Art Class 2.0

Making Papier Mache Masks 2011

2011-11-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

Its been a couple of months since I last posted to this blog, and so here I am again. I haven't paid too much attention as to who has been looking to see what's happening here.

Since the classes in Jewelry had been working with paper and paper mache to create pieces of jewelry, I decided to capitalize on their learning and experience and have them create masks. I showed them a series of different forms of masks. We looked at examples of ceremonial, day of the dead, masquerade, horror, and funny masks as well as from a variety of ethnicities and cultures.

I demonstrated two forms of creation. The first being to form a mask based on one's face structure. I had them use aluminum foil to form over their face/head, use crushed paper or a balloon to help the structure, and then the paper mache strips to construct the mask. The second was to form a base with crushed paper, roll the edges, and then to form the paper mache strips over that base.

I shot some random video of the students working, along with some still pictures of the pieces in progress.
I also included some shots of the students posing with their creations and a classroom shot of them hanging on the wall in the front of the room. The music track is from an album by Jamal Mohammed, who was my percussion teacher many years ago when I was creating clay drums.

I hope you enjoy the video and make comments. Thank you.

Paper Mache...a Fun way to create jewelry

2011-09-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am again 3 weeks later. Something tells me I'll have to "step it up" with posts on this blog if I expect anyone to care enough to follow or even to view any of my posts. With this new assignment of teaching jewelry, I have had some "learning curve" to go through and will continue to go through for quite awhile. I determined early on that my students really love to be busy when they are in my classroom. Not that I didn't provide enough for my Art I students to be involved with last year, but that these students came to this class with the EXPECTATION of being creatively active. It is so much FUN for me to see an entire classroom full of engaged learners seeming to take delight in what they are involved with. I am posting this little 3 minute video from yesterday to show some students in my LAST PERIOD OF CLASS ON A FRIDAY toward the very end of a 90 minute class. Next Wednesday we will be assembling the results of their productive activity into bracelets and necklaces and I'll post those pictures and video at that time.

Creating Paper Beads

2011-09-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on the 5th day of class, we spent the majority of time cutting, winding, and gluing paper into beads. I had shown the students a couple of decorating ideas on Monday. Most of them used the colored construction paper with both the wooden skewers and the round toothpicks and Elmer's Glue. When we come back to class on Wednesday next week we'll start out by coating the beads with Acrylic Gloss Medium. This will give them a protective coat and make them shiny.

I put together a short video using some short clips of students at varying stages of construction along with 38 pictures of the beads they produced. Looking forward to a few days off. Enjoy the video.

Just because it's Monday post...

2011-08-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today was such a full day of learning I just didn't get around to photographing or videoing any activities at all. I can see ample opportunity coming up on Wednesday for just that, however.

I introduced them to the textbook we'll be referencing this year, THE JEWELER'S ART. I had them read a few pages in Chapter 3, PAPER JEWELRY, which discusses, among other things, paper beads. I had looked at a few Youtube videos of artists demonstrating the making of paper beads and wanted them to find out about it. So I first had them read a little, then I demonstrated a couple of techniques I picked up on the demos. I cut 6" X 18" strips of colored construction paper, showed them how to measure half and full inch width strips/triangles, showed them the cutting procedure, and then rolled a few beads on a wooden skewer and a round toothpick. During my advanced class I even took the time to demo the painting on of the acrylic gloss medium.

The students took to the concept and the procedure with a gusto. They wanted to show me their first efforts and EVERYONE did a super job. As I told them before they started and when I looked at their beads, "yours are going to look SO much better than mine"...and they did.

One of my goals in teaching these classes is to get the students to REALLY ENJOY the act of designing
jewelry. I want them to experience a wide variety of media and expressions in their learning and I want them to look forward to each day they spend in my class as a time when they can fully express themselves in this art form. I want them to decide for themselves what jewelry is to THEM. I look forward to their designs truly reflecting who they are as a person. This may all sound pretty outlandish
and far-fetched, but I really think the day will arrive for some of them. Come back on Wednesday for
another look at students at work and some of their products.

"Getting to KNOW you" on a FUN FRIDAY

2011-08-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

I have two beginning Jewelry classes with about 25 students in each class. My advanced class only has 10 students, so I didn't go through this exercise with them. I grouped 4 or 5 students together at the tables.
I had a student think of a number between 1 and 5. I gave each student a number, asked the student what number she had chosen, and had THAT number be the leader of the group. Then I had them introduce themselves and each other to the small group and go around three times. This was so each person in that small group knows by name all the other members of the group. My reasoning that I explained is that many times they will need help putting something together, cleaning up, or just for a little help. Now they know a few students they can call on.

We continued with the paper designing pieces of jewelry project. In this case I told them they could trade pieces of paper cut outs with each other in their group. At the end of the first period I had each group choose the design they liked best, I took an picture of the grouping, and then projected the photo on the screen for them to comment on. In the last period I had each student create 9 designs (3 geometric shape based, 3 organic shape, and 3 free form) and then glue them down to a piece of copy paper, label them and turn them in. I took pictures of some of them and have posted them here.

The students got along quite well together and seemed to easily spend time taking through the discussions. I plan to continue this collaborative endeavor throughout the year in these classes. Below find some of the designs created today. Thanks for viewing.

Jewelry design...out of paper? REALLY?

2011-08-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our second day of classes. It's always such a relief to get through the first day, with all of the registration and enrollment forms to fill out, etc. But on this day, after the collection of forms and roll taken, our class could begin in earnest. We have been asked as a faculty to help our students become better writers by giving them a "bell ringer" the first 10 minutes of class. Actually, we could choose from a couple different forms of participation, but I have chosen a writing exercise as that which would be most fitting. I had the projector on and the new ipad2 plugged in with a Pages post. I had the students write on what they thought was meant be the term "to care" and give 3 examples of things, places, or people they cared about and why. They got right into it and seemed to have a lot to say. I will take a look at the writings in a couple of weeks when I post grades.

Many of my students have not had Art 1 as a class. They fulfilled their requirement by a dance, theater arts, or music credit. No matter. I'll teach them what they need to learn. I spent about 20 minutes in each class reviewing the ELEMENTS OF ART...LINE, SHAPE, VALUE, COLOR, TEXTURE, AND SPACE. As I told them, these concepts are present in every genre of art and particularly in jewelry.

I thought up an exercise that I figured would introduce them to the idea of creating designs easily, using construction paper to cut out the shapes and lines and then combine them using glue into a variety of jewelry designs. I videoed my first period students beginning that process. Then I took pictures of some of the designs after my 3rd period was finished. Following first is the video, then a photo of the work:

"Where shall I begin...AGAIN?"

2011-08-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

Today our school year began for the 2011-2012 school year. I'm still at Skyline High School and Career Development Center. I'm still teaching on A days on a half time contract with the Dallas Independent School District. I'm still in classroom G-62. Sounds pretty comfy, eh? Doing the same kind of job year in and year out? Maybe for some, but not for me. No sir, I'm starting this 42nd year of teaching with a whole new program. I've taken over the Jewelry classes this year. The former teacher, Susan Embler, decided to make a move to the "burbs" over in Mesquite, leaving her three jewelry classes behind. Always looking for new experiences and challenges, I decided to put in a bid for them and was granted my request.

So I have two beginning classes of jewelry, Art II, and one advanced class with both Art III and IV students enrolled. The Art II classes are about 24 students each and the other has about 10 students currently enrolled. I moved the basic tools and equipment from the former teacher's classroom and brought in some of my personal stuff as well.

I met with the classes today and only had time to cover some rudiments of their behavior and code of conduct generally in the classroom. I did, however, tell them about my Student Directed Art Curriculum.I haven't given them any handouts or specifics yet, but I did tell them I would be teaching them the same way, generally, as I did my Art I students last year. There will be some modifications, a little less paper work, fewer written requirements, and more concentration on skill building, but that will be necessary considering the type of classes they are.

I broached a subject with them verbally today about a concept I thought of dealing with COLLABORATIVE LEARNING . The idea is to form some "mini companies" within the class. Students in groups of 5 or 6 that meet together and work out what kinds of things they want to learn, share research they take on, decide what raw materials they need, chip in equal amounts of money to purchase them, elect a person or persons to be responsible for keeping track of their expenditures, do their own bookkeeping, and share in any profits they might end up with when and if any of their designs/work is sold. Not that THAT would be the impetus for the groups' endeavors, but it could be, down the line, a result.

I shared with them my personal need to stay out of any transactions they might make regarding finances so that a liability issue wouldn't be raised regarding going through proper channels and adherence to school district policies. I also shared with them the VERY limited budget I was on, particularly in regard to consumable materials. I will keep this blog posted on how successful this process becomes, how it is working, and the positives and negatives involved.

For those "following" this blog, I say welcome back. I look forward to hearing your comments along the way. Until next time....

Reviewing the 2010-11 Art Curriculum..a read and a movie

2011-06-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Douglas MacArthur

Well, here it is June 10, 2011 and I am about to enter my final post to this blog. I just now looked at a couple of numbers I thought were particularly significant. The first is that today in the stats of the blog I see that to date there were exactly 4000 views of this blog since August of 2010 when I started it. I don't know how successful that number is in relation to other blogs, but I am encouraged that so many of you have taken the time to take a look at our art work. Each time I look at the stats, I am amazed at the wide variety of places in the world where this is viewed. Russia, Slovenia, Australia, India, China, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Suriname, South Korea, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Brazil, Nigeria, Canada, United States, Hong Kong, and Poland to name a few. I have told my students all year long that you have been out there seeing what they have been doing and how I have enjoyed bringing their art to you. The other significant number I saw today is that this will be my 88th posting to the blog. I had thought when I began that I would try to post at least once for each day I taught. Since I am a half time teacher, I only teach 90 days out of 180. So I aimed for 90. But those of you who know me personally know how meaningful the number 8 is to me. So, since we DID miss a couple of days to ice storms, I will find this post to be achieving my goal and ending on the double 8 as well.

As I think back on the experience of dreaming up and putting into place this year's curriculum, I feel as though I have benefitted greatly from the process. I'll never know what sort of long term impact it will have had on the students I had in class. Many of them said they enjoyed the class and the process. I can only hope that the idea of intrinsic motivation that I harped on all year will mean something to them in years to come. Who knows, maybe they'll contact me through facebook years from now and tell me how it helped them in their careers. Watch me hold my breath. For me the important thing was to see the individual effort and satisfaction of doing a good job I saw as they completed each assignment. They would ask my opinion and I would ask them, "do you like it?" They invariably said yes. Then I would say, "you did a good job and should be proud to what you accomplished". Notice how "grades" did not enter the conversation?

The doing of the blog was quite challenging. I would usually sit down on my day off and put together my notes. I din't get into recording the students working and their work until well into the second unit.

At first I was very bothered by the lack of comments. I would knock myself out putting together a movie, or a slide show, or just some great art works...nothing. Overall, there were 25 comments over the nine months and 4000 views. My daughter, Kateri, who works for a radio station, said not to worry about it, their shows get no comments either. So I concentrated on the number of views and stayed encouraged and motivated. Thank all of you for being there.

I have prepared a 10 summary/review of the year and am posting it here. Just me talking about the year and the lessons. It may dawn on me to add to this blog later this summer. If I do, I hope you are a follower so you will know about it. Until then, or until next year, so long.

Some student comments about their year in art

2011-06-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

"Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable."

Franz Kafka June 3, 1924

I'm not sure if what I started with was "right" or not. It certainly has had limited acceptance. However, I asked my students to comment on the class and the year in Art 1. Last winter I posted some of the actual comments directly from their test papers. I'm not sure how much of that post was clear enough to read because of the quality of the scan and the readability of the handwriting. So this time I am going to go through the tests and pick out some students comments and simply type them in.

I like how we worked with watercolor. I disliked the india ink stuff...didn't catch my attention.

I liked the freedom. I really didn't like the project for the last 6 weeks. I didn't like taking this test.

This semester was a lot more satisfying. I liked the grading process, but thought it was too complicated. I enjoyed this class very much because you tell us what to do but give us choices at the same time. I didn't like pressing hard with crayon on the last project and then crumpling it.

I loved the final project though. It was an advantage for us to grade ourselves as long as we were doing what we were supposed to.

Art 1 was fun. I got to do things I had never done before. I would have to say this was the best class I was in all year. I couldn't wait to get to this class every day.

This semester was great. I liked the fact that I had a steady goal I could work towards. The grading system sounds great on paper, but giving the students too much freedom will eventually turn into a bad idea. The use of the teacher's authority helps make the class more organized seeing as we need a leader or we become restless and can't finish our work. You should be more strict with the students who give you problems. I am going to take art next year. I want to try pottery.

That last paragraph was by Juan. I highlighted him in a short video as well as posted his work as the cover for the students website.

Malcolm McLaren on Authenticity VS Karaoke culture

2011-06-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

"The person who knows HOW will always have a job.
The person who knows WHY will always be his boss."

Alanis (Nadine) Morissette June 1, 1974

I watched a TED conference talk yesterday by Malcolm McLaren. I tried to record a portion of the talk and post it onto this blog, but haven't figured out yet how to do that. I ran across an interview with him, however, and am going to post some of that on the blog today. The whole point of the talk was not only to describe himself and his life, but to discuss the (in his words) two most important words (concepts) confronting our world today...Authenticity....Karaoke...

He describes in his talk how he was first introduced to the idea of authenticity by his first art teacher. He also discusses what he terms as our existing "Karaoke Culture". If, after reading some of the excerpts I have posted here, you want to listen to the entire talk on TED, click on

lMalcolm McLaren's talk and you can do so. In the meantime, here are some thoughts of his:

Marco Siebertz: You say that you dedicated your life to being a flamboyant and magnificent failure. What is so beneficial in failing?

Malcolm McLaren: For artists from the 19th century like Blake, Byron, Shelley or maybe even Vincent van Gogh the artistic process was one long eternal struggle, which never ends and never ever succeeds. And the only great art comes out of that struggle. It’s like being on a train. There maybe a destination but you never arrive t here – because when you do, you are dead! So, in this romantic age still prevailing in the 1960s, you were taught that from day one. Today, if people were told that, they’d probably drop dead in front of that lecture because they’re such scaredy-dares now! They can’t cope with such thoughts! Those thoughts are far too deep today.

Being a failure was part of an old-fashioned, authentic, romantic way of life and vision for an artist. Today the process of creativity can be better compared to a Karaoke-like experience – an “Ersatz”-world, where the messiness, where the struggle doesn’t exist. In a Karaoke world everything is made easy, you never fail. But in an authentic world failure is something you embrace. It’s almost a noble pursuit. I come from that world – it supported me in creating the punk aesthetic.

POSITIVE/NEGATIVE INDIA INK LESSON SHARED

2011-05-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

POSITIVE/NEGATIVE INDIA INK LESSON

CHOOSE SUBJECT(S) AND DRAW THEM IN PENCIL COVERING THE 12 X 18 WHITE DRAWING PAPER.

OVERLAP THE SUBJECTS AND HAVE THEM COMING FROM ALL DIRECTIONS AND HAVE PARTS OF THEM GO OFF THE PAGE

I CHOSE ROOSTERS FOR THIS EXAMPLE:

START AT A CORNER OF THE PAPER AND MARK AN X INEACH SHAPE YOU INTEND TO DARKEN. THE OBJECT IS TO NOT HAVE ANY LINES, ONLY POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SHAPES.

BEGIN COLORING IN THE SHAPES USING INDIA INK OR FELT TIP PEN.

THIS IS THE EXAMPLE I WORKED UP FOR MY STUDENTS USING MY IPAD AND PROJECTOR.

I THOUGHT THE STUDENTS’ WORK CAME OUT QUITE WELL.

India Ink and Rebecca Penney

2011-05-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

"You can get all A's and still flunk life."

Walker (Alexander) Percy May 28, 1916

When I saw this quote on my daily email quoting famous people, I didn't have a clue as to who this was. I don't really care, to tell the truth. I just know it spoke a whole world of ideas about what actually IS important. This blog has tried to stay centered around the idea of intrinsic motivation and its importance in the learning process. Getting all A"s is the ultimate external motivation in education. We place so much value on that concept that we forget (ignore) completely the value of learning for the sake and joy and worth of learning. So, hail to you, Mr. Walker Percy, for reminding us way back at the turn of the century that we need to get our heads out of dark places and find the light of learning as life itself.

Yesterday was my LDWKTY (last day with kids this year) and it was busy and fun. I gave them a formal test over the last semester similar to last semester's exam where I asked them to summarize the lessons they had and the projects they did and feelings they had about them. I also asked them again how they felt about the "program" they were on, the self grading, choices, etc. I'll share some of their thoughts about that in subsequent posts here. We also finished, or came close to finishing, their last project, the Positive/Negative India Ink projects.

I am posting a video showing, again, some of them working along with some still shots of some of the finished works. This time I set it to music by the artist Rebecca Penney. I love her piano work and hoped you would enjoy it.

John Wayne on "Life and the Creative Process"

2011-05-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us
at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts
itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from
yesterday."

"If everything isn't black and white, I say why the hell not."

John Wayne [Marion Michael Morrison] May 26, 1907

Today is the "Duke's" birthday. In looking over a couple quotes attributed to him, I decided that these two would be appropriate. The first could be an analogy for the beginning of an art work.

The "blank canvas" that every artist faces in some shape or form. Is is the "tomorrow" of each

piece of work we attempt. The other quote, while being meant as a "no nonsense, no gray areas" approach to life, I merely saw it as a metaphor for the POSITIVE/NEGATIVE SPACE

projects my students are finishing the year creating.

Here is another short video of students in the "creative process'. Uncut and uncensored.

"Mistakes, Failure, and Being Wrong"...the creative process

2011-05-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."

Miles (Dewey) Davis (III) May 25, 1926

I love jazz musicians. They are the genius' of spontaneous creativity. An old acquaintance of mine from a couple of lifetimes ago, Ken Cassover, was a psychologist by day and a jazz pianist in the likes of Dave Brubeck at night, was trained as a traditional concert pianist. I asked him one day if he found that rigid training beneficial or a hamper to his playing jazz. He shared that his classical training had been a benefit. He said that it broadened his base of spontaneity.

I feel the same way about classical training in the visual arts. Students need to be held to an accountable understanding of the elements of art and the principals of design. I think at every level of learning those tenants hold true. I use as an analogy with my students that at every level of football (elementary school to the pros), players practice the rudiments of blocking.

Tiger Woods practices putting. John McEnroe his backhand.

Now, about Miles Davis' comment about mistakes. FDR said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". The only "mistake" we can make is to believe that failure is not a part of the process of creating art. Being wrong is what makes us human. Embrace it.

Here is short video of students while they were staining their ceramic pendants the other day.

Stained and Acrylic Glazed Clay Pendants

2011-05-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

"And since geometry is the right foundation of all painting, I
have decided to teach its rudiments and principles to all
youngsters eager for art...

Albrecht Durer May 21, 1471

A busy day today, what with demonstrating the process of staining and glazing our clay pendants, working with students finishing up their crayon/india inks stain glass projects, and getting everyone started on their positive/negative projects using the animal silhouettes and india ink. It also included some interesting and mildly "humorous" situations dealing with student behavior.

I'm a stickler for students paying strict attention when I am demonstrating a process. When a student chooses to behave in a manner which distracts me or other students, I always ask that they stop what they are doing, even though it may seem minor in any other circumstance. This morning during a class period, two of my students sitting right in front of me were fanning themselves with their folders. I asked them to stop..they refused..again..refusal..asked them to leave the room...refused. My patience at an end, I went to the hall and summoned the vice principal assigned to our building. He came to my room and immediately noticed that the "leader" of this little rebellion was totally out of dress code, wearing jeans and also did not have his id badge.. The student was sent to in house suspension for those violations.

The humor in all this is that this is the last week of the school year. I was about to show the students a very unique process no other art teacher in this school would have taken the time to show them. Here was a student, who got up this morning and decided he was going to dress against dress code, come into my room late, and behave in a manner that was guaranteed to draw my attention...then be belligerent enough to get me to call the authorities and draw their attention as well. Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was funny.

Ok, then I am posting some pics of some of the pendants the students finished today. Hope you enjoy them.

Clay Pendant (TEXTURE) project

2011-05-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

"It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting
up and taking action."

Honore de Balzac May 20, 1799

So I went out and bought the clay, hauled it up to my room on the second floor, cut it up, demonstrated various ways to texture the clay to arrive at a pleasing composition, helped the students achieve some very nice pendants, packed them all up carefully and hauled them home where they now sit to dry. I will then load them up in the kiln, pay for the electricity to fire them, haul them back to school on Monday, have the students paint them with watercolor, and have them cover them with gloss transparent medium. Once they are dry, I will give each student a piece of lace to attach to the pendant so they can be worn.

Doe EVERY art teacher do stuff like this? I don't know. I DO know, however, that when I do things like I just described, it bothers me a WHOLE LOT when I get a text from the teacher with whom I share the classroom and who teaches air brush that one of my students crammed clay down one of his air receptacles and he had to spend a lot of time cleaning out. Not to mention the danger of having this act possibly injure one of his students because the line is under 70 pounds of pressure.

Here are some pictures of the pendants drying out in my studio. I'll fire them tomorrow over night so they will be ready by Monday morning.

Paul Soldner on the "critique"

2011-05-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

"I'm sure there are other ways to avoid playing Artistic God, but real problems arise if grades are affected by a critique. Giving grades on artisitc effort seems contradictory. On one hand we expect the students to be original, self-motivated and inventive, but then we judge their success or failure by personal feelings."

Paul Soldner

A leader is best
When people barely know he exists
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worse when they despise him.
"Fail to honor people,
They fail to honor you."
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will say, "We did this ourselves."
-Lao Tzu

Tomorrow in my art classes I am going to do a begin a special project with my students. We are in a "last few days of the year" mode and I want to make each day count. Last year I had my students, during the study of texture, create a textured clay pendant that they finished in watercolor stain and glossy medium. Even though we have already studied texture and we spent 6 weeks creating textured paintings in tempera, I decided I would allow two days of the class time to do this fun project also. Since we will be working in clay and since the idea is texture, I used a comment by Paul Soldner, who is known for his beautiful textured sculptural works to emphasize the feelings I have come to when it comes to grading my students' work. In his article he used the Zen master, Lao Tzu's quote to illustrate his feelings about teaching as well.

Here are a couple of Paul's works that illustrate his mastery of the clay medium. I will be posting some video of my students working in clay and their final products when they finish next week.
Pedestal Piece, 91-12, 1991, slab built, with white terra sigillata, low-temperature salt, 23 3/4 inches in height; at Louis Newman Galleries in Beverly Hills, California.
Pedestal Piece, 90-26, 1990, low-fire clay with slip, salt vapor fired, 28 1/2 inches high, by Paul Soldner, Aspen, Colorado.

Stain Glass Crayon and Ink

2011-05-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not
aiming high enough."

Alan Kay May 17, 1940

Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) is an American computer scientist, known for his early pioneering work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interfacedesign, and for coining the phrase, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

I copied this off Wikepedia because I had no idea who this was. I just liked the quote and wanted to use it for the blog. I keep stressing to my students they need to push further with their art.

I'm going to post another series of paintings from this last assignment for your viewing pleasure. We are getting ra[pidly down to the wire for time in the classroom this year. I have three more regular class periods with each of the classes, then it's finals. I have one more project they will work on this year unless I have them do a "special" project in clay. We'll see. Here are the pictures.

The "Henry J" of Art...the Faux Stain Glass Window

2011-05-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes."

Henry J(ohn) Kaiser May 9, 1882

Back in about 1950 the Kaiser/Frazier Car Company were making cars they simply called the Kaier. Cadillac had come out in 1948 with the slant back sedan that incorporated a "fin" at the end of the rear fenders. In 1950 the made the car more "rounded" but kept the fins. Kaiser decided to jump on the bandwagon and produced a limited number of small 2 door coupes that also had the cadillac fin on the back fenders. It actually looked like a squished version of the 1950 cadillac sedan. They called it the "Henry J". I always wondered why they named it that. Now I know. Go figure.

Well, I hanen't had time to listen to more than a couple chapters of my book, The Paradox of Choices so I don't have any real revelations regarding the program. I HAVE had a couple of students finish the assignment I gave them and I asked each one what they thought of the work they finished. So far the response has been very positive. I'm posting a few of them in this post so you can see what they are doing. More later.

Choosing how much Choice...the dilemma

2011-05-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

"Creativity takes Courage"

Henri Matisse

I realized that there has been a noticeable lull in my postings to this blog. This past week was TAKS testing in Texas, so the students were involved in that process for 4 of the 5 school days. They are working on a project I described in my last post, having to do with a faux stain glass window design in crayon and ink. It is a rather elementary sort of process with the only real challenge to the student being the skill with which they draw the subject and design the background. I didn't give them a CHOICE as to whether to do this assignment, which brings me to the point of this posting.

I am currently reading a book titled THE PARADOX OF CHOICE, by Barry Schwartz. I heard him talk about this subject on TED and became interested in the subject because of the nature of my art curriculum.The base concept of the curriculum is to give the student total freedom of choice over all the aspects of what he/she decides to learn about the subject at hand. The idea of the importance of autonomy in regard to intrinsic motivation being the driving force. As you might recall from my first posts, the germ of this idea came from my response to students leaving art work behind that they had created which I praised them for and yet they were not "connected" to enough to want to keep it. So I built an entire program around the ability of the student to CHOOSE all of the aspects of what he was learning in order to foster that feeling of "caring". For the most part I am satisfied with how the year has progressed in this manner.There have been only a few of the students who have not been able to "get it" totally, and a handfull more who have tried to "beat the system" I kind of expected both of these situations to exist Now that we are nearing the end of the year, as always, I sit and reflect over the year and try to assess what we've done and how I can improve on it for next fall. I believe, to some degree, I will gain some insight into that process by the time I am finished reading this book on Choices.

In the meantime, here is a copy of the last "lesson" format for this year. The element of art is SPACE and the principle of design is PROPORTION. I will be following this post up with a quick series of posts highlighting the work of the students and more thoughts on the program..

Texture Unit Slide Show

2011-04-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

"It had long since come to my attention that people of

accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them.

They went out and happened to things."

Leonardo da Vinci April 15, 1452

I'm not going to say much in today's post. We "started" our 6th cycle today. We will be studying the element of art, SPACE, and the principle of design, PROPORTION this time. Because of the interruption of the TAKS exams next week I decided to "fill in" a few days with a general assignment that all the students will do. This is foreign to what our agenda has been and I'm kind of anxious to see what the results will be. I'm giving them a very limited time to do the assignment and everyone has the same size, media, and expression. They DO have their choice of subjects and I put out the Sports Hall of Fame Encyclopedia for them to select a sport or a sports figure they particularly were interested in. Then we will do a kind of "faux" stain glass window sort of design with heavy crayon and inkia ink. I'll post some video and pictures as we get into the project. Afterwards we will pick up the program with some 3D work.

For now, enjoy the little movie/slide show I have put together highlighting the paintings from this past unit in VARIETY and TEXTURE.

Shoulder to the wheel, Nose to the grindstone

2011-04-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

"Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds a man down or
polishes him up depends on the stuff he's made of."

Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] April 12, 1818

Today was the last day of Cycle 5. I gave them a test on Tuesday over the Element of Art we have been studying, TEXTURE. There were only 20 questions and I gave them an "answer" sheet to fill in the blanks so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. Those that "cared" enough to spend any time reading the information, looking at the study guide, and actually reading the test questions, did fine. Unfortunately, quite a few fell into the "other" category (quite the opposite of the type described), and as a result, their grade was seriously impaired.

This idea of "caring" brings me back to the very first day of classes working with this concept of student directed art curriculum. I told them that "I didn't care how much they know until I knew how much they cared". This year has been a real significant learning process for me as a teacher. I had hoped to foster a real sense of caring about art and about doing a good job...to gain a sense of pride in their work and to feel a sense of accomplishment as a result of doing the best job they could. Perhaps in a few of them, this WAS the result of this curriculum. I'm afraid that in the majority, this simply has not been the case, or they just do a real good job of hiding it from me.

Nonetheless, I am including in this posting a number of paintings done by the students during this cycle's work. The paintings themselves have a lot of energy and creative though that is obvious. Maybe these things couldn't have been done without the freedom to govern themselves, I don't know. It would be nice to know how they REALY feel about it.

Delivery System Installation

2011-04-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is

expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a

problem."

Theodore Isaac Rubin April 11, 1923

Our friend, Tim Eads, sent us a nice note today informing us of his upcoming Spring Art show in Philadelphia. Tim is a unique individual who plays with many media including silk screen, sculpture, and clay. The reason I'm embedding this video into my blog is to show yet one other way in which paint can be "carried" to the surface. I think you will enjoy this brief video.

Fan, 2010 from Tim Eads on Vimeo.

Students commenting on Pollack

2011-04-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

"It doesn't make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement."
Jackson Pollock

We watched the documentary movie on Jackson Pollock today in each of my art classes. I figured since the students had been experimenting with ideas on putting paint on paper with other than brushes so I thought a nice introduction to the father of Abstract Expressionism would be appropriate. I'm including in this post some comments by students after seeing the movie as well as some of their latest creations.

Temptation #1

2011-04-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

"All good ideas arrive by chance."

Max Ernst April 2, 1891

Since Ernst was an inspiration for one of the processes I introduced to my students during this lesson on texture (DECALCOMANIA), I thought it highly incidental to quote him during this cycle. I find his works to be quite exciting and I know my students have had the greatest time going through the process of ripping away the paper from the surface they have put down paint to see the fun textures, patterns, and color combinations that are derived.

I just returned from a week in Florida where I spent looking at hundreds of pieces of fabulous pottery and sculpture during the 45th annual N.C.E.C.A. conference. The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts is a large, unified organization whose member come from a wide variety of people who, in one way or another, work in or around the medium of CLAY. We are teachers, students, professional potters, sculptors, manufacturers, hobbyists, and just plain folks who like to get their hands dirty.

Since my entire premise of introducing this "student directed art curriculum" and working within its parameters this year started with the concept of INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, I figured that one post on this blog having to do with an entire body of artists whose entire physical, psychological, spiritual, and economical well-being reflects this concept would be appropriate.

Here is a short little video I took of just one of the pieces I had the privilege of being exposed to this week.

The Teacher as Learner

2011-03-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

"Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone
you can - there will always come a time when you will be
grateful you did."
Sarah Caldwell March 23, 2006

Some excellent words to live by. I find myself learning from my students everyday. In this exercise in experimentation with paint, and using a variety of "delivery systems" to express themselves in texture, some of the combinations are absolutely wonderful. I couldn't imagine taking them through this exercise without first having given them the freedom to choose the what, why, how, and when of their actions. Of all the units we have covered this year, I feel that this one jumps out in such a significant way to emphasize the importance of students governing themselves and having the autonomy to choose.

I have included just a little 4 minute chopped up video without any editing to just highlight what I get to enjoy being a part of in my classroom. Here it is, enjoy:

Thoughts on ART, TEACHING, and LEARNING

2011-03-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

"Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of
inspiration."

Rudolf (Khametovich) Nureyev [Рудольф Хаметович Нуреев] March 17, 1938

When I saw this quote yesterday, I decided that I needed to jot down a few words about how I related the ideas of "style" and "technique" to the concept of creating art.

In the 60's an art movement began to take hold which claimed that the end product that the artist produced was merely the "relic" of the idea(s) that the artist had. In the final analysis the art work itself was just a representation of the craftsmanship of the artist. The artist's ability to paint in a certain way or sculpt, print, etc. were only reflective of his training as an artisan. The IDEA was the only thing that had merit.

To this end and with these thoughts in mind I contend that once the artist has visualized his idea into a physical reality by using the media most appropriate (or at least one in which he has derived some expertise regardless of the appropriateness) the artist should take what he/she has learned from their work and move on toward new ideas. Unfortunately, this is so often not the case. Once an artist gains recognition for his work, especially in the form of money and popularity, the "moving on" to new ideas frequently loses its appeal. At this point the artist's "style" and "technique" begin to win out over any concept of innovation and creativity.

In the way in which I have been teaching this school year, using the Student Directed Art Curriculum based on INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, I have learned that new ideas are hard for all of us to grasp. I had no idea of how the students would react to such a departure from their normal ways of dealing with a high school course. I have always looked at each new school year, over my 41 years of teaching, as a new canvas. It wasn't that much of a stretch, then, for me to go ahead and try something totally different. The angst, anxiety, and frustration for me has been in not giving credence to the fact that these students have NOT been "learning" in a new way each year. The have developed their own "styles" and "techniques" of learning throughout their 9 years of being in school. The system has taught them the three "R's" quite effectively; that is READING, REMEMBERING, and REGURGITATION. This idea of thinking for themselves, making their own decisions, and being accountable for their learning is just about as foreign to them as anything could be. I think I am only writing this down so that I can come back and re-read this paragraph frequently as this school year draws to a close and I find myself wondering whether any of what I'm doing has had any impact.

So now I've said it and I will close out this little Chautauqua and post a couple more examples of the students' textures in paint. Enjoy.

The SENSE OF TOUCH personified..a blind painter's story

2011-03-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."

Dr. Benjamin Spock

This Texas artist's life was introduced to me today on facebook by my friend Marshall Kregel. After watching the video he posted, I sought further videos and information about this outstandingly creative/gifted artist. Since we are currently studying TEXTURE I thought it important to introduce him to this blog. Enjoy and be prepared to be awestruck:

MIND over MATTER...color me texture

2011-03-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

"What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind."

George Berkeley March 12, 1685

I always enjoy significant turns of phrase with double entendre. I believe creative minds excel at such things. I'd like to believe that creative minds appreciate them as well.

Today is Saturday. I was off Friday, which for me was the beginning of "Spring Break". I have no travel plans this coming week. I will probably spend the majority of my time working in my studio at home and doing some needed yard work in the garden. If some thoughts occur to me in the process of reading and thinking I will post another segment sometime during the week as well.

Students in their second full day of working in the TEXTURE/VARIETY unit seemed to "settle down" a little in their approach to the work. The first day they were so hyped to begin that they jumped right in and worked feverishly all period. On the 2nd, they seemed to take their time and work more deliberately on their art. I think that some of them thought they would have just the one day for some reason. I think it's hard for students to comprehend time/space continuum. Even when they are told that they will be studying/working on a given idea for 3-4 weeks, they can't seem to adjust their activities accordingly. Those that are prone to planning/sketching/drawing out their ideas beforehand sometimes get lost in that process, look up, and discover that the time has passed and they never quite got to what they were planning to do. Others jump right into the fray and accomplish some really nice work, but then want to sit back and rest on their laurels. Finding the right words of encouragement is key to moving the ideas along and prodding the "get after its" to build on what they have accomplished.

I am posting a couple of the works from the first day that were included in the video in last post for your enjoyment. I will also be posting the video onto the website, Art Class 2.0 .

Jackson Pollock would be proud

2011-03-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas

are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats"

Howard (Hathaway) Aiken March 9, 1900

This quote caught my eye today because yesterday I was visiting with a substitute teacher in art who will watch my classes at the end of the month while I attend the annual clay conference in Florida. Anyway, I was telling her about this blog and the website of the student's work and she asked if she could use any of the ideas. I said, certainly she could as well as anyone else who cares to. I believe that my ideas aren't necessarily original with me. I probably got them from observing and reading. As an inventor once told the gifted and talented class I took to his home back in the 80's in Denver; "The problem with good ideas is that they always de-generate into a lot of hard work". Fortunately for the idea I have come up with for this unit on TEXTURE and VARIETY, it has generated what appears to be a lot of fun for the students. At least they appear to be enjoying the "process" so far. Take a look at the short video and see for yourself.

Art is Beauty

2011-03-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."

Alexander Graham Bell March 3, 1847

The other day I discussed the idea of Art as a vehicle for emotions with my class. I said that many times I have heard it quoted that if a work of art doesn't start with an emotion, it isn't really a work of art. I brought up two opposing views of that idea. The first is that I hear docents in museums go on and on about how this or that artist felt this way or that when he/she created a work of art. "You can see by their use of this color/shape/line/tone that the artist was depressed, lonely, etc" I guess it gives them something to say, but HOW DO THEY KNOW HOW SOMEONE FELT at any given time? The second scenario is that a given work of art makes us feel sad/happy/etc. because of this, that, or the other use of this or that element of art. Two people standing in front of the same painting are going to have two responses to that painting depending on their own makeup/feelings, etc. about life in general and visual subjects in particular. In other words, I don't put much "truck" in "art as emotion/feeling". I DO like the idea of art as beauty and the more one is touched by all things beautiful, the more one is influenced by all visual art. One who sees beauty in life, can see beauty in the most grotesque visual presentations, be they paintings, sculpture, dance, music, etc.

So I gave the students a little assignment. I gave them three pages of lists of all the emotions and feelings I could find on the internet. I told them to look the lists over and envision three things that have happened to them or someone close that have generated any of the feelings listed. I had them write these down in the their books. Then I had them draw little sketches of each of these scenarios. I had them turn them in for a "grade". I used the extrinsic motivation of my grading them in order to motivate them into getting the assignment done in the prescribed time. I didn't want to take forever doing it. I haven't looked the sketches over yet, but I'm looking forward to doing that over the weekend.

After that little exercise, I demonstrated another little exercise in using a variety of media in a variety of techniques to create some cool TEXTURAL designs. I am posting the video here in two parts because Youtube won't take longer than 15 minutes. Hope you enjoy them.

Architecture Students at work DEFINING SPACE

2011-03-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

"One of the great things about being a director as a life choice

is that it can never be mastered. Every story is its own kind

of expedition, with its own set of challenges."

Ron Howard [Ronald William Howard] March 1, 1954

I love it whenever I read or hear of someone as successful as Ron Howard say that he knows that he will never achieve true mastery of his craft. Learn till the day you die.

Today's blog is fairly simple. I don't know the whole "story" of how or when the concept for this project began. All I know is that one day when leaving school I saw this unusual sight in the hallway next to the Architecture Cluster's classrooms. There were these stacks of classroom chairs all bundled up as though they were going to the trash or something. Upon closer observation I discovered that they were sort of tied together in groups. I left, thinking how weird, I need to ask the teachers what's going on. The next school day I was there at Skyline, as I was again leaving for the day and passing the classrooms, the two architecture teachers were there with a group of students. I asked one of them, Tom Cox, what was going on. He said that their students were "defining space" using the clusters of chairs as their medium. I just HAD to record a few minutes of their activity. He also said that they would be displaying their creations at the Dallas Museum of Art just after Spring Break. I will go there and shoot a short video of that display also and post it sometime after that. Meanwhile, here is the short footage I shot that day. I know you will enjoy it:

Variety is the spice of life

2011-02-28T20:59:00.000-08:00

"It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain
why you did it wrong."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow February 27, 1807

Today we started Cycle 5. During this 6 week period we will study the element of art TEXTURE

and the principle of design VARIETY. I decided to change things up a little bit again this cycle.

Instead of requiring a certain number of pages to read and notes to take on the lesson, I decided to leave the amount of reading and note taking up to the student. I did a similar thing first cycle.

The difference is that this cycle I will be giving them a written objective test at the end to see how much they remember from their reading/notes. I will be curious to see how this affects their grade and their ability to discuss the lesson.

The other thing I decided to change was the sizes of the works they will pursue. Since we will be doing a bit of print making this cycle, I felt that large works wouldn't necessarily be the best format for the works. This way they can experiment on a smaller scale and do more of them. It will hopefully encourage them to try out a variety of techniques and experiences.

We watched a couple of videos on the Silk Screen Printing process I had prepared at home. The students seemed to like them and I felt a keen sense of anticipation when they were over.

We are going to do some mono prints as well. I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress.

I'm posting a copy of the lesson sheet I handed out today so you can see what they will be doing to some degree. The format is the same as the other cycle's lessons.

Renoir...the Master of Color, loved Black

2011-02-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

"Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant
things in the world."

"I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors

is black."

Pierre-Auguste Renoir February 25, 1841

On Renoir's birthday I just wanted to post a very short little video I took with my new toy. It is a small 8X telescopic lens that fits on my iphone. I stood on a table in my classroom and recorded some student activity to see how the lens might work. The video is a little jittery, which is often the case with telephoto lenses, but I was able to capture a few students working on their projects using the "Delivery Systems" I had introduced to them a few days ago. It's only 45 seconds long, but I hope you enjoy it.

Color me Fun

2011-02-24T16:58:00.000-08:00

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best
to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other
innovations."

"I want to put a ding in the universe."

"I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with
Socrates."

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs February 24, 1955

The Color/Unity unit finished up today, the last day of the grading cycle. I had the students turn in their paintings so I could record them for this blog. I selected 60 works to put up here in a video. The music is Bach. Enjoy.

Having AUTONOMY and working toward MASTERY

2011-02-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

"The one important thing I have learned over the years is the

difference between taking one's work seriously and taking

one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second

is disastrous."

Dame Margot Fonteyn [Margaret Hookham

I rather enjoyed reading this quote. It made me remember someone as having said, "you'd worry less about what others think about you if you knew how little they did". Today I am posting a couple of very short videos of two my students working on their projects. I have videoed them before and I have shown their work on several occasions. Juan and Rogelio personify the attitude toward working in class that I had hoped would be the norm when given the opportunity to be autonomous. Here they are:

Delivery Systems

2011-02-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

One of the most important reasons for living is to do something
- live outside of yourself and put together an idea, an idea that
you want to explore and then complete ... Awaken your creative
sensitivities!"

Jack Palance [Volodymyr Palanyuk] [Володимир Паланюк] [Jack Brazzo] February 18, 1919

Who would have thought that the "dirty, rotten, thieving Yankee" from the movie SHANE, and almost every other "bad guy" in Westerns back in the day would be so profound. Just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover.

Yesterday I presented my students with some alternatives to the way in which paint could be applied to the surface of paper (or anything for that matter) and during my 3rd period class I had a student, Juan, record the event on my iphone. Unfortunately, the video was 17 minutes long and I didn't know where to cut out the 2 minutes so I sent it to youtube as two segments. I am posting them here as A and B. I hope you enjoy them. I will also post them to the website I have set up. Click on Art Class 2.0 to see them and many other pictures of student work.

Wheels of Color

2011-02-16T21:50:00.000-08:00

"Education has produced a vast population able to read but

unable to distinguish what is worth reading."

G(eorge) M(acaulay) Trevelyan February 16, 1876

This will be noted as my first posting in the month of February, 2011. I had actually posted 3 others, but deleted them. If you had a chance to view them, you probably noted that there was an element of negativity about them. I decided that this element had no business in this forum.

I hope you agree. My students are great and do a wonderful job within the context of this new way of learning. Rather than wax philosophical, I am simply going to post some color wheel designs I took pictures of today. I hope you enjoy them.

A look at INTENSITY in color..

2011-01-30T18:30:00.000-08:00

"No! Try not. Do or Do not. There is no try."

Yoda

Last Friday when I was writing my last post I said I was going to publish a few demonstrations on the techniques of using watercolor. I almost used the phrase, "I will try and ...". I stopped, erased, and re-wrote the words I published. Then this weekend a friend posted a comment by a friend of his that I have used here today. The two occurrences seemed too coincidental to overlook.

I have published the videos on Youtube and have uploaded one of them to this post if you care to watch. I won't say more about it except that I intend to show this one and some others tomorrow to my students.

The "study" of color..a short video

2011-01-27T20:28:00.000-08:00

"One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the

doing is what we do for others."

Lewis Carroll

I wanted to get the students fired up about beginning their art works. I had over-emphasized the need for them to research color and work on their color wheels to the point where I thought that some of them would not get anything else done ( or even started ) unless I encouraged them to "hurry up and get the color wheels done". It seemed to work because a number of them did finish and most of them are well on their way.

I didn't get the demos done when I expected to so couldn't move into the media today yet. So I will get to it over the weekend and be ready for Monday. In the meantime, here is a short little video of some of the finished and partly finished works during period 2. I'll also include a couple of still photos of color wheels. Like this one:

and this one:

but here's the video:

DON'T FORGET TO GO TO ART CLASS 2.0 TO SEE MORE STUDENT WORK

UNITY and COLOR lesson DIRECTION

2011-01-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you  there."

  Lewis Carroll January 14, 1898

I haven't used (posted) to the companion blog, djochum2.blogspot.com , for awhile because I decided to just include in this blog the various forms I have generated for use with this curriculum. The one I am posting today is for the current lesson on unity and color. I thought I would also share another couple of paintings done last year that I thought particularly well done.

First, here is the outline of the lesson:

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT ALL THE PAINTINGS AT THE NEW WEBSITE;

ARTCLASS 2.0

"Find a wheel, and it goes round, round, round..."

2011-01-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

"Confidence is the most important single factor in this game,
and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one
way to obtain and sustain it: work."

Jack (William) Nicklaus

The title of today's post is a phrase from an old 50's song by Perry Como. It refers to the fact that today my classes began working on part of their academic portion of this cycle's lesson, which is on COLOR. Since they have two text books for reference, I have required that THEIR color wheel must NOT be in the shape of a circle. I DID however, point out that it must be circular in concept so that various relationships could be established, i.e. ANALAGOUS, COMPLEMENTARY, and TRIAD color schemes. I pointed out that referring to the unit on balance would help because I was basically talking about a RADIAL BALANCE DESIGN. . With each class period there was something I must have either not said, said loud enough, or completely enough for them to just proceed on this seemingly "mindless" activity. I use that term because, after all, they ARE just basically copying information out of the book. The only real creative endeavor comes in the the designing of the "wheel" on which the colors are to be placed. I gave them the "idea" paper with the 6 squares for trying out designs, had them choose their favorite (your ONLY idea is NEVER you BEST idea) blow it up on a piece of copy paper, and then transfer that over to the good paper BEFORE beginning the watercolor process. Does anyone have any idea how many students went directly back to get bowls of water to begin painting? As the horse said, raising its tail when asked if he wanted more oats, "justafew".

So we are now underway of this cycle's lesson. I have cut 12 x 18 watercolor paper for the students to use on their major work of art in case they want to use watercolor or tempera. I was able to get the money loosened up for the purchase of some gallons of tempera paint and some masking tape so I can make the Silk Screen unit available to all students, not just those who would bring in the needed supplies. I'm looking forward to that experience with this program. Once some of the students finish their original color wheel designs I will post some of them on the blog. I'll also create some more footage of them working in this medium and of course as they create in the Silk Screen process as well.

I'll post a couple pictures from last Spring of abstract paintings after we studied Kandinsky for a little while. He will be one of the choices on this lesson as well.

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THESE CLASSES COME UP WITH.

Cycle Four...we study UNITY and COLOR

2011-01-19T22:15:00.000-08:00

"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art"

Paul Cezanne...1839

Today we began the second semester of the school year. The students had had a week of finals and a four day weekend. Some were ready some were not.

I had them get out their folders where they kept their sketches, ideas, and experiments along with various pages of information I had handed out. I told them to sort out what they had into two piles. If they thought they might take an advanced art class and they were interested in art they might want to keep some of this information for future reference. If so, to place it into their backpacks and take home. The other stack would be thrown out so they would have a nice clean folder to keep handouts they would be given this semester.

Then I proceeded to introduce the next unit, UNITY and COLOR. We looked at three of the student's works that I felt demonstrated good unity. The first was a composition of lines and triangles shaded from dark to light. We discussed how the composition was unified by the use of these elements. The second was of overlapping circles and the third was of three flowers using value very well.

I passed out the six week test academic handout discussing what chapters/pages to read and take notes on the two concepts being studied. We looked at the color wheel assignment briefly and I gave them an idea paper to work out 6 preliminary designs for theirs.

I told the students about the fact that a few students had suggested that they might do better about getting the reading/note taking done if I would just "make them do it" on given days instead of always leaving it up to them to decide whether to do that or work on their art. I relayed an incident in my past when I was signed up for an Art History class my last semester during my graduate work and had to decide each day whether to go to the library to read/write or to the studio to create art. I always chose the studio and dropped the Art History class after 2 weeks.

So we spent the remainder of the period either reading/writing or finishing up their last 6 week's drawings if they still had things to do to them.

One of my students, SaVonne, had handed in her finished drawing late and I hadn't included it in the previous array of art work by the students. You might remember her because I videoed her working on this drawing on two separate occasions and posted them on this blog. I will end this posting with a photo of her finished art work. I think she did an amazing job and I think you will also.

ARTCLASS 2.0

Just another Silk Screen Video

2011-01-17T21:28:00.000-08:00

"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."

Benjamin Franklin January 17, 1706

I was able to find a few silk screen frames, cut out the old used screen, and replace it with new silk. I also found a printing rack with hinges to keep the frames registered. I brought home some tempera paint to see how it would work in the printing process using paper stencils. I found that it worked just fine. Now I've got to decide whether to go ahead and purchase a few gallons of tempera or go through the "begging" process of seeing if the school will shell out the money in a somewhat near future time frame. In the meantime, here is a little video lesson I will be telling my students about when they start the new semester on Wednesday. I will encourage them to bring it up on their computers at home so they can have a pretty good idea of what they might want to do about it during this unit on color we will start this cycle.

Here it is:

THE test...and student comments

2011-01-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

"Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting"

Edmund Burke...1729

A very appropriate quote for today's post. Today I administered an exam to test my student's "artistic digestion" from the 1st semester's curricular offerings. The test was designed to encourage each student to recall his/her experiences during the course of each cycle's lesson and relay it in an essay format. Since we only studied 6 art concepts, i.e. 3 elements of art and 3 principles of design, I figured that the student would have a fairly easy job of remembering his/her details. For the most part I was correct. In reading the answers given, I was greatly encouraged by the overall ability of the students to express themselves and discuss at length each of their experiences. I had them look over their daily log books prior to taking the test and I think that helped jar their memories. This helped me feel that having done the log books was a good idea.

The test itself was thus:

1. During this semester we studied the elements of art and the principles of design. List the 3 elements of art.

2. The three principles of design we studied were:

3. In the space below, combine the element and the principle studied with it. Discuss as thoroughly as possible what subject, media, and expression you chose to help you demonstrate you understanding of each combination.

Then I asked a question that would elicit comments about how the students' felt about the program and what they would like to do next semester.

One of the best examples of the students' answers to these questions was done by Portia. Below is her responses.

Then I ran across Maria's paper and couldn't help decide to include her comments:

One more positive feedback comment paragraph by Brittani before we close:

I hope you have enjoyed reading these "testimonials". I'm still reading them from my last period's class and will possibly be posting some more before I move on. We start 2nd semester next Wed., Jan. 19.

CYCLE THREE...EMPHASIS and VALUE

2011-01-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

"You only pass through this life once; you don't come back for
an encore."

Elvis (Aaron) Presley January 8, 1935

Since I had quoted James Dean on his birthday I thought it only right to quote the other male icon of the 50s on his.

This posting is about ending the third cycle this year and preparing for the end of the semester tests. I had the students hand in their art works, finished or not, so I could record them as they were on the last day of the term. Some have already taken their work home after I recorded them so they could give them as Christmas presents. Here they are:

Quiet, engage, and focus

2011-01-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

"Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are  open."

  Lord Thomas Robert Dewar January 6, 1864

We came back after our Christmas vacation today. Faced with 2 days left (including today) of the six weeks cycle AND the end of the first semester, there was definitely a need to "get back to work" in earnest. Not to say that ALL the students needed to be put into "panic mode". A few of them came back with finished work they had done over the break and were pretty well caught up on what they had left to do in class. Some had done enough that the time left will be sufficient to accomplish their goals.

I started each period with a discussion of what would be expected of them by end of the period on Friday. I would be looking for completed art work. They would be turning in their grade sheets for recording this cycle. They would be turning in their "6 week test" which amounts to having completed the two value charts/scales given them the first day of the cycle. They would need to look over their notes, re-read the texts, or in whatever way they can think of to prepare themselves for the semester exam next week. I told them that it would basically be an essay type exam where they would be writing about their experiences this semester and relating how and what they did in this class. So a little review would help them a lot.

I gave the students the address of the new website, ARTCLASS2.0 and what would be found there. I showed them the Welcome page on the classroom computer which had one of the student's art work as the opening photo. I told them that I had 3 goals for this website. The first was to highlight their work for them to show their parents at home and for others around the world to enjoy. The second was for them to look through the various projects I have had students at Skyline do over the last 4 years in case they saw something they would like to pursue themselves. The third was to post "INTERESTED ONLY" demonstrations of art techniques that those who took the time outside of class to look at the site would learn from and come back to class with the desire to do those types of things. This is going to be experimental in its concept and I will see how it works over the next cycle to see if I will continue it.

The following is the second video in a series of demonstrations on the art of silk screen printing. I plan to have this process available to the students next cycle. I plan to start with those who watch these demos online and then come into class with the desire to do it.

EPIPHANY PERSONIFIED

2011-01-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

This posting is going to VERY SHORT and VERY SWEET.

I have created an entirely new website for the SOLE purpose of putting work of my

students out on the web that can be seen all at once instead of scrolling through

the many posts on this blog.

I will also post some videos and demonstrations in the very near future.

Currently there are 18 pages of artworks by my students going back to 2007.

I will post the web address as a link on this and future postings on this blog.

Click on STUDENT ART WEBSITE

when you see it in the postings in the future. It will take you to this new site.

I'm very excited about this idea. There may be an opportunity to purchase some

of the student's art work directly from them if I can get the permissions

and figure out the logistics. I will keep you all informed.

Until then, please go to the site, check out the art, and leave me some feedback

in the form of a comment on this posting. Thanks.

A New Year, a new post..

2011-01-02T01:45:00.000-08:00

"I have always been a great believer in today. Most people live

either in the past or in the future, so that they really never live

at all. So many people are busy worrying about the future of

art or society, they have no time to preserve what is. Utopia

is in the moment. Not in some future time, some other place,

but in the here and now, or else it is nowhere."

"Photography is not an art. Neither is painting not sculpture

literature or music. They are only different media for the

individual to express his aesthetic feelings... You do not have

to be a painter or a sculptor to be an artist. You may be a

shoemaker. You may be creative as such. And if so, you

are a greater artist than the majority of the painters whose

work is shown in the art galleries

Alfred Stieglitz January 1, 1864

Some pretty interesting thoughts expressed by one of most renowned photographers of an era and husband to Georgia O'Keefe.

I didn't get back to this blog on Saturday because I was a little tired around 7 in the evening. Still a little jet lagged from trip back from Germany. I decided to start running again this year (at least for now) so I did a 2.2 mile run today as well. Anyway, here I am at 3:34 A.M. finishing THIS blog so I can start on my next one right away. I'm going to input a short video I created over the break on the art of Silk Screen Printing. I want to begin working in this media shortly after the second semester begins. Of course, the students will have their choice of working with it or not, but I believe enough will want to that it will catch on quickly. So here are the videos. Hope you enjoy them.

Christmas Party videos...go figure..

2010-12-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

   "One must from time to time attempt things that
   are beyond one's capacity."

Auguste Renoir

I decided again this year, since I was scheduled to teach on the last day before our Christmas
break, to treat my students to a wee party. I brought in Swiss Miss hot chocolate and a box of
Gansitos (small chocolate covered cakes with filling). I told them they could work on their art or
sit and talk, but no games. In the midst of this "inactivity", a couple of the students actually got
out their work and spent some time on it. I took the liberty of recording about a minute of each of
these students at work. The sounds and music you hear in the background is just my ipod hooked
up to a speaker. Enjoy.

I showed you SaVonne's work in an earlier blog post. She is now using ebony pencil to capture the
essence of DYNAMIC lights and darks in her drawing. When the period was over, she packed her
drawing up with a couple of spare pencils and took it home to work on it over the holiday. Can't wait
to see it when it's finished.

Jennifer just began working on this floral drawing the day before. We had looked together at some
value drawings of flowers and she decided she liked this approach. I enjoyed watching her spend her
time slowly building the values.

Crystal found a book I had brought in on drawing and was captivated by the section on hands. She
had drawn a few hands up the side of her paper. We talked about how she was going to deal with the
larger composition. She said she wanted to draw a larger version in the center. I gave her a piece of
transparency, she put it on the overhead, and traced the larger hand. Here, she is beginning the process
of creating a value drawing of that larger hand. This student has not, in the past, seemed very motivated to work on her projects. I get the feeling that this is one she will stick with and do a good job with.

I'm off for Germany for the holidays. I may or may not post while I'm gone. Chances are I will because
my daughter Angela will probably bring up something, we'll have discussion, and it will invariably lead
to a post. If not, see you next year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

A Delightful Drawing

2010-12-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

Walt Disney

Isn't this a very nice drawing by Raymond Ortiz in my 3rd period class? Raymond took this home and worked on the floral subjects after a discussion on Monday about bringing out the interest in the composition by using strong gradations of dark to light. Then today we discussed various alternatives to enhancing the composition by creating a background that would show off the floral arrangement. Next thing I know, Raymond is presenting me with his finished artwork for a final critical analysis. I gave it two thumbs up and asked if he would mind exhibiting it for awhile in the classroom. So now it hangs near the door for all to enjoy.

Way to go Raymond!

On Friday we will have a little pre-holiday celebration along with our regular class activities. I will provide some warm beverages and a small snack and the students may bring in something simple for all to enjoy if they want. I don't care to disrupt the learning/creating process too much, even during these times of the year. We have little enough time to create. On Friday, then, I am going to try and shoot some photos of other finished works since many of the students will want to take their work home to either give as gifts or continue working on them over the holidays.

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle..."

2010-12-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

"Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye..it also includes the inner pictures of the soul"

Edvard Munch. 1863

Today,just a short little video of a student working on a drawing she did a lot of work on at home. In the past, I very seldom allowed students to take home current art work to finish it or work on it. My reasoning was simple. I feared two things: 1. The student would finish the work, bring it back to class and then I would need to find something else for that student to do while the rest of the class was still working on that assignment, and 2. the student would take home a piece of work that had been kept nice and neat in his/her drawer and portfolio, work on it at home, and bring it back all rolled up, wrinkled, and the "worse for wear". THEN how would it look up on display for all the world to see next to all the very neat and nice work of the rest of the students. Nothing doing for THIS control freak.

So what's different now? First of all, since it IS their work and THEY are the ones who will be grading it, deciding whether or NOT to display it, and hopefully feeling good about their work to the point of taking extreme care of it and ultimately hanging it in their rooms at home, I tell them they may take the work home at ANY stage. If they DO finish it, more the better, because then they will have time to pursue other work they now have time for. I don't need to FIND THEM work since they are in charge of deciding what it is they are doing. I just need to remind them to investigate, research, read, and "try out" whatever suits them. What fun!

"Gentlemen, and Ladies...START YOUR ENGINES!"

2010-12-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

"I do not consider my self as having mastered the flute, but I
get a real kick out of trying."

Sir James Galway December 8, 1939

I was wanting to shoot just a little footage today of student "work in progress" so I went over to SaVonne's area and saw that she was just far enough along to accommodate this activity. I wish I had pursued it a bit further with her, but I know you will get the point of the discussion.

At the beginning of the period, in order to possibly influence some of the students to move along with their artwork, I spoke of an analogy. I told them how much I enjoyed coming around to their places and seeing what they were doing, making suggestions, and asking them questions. I said that some of them reminded me of that "fictional" race car driver sitting in the pits. As a coach, I can suggest how fast to drive, where to turn, when to pass the other cars, etc. But you have to "be in the race" for me to be able to do that. If you are sitting in the pits with your engine turned off, the only advice I can give you is,
"start your engines" and move out onto the track. THEN I can do my job of helping you in any way I can so you can be successful. To be honest, however, some of the students are just taking more time to prepare their designs at the sketching stage...but they STILL need to get started on their final works instead of being so elaborate at this stage.

Had a very nice compliment for the program today, although unspoken. I needed to be out of the room for a few minutes. While I was away, my supervisor/evaluator stepped in for an informal observation. I came in, said hello, went into the room and moved among the students as I usually do. When he was finished with his notes, he handed me the form, smiled and said, yes when I asked him if he had ever had the chance to read my blog. The notes on the observation form were all positive. I especially liked the check marks for "engaged" and "student directed activity". I complimented my students when he left for being on task even though I wasn't there and helping to verify the strength of the program. Very cool!

Ruminations on Relaxation

2010-12-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

"The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings."

(Alfred) Joyce Kilmer December 6, 1886

It's funny how thoughts occur to me through some odd set of circumstances or situation that is totally unexpected.

I'm sitting in the chair getting a pedicure the other day when Amy asked me, "So how are you getting along with that new art curriculum you told me about?" This is at the beginning of what would be an hour session, so instead of a cursory, "oh, fine", I set off on a monologue of how what I've been doing compares to what I've done over the years. Not from the standpoint of how much more the students are learning, how much better their artwork is, or how much more they seem to enjoy learning about art. I have already told her (and you) all of that.

What occurred to me was how different my everyday experience has been with my art classes. I have found my class time to be so much more relaxed than ever before. That made me wonder about why that was. In reflecting on the kind of teacher I have been and the way in which I have conducted my classes, I would have to say that I'm a bit of a "control freak".

I guess I don't think of that as such a bad way of being, since my philosophy has always been that you can't teach anyone anything unless you have their attention and you can't have their attention if you have a chaotic environment. "Classroom Management" is the altruistic concept.

Since I do feel the need for order in the classroom, I have always needed to be organized to the hilt. I would pass out supplies (or have selected students do it), set up assignments in a logical order, set deadlines, and make sure there were few, if any, wasted moments during the class period. This meant my being "on top of it", in terms of seeing that needs of students were met, etc. I have wondered at art teachers who seem to somehow welcome chaos in their class rooms. Seeing students all out of their seats, crowding around a central media area waiting to grab supplies, noise levels off the charts, directions screamed out by the teacher over the voices of the masses. I know I would just not like it.

So my answer to Amy was, "you know I find it rather relaxing to not be in charge". Then I thought, WOW! Here I have 30 students doing 30 different things at the same time and I find that RELAXING? It's because I have placed the burden of their learning on their backs and relieved myself of that responsibility. By taking the time to set up the organizational structure and following through on all its ramifications, I have an environment where all I have to do is remind the students of their responsibilities, answer questions, make suggestions, ask them why they feel a need to change what their doing, and praise them. Of course, I still demonstrate media and technique, show them videos on artists and concepts, give them examples of art work through slide shows, and discuss with them aspects of art they need to know. All that's a given. What I enjoy now is the relaxing feeling that everything is in place and I can truly enjoy the experience of watching the students learn. Good deal!

Dynamic Light and Shade

2010-12-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

"The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul."

Wassily Kandinsky December 4, 1866

Since the students are dealing with the concepts of VALUE and EMPHASIS this cycle, I decided to scan in a book of images from a book titled, DYNAMIC LIGHT AND SHADE.

I showed this slide show to them on Friday and discussed the ideas of focal point, etc. with them after the viewing. I figured that everyone would enjoy this slide presentation, so I converted the slide show into a movie format and posted it to youtube.com. Here is the video to the theme music from "Somewhere in Time". Hope you enjoy.

then MASTERY...

2010-12-02T06:51:00.000-08:00

"Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know"

Rembrandt Van Rijn

When we began today, I brought up the video we saw in our last class on Gabriel Orozco. I wondered aloud whether any of the students noticed anything peculiar about him as he worked on his various artistic endeavors? What I noticed was that he was extremely focused and heavily concentrated on his actions while he was creating. He wasn't just standing on a corner, talking with friends with his camera pointed out into the street snapping pictures. Of course, the analogy of this sarcastic bit of dialogue was to emphasize this need to focus and concentrate on our work here in the room and not think that our work will turn out just as well if we play at it while sitting and talking to our friends. The title of this blog, "then MASTERY", refers to that second factor in the concept of intrinsic motivation. The FIRST is AUTONOMY. I have provided that factor in spades. The students have had all the autonomy one could possibly have, save being able to stay home and not come to school at all.

The idea of mastery is simply that it is a PURSUIT, not an end in itself.Those that are serious about learning know that they will never achieve this idea of mastery, but as they spend their lives pursuing it, they become the artist they hope to be. This concept is universal and can be applied to every area of learning. I think that using the term PRACTICE as it applies to the medical and law professions is probably the most appropriate. I think that we need to apply this idea to the profession of teaching as well. We use the term "practice teaching" when we are first leaning about the profession while still in college. I guess after that we NOW are masters and know it all. Maybe that's why some teachers who have been in the classroom for 25 years have really only taught one year 25X in a row. Maybe it isn't surprising to see teachers who have been "spoon fed" their education spoon feeding their students in the same way. I believe that for our educational system to ever get on the right track, some of us need to break away from this mode of operation and re-invent our methods, re-think our goals, and modify the process.

So, what do YOU think?

Gabriel Orozco discusses his SAMURAI TREE...

2010-11-30T08:16:00.000-08:00

GO TO YOUTUBE, TYPE IN GABRIEL OROZCO, AND ENJOY MANY DISCUSSIONS AND EXAMPLES OF HIS WONDERFUL ARTISTIC EXPRESSION.

Celebrating Variety in artistic expression...Gabriel Orozco

2010-11-29T20:24:00.000-08:00

"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions"

Claude Levi-Strauss

I'm beginning the post today with a short, two minute video I made last December in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit was by an artist named Gabriel Orozco. This little segment was a monitor set up with a series of designs that had only a slight change to each design, that of color.

As you will see, a lot of change takes place in a design with a small color alteration. I showed this video today to my classes following a 15 minute film on Orozco documenting his work and artistic attitude.

More on him and the film after the video. Enjoy

The movie we watched on Gabriel Orozco was very interesting. He works in a wide variety of media.
He started out just walking around shooting pictures of interesting anomalies in his environment, such as cracks in the sidewalk, niches in walls, potholes, and "accidents" in the street. He got up next to a dumpster and discussed the need to "get intimate" with things around him. His wife discussed his placing items in the grocery out of context making them more interesting...box of cereal on fruit scale, potatoes sitting on writing tablets, and cat food sitting on watermelons. The kids got a kick out of that.
We watched the movie, took notes, and I had the students share with one another their favorite part of the presentation. Following is a series of 4 photos as I zoomed in on the designs shown in the video that hung on all four walls of another room in the gallery from floor to ceiling. Each design is about
9" X 12" in size.

"Pre-Holiday break" prep and lesson outline

2010-11-18T21:39:00.000-08:00

"Do not ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Howard Thurman

As you may have read in the last post from New York City, I spent 5 days visiting my daughter and grand-daughter there last week end till yesterday. Had a wonderful time.

Left the classroom chores to a substitute teacher who adequately took charge and it seems as though all the classes went very well. She commented on the program and was very impressed, asking to by contacted if in the future I might require an absence. Duly noted. I asked my 3rd period class, whose judgement I trust in such matters, if they would like to have her return. A resounding YES was sounded. Very encouraging.

A couple of interestingly good pieces of information came to my attention today. One of my students asked me about a particular grade he will be receiving. I said that since he hadn't received his report card as yet, how did he know? He said his mother had a computer site she could go to and see how he was doing in all his classes. How cool is that? I knew that this thing was in the works, but didn't know it was already possible. Great news! The other bit of info had to do with a comment made on this blog about a video. I posted one recently which had a brief scan of a couple students finishing up their projects. A blog follower, who had posted comments in the past, commented on this one in such a way that I suspected that it might be one of the parents of one of my students. I asked this student about it today and he told me it was actually him. Now I know there are two connections to this blog...one parent and one student. I find that extremely encouraging.

I received a note from the teacher I share my classroom with today. He told me that someone from one of my classes had stolen an airbrush from one of his students' lockers. Of course it had to happen when I wasn't there, as if that would have made any difference. When I told my first period class about it and told them how disappointed I was to hear it, one of my students came up and shared with me that a fellow student in another class had shown her the airbrush last period on Tuesday. One contact led to another and potentially the student will get her airbrush back tomorrow. I suspect the very same student of stealing my ipod touch earlier, but chances are pretty slim he would cop to that also. But I AM very glad about the student's property.

Next week we are off for THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY all week. I am posting this little note along with this cycle's lesson on VALUE and EMPHASIS. When I get back and classes start up again, I'll again start posting activities to this blog. Till then, HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Ferry thnking...

2010-11-14T19:56:00.000-08:00

"Use what talent you possess - the woods would be very silent

if no birds sang except those that sang best."

Henry Van Dyke

Just sending in another post while I'm here in New York City for the next few days. Having a wonderful visit with daughter, Kateri and granddaughter, Mathilde. The weather has been perfect for the middle of November. We took an evening ride on the Staten Island Ferry yesterday, watching the lights of Manhatten getting closer as we stood on the open deck in front. The video is going out and past the Statue of Liberty at sunset.

As we walked from place to place yesterday, I had some time to ponder my program and think about a couple of students who I have had "talks" with about their attitude toward the class and their apparent lack of interest in what we're doing. I'm told that if I'm even reaching half of the students with this type of approach, I am succeeding; and if some are not "getting it", but are still learning about art, so be it. I don't disagree with the logic. After all, this idea of self governing their learning is new to all the students. So there is bound to be a couple that just wouldn't be interested no matter what approach I used to teach them. But it DID make me think through the way in which I have approached the lessons and the projects themselves.

I may have been so intent on not influencing the students to do things a certain way so that ANY idea was THEIR idea that I didn't adequately prepare them with enough background first before I expected them to make informed choices. The demos that I did were cursory enough, I felt, to whet their appetites without steering them in any one direction. I was hoping that they would be curious enough to glean information out of the texts, the art books and magazines, and the other sources of information, i.e., websites, etc. that THAT ALONE would be the impetus for them to proceed with a personally motivated direction. I'm happy to say that this IS true for most, so, again, perhaps this will come and I need only to be patient.

Since I'm not necessarily a patient person, however, I believe this cycle I will intentionally show the students some more elaborate video footage and demonstrations that some may go ahead and decide to try out if they have less curiosity than the others. I guess I can still consider it "self directed" if it's what they want to do, regardless if it wasn't altogether their own idea. They will still have the options of media choice and expression and size choices and length of time to work on it. This IS a journey, as it were, so I suppose small little ventures off the main road of travel might be in order. Of course, what I'm hoping for is that ALL of my students find the class not only interesting, but are able to find what they personally are doing to be interesting enough for them so they end up with a feeling of accomplishment.

90 Slides of Shape and Rhythm

2010-11-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed"
Napoleon Hill

I finished up the cycle a class period early so that I could get grades into the computer by Friday. I'm flying out to New York for a few days and so needed the last day of the cycle to introduce the next lesson. I wanted the students to have the information they needed to proceed without my supervision as they begin the next lesson.

This time I had the students leave their work out for me to photograph. I'll return it to them Friday. Some will want their work displayed. Others will want to take it home. This gives me an opportunity to share with followers and casual visitors to this blog a wide cross section of work stemming from a simple lesson in Shape and Rhythm and Movement. I was very pleased with not only the work evidenced here, but also the connection/engagement the students had toward their individual work. I even shot pictures of some work still not finished.

I added a little Charles Mingus music to the slide show. It's only a little longer than 5 minutes. I hope you find it interesting. Enjoy.

To the untrained ear

2010-11-08T21:59:00.000-08:00

"Kids' views are often just as valid as the teachers'. The best teachers are the ones that know that"

Morley Safer

Sue and I were at a party last Saturday night hosted by one of the artist participants in the White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour. The folks invited were, like ourselves, other artists on the tour. It gave us a chance to get to know other folks on the tour a little better. At the end of the evening, with just a few of us "hangers on" still talking, I happen to bring up my newly founded art curriculum. One of the artists, who is an art teacher at a Community College and teaches Art Appreciation, first asked if these students were "special", meaning advanced in age and ability. I assured her that my students were just your average, mostly 9th graders, high school students in an inner city school district. No matter what I said, or how I said it, there was the distinct feeling that what I was describing just couldn't work..."they all just do 'hearts'?...surely there are a bunch that you really have to 'sit on'? The reason I bring this up today is that each time I find myself describing this program, I feel a little more convinced that it is the right thing to do, because the arguments against it just don't hold water. In the end I gave them the name of Dan Pink's book DRIVE and told them they needed to read it in order to fully understand the validity of my program. We left it at that. I will be interested to see the next time I see them whether they took my advice. Hope so.

I'm uploading a video I did today of a couple of students working on their art projects. One was in the throes of finishing his and the other is about in the middle. He had spent an inordinate amount of time in the planning stages of his design. Wonderful! Also, here is a picture of Juan's finished work.

Today during first period, a student brought his painting up to me and exclaimed "this is art"..."do YOU think THIS is ART?" I looked at the work and back at him. I said, you know, to the untrained ear all random sounds are considered music. A baby will coo and smile at the strangest combinations of sounds...and colors. Does that make them music? I told him that his painting would become art to him REALLY when he was at a point where he could see it and describe it in artistic language. When he could explain how he felt about the painting at an emotional level as well as discuss its merits on a design level; describing it, for instance, in terms of Shape and Rhythm and Movement. Until then, to him, it probably would be just a piece of paper with some shapes and splashed on watercolor paint that somehow filled up space on a surface. I'm not sure how long I have thought about art in this way and if anyone out there reading this blog would like to enter into a conversation about the way I discussed this with this student, feel free to comment on this post. I will definitely enter into a conversation with you and hopefully come to a richer understanding of this so personal a perspective on what art is.

Perspective, Slinkies, and Triangles

2010-11-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

"Art is an accurate statement of the time in which it was made"

Robert Mapplethorpe

As we wind down toward the end of this cycle and the study of SHAPE and RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT I want to simply post some of the student's artwork now that some of it is finished.

I'm going to allow them to be posted large so you can see each one more clearly. Enjoy:

This first one is done in Colored Pencil and measures 18 X 24.

This 2nd one is done in Vine Charcoal and measures 18 x 18.

This 3rd composition is done in Colored Pencil and Ebony Pencil and measures 12 X 18.

One of our two display cases. Just look at the diversity of these students' works.

The other display case and even more diversity.

A couple of my students have indicated they want to present a lesson to the class in lieu of the cycle test. I hope to post those videos next week along with some more final projects. Thanks for viewing.

..."but you can't make him drink"

2010-11-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

"The harder you work, the luckier you get"

Gary Player

I wanted the students today to once again take stock of their goals and where they were in the accomplishment of them. We looked at our logs from Monday of last week and wrote down in our logs what we did since then to further the goals we established.

A few of the students finished their works today and we hung a few in the hall display cabinets. I told them that they weren't REALLY "finished" like they would have been in a "normal" art curriculum. We still have 4 class days after today till the end of this cycle and the lesson. I reminded them of the test grading on Monday and to be sure and have that work completed. I also encouraged them to look through the source material, i.e. the books on the counter and the art magazines in the cabinet to see if anything they see their might inspire them to do anything further on their art work. I also said that if they should be inspired to work on any other project in the time they had left, that I would get them all the materials they would nee to do it, even if if didn't have any direct relation to the current lesson.

I will have to admit to the need to remind students about how I feel about their behavior in class. As much freedom of choice as I want them to have, I simply haven't the ability ( or the laissez faire attitude) to allow too much slacking off. I want them to develop self-discioline, to set and accomplish self directed goals, and to achieve greatness. I told them saying, "you can lead a horse to water, etc."and said, BUT you can isolate the horses who keep the others from drinking. So I re-located a couple of students to see if their new working areas were more conducive to everyone's benefit.

I have been sort of fascinated with the progression of this composition since Natalie began it. I have taken a few pictures of it as she has moved along and posted a couple on the blog. We have it hanging in the hall display case at present. I'm sorry I didn't close the door to the office and drown out the sounds of the class during this short video, but I think enough of what she said is plain enough.

Choices, Choices, Choices

2010-11-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

How important is it to allow freedom to choose? Today Sue and I were driving out to see a friend who needed to be hospitalized last night. We were discussing "what was the right thing for her to do in regard to her mother's visit this week. It made me think, oddly enough, of all the times through all the years I have taught when I didn't give my students the right to choose, ANYTHING.

I always thought of the "art of teaching" and "teaching art" as somewhat synonymous. I would get an idea of how to get across a concept to my students by having them create this "wonderful" work of art.
I looked around me at how other art teachers operated. I saw "worksheets" filled with value charts, color wheels, coloring book pictures fill in the spaces with value, and other time wasters. So learning by creating nice works of art seemed not only legitimate, but preferable to the alternatives.
Most of the time it just started with a simple idea and I would take them through the lesson one step at a time. They would ask, "do you have any examples of how this is going to turn out?" I would say, no, just trust me, it will be really cool. It was because most of the time I hadn't worked out in my mind how it WAS going to turn out. I thought of that as the "art of teaching" and justified it as such. So really I was creating art through my students. I thought that was a pretty creative thing to do. Some of the students did better at following directions, having hand/eye skills, could use the tools more effectively, and were well disciplined enough that their works came out REALLY nice. I gave them high grades. At the other end of the scale were students who didn't pay any attention to the directions, messed up their papers by going a different direction entirely, and weren't interested enough in the assignment to care about finishing it. They received lower grades. To be fair to myself (and why not?), a lot of my students did like what they accomplished, took the works home and framed them, and told me years later how much they enjoyed my class and that they still had those works and were proud of them.

So now I look at the works my students are doing with this new idea of ALL CHOICE EVERYTHING and look back at examples of art from my old way of teaching. Are these better? Are these more sophisticated, professional looking, mature, or creative? Should they be? Will observers of my displays comment that my former students work was better?

My answer is that students need to be appreciated for who they are and where they are in the scheme of learning. I have high expectations of my students and encourage them to do their level best. What I DON'T expect of them NOW is to perform at some professional level. What I am seeing from the finished work is pure individual performance. No direction following, teacher suck up, play to the audience works of art here. Will people look at my displays of art NOW and pat ME on the back? Ask me if I care. I'm not even sure how many of the works will actually be displayed because I have given the students the choice to display or take them home when they are finished.

As I continue this journey through Art Teaching 2.0, I want to take time now and then to reveal who I am...good, bad, and ugly. I've touched a lot of lives in the last 40 years of being in the classroom. I know for a fact that the ones I touch in the future will be a lot better off from making their own choices.

Lessons 1 and 2

2010-10-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween...I decided today to post a couple of lessons I originally posted at the other blog site. Originally I wanted to put those "logistical" elements somewhere else to keep this blog focussed on the actions of the day. I think that some who have read this blog may want to actually see HERE what I have asked the students to concentrate on during the cycle. So today the blog will consist of the first two lessons posted here.

The first lesson was very successful in that the students seemed to enjoy getting out their still life objects, setting them up into their own compositions, and then drawing from them. I had never given students this flexibility before...always deciding what objects, how and where they were to be placed, and requiring each student to draw the same setup. I justified it by knowing they each had their own perspective and each work would be different in that way...even though they would all be using the same size paper, drawn the same direction, and using the same media for the same length of time. When I decided the time was up, the work was "finished" and the setup came down and we moved on. Oh, do I like this way SO much better. Here is the current lesson on Space/Rhythm and Movement.

One thing I did differently this cycle is dealing with the test. I gave the students a test/guide question sheet on each of the concepts and asked them to fill them out as they read. After reading their first "self tests", I thought that they might need a little help figuring out what might be important information to remember about the lesson. We will see how that works out next week.

"And the students have spoken"

2010-10-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to talk to the issue of GRADES today while 2nd periiod was at lunch...my ramblings..

"Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next".

Jonas Salk

I had a great talk with my daughter, Kateri, last evening about this blog. She brought a couple of things to my attention and suggested a couple of things that I found insightful and interesting. I'm planning to incorporate some of her thoughts and ideas into my future blogs. I believe you will enjoy them as much as I will.

Kateri said she would really like to hear from the students how "things are going" with this new type of class we're doing. You know, I have never bothered to ask my students how they felt about what we did. I don't know but what I must have thought that if they weren't enjoying my class they would let me know and just left it at that. But today I decided to ask. I said, "write me a few sentences that lets me know how you felt at the beginning, in the middle, and now that we are nearing the end how you feel/felt about this lesson. As I read their comments, I was BLOWN AWAY by their responses. I'm going to scan some in and post them to this and some subsequent posts. I also plan to continue using this format to elicit this kind of response throughout the year.

As you can see, the students sound as though they are enjoying the lesson and having a feeling of real accomplishment out of creating their artwork. I couldn't be more pleased. Perhaps I'll include one of these notes in each of my blogs for the rest of the lesson. In the meanwhile, I did take some pictures today of a couple of works that are finished or very close.

Don't Just Sit There...

2010-10-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

I found this "quote" in a blog titled Thriving Too, which was one of the Daniel Pink's blogroll blogs. I felt that it spoke to my concern for the process of creativity, which demands a certain amount of discipline. I realize that most of the students "get it" and are engaged in their work. I felt that at this point in the cycle, they all needed to be encouraged to analyze their work to this point and ask themselves honestly if they have spent enough time on it, or whether they have investigated alternatives to making their work better. I reminded them, for example, of a short video and demo using colored pencils. Some of them have used them as they might have used "map colors" in the elementary grades, coloring in a map lightly. The video and demo addressed the use of the colored pencil by shading and glazing using a variety of colors on top of one another. I also pointed out an alternative to finishing their crayon work, using watercolor resist. From their reaction and work during the period, I think I was able to motivate them all in some way.

Speaking of getting in gear and doing something. My daughter, Angela, suggested that I embed a counter which will tell me how many "hits" I have on this blog. I was saying that I don't get many comments and can't tell how many people are actually paying any attention to what I'm doing. Not that it matters, since this is, after all, mostly for my benefit. But since I was curious, I did find a way to do that. So over on the right, you wll see the number of times someone has stopped by to take a look. I think most of them are probably me, since I look in every day to see if anyone left a comment. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, Ang.

I'm going to post this from my computer at school and then add some photos later from my home computer. If you are looking at it now, come back later to view some great student work in progress.

Learning to Like Learning

2010-10-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary"

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone"

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness"

Pablo Picasso (born this day 1881)

Over the weekend I had lunch with a friend, Bill Morgan. Bill is a founding partner in a large accounting firm in Dallas. In a discussion about this curriculum, Bill shared with me how he learned to like asparagus. His mother required Bill and his brothers to at least eat one at the meal. His brother liked it, so Bill would sneak his onto his brother's plate. One day he decided if his brother liked it, maybe there was something about it he might like. He cut off a tiny part, put it into his mouth, concentrated on the flavor, and found that, indeed, the taste was quite good. Now it is his favorite veggie. Later in life, after completing his college degree in accounting, Bill found that he intensely disliked BEING an accountant. He finally decided that he needed to apply the same philosophy he used to learn to like asparagus. He put away his watch, totally focussed on the problem in front of him, and got caught up in the "process" of solving the problem. He found the time going by without notice and that he had actually learned to love the process of accounting. From that day onward, his motivation became totally INTRINSIC as he proceeded to attempt to MASTER the art of accounting for the GREATER GOOD of his clients. I told my students Bill's story today at the beginning of class. I also told them of something I participated in concerning DANIEL PINK and his posting of each of our "sentences".

In his book, DRIVE, Dan describes what he calls our SENTENCE. Describing in one sentence one most important thing for which we would like to be remembered. He has asked us to video a response to this question and email it to him at dhp@danpink.com. I sent mine in last week. I said, "I hope I have instilled in my students a lifelong desire to learn about art". When I talked to my students today and relayed this to them I said that if I would change it I would stop at "learn". I told them about Henri Matisse, whose last words were, "I wish I could have drawn better".

In applying today's lesson to the overall goal of this curriculum, I told the students that they could take this attitude about learning and apply it to all of their classes. It's the ACT OF LEARNING that is important, not necessarily the subject being learned. If they can learn about art, even though they don't like art, they will have accomplished more than if they actually liked art to start with. They can then apply this attitude toward all their classes...math...language...history...science. Priding themselves on the fact that they learned something will become THE MOST IMPORTANT ACCOMPLISHEMENT they will take with them from their years in school. That feeling will carry them successfully through life.

Now, for you visual readers, I will share a few more photos of works in progress. I hope you enjoy them.

Mid-Cycle Grade reports

2010-10-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

"Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself"

"We only think when we are confronted with problems"

"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes."

John Dewey (born yesterday, 1859)

Among other necessities, we averaged our SELF GRADING forms for the last 5 classroom days so the school can decide whether to send the students a notice of potential failure next week. Except for one student who has never been to class for the last 9 weeks, and one who comes but chooses not to participate, all of my students are doing quite well. The grades they give themselves aren't all that high, but they are all passing and seem to be enjoying what they are doing. What more could a teacher ask?

I'm not going to say much today. I'm going to let some of the students' ongoing art work speak for itself. They are now about half way through this cycle, so none of the big works are finished, but some of the smaller ones are, since they need to do more of them. Let's take a look.

As you can see, these works are definitely "in the process". I'm very encouraged when the students ask how they can improve their work and also when they listen to suggestions and act on them. I will post more next week and also updates as these get closer to and finally finished.

Working hard...or hardly working?

2010-10-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

"He was sent to school, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him"

Thomas Love Peacock (born this day, 1785)

Most of the students are working really hard and dedicated to doing a good job on their artwork. I find much more so than last cycle. That's encouraging. It still disturbs me when I have to keep at those students who haven't quite "gotten it". Probably my impatience. I have to remind myself that this IS a "whole new mind" and that for many it will take time to accept it as a way of learning.

I told them of an occurrence on Sunday evening when a few friends went to dinner. We got to talking about a young man who had been in our pottery class at the community college where we take a class together. It was recounted by one person that this young man had bemoaned the fact that his instructor was not interested in the "throwing on the wheel" process as much as the "hand building" methods of working in clay. So he didn't feel as though he was "learning" as much as he otherwise might, if the opposite were true. I didn't bring it up at the time, but in thinking about this situation, I discussed with my students that it was probably because he, like them and almost ALL students in today's education system, had been "spoon fed" his education up until now. The teacher told him what to do, how to do it, how large, in what media, what expression, and when it was due. He hadn't been taught how to think for himself. The world today is an "information rich" place with more avenues to find out what you want to learn than ever before in history. All that is missing is the DRIVE to make yourself go out and get it and not wait for someone else to hand it to you. THAT is what this year in THIS class is ALL about!!

I have no videos or photos to share today, but I promise that Thursday's blog will be rich with them. A number of students are just at the verge of finishing up one of their artworks, so I decided to wait and take pictures of them on Thursday. They will also be putting their grades into the computer on that day.

After the "PSAT" interruption

2010-10-15T14:17:00.001-07:00

"For Thanksgiving this year, I think we'll have flamingo"

George Carlin

Changing Education Paradigms This is a post on Youtube from a presentation on TED that fits right in with what this curriculum is all about. Derek Dibburn posted in on Facebook and I really appreciate his bringing this to my attention. So I'm passing it along.

Students were very busy today working on their chosen works of art. I discussed their work with a couple of students in my first period class and recorded it for you to see what they are up to. The first is a girl working on a composition of triangles. If you listen closely, you will see that her idea for choosing the shape came from her geometry class. Is that not a good sign? A little collaboration of core and elective classes? The link to Youtube is Geometric Shapes 1.

A couple of other students were working right next to the student doing the triangles. They were working on designs using circles. They had chosen charcoal as their media. Even though similar, the designs are each very different. One of them intends to finish hers with colored pencil. The link to this video is Geometric Shapes 2.

I titled this blog "after the psat interruption" because on Wednesday the students were all involved in yet another testing situation which disrupted their focus on the tasks at hand, i.e., learning. Since we had this 3 day span from Monday to Friday, I felt that they definitely needed to spend the bulk of time on their projects.

Tuesday night we had parent conferences. About 15 parents came by and I was able to discuss our curriculum with them. One parent was more interested than the others and wanted to know abut "extra credit" for her student. I said I hadn't factored that aspect in, but somehow it would be totally possible. After giving it some thought, I told my students today that ANYTHING they did at home that they could relate in some way to the lesson we were studying during that cycle would be allowable for extra credit. This would also apply to all work done in an artistic way for any other course they are taking. If they either bring it in or even take a picture of it with their phone and show me, we'll make a note of it and they can give themselves a little boost on their cycle grade. That parent, by the way, went to this blog, read it, and became a follower. Yeaaaaa! THAT'S why I'm taking the time to do this, by the way.

I was so encouraged by this fact that I came up with another (hopefully) motivational factor to encourage checking out the blog at home. I am going to prepare a dozen demonstration videos that I will post on Youtube and link from this blog. As an example, I'll demonstrate the use of plaster gauze in a figure sculpture. IF a student watches this and comes in and wants to do it, I will make sure he/she has what they need to work in this media. Each time I post a new video, I will tell the students about it (but not the subject) so they can go to the blog and check it out. I'll let you all know how that goes.

Gotta go and finish getting studio ready for the weekend White Rock Lake Artist Studio Tour starting tomorrow.

Presenting some idea suggestions for this lesson

2010-10-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams"

"You must do the things you think you cannot do"

Eleanor Roosevelt

Kind of a weird day at school today. The kids had last Friday off for Secondary Fair Day, so a long weekend. Right away we got into watching the videos I prepared just before school started with my iphone and tripod. I really liked the way they came together and the setup in the classroom was much better than when I did them at home in the studio. The light, the height of the desk area, and the availability of media was a lot easier to put it together.

The first one I showed was taken from the DRAW SQUAD book by Kintsler. I had shown them 1 point perspective and how they might employ it in their new lesson. This exercise uses what I call a "faux" perspective concept, where they are not concerned about any objects relating to any given point in space, just for the object to appear to be 3 dimensional and relate to the other shapes and forms in the design.FAUX PERSPECTIVE LINK

The second video presentation was using circles to create a "flowing rhythm" design using repetitive circles and the shapes created when two or more circles intersect. I used the left-over spools from the leather laces I used for the runners' finisher medals project I had just completed. I saw a lot of interest in this way of dealing with the lesson.cIRCLES VIDEO

The third video used the 3" squares we used last year in the motif repetition watercolor paintings we did when studying Rhythm and Movement. I used the squares similarly to the circles, except I used overlapping to make the shapes appear to be in front ot one another.SQUARES VIDEO

I discussed ways that they might think about finishing off designs of this type with the medial they had to choose from.

The classes got right to work incorporating the ideas I had presented on their idea sheets. Some even began using larger paper to play with the ideas. My third period class was interrupted by a "fire drill" which ended up to be just a water pipe burst at the construction site. Longest fire drill I have ever been a part of. We were outside for the better part of an hour. By the time we returned to the classroom, we barely had time to view the videos, discuss the ideas, and finish up with the grade sheets and log book entries. Too bad. Because of PSAT testing on Wednesday this week, we won't be back in class until Friday.

Parent conferences tonight (Tuesday). I hope that I get a lot of parents in to present the blog site to them for their perusal. I'd really like to get some feedback from some interested parents. Of course, I ALWAYS look forward to hearing any comments from those of you who have taken the time to follow this blog process. Thanks for your support. P.S. If you would like to comment more privately, you may drop me a line at jochumpottery.com also.

So Much to Do...So Little time

2010-10-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

"Putting off an easy thing makes it hard.Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible."

George Lorimer

A lot of paperwork and logistics needed to be handled today. I handed out the new set of forms necessary for this cycle's activities. The new grading rubric, the new daily grade log, and the new idea page for starters. Then I explained and handed out our new 6 week test format. I decided to try another tack on the one I originally set up. I didn't feel that enough core material was researched by the students by simply having them write their own questions and answers. This cycle I have given them a study guide for the unit on SHAPE and an actual test over the unit on RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT. Their goal will be to read about these two concepts and answer the questions. At the end of the cycle, I will have them turn them in and we'll grade them in class. It will be an "open book" test, as it were.

I gave them an alternative to doing this as well. They can choose to research a topic and give a 5 minute presentation to the the class on what they have researched. It can be simply a topic they are interested in or a demonstration of a media or technique they found interesting that they want to show to the class. I really hope that a few of them will opt to do this so I can video tape their presentation and post it on Youtube and link it to this blog.

I passed out the paper to the class that they will use this cycle. I told them that any paper they had left over from last cycle could be used to either complete projects from then or they could use it to expand their involvement in this cycle's lesson.

Some of the students spent the majority of class time today working on the test papers and reading the textbooks. A lot of them got started in earnest on their new ideas for this lesson. Some brought their first ideas up for me to look at and I am seeing some exciting things even at this stage. Next post I know I will be posting two or three of these works in progress. We have an "off" day on Friday this week for the Secondary Schools Fair Day. I'm going to try and prepare a coupe of video demos in the next few days to post. Other than that, like the fella says, "not much to write home about."

Cycle Two, we begin ANEW

2010-10-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.

Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)

I haven't used the overhead projector for a while. I decided that today I would demonstrate and discuss the concept of PERSPECTIVE with my students. We talked about EYE LEVEL, VANISHING POINT, and THREE DIMENSIONAL drawing. Since this cycle's lesson deals with SHAPES and the principle of design RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT, I chose to include drawing all kinds of shapes in one point perspective. I thought it might be kind of fun for some of the students who didn't pursue the still life assignment with enthusiasm. They appeared to enjoy the way in which the common GEOMETRIC shapes took on more interest when drawn in perspective, becoming forms.

Next we got out the ART TALK books and looked at the unit on Rhythm and Movement and I discussed with them the idea of "BEAT" and the concept of REGULAR and ALTERNATING RHYTHMIC patterns in music. As they looked through the chapter, I pointed out some of the ways artists use this principle in their paintings.

I told them that all their grades were in and that they could take their paintings home, bring them up to place in the hall display cabinets, or leave them to finish in their portfolios. A number of them brought up to hang and were quite excited about going out to see them hung. I've taken a picture of one of the displays and posted it here. I just love the variety of expressions, subjects, sizes, and media represented.

I did have a "bubble bursting moment" today, however. Nothing to do with the curriculum itself, but maybe the disappointment was more severe because of what I feel I'm providing for the students. I use an ipod shuffle to present movies and slide shows to my classes. Sometime during 2nd period today, one of the students stole it. The security guards were not able to find it among any of the students belongings. It held up their going to their next class and my 3rd period from coming in on time. As a result, today, my 3rd period was not privy to the same presentation of slides. We will need to do that on Wed. I hope by talking about the incident here that I'll be able to "get past" it and "let it go". In all the 40 years I have taught, this is the first incident of this kind that has ever happened. Maybe I should feel lucky. Right now I just feel betrayed.

Tomorrow we begin again...

2010-10-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.

Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863)

In Thursday's blog, I posted a link to Youtube and there you found a video I edited of three students discussing their artwork. When I recorded those snippets, I used my iphone camera. When I went to edit the footage in imovie, the software distorted three of the videos because I recorded them in a vertical format. I have since uploaded these three videos to Youtube and am listing their links here.

Student discussing her artwork 1

Student discussing her artwork 2

Student discusses her artwork 3

As with the other three videos, these students were not expecting to be called on to discuss their work on camera. I thought they did an outstanding job.

Tomorrow is the first day of next cycle. I will discuss with the students their options for what to do with their completed or incomplete art work from 1st cycle. I will tell them they can 1. Take it home today, or 2. Hang it in the hall display board, or 3. Leave it in their portfolio to complete whenever they have feee time to do so. I want THEM to make those decisions and it will be interesting to see what they are. I'll have them write about them in their blog tomorrow.

I will be handing out the new lesson for the cycle, which will be to study the element of art, SHAPE and the principle of design, RHYTHM AND MOVEMENT. We will be working with other subject matter than still life, but THAT will be an option.

Hope to post more video this week.

One more thing: I was extremely pleased on Saturday when I received a return email from Daniel Pink, author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND, two books which I read this summer and that provided the inspiration for me to develop this curriculum. If you interested in learning more about this idea of intrinsic motivation, please click on the following link. Dan Pink's website

Cycle One comes to rest today

2010-09-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

"Only the gentle are truly strong"

James Dean (who died today in 1955)

Student Video 93010

Today was the last day of the first school year's cycle (6 weeks) and grades are due next Tuesday. That typically means all physical work is finished and graded, all six weeks tests are given and graded, and all "paperwork" such as reports, etc. are to be turned in and graded. So the students were busy the entire period taking care of business, as it were.

I collected three pieces of paper from each student today. The first was the "ART SELF-EXAM" where they were to list 10 questions and 10 answers from their reading and research this cycle. Most had this finished. I'm not as happy with this portion of this curriculum, yet. I have told them it was to reflect what they had read in the textbook chapters on the subjects, not on their ability to copy definitions out of the glossary in the back. I may change this part for next cycle in some way.

The second paper was the completed RUBRIC they used to assess their grade on their completed art work. In this case, ALL were finished with this process and I felt that the results were surprising. A few of them gave themselves failing grades. The questions had them ask themselves whether they put anything of themselves into their project, whether they brought in any materials to complete it, whether they researched the lesson outside of class, among others.

The third paper was their daily grade log they keep each day on the activities they have dealt with that day. I have them average their grades in such things as to the completeness of their daily log, notes on demonstrations, notes on movies, and the progress of their art work. Again, in looking at them, I felt that the grades were very close to what I would have given them

Overall, I feel that the greater percentage of the students are doing well with monitoring their progress in all these areas and I think that I will not change much in this regard very soon.

Lastly, I encourage you to check out the video I posted on Youtube with a link at the top of the page. I had three students discuss briefly their art projects in terms of the lesson on LINE and BALANCE. With no more warning or preparation than come back here and talk about it, I felt they did very well.

Almost There...going down to the wire

2010-09-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

"In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind."

Louis Pasteur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htZKDlPsHI

The link above is to a new 2 plus minute video of my students on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010 during Period 2 working on their self prescribed art assignments that are due on Thursday. I wanted to show how diverse the choices students made were and how engaged they are in the process of creating their work.

I started the period out by having them write down in the their log books the goals they needed to accomplish this week having to do with their projects, their 6 week test, and their grade sheet rubric for evaluating this art work. At the end of the period I had them check off or comment on which goals they worked on and possibly accomplished.

I spoke with a couple of students suggesting alternative ways to enhance their drawings. They seemed to take the input positively and continue working to improve their work. Very gratifying.

I had to ask one student to speak with me in the hall. She has a good sense of design and has done some fine work, even after having been absent for 4 days. She has caught up and is moving forward. The problem is that she does like attention and she has found it in two other students. Unfortunately, because of the larger number of students in this class, (30), as opposed to 20 in my other two classes, there aren't spaces enough, far away from the other two enough to keep her from disturbing them and the rest of the class. When she is out of the room, everyone is focused on their work and the noise level goes down a whole lot. I talked to her a couple of times, but I'm afraid it just wasn't sinking in. We'll see what happens on Thursday when all is due. I'm posting a couple of pictures of work in progress. This first one is a student who is using her drawings of the small plastic colored boxes to draw four related 9 X 12 drawings using colored pencil and charcoal (a combination I wouldn't have suggested, but she tried and it seems to work for this drawing). THAT'S what I see as a real perk in this process. Students trying things an old hand like me might poo poo. Good for her! The smaller one is another adaptation of the boxes on 12 X 18 and so far, just in colored pencil. The last one in on the largest paper in pencil. This student has worked very focussed in #2 pencil. He drew the bone, then cut it out and repeatedly drew it in a radially balanced composition. Then we talked about how he might set off the positive and negative shapes with some dark to light shading. As you can see at the bottom left of the drawing he is "getting there" with the value gradations. He has a lot of space to cover with only a light pencil, but he seems to be ok with that.

I really like sharing these works as "in process" works because usually the only time people see works from my classes is when they are hanging on the hallway wall outside my room. As these works ARE finished, I will record them each cycle and post them in a slide show on youtube for all to enjoy.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog and if you have, leave a comment. Thanks for reading. Share with your friends.

Weekend Wonderings

2010-09-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sheldon Alan "Shel" Silverstein September 25, 1930
"All The Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
Layin' In The Sun,
Talkin' 'Bout The Things
They Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda Done...
But All Those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
All Ran Away And Hid
From One Little Did"

So one day I'm sitting in my classroom having my lunch...a special treat today because I have a couple of left-over devilled eggs from last nights pot luck at pottery class. There was my banana, as usual, waiting to be eaten with activia, and, of course my ruffles. Well, what else is a smart phone good for than to take a photo when the kodak moment presents itself. I emailed it to Sue and she got a mid-day chuckle out of it. I hope you get a mid-weekend chuckle out of it as well.
Today is Shel Silverstein's birthday and I just thought this quote from him was oh, so appropriate in light of what I'm trying to do with this curriculum; but ,also in terms of what I expect from my students in their quest for knowledge about art. The other day in class I observed a young man sitting and talking AT a few other students, who were also ignoring their work and paying full attention to what he was saying, which had nothing to do with art. I asked him if he knew what was meant by telekinesis. He said no. I explained to him that it meant being able to control physical objects with his mind. The ability to simply will, by concentration, something to move. I went on to explain that it was not possible in real life to do that, but, in the movies when it is portrayed as real, the person doing it is concentrating real hard on that task. So even if he sat there staring at his paper, his work would not get done, but by not paying ANY attention to it, there wasn't even the "fantasy" chance that it would. Besides, he was keeping others from doing their work.
As you can tell from that encounter with this student, I have the hardest time just saying "get busy", "stay on task", or any of a number of quick responses to "lack of engagement" with my students. Maybe I'm just antsy that this process will work and that eventually my students will "get it". I have to remember that they are so used to being told what to do, how to do it, when to turn it in, and what to remember from the experience that they aren't used to making all those choices themselves. That's what this is ALL about. This idea of deciding for oneself all of these aspects of learning.
Here's another quandary I experienced the other day. Here's a student whose still life objects were the little colored plastic boxes. He is given the option of composing an abstract expression. He chooses the largest format, 18 X 24. He chooses colored pencil as media. He draws 5 shapes of cubes in outline form only. He colors the lines in colored pencil. He sits there as finished. I look at it and see all kinds of options for him to "complete" his work, not the least of which would be to simply color in the boxes. I decided not to suggest any specific direction or alternative except to say I would encourage him to research further how other artists might have chosen to finish a work like this, and that to me it did need "finishing". He still has two full days before the end of the cycle to work on it. After I spoke with him, he just sat there staring at his paper for the rest of the period. I want him to WANT to do the best job he can and to WANT to feel proud of what he"s done. The quandary I have is how much external input into his intrinsic decisions should I exercise? If he is unwilling to "teach" himself, at what point do I decide what would be best for HIM? As I spell it out here, I think what I will do is discuss with him on Tuesday some options I would think about, show him some examples with a short demo, and then, if he still is not motivated to add to what he has, have him go through the GRADE RUBRIC and answer the questions in it. Perhaps be finishing that process, he might decide that perhaps there might be further actions he could take. If anyone out there has any other suggestions, please post in comments. Be assured I will look at them.
Well, thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy rambling. I hope you share this with others and that you become a follower of the blog and use the opportunity to comment. As I encounter future dilemmas in this process, I will try to be honest in the posting and share them with you.

Some Questions and some Answers

2010-09-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

"When did Kerry James Marshall start to want to create art?When he was in kidergarten looking at his teacher's scrapbook full of pictures"

Edeer Gautpm (student in 1st period)

Highly productive periods today. Checking on the student's progress, I determined that students are about equally divided when choosing the size of product they will finish. This is what I had hoped would be the case. I also was interested in seeing what they had chosen for media and subject matter and expression. Even though a few of them are doing the same thing as the person next to them, mostly I am seeing quite a variety of choices in each of these categories. Again, very encouraging.

ENGAGEMENT: I felt the need to speak to the students today about the need to focus on their work and not bother those around them with needless conversation. As I reminded them, this curriculum is totally unique and it calls for the students to "measure up" to the expectation of self-discipline. The last thing I want is to have to revert to teacher controlled learning. This first six weeks cycle is a test of whether this can work with these students. Right now I am seeing about 85% (just an arbitrary guess) of the students working to make it work. My goal is still 100% and I believe it can happen. Stay tuned.

TESTING: The students are writing their own 6 weeks test based on their notes and research. They have a form that is simply 10 numbered lines for their questions and answers. Today I wanted some feedback on where they were with this process. I had each of them submit one question/answer combo for me to check out. The quote today is from one of the students who asked a question from the notes he took on the movie we watched on the artist Kerry James Marshall. Some of others were:

Where and when did Expressionism develop as an art movement? End of 19th centurey Germany.

What are descriptive lines? Lines that help us understand what we are seeing.

What is dimension? The space an object takes up in one direction.

What do you need to create art? Imagination and Creativity.

What are two types of balance? Formal and Informal

These are just a few of the many and varied questions the students are asking and ansereing during this process. I am very encouraged at this point and look forward to seeing an even greater depth of questions when I read their tests next week.
The line drawing at left was one I couldn"t get uuploaded the other day. Here it is now next to the following days progress...shown to the right is a 12 X 18 charcoal composition by Jessica G. in 2nd period. Still unfinished, but looking good. She is using a piece of antler as her subject.

it is what it is

2010-09-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment"

Jim Rohn

Started off with an Art 21 movie on KERRY JAMES MARSHALL. This artist speaks eloquently on what it is to be an artist, what motivates him, how he decides on the EXPRESSION he uses, and what sort of unique ideas he comes up with as he continues being a "child".

I noted the comment to the students when he said something like, "a suspicion I have had comes to mind as I view these fabulous art works in a museum; that is, these works didn't come into existence by accident".

The students worked real hard getting a good start on their art works. I took a picture of one of the student's works in progress, but haven't been able to get the pic loaded up onto this blog site as yet. So this one is rather short and terribly uninteresting; but, like the fella says, iiwii.

Official "GOAL SETTING" day

2010-09-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

"The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it.

What is makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get"

Jim Rohn

We started out by watching a very short little video on The Art of Colored Pencil. The artist showed how the colored pencil is used in an overlaying fashion, as many as 12 different hues, to create some very realistic tones in a still life composition. I then discussed the proper way to sharpen the pencils and pointed out a couple of things in the video, like how the artist held the pencil when drawing lightly (from the end of the pencil).

The students filled in the form I developed (seen on my other blog site djochum2.blogspot.com) As I looked them over afterwards, I was pleased at the variety expressed. I can't wait to see how this manifests itself in the final products.

We spent some time cutting the student's paper into the desired sizes they will need to complete their goals.

Again, a lot of variety in sizes.

The rest of the period was spent working on drawings and developing compositions. One of the students beginning works on a 9 x 12 in ebony pencil is right here.

As you can see, it is only first day of working, but she has gotten a good start at what she perceives to be a cubism drawing of boxes.

Demos, Practice, and Havin' Fun

2010-09-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

"After a DISCUSSION on NON-VERBAL communication, a WRITTEN assignment was given?"

Last night in my home studio I created a couple of demonstration videos with my iphone. With the help of a new clamp, a tripod, a portable light, and a drawing surface I was able to put together a couple 5 minute

presentations on vine charcoal drawing, ebony pencil drawing, india ink painting, and a couple watercolor

techniques.

I posted the videos on Youtube, so if you want to check them out, the site for the Black/White media is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG4YPGVR3R8 and the site for the watercolor presentation is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBfmnn5jU-c. It is called Introduction to Watercolor.

I handed out charcoal sticks, kneaded erasers, ebony pencils, paint brushes, and watercolor sets without pigments. When they are ready to use the paints, they can set up whatever palette they choose by selecting

pads of color from a common tray.

The students spent the bulk of the period trying out the charcoal in drawing their still life objects and spending some time practicing with the ebony pencils. Some were still researching the EXPRESSION

categories. On Friday they will fill out the "My Goal is to" form where they will commit to a plan of

action. I will be posting that form on the related blog site djochum2.blogspot.com.

Discovering Impressionism, Expressionism, and Cubism

2010-09-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

"What is essential is invisible to the eye"

from the Little Prince

Another full day of learning, organizing, preparing, and just plain taking care of "bidness". This blog won't be very long because its mostly just a report on the "day to day" of my classes.

I went through the text "The Visual Experience" that is our current art textbook in Texas and jotted down all the pages listed in the index for the main EXPRESSIONS that the students will be choosing from in order to work on their particular assignment they give themselves. Other than REALISM, which is a little easier to understand and a concept which the students are familiar, I felt that they needed to familiarize themselves with the other choices before committing themselves to one of them.

The illustrations in the text concerned with IMPRESSIONISM had some nicely chosen ones by RENOIR.

It happens that I had brought in a couple of personal books on Renoir, so I felt good about having even further research material available for them later.

And so it went with EXPRESSIONISM as well. I had to point out that in this first cycle, since we are concerned with the STILL LIFE along with the other factors, that Abstract Expressionism will need to wait until a later cycle. Picasso and Braque were well represented in the discussion of CUBISM so I hope they gleaned some good information from that research.

I told them to keep in mind the test they will be preparing as they take their notes. Some later asked if they could give themselves a grade on the test portion for today if they wrote some down. Good things to hear.

I told them to not be satisfied with the cursory, obvious bits of information, but search out that meaningful piece of infor they think no one else would bother with. THAT'S what they'll take home!

Time For first GRADE entries

2010-09-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

"In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and the justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Today was a quite busy day in class. We started out watching two short videos titled WHAT IS ART?

I found them on Youtube and found them to be entertaining as well as informational...just the ticket for the captive audience of a high school class. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDo_vs3Aip4 for the Creature

Comforts version and to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZXOL-HUfWM for the more serious approach to the subject.

After taking notes on the videos in their log books, I distributed the 18 X 24 white drawing paper they will be using to create their studio art works. I demonstrated the use of the paper cutter and discussed with them the concept involved with using all the time they will have to complete the 1, 2, 4, or 8 finished artworks this grading period. They also received the same size newsprint paper to work out preliminary designs.

On Monday I will demonstrate the use of charcoal, colored pencil, and watercolor. I will also discuss ways in which to approach the idea of using their small sketches into larger compositions.

I was able to upload a very short video of a few students drawing from their chosen still life subjects into

a site called VIMEO. If you click on this link, http://vimeo.com/14818575 you will be able to view it.

Finally, the last item on the agenda was to average the grades students took on their work so far in class in the five categories and enter these into the computer. Except for a few, the grades were very close to ones I would have given them myself. I feel as though most are taking a very honest look at their involvement. I hope this is the case and it continues. I'll keep you all posted.

a BALANCING act...

2010-09-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

" If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens"

Grandma Moses

We started our classes today watching a 6 minute video on the Principle of Design, BALANCE. It was on youtube and I was able to bring it up through my 3G telephone connection and use my projector to view it on the big screen. Students took notes as the lesson involved seeing how balance is achieved with like and unlike shapes and sizes and how VISUAL BALANCE works when an object which is more interesting and draws out attention more strongly, is introduced to balance less interesting shapes. The discussion that followed included talk about the various subjects the students have to choose from and that some are more intrinsically interesting than others because of varied line within the forms themselves. For instance, the bones and the shoes are more interesting than the plain boxes.

I'm posting the "finished" example of the old shoe that I drew on the chalk board as I gave the demonstration on CONTOUR LINE drawing and how the students might try the "blind contour" in their practice on the small sheets of paper. I mentioned that they can deliberately "slow themselves down" by switching their drawing instrument to the hand they are not used to drawing with resulting in even a more accurate representation of the subject. A little "right" brain, "left" brain activity.

I try to use the chalkboard as little as possible, but in this case the students seemed to "get the picture"readily and I saw some apply the concept soon after.

GO!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

"The public is wonderfully tolerant, and forgives everything except genius"

Oscar Wilde

Today was definitely GO day. Students came in, got out their notebooks and art supplies, turned to last period's log, started a new log for today, just for starters.

I demonstrated the use of the india ink and dip pen they can use for their assignments. Pictured here, you can see I used the "idea drawing" form. The first box I wanted them to see how many lines you can draw with one dip of pen..we counted 21..the other squares represent other ways to use the pen to produce a variety of lines and value. I felt the students were very attentive and seemed to get something out of the demo.

The students then went to the cupboards and selected the first objects they are going to draw for this first lesson. They had the choice of drawing or research and back again as they wished. So some grabbed books, and some grabbed objects. Pictured below are two student drawings of two different objects done in contour line drawing style. The first here is a tonka truck. If your screen will allow an enlargement, check out the drawing itself. Very nice! The next one is of some bones. Again, nicely done. I keep telling them that my goal is get them to think for themselves. I am SO encouraged by the student's first day of actual creative activity.

Ready, Set,....

2010-09-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

"There's no heavier burden than a great potential"

So yesterday, Tuesday the 31st of August, I passed out folders, finished the movie "Why Man Creates", passed out 9 different forms for use in our new curriculum, discussed each form generally and had the students read them more closely, and wrote an entry into their log books. Whew!

I'm posting a few more forms on the other blog site, djochum2.blogspot.com, in case you want to check them out. Students spent about 20 minutes looking at the new art textbook, particularly Chapter 3 on LINE and Chapter 8, which deals with all the Principles of Design, including BALANCE. Their portfolios are finished and in their drawers, practice paper is ready, I handed out Ziplock freezer bags to keep art supplies in and distributed a pen and pencil to each to put in bag. I told them they may begin bringing in art supplies tomorrow, Thursday.

Saw a great little 2 minute video on Youtube Derek Dibbern showed me on Facebook. Just type in The Unsettling Truth About Life. Another affirmation of what I hope this class will provide, "a little dancing music".

Here's The Way Its Gonna Work

2010-08-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

"Don't take life too seriously...it doesn't last that long"

I will usually post forms on the other blog site djochum2.blogspot.com, but I thought, since this form outlines the WHAT and the HOW we will be working, I would post it here instead.

CLASSROOM LOGISTICS

Mr. Jochum

Skyline Center

A variety of Art Books and magazines are available on counters for student research

A variety of “Source Material” is located in binders on counters.

Still-life objects are located in various cupboards in the room.

Paper for “idea drawings” is located in bin on counter.

Students will keep on-going projects and idea drawings in a portfolio in end drawers.

Students will keep personal art materials in plastic bags/containers in cupboards.

All “public” media will be brought out as students’ needs warrant.

CYCLE (6 weeks) REQUIREMENTS

Students will produce 1 or more finished works of art during the cycle.

Student will receive one sheet of 18 X 24 Drawing Paper. Student may complete one work of art of this size OR cut the paper in 2, completing 2... 12 X 18 works, OR into 4 pieces, completing 4 ...9X12 works, OR in 8 pieces,... 6X9.

Students will keep a daily log in a spiral notebook, which will be graded 2X during the cycle. Neatness and Completeness will determine the grade.

Students will create a 6 week test using the form provided. This test will include both the questions (10) and the answers (10).

Students will turn in their Self-Directed Grade sheet with a final grade tallied.

TYPICAL CLASS PERIOD TIME ALLOTMENT

Demonstration of procedures and/or media...............10 minutes

Art 21 Videos and/or other video demos.................... 10 minutes

Student Self-Directed Curriculum (Studio Work).........60 minutes

Daily Log recording ( Recalling notes, diary of work)...10 minutes