaking one and the fingerprint one. This year I decided to do something unique with these two and instead of doing them separately, the students are going to do a hybrid of them. They are going to do macro fingerprint designs that will be carved into printing plates that they will use to make a set of limited edition prints.

My Back to School Night "Commercial" :: Multimedia Teaching Tools

I know. This is my second Powtoon in a week. I guess you could say I am slightly obsessed with them. *shrug* I can't help it! They are so creatively challenging and fun to make!! Anyway...

My last one was for the students but this one is actually for their parents because I "premiered" it last evening at Back-to-School night in an effort to introduce myself. This one is definitely more elaborate than the last one however it's over half as long in running time (exactly 30 seconds). I think it might have taken about the same amount of creative processing and design time as the last one though and I believe this is because I am just a lot more familiar with how Powtoons work and so I'm getting a lot faster.


I doubt this will be my last one but so far I might like it the best of all. I really enjoyed layering all of the elements, editing in the transitions, thinking about how things should be done in order to visually communicate and SHOW what I was trying to tell the parents of my students.

You might notice that what I didn't do was give a mini lecture about what goes on in my class and this is because we are encouraged not to do that so much as to offer the parents/school community a little bit more of a personal side of ourselves. That's why you didn't see any educational jargon and other bally-hoo of that sort.

One thing I know I want to do though after logging so much Powtoon time already is that I already know that I want to include this as an assessment tool for the Graphic Design student artists. There is just so much range and it's so fun. My only concern is that I don't know that the computer system we have right now can handle it.  Well... I guess there's only one way to find out, right? I'll let you know when that happens.

Since when did I start doing gymnastics (of all things)

My new purse is a design of Jump From Paper

Good morning! How are you?

I was up at my usual 5am this morning despite the fact that it's a Saturday morning and I have been busy trying to catch up with a myriad of things that have escaped me this week including returning to this blog!

Yesterday was the last day of the first week of school and it also happened to be the day when all of my art supplies finally arrived from Dick Blick. *seriously?* My student aide helped me to start unpacking the mountain of boxes and though I made some progress checking things in, I will be headed back into my classroom either today or tomorrow to finish it out and put things away so that I'm not starting next week with this week's work spread out all over the studio classroom.

If it's not obvious enough, I have been buried by more than just my shipment of art supply boxes. That said, I am working on making changes so that I don't have to abandon this blog.

My secret about how I "do it all" is...

Here it is: I don't.

Yesterday, was mother's day for mothers the world over (including me) but I wasn't celebrating it because I had to travel hours out of state to a funeral. Yesterday, I also had to finish up another graduate studies course for my MAT program that is still at least a full calendar year from being able to be completely finished and today starts yet another class. Yesterday, I also had to do various other things like inventorying my current textbooks so that I could have them ready to sell to fellow grad students and while this seems like a minor task, it's actually not - at least if you want to actually make money off of the books rather than just selling them back for a pittance. The day before yesterday (so, Saturday), I was up before 6am to help my husband with a major event he was helping to spearhead at the school where he teaches and after that I had 3+ hours of school work (for the class that officially ended yesterday). I also spent 7+ hours dealing with an issue affecting both my husband's phone and my phone that basically was rendering our phones as very fancy paperweights. Attending to the issue required one very involved trip to an Apple store and another very involved trip to the cell phone store that ended up derailed for reasons way beyond my control and I ended up eating some delicious frozen yogurt instead while on the phone for a third time that day with a customer service rep for the cell phone network I am on.

Here's something you should have noted in all of the above that is only really a typical (seriously) two days of my life beyond blogging here: I did not once mention cooking OR cleaning. For this I am not necessarily proud and I won't say I didn't clean or cook at all (because it happened partially in the midst of everything) but for the most part? It was hardly a priority. Another thing that was very much a priority but just plain wasn't mentioned was my my almost five year old daughter. She was attended to plenty I just really don't remember how, what, and when I did for her amidst all of the... well, everything that I did.

Some weeks ago I was checking into Pinterest (I do this sporadically when I need to rest my brain mostly) and I stumbled upon this from CraftSnark.com...

source

It made me laugh so hard because it is absolutely the truth! Because here's the thing, even if I didn't have teaching full-time, graduate school full-time, and being a wife and mother to a young child, my life would still likely be exactly as the above describes. And this is because I would end up indulging my creative inspirations, spurts, and seeking to satisfy my wandering curiosities a whole heck of a lot more than I would be making and keeping up a well-oiled and tidy household.

Anyway, I know all of this is pretty unrelated to this blog and everything and I know that I haven't been blogging lately but I just wanted to pop on here and let you know that while all of the aforementioned applies still to any given day of my life, I am working on getting some content on here to be published soon enough. In the past week since I have been not actively publishing fresh content, I have had so many hits and connections made to this site and I am so grateful that you all are finding what you need AND liking it enough to keep coming back for more. I suspect that many of you are art educators because that's what my stat counter indicates you are more often than not and I want to encourage you all to never hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments about what is posted here so that it is useful to and for you! This is the whole point of this site afterall.

And that's basically it for now at least. School is wrapping up for me over the coming three weeks and this week is actually my last one with this year's graduating seniors so their grades are due and I am definitely behind on that. I can hardly believe that another school year has gone by and I hope it has been good and fun for you all, my fellow art teachers, bloggers, and creatives.

See you in a bit (though I can't commit to exactly when that will be) with some stuff other than just explanations of why I can't actually be here. Thank you again for continuing to bear with me.

iHeart this iPhone app :: Toca Tailor app review

One of my daughter's favorite apps on my phone these days is one by a company called Toca Boca called Toca Tailor. Toca Boca makes a bunch of really cool apps - Birthday party is a close runner up for us but Toca Tailor is the hands-down favorite so far. It is a paid app but it's only 99 cents and since that hardly breaks the bank I have felt like it's more than worse the money. 

(I know this is a departure from the norm here on the blog but as an art educator who is also a parent, I am always interested in apps that have a little more intrinsic value than just temporary amusement. I also appreciate apps with decent illustrations.  I feel like Toca Tailor provides both of those things. Also, I am not being compensated by them in any way. I am reviewing this strictly because I am a fan of it.)

The way Toca Tailor works is it takes the idea of virtual paper dolls and it stretches it so far that you you can use patterns to actually create clothing for the little doll! It's really pretty neat and I feel like when my daughter is using it, she isn't just mindlessly passing the time and is even sometimes thinking critically about what she wants to do next and how she is going to do it. Here is a youtube video about the app (from the developers, of course)

And here are some amusing examples of what my almost 5 year old daughter did on my phone while on the bus on the way back from a field trip to the zoo last week. She is an obvious fan of mixing patterns and wearing as many accessories as possible. And the backgrounds that she chose for the pictures were ones she imported by taking them with my camera phone!

I love how grumpy this girl looks. 

The funny thing about this app is my daughter creates and dresses ensembles much like what I support her to wear in real-life. At any given time she is a visual conglomerate of clashing shapes, colors, and patterns and she will wear as many accessories as she can get away with. (I limit the accessories only because I don't want them to get lost since they do so easily and many of them mean a lot to her.)

Beantown on my mind

via

Just heard the news of what happened in Boston and it is taking everything I have not to break down in tears in front of my almost five year old. I don't want to have to explain myself because I know I can't even to begin with. Why, oh Lord, does this keep happening?

I'm not from Boston but I do have some connections enough to it for me to feel something because of what happened. It's just devastating to think about the fact that this has happened to Boston and then for all of those marathoners? I have so much respect for marathoners and what they do and to think that so many of them might not ever be able to run again - either because they physically can't or because their hearts and the tragedy of this will not permit them to - I can't even begin to imagine how this has all devastated them.

[Updated: Here is some history behind the Boston Marathon that makes it so significant to begin with - another blogger wrote this and explained things very well]

I am praying for Boston and I am also praying for these senseless acts to cease and desist already.

Lord Jesus Christ... save us all from this mess that is being made. Please. Come quickly.

The perfect match? Hmmm...

Not sure if any of you all caught wind of this last week but I did and was wondering what (if anything) it meant to you...

The above popped up in my email inbox from Dick Blick along with a 20% off to celebrate Blick's official announcement of the acquisition of Utrecht.

I don't know that I actually think this is a good thing or not. I mean... I like Dick Blick and I really REALLY like Utrecht but if it comes down to picking a brand that I would be fiercely loyal to I would actually pick Utrecht all the way because from my experience they have a higher quality than Blick does for artist grade materials and at a very reasonable price point. Don't get me wrong, Blick brand is pretty solid and reasonable for my school's supply budget but when it comes down to it I have time and time again been able to really trust Utrecht to deliver some very high quality products.

Does this new acquisition mean that Utrecht brand will end up going away because Blick brand is the bigger brother now? That makes me sad because Utrecht brand is REALLY solid for brushes and oil paints and all sorts of other things that I use beyond just for my own art education and instruction purposes.

I guess time will tell how this will work itself out. It would be nice if some of the Blick brand bowed to the Utrecht brand and then phased out the Blick stuff over the Utrecht stuff even if the Utrecht stuff ends up being called Blick brand. (That was a mouth full but hopefully you get what I was trying to say!)

Bye-bye Google Reader!

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So... if you didn't know already... Google Reader is about to become a fondly spoken of and awfully missed thing of the internet past. (Have you noticed that the link to it has even disappeared from the navigational link lineup already?) I don't remember where I originally found out about this but there have been at least four other art ed blogs that have already brought it up and started the process of figuring out how to contend with the problem that a life without Google Reader present. Thankfully, some of their solutions to the issue are very workable and Google Reader being gone won't be so so terrible or awful when it happens officially come July.

As it is working out, two of the most popular alternatives are to start using Feedly or Bloglovin'. Both are free services (so far). And I will tell you (from my own experience) that I prefer Bloglovin' over Feedly if only for the visual presentation/organization of my blog subscriptions that number in the hundreds. Visually, Bloglovin' just seems a lot more similar to what I am used to in Google Reader. Another thing about Bloglovin' is that it allows you to "claim" your blog in their web-based system in order to better personalize your blogging reading experience and enable you to do some blog analytics within your Bloglovin' account. One last thing about it is the fact that you can migrate all of your blog subscriptions over when you start your account! So easy-peasy to make the jump from Google Reader, right?

I have already added a Bloglovin' button to my right sidebar ------------------------------------------------>
for your convenience and so long as you have a Bloglovin' account? You can simply hit that button much like staying connected through Google Friend connect (which I believe is also going away) or manually adding the url of this site to your Google Reader. And if you don't want to join Bloglovin' (or Feedly for that matter) because you don't want another account/log-in to have to manage, I understand and you can also just follow this blog via it being delivered directly to your email by entering your information at the top of the right sidebar where it says 'Follow by Email.'

Hope you all are doing well! We just got one of our biggest snows (which honestly isn't saying much) this year) despite the fact that it's supposed to be SPRING now.  Perhaps I will end up with a little more of a Spring Break if the weather keeps up like this.

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.

Behind the Music(al) :: Hairspray :: The only free t-shirt I ever passed over

Quirky thing about me: I LOVE a free t-shirt and I used to have a slight obsession with acquiring them.

Seriously. I don't know what it is about free t-shirts but I just really really like them and I almost don't care where they come from or what they say so long as they aren't offensive. My favorite free t-shirt to date was one I got in college for a face painting gig at one of my friends' jobs at a Tex-mex restaurant. It said something like, "I'd do anything for a burrito," or something equally as silly.

All of this being said, I usually love working on the stage productions at school because that usually means I get a free t-shirt for any of my troubles. To date I have a real collection of almost half a dozen shirts with my favorite being from Godspell from this production that prominently displayed very colorful "painted" Godspell lettering on a black t-shirt. After that I didn't really have a least favorite but now that Hairspray has came and gone? Well... the Hairspray t-shirt is officially my least favorite which kills me seeing as how I kind of designed it myself.

*sigh*

From the beginning I knew the logo I had designed would be a bit of a problem when it came to the t-shirt design. The problem: it had too many colors and would be VERY expensive to screen print. I had high hopes that we would be able to overcome this issue with digital printing over screen printing but my school has a working relationship with local printers/producers of shirts and/or marketing material so we always do our best to honor that relationship whenever possible. For that reason? We couldn't get away with digital printing because our shirt printer doesn't really do it.

The shirt printer told us not to worry because they were going to give us as much color as possible and try and simplify the design to make it a win-win for everyone. As soon as I heard this I was immediately skeptical and asked if I could tweak the design myself to ensure that the most logical tri-color palette would be left for printing. I was assured that the printers had done this before and they had done a decent job of it so I was not given the blessing to do it for them. I let it go.

Then a week or so later the t-shirt came in and to say I was crestfallen of what the final product was? Well... that would be an understatement.

I don't know what it is about the design but I just don't understand why they selected to keep the colors they did instead of what they could have kept. The hairspray can came out OK enough but then the rest of it? I don't know. It just seems like it looks strangely washed out and I don't get why they didn't exchange the white for yellow at least that IS the complement to the purple shirt and also would have worked fine enough in lieu of the yellow. And why the pale pink they selected and not a more a more hot pink instead? I guess I am just fussing over the fact that the printing lacks a real balance of contrast to it.

Now, I realize I am being ridiculous about this whole shirt printing thing because if this is the least of my woes about the show? Well, that's not so bad at all, right? Yeah. I know. That's why I brought this up at the end and also acknowledge that I'm being a bit bratty to even mention it. I didn't want to neglect talking about the shirt printing though since this is a major part of the production. Needless to say, I quietly opted out of the free t-shirt I was offered this year. Such a shame since this is the first year that I had a major stake in the design of it. Oh well.

Anyway, this pretty much wraps up the whole series of Hairspray's "Behind the Music(al)" for the set design and production this year. There is one more thing I will be mentioning but that's going to come after I spend some time thinking about what will be said since it addresses the initial inspiration  behind why a Christian school (such as mine) did a production like Hairspray to begin with. There is quite a bit to be said about this specifically having nothing to do with visual design and much more to be said about creation, creativity, and how the arts plays into both of those things. I will be getting to this eventually so don't be surprised if you see it pop up a little after I take some time away from doing all of the Hairspray stuff I have been doing.

As far as next year's musical endeavor, there has been some light discussion about doing Westside Story but who knows. One of the major issues with that right off hand is the fact that in order to do the show we will really need to have a strong turn out of males to fill the cast. As things stand? Well, that's a tall order and the ratio of guys to girls is ALWAYS tipped more to the girls in just about every production we do so... yeah. It might easily happen that we can't do Westside Story for that reason alone.

All of this being said, I hope you all have enjoyed this ongoing look I have been able to share with you about how and what goes on with my experiences with set design. For as much as I know I fuss about it, it always is something that I consider to be quite a blessing to be able to do with the work that I do. I mean, it's stressful for sure but I really and genuinely do enjoy the challenges it presents with each and every show and you want to talk about creativity and creation on one of the grandest scales possible? Well, set design certainly IS that more than anything and I am all about going BIG or not going at all usually.

Thanks for humoring me with all of this! There are about 13 or so weeks left for me of instructional weeks until the official end of this school year so I guess it will be mostly back to regularly schedule blogging from here on out.

Behind the Music(als) :: Hairspray :: Asterisks EVERYWHERE!!!

One of the final touches to the Hairspray set was something that (in retrospect) maybe should have/could have been done first. *shrug* Live and learn, I guess.

If it's not ridiculously obvious already, one of the major graphic themes of the whole design of this production has been the use of the asterisk. When the directors/producers initially sat down with me to discuss everything one of the first things that was mentioned as very important was the fact that they really liked and wanted to include the "star" (which was an asterisk) as a unifying element throughout the show. I obliged them because what difference does it make to me, right? As a matter of fact, the fact that they had something decided upon like this actually makes it easier for me because I don't have to come up with a number of options only to present them all to them and then have them be rejected and me have to just keep starting over and over again.

That being said, the venue where we put on our shows is a bit of an open space type of a performance art center where there is no curtain and so this means that while it's idea for choral and instrumental music performances, for dramatic and performance arts? It's pretty much a major issue. The way we always deal with it though is to use gigantic mobile flats as a way to section off the stage so there is a backstage (of sorts) since a curtain can't be closed for scene/set change purposes. These flats are used over and over and OVER again for just about every performance we do and while they work for what they are supposed to do? They are a pain to deal with because painting 15-18 foot flats - like, 10-12 of them - is a pain. I mean really.

For the set design of this production, they were all painted different colors from the (mostly) open and very bright palette picked out for the show initially. But the way they work for this show is they were supposed to stay stationary almost the whole time and serve as a backdrop for the whole show so it's not like they could be painted like Baltimore row homes - THANK GOODNESS!!! - or otherwise. To keep them as generic as possible we just used their flat painting and then put clusters of asterisks in contrasting colors all over them to keep things looking minimal and clean but at the same time intentional.

This was the last thing we did for the show because after all of the other snafus that happened, I just didn't want to deal with asterisks everywhere that seemingly would take me forever to do since it was only myself and one other person who were left to do it AND each cluster took two coats of paint for them to actual look presentable - the bright color palette required multiple coats for full coverage. By Wednesday of last week I had only just started the process of asterisking everything and it become very clear that I would barely be able to make it by Friday's opening night especially considering the fact that during full dress rehearsals I was told I couldn't be on the stage in order to paint. I basically begged for mercy from my colleagues and a select few students who I KNEW could pull off on-the-fly painting of these asterisks - meaning, there would be no sketching of the designs by me or anyone else and just plain straight paintings and GETTING. IT. DONE. - and that's exactly what was able to happen all day Thursday during the school day.

My department head (who was the set producer) stepped in and covered two classes and then three other coworkers stepped in and either covered my classes OR flat out excused the four students from class who are probably the most dependable students in the whole school. Amazingly, the flats all got asterisked and by the time the bell rang last Thursday, the set dressing was DONE and I was amazed.

 I would show you a panoramic view of the whole stage but I wasn't able to do that before I left last Thursday because I had to skip out as soon as the bell rang to get my daughter some place for an activity of hers! I will be able to get one up here at some point though so you can see the whole view of the stage.

Behind the Music(al) :: Hairspray :: The Corny Collins desk

I pretty much had very little labor invested in this piece until the very very end. Just the same? It was a bit of a pill to deal with for the two lovely art students who took it on. The desk was built by the set builders and then it was painted by some parents who basically have spent the entire last month painting everything and then the individual letters were designed and then hand-cut from foam core board by two very dependable art students in order to echo the original design of the Corny Collins desk.

The major issue with this piece is the fact that this piece was discussed as one that wouldn't be used and would be dismantled and rebuilt because it was questionnably too large to use in the show. This means that the girls ended up making the lettering and then it was shared with us that that work might have really been done for nothing.  o_O

In the end, it was decided that there wasn't enough time to scrap the desk and we were actually able to go forth as planned. But amidst all of this? One of the L's got damaged/lost so the lettering couldn't be affixed until that issue was corrected and then when all was said and done and we thought we were ready to put the letters on? It was discovered that we still needed the words 'the' and 'show' to bookend the lettering. *ARGH!!!! IT WAS LIKE A NEVERENDING BATTLE!!!!!*

When I realized the aforementioned I took it to Google Image searches and realized that we could get away with two small signs in black/white and not have to bother with cutting out little letters like the big letters. I got two scrap pieces of foam core board and tried FOUR TIMES to make little signs that said 'the' and 'show' with a sharpie marker but for whatever reason I made them too small or too big or too messy/far from the style of the big letters. Then I just sat there being mad for a little while and thought, "Why in the world don't I just make them in Microsoft word and then paste them to foam core board and call them done?" So I did just that! And within 10 minutes the whole thing was DONE and it actually even looked kind of awesome despite all of the strife involved with the process of it. One of the big lifesavers was the fact that I could just staple the letters as you see them arranged and so there was barely any fuss getting them all on there finally.

Tomorrow I will show you the final touches of the set that only happened because I basically spent a whole work day painting with hand-selected VERY dependable students while several of my colleagues covered my classes (very last minute!) and the whole process ultimately landed me home for a very legitimate sick-day last Friday.

Behind the Music(al) :: Hairspray :: The classic Baltimore front stoop

If you've never seen/heard of/are familiar with the show Hairspray you might not know that the setting is in Baltimore, Maryland. Ever been there before? It's actually quite a charming place enough place and I don't say that because I lived there for about a decade before I found my way to this phase of my career and life.

Anyway, some things about Baltimore and the 60s (when the show took place) are that in that time frame, living in the city you were likely to live in a row house that was probably in a very bright color combination and your steps had to be "bright white" because it was considered to be somewhat of a status symbol so much that every Sunday (I learned this from a Baltimore native) people would be out scrubbing their steps to ensure they would be as bright and white as possible. /end painfully brief and poorly presented local history lesson

One of the major props that was used in the show was something of a mobile setting piece (I don't know what to call it) where Tracy Turnblad was supposed to perch herself for maybe even a minute and a half - seriously! That's all the time you see it for as labor intensive as it was! #facepalm - and it was supposed to look like the classic Baltimore row home front stoop.

The set builders used a very narrow flat on casters (there would be something on the reverse side that I will show you tomorrow) and then built a small staircase to imitate front door stairs. My job was to make the empty flat look as much like a front door as possible. What would have been easiest and most realistic would have been for us to just acquire a front door and just affix it to the flat (it didn't have to open) but for the minute and a half that it be seen? Well... probably a lot of money would have been spent for not much time for it to be seen. But then, when you equate time to money? Well, I spent HOURS on detailing this flat from the brick effect painting to the faux metal outer door to the awning frame that was built by the set builders to the canvas that I stapled to the frame and then stretched with gesso and then painted and trimmed to imitate a real awning? Well... *phew* I don't know. I almost would have just bought a daggone real door to save myself a little time. *shrug*

Just finished the faux brick work and old metal door that I still feel like I could have done a better job on but whatever. See the awning frame? Still needs to be canvas covered.

The awning frame is finally covered with canvas I had laying about the art room. Gessoed it with one coat so it stretched a little more nicely and then painted it orange and blue (to keep with the classic bright color palette of the Baltimore row houses) and then I trimmed the edge of the awning to make it seem like it was always supposed to be like that.

And finally it's done! And the finishing touch was faux flowers in some plastic terracotta looking pots that I gorilla glued down to the corners of the steps. Doesn't that make it look more welcoming? I would definitely want to come home to this front door for sure! And the steps got two good coats of fresh white paint to make them look crisp and clean despite the fact that the instagram effect does not show that so well.

There is another side of this flat that looks like an aerial view of Tracy's bed - this opens the show - but it's not as exciting or was as labor intensive as the front door side you see above. I will show you the bed side tomorrow.

Behind the Music(al) :: Hairspray :: Propping up the show

One major-ish task on my list of tasks to take care of was to make labels for the "fog in a can" props that would stand-in nicely for real spraying hairspray cans. For whatever reason I seriously put off this item for as long as possible despite the fact that it was probably the simplest and (in turn) most gratifying thing of all of the things I was supposed to do.

The finished cans of "Ultra Clutch" labeled and ready for the show!

As you can see, the finished labels look pretty much like the giant can I previously shared. For whatever reason I got it in my head that labeling these cans would be a real pain in the rear so I think that's why I put off doing them for so long. Then it occurred to me - much like most other things I was trying to do and failing miserably at - that I was really overthinking things and pretty much working harder and not smarter. And with that I sat down, gave myself a pep talk and realized that I should just use digital illustrations I already had from the poster design I created and then bend and twist that into what you see above! The power of digital illustration is amazing isn't it? I was able to cut my workflow in half if not even less than that and voila! I had hairspray can labels cohesive to the design work already established for the show and then all I had to do was size them accordingly, peel off the original labeling and then paste them on to look like they had always been like to begin with.

And because I like to share and am all about helping others to NOT reinvent the wheel, if you are in need of Ultra Clutch hairspray can prop labels, here is what I printed off and used in the aforementioned photo. If it works for your needs? Please feel free to use it. Just click on it to enlarge it and then right-click it to save it for you to print off as you like.

This is a jpg version but I have a psd version and if you want it please just ask and I will email it to you!

BTW - if these Hairspray updates/this series is boring you, I'm sorry. *shrug* This is basically what has been ruling my life these days but with the show opening up this past Friday and closing next Saturday, I promise there won't be very much more of this for very much longer. Thanks for your patience and humoring me if this alone is changing your mind about frequenting/reading this blog that otherwise about art education.