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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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.