Time

After looking at Annette Lawrence's work, and thinking about her documentation of time, I realized that I had already made time visible in an artwork at least once before.  The assemblage piece "1964" used photographic slides taken by my father, mostly before I was born.  The slides have a very specific retro feeling, due I think, to the color palette used in photgraphic processing and in the everyday 60's ness of the people in the slides.

I put them together in a cylinder, (the circle of life/time), and lit it up.  It and the people in the slides, (most of whom I am related to and most of whom have passed away by now), represent the past, present and future to me.

Facilitating Critical and Aesthetic Inquiry

This section of Carroll discussed many strategies for promoting student inquiry.  I like the way this book is set up.  The information is given in pleasing chunks and the resource pages are so full of potential. 

“Engaging Students With Art Objects” discussed using a variety of strategies to “facilitate sensory involvement and personal response, preparing for the development of skills and concepts.” (p.140)  These strategies include: visual analysis, sound and movement, perceptive-evaluative sequences, dramatics, creative writing and games.  All of these strategies allow students to engage in multi-modal experiences and build on the ideas they are interested in.

“Orchestrating Conversations About Art” gave suggestions for facilitating meaningful student discussions, including a variety of question types to use to” increase student thinking about observations, concepts and generalizations.”(p.  144)  Informational, leading and synthesizing questions build upon each other to draw student discussions through a spectrum that starts with observation and moves to interpretation.

“Storytelling and Puzzle Problems” continued to enforce the power of story.   Stories about the lives of artists can facilitate discussion, but Carroll encourages us to discuss the validity of well known “true” stories about art and artists. 

“Using Interpretive Strategies to Find Meaning” talked about the parts that make up works of art and the relationships of those parts to each other.  From thematic unity and intertextuality to Barrett’s principles of interpretation and examinations of metaphor and emotive writings, many strategies are discussed.

“Promoting Critical Thinking Through Problem-based Inquiry” discussed one of my favorite things in art education:  the searching and finding process of thinking critically about an elegant problem.  Students can develop so many skills while in the midst of solving aesthetic problems.

“Facilitating Student-Curated Exhibitions” explored the many opportunities for thinking and decision making inherent in setting up an exhibition of any size.  It reminded me of the process of setting up our Artist Teachers show last semester.  We collaborated and made decisions and it was an empowering and pleasurable experience.

“Using Models for Writing About Art” recommended strategies for helping students read and write critically about art.

A new article in Art Education, March 2013, “Skills and Dispositions for Creative Problem Solving During the Artmaking Process” by Eliza Pitri, went deeper into the “Problem Based Inquiry” ideas Carroll discussed.   Pitri wanted to discover what being a creative problem solver meant, what it “looked like” in the classroom and what “skills and dispositions” are related to the problem solving process. 

She found these skills to include logical thinking and analysis along with illogical thinking like predictions and fantasy.  Other important skills were found to be: problem finding, investigation, planning, commitment, imagination and flexibility.  Pitri found that “when allowed to make-and explain- their own choices, students develop invaluable creative problem-solving skills.  Opportunities for such critical thinking abound in the art classroom.”

 

Paint

The Paint Team- Anna, Chuting, Lisa & Molly

We started out thinking about the different possibilities of paint and non-traditional uses of paint, which then led to non-traditional paints.  We had fun talking about strange paint applications, like freezing or burning paint.  Chuting had an interesting idea about mixing paints of different viscosities. 

We came to envision an elementary level lesson that ties personal history, food and “The Dinner Party” together. 

The lesson would discuss how “The Dinner Party” is about history.  Then we would talk about family history and the place of the table in that history.  The students would think about their family histories and choose a story to represent in their place setting using alternative paint products such as jelly, jam and chocolate sauce to create a place setting that expresses personal history.

 By using edible paint substances, the students would have heightened sensory experiences through the texture, color, smell and memories each student would attach to a given food paint. Each student’s place setting would be photographed to create a class table that represents the history of the class.

 

Blog 4- Art Making (and viewing).

This batch of articles gave me many ideas for my future students.  When I’m planning curriculum, I want to remember: exploration, play, experimentation and investigation. 

I remember hearing about “Days of Play” from Sharyn Hyatt-Wade last semester.  At Rockbridge High School, she occasionally had students explore and play with unfamiliar media and techniques.  I think a room full of people experimenting with something new and uncharted is so amazing.  It leads to more creative thinking and ideas and artwork.  Plus, it’s so much fun.

The Elegant Problems section reminded me of the things I’ve been considering for a school wide unit at my student teaching host school.  I want to create an elegant problem that is flexible and deep enough to accommodate and fascinate the entire K-12 student body, along with the faculty, administration and any parents who are paying attention.

The Critique section was a revelation.  I’ve been a participant in many critiques but never really thought about what it takes to facilitate one.  Duh.  The guidelines put forth in Carroll were clear and purposeful.

In the article “Tentative Tips for Better Crits…” 2006, Terry Barrett discussed a variety of ways to facilitate effective and successful critiques, including:

           “Work to quickly build a psychologically-safe environment:

 

            People need to feel safe before they will speak or speak honestly.

            Do not use sarcasm.

            Be an attentive and responsive listener.

            Do not ask rhetorical questions or questions to which you already know the answer.

            Thank people who respond.

            Do not criticize responses so as not to suppress further responses.

            Predetermine the purpose of the critique”

 http://www.terrybarrettosu.com/pdfs/Barrett%20(2006)%20Tips%20for%20crits.pdf

 I think that once students are accustomed to talking about each other’s art and art in general, they will enjoy critiques.  By following Carroll and Barrett’s suggestions, I can learn to facilitate productive critiques. 

 

Blog 3.5

Ooops, I brought this to class tonight instead of blogging it.

The Art 21 artist I chose was Rackstrawe Downes in the Balance episode.  He paints seemingly hyper realistic landscapes that are actually strangely skewed.  They seem to employ a fish eye view of the world and usually show large empty spaces.  He is interested in the balance between ruin and construction, empty and inhabited, abstraction and realism.   Some of the things he says in the Art 21 segment are:

He doesn’t paint landscapes, he paints his environment. 

He is interested in the “wandering eye” and the unfolding of the image.

Process is better than solution.

He has reverence for anonymous places.

He gets possessive of “his” places.                                

He’s not particularly interested in perspective, which he calls a standardized metaphor for space. 

“Every painting is a metaphor.”

I think all of these statements and ideas would provide great fodder for discussion, inquiry and art making.  Student’s environments and the “anonymous” places that they are possessive of would be excellent sources of ideas and subject matter.  Plus, the fact that it is about their lives and their environments would help connect it to other content areas.   It would be interesting to explore other artists who investigate ideas similar to Downes’s, but in different media and/or with different subject matter.

Blog 3- Words + Images = Story

Carroll’s investigation of the relationship that people have with storytelling made great sense.  I think that a lot of people underestimate the human desire to tell and experience stories.  I love the way that art can be a conduit for the “narrative impulse” of students. 

In my student teaching, I have already seen the power of STORY.  I had a successful lesson on Greek vases last week.  The 6^th graders were really engaged, especially the ones that usually aren’t.  I think this was because I asked them to tell a story that THEY made up.  A lot of the time, they are told what story to tell.  So, most of them were very interested to tell their own version of a story.

In some of our Art Ed. classes, we have used Daniel Pink’s writings for the business world to look at the future of Art Education in a digital and visual world.  I went back to the business world for their opinion on storytelling at, “3 Reasons to Master the Art of Storytelling” by Riley Gibson, http://www.inc.com/riley-gibson/3-reasons-every-start-up-should-tell-more-stories.html

The article points to three main reasons that storytelling is so important.  Stories are: memorable, they travel farther (are easy to communicate) and they inspire action.  These attributes are essential for success in business and communication.  People want to hear and tell stories, they want to connect to things outside of themselves.

 

Seven Principles

I would hate to be stuck in an elevator at the NAEA conference with Michelle Kamhi and Paul Duncum.  Then again, it might be fun.  They would certainly have a lot to talk about.  I think she would see his “Seven Principles for Visual Culture Education” as an instigator of the “attitude of suspicion” that she objects to in visual culture studies and art education today.

Paul Duncum, like Olivia Gude before him, has reconceptualized the principles and elements of art to better serve art education in our changing and evolving world.  As Pink, Gude and many others have said, technology has changed reality and educators need to recognize the changes and prepare students better for their futures.  These ideas tie into the Delacruz article about Art Education Aims, especially in the idea of tying technology and art education together with Global Civil Society and Participatory Culture, where people are adaptive, mobile and working together for the common public good.   

Paul Duncum’s seven principles can be applied to any artwork, from cave paintings to video installations, from “fine art” to outsider art.  They apply much more to the relationship between a piece of art and the viewer of the artwork than the traditional elements and principles.  I think they are much more interesting. 

Like Gude’s Postmodern Principles, Duncum’s look at more than the lines, textures and values that make up an artwork: 

Power is the top of the food chain for Duncum, and he is right when he says that all of the other principles intersect with Power.

Ideology- the ideas, beliefs and values of the maker and the audience.

Representation (and Unrepresentation) – How the ideology is presented in visual form.

Seduction- Sensory enticements or confirmation of our ideologies.  I can’t imagine talking to either of my student-teacher host-teachers about the seductive qualities of an artwork.  Awkward.

Gaze- How we look at images and the circumstances under which we look.  This is my favorite, as it depends so much on the viewer and how the viewer perceives themselves and their world.

Intertextuality- Everything is related.  This reminds me of Gude’s statement about how “making meaning involves borrowing from previous meanings.”

Multimodality- Words, music and sounds that enhance or “anchor” the meaning of images.  I think this should include smells too.  Smell has a lot to do with experiences.

These principles could be used to generate wonderful discussions about art.  They could also be used to invest layers of meaning into the making and viewing of all kinds of art.  I appreciate that Mr. Duncum says of his principles, “They are not offered as fundamental truths, as the modernist elements and principles usually were, but sources from which to create curriculum commensurate with the extent and complexity of today’s visually mediated world.”  He leaves plenty of room for evolution and changing technologies.

 

For my two images, I chose:

 

an etruscan vase which I found while working on a lesson for a 6th grade class on Greek vases.  At first I didn't think it fit with the 7 principles, but then realized they can work for art from any period.

 

The next image is from Petah Coyne, it was an installation at Kemper museum in KC last year.