Roz's Blog
May 21, 2010
The Seeds You Have Sown
A friend recommended a book called Touching Eternity by Tom Barone. So, being the online shopper that I am, I promptly pulled up Amazon (which is at the top of my Favorites list) and ordered the book. It arrived yesterday and I've just started reading. The book is about a wonderful art teacher from North Carolina and what some of his students had to say about how he has affected their lives.
Touching Eternity made me start thinking about all the wonderful students that have passed through my classroom over the years. A few years ago one of my special boys, James, stopped by my house for a visit. He had majored in English in college and was, at that time, teaching English at the local technical college. He brought me some of the poems he was writing, and swore that it was the creative atmosphere of our art room that encouraged him to think about poetry. The poetry did not surprise me. He wrote one of his major works in my class. Jimmy, a student teacher who had become much more than a temporary visitor to our program, was killed in a freak auto accident. James wrote a beautiful elegy to Jimmy. To this day James's poem brings back memories of Jimmy and all the special things he did while working with me.
James did surprise me with news about some of the other people from our art program. He told me about Sam, who was always a strong designer. One of Sam's works that I remember to this day was the image of a cowboy with bowed legs about to shoot it out with a bad guy. The way he composed the image was so unique. I think he might have seen a similar image in an old movie poster, but he made it his own. All you saw of the hero was his bowlegs and part of his torso. This filled the entire page. Somehow he made me imagine the typical bandana and hat that should go with such an image. He had arched the curve of the cowboy's legs almost into a semicircle so that the tiny image of the bad guy was seen in the distance through the legs. I knew that Sam had studied horticulture in college to follow in his father's footsteps. But James told me that my cowboy painter was working on his Master's degree in Landscape Architecture. And pretty Hannah, whom I thought was teaching English, had changed her major to become an art teacher.
As a teacher you rarely get to find out what happened next. You hope that some seeds of creative thinking from your class have sprouted, but you rarely find out where the seeds you have sown will land. Have confidence that the seeds you've planted will bear fruit, and that art will always be a part of your students' lives.
March 3, 2010
Sound Management in the Art Studio
As soon as I moved from art-on-a-cart to my own art studio, I brought music into my classroom. Back in the early 1970s it was quite a production. There were no iPods or even CDs. I had some appropriate vinyl records and we pulled my areal wires out the window and up to the roof of the building so that I could pick up the classical music station from Savannah. Music enhanced the atmosphere of my classroom. Through trial and error I knew when to play music (while they were working) and when to turn it off. Students brought in their favorite albums, but I had the final say as to what could be played and what was not appropriate.
In the art studio, you focus most of your concentration on visual matters—looking at people and things—all day long. But have you ever taken a moment to stop and listen to the sounds around you? Since we are predominantly visual learners, we're sensitive to sounds at an unconscious level. An art room is never going to be silent. After all, we want creativity and brainstorming going on! But a loud cacophony isn't going to be very productive either. I call the ideal atmosphere an "enthusiastic murmur."
From the first day you must establish classroom procedures that clarify when students may talk and when it's time to listen. If you're lucky enough to have a space dedicated to critiques, when students go to sit on their "listening benches," they know talking stops and listening begins. If you don't have a special space, you could hang up a large poster to signal the start of listening time. A print of a Navajo storyteller with a circle of children around her might be appropriate, or for secondary students, a reproduction of Raphael's Plato and Aristotle lecturing in the School of Athens could indicate time to listen.
Along with the friendly conversations of your artists, background music can help create a satisfying work environment for art. A significant body of brain research shows that music stimulates brain function to make the connections for higher order thinking. Studies showed an increase in students' memory recall and emotional connection to the content when music was a part of the lesson. Music also promoted motivation, which increased success.
Have you seen the HBO movie about Temple Grandin, a person with high functioning autism? Among her many writings she has published a study showing that specific music could enhance how we think, reason, and create. Temple Grandin, Gordon Shaw, and Matthew Peterson described their study showing how specific music could expand the way we think, reason, and create. They used behavioral experiments to establish links, called the "Mozart effect," in which listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major enhanced spatial-temporal reasoning (Arts Education Policy Review, 1998, pp.11-14).
These researchers found that music stimulated the same structures in the brain used in spatial-temporal reasoning: "the ability to create, maintain, transform, and relate complex mental images even in the absence of external sensory input or feedback." If music and art can happen simultaneously inside the brain, it stands to reason that music and art can be a good combination in the studio.
The choice of music is important, though. A strong beat may take students off task, creating a distraction. Light classical or gentle soul music—something that stirs the mind without starting the feet tapping—makes a better atmosphere for art. Experimenting will reveal the best choices for your classroom. Secondary students may offer many helpful suggestions for music selections. Because this music is part of the art curriculum, however, the final choice of music is the teacher's decision.
Other sounds that you can share plentifully around the room are words of encouragement. As the Greek historian Xenophon said, "The sweetest of all sounds is praise."
References
Grandin, T., Shaw, G.L. and Peterson, M. (1998). Spatial-temporal versus language-analytic reasoning. "Art Education Policy Review", 99(6), 11-14.
December 13, 2009
Making the Best of Your Situation
It was September 1957 - my first month as an art teacher. I had found a teaching position at a school in Union City, New Jersey. I was teaching "art on a cart" to students in grades first through eighth in a three-story building. I had no idea what I was doing. I think I've told you before that I learned nothing about teaching in my art methods class. The art majors called it the "basket weaving" class, and they weren't far from the truth. All we did in art methods class was make stuff.
Anyhow, my students were going to create some sort of collage. I had loaded my cart with a gallon jar of library paste, scrap paper and tongue depressors (for applying the paste to paper), construction paper, and scissors. I had dragged the cart from my storage room on the second floor to the third floor and was standing in front of rows of desks that were nailed to the floor. I had helpers pass out the paper and paste. Luckily I decided to hold on to the scissors until I had finished introducing the lesson.
I was TELLING, not discussing, what we were going to do (I had not yet discovered how to get the students interested), when I noticed a piece of paper fly through the air. This piece of paper had weight to it because it was one of the scrap papers with white paste that I had just passed out. I was distracted but kept on talking, thinking that I should keep instructing the students who were interested. By this time, the paste paper had been returned through the air and more were aloft. At this point, it looked a little like an indoor snow storm – but I kept talking. I did not know any better. Luckily for me, the classroom teacher stepped back into the room and rescued me. She gave the students her "look" and they immediately calmed down. After all, she had to be in that room all day and did not want scrap paper pasted to her ceiling. She sat at her desk in the front of the room as I finished the very boring lesson. I was very lucky that she felt sorry for me.
When I discussed this problem later with my supervisor, she helped me to realize that you never talk to the class until everyone is listening. I also learned a second lesson from this incident: You can't introduce an art lesson if the students are not focused on your visuals. This is true whether you are discussing a reproduction or giving a technique demonstration.
I remembered that paste fight when I finally got my own art room, seven years later. The paste incident motivated me to construct benches for one corner of my art room. These benches helped me to be sure that everyone was sitting away from the art supplies and that everyone was watching and listening. Of course, I don't expect beginning teachers to buy lumber and build benches, but you can create improvised listening centers.
Young students can sit on carpet squares. Older students can move their chairs from their tables to specific places that you have marked on the floor. If you find yourself in a small classroom without much space, move the desks together to make one large worktable for the students to gather around. Cover this "worktable" with a large plastic tablecloth that you can take outside and hose off after use.
If you share a classroom with another art teacher, consider coordinating your curricula so that the visuals on the bulletin board support both of your topics. At times, you both may be able to use the same materials to save clean up and storage time.
If you travel between schools, request a lockable, storage cabinet at each location. Plastic tubs with snap-on lids are good for transporting supplies in your car. If you teach "a la carte", prepare for each school day as though you are preparing for a camping trip. Plan carefully every morning, so you have what you'll need for the day – plus a little extra. Organize your lessons so you can use reuse the same tools and supplies throughout the day. This will help reduce the amount of "stuff" you have to carry.
It always helps to know some supply shortcuts. If you can't stretch canvas for painting, find alternative surfaces. Cardboard tri-fold display boards, used for science and social studies projects, can be recycled into sturdy painting surfaces. Ask teachers in your school to save their old display boards. Cover these boards with a coat of gesso, or to save money, use white latex wall paint instead. Make acrylic paints last longer by mixing them with latex wall paint or tempera. During clay projects, gather extra pieces of clay and mix these scraps with water to make slip. To preserve the slip, add a few drops of rubbing alcohol and store in a plastic container with a snap-on lid.
These days, many art teachers are finding themselves in challenging situations. But, with a little creative thinking, you can make the best of any situation.
October 11, 2009
The Art World at My Fingertips
When I worked on the first edition of ArtTalk (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000 and 2005), we lived in a small college town in Southern Georgia. My access to the Contemporary art scene was limited to my personal library, a few books and magazines in the college library, and one large book from the National Gallery of Art that I found in the town library. Back then, in the 1980s, there was no Internet. The only digital technology at my disposal was my son's Commodore 64. He put it on my desk and hooked it up to a small TV for a monitor. The only software we had was a "cut and paste". That was a big step up from an electric typewriter for a hunt-and-peck typist.
All I had at my disposal to expand my list of artists beyond Cassatt, O'Keeffe, and a bunch of "dead white guys", was a car and a teenage son who was willing to help me drive on the long round trip to the University of Georgia library. For those of you who are not familiar with the geography of Georgia, it was a 300-mile trip over some long, winding back roads. I found some interesting books at UGA, and was able to expand my resources from four museum books to over twenty. (I just counted the museums listed in the first edition of ArtTalk. There were only twenty museums listed.)
Today, I can sit at my computer and access artists and museums from all over the world without ever leaving my office. Sometimes I find a work that is interesting in a current magazine. I Google the artist and search through his or her work. Sometimes I find the individual's Web page, and other times I am led to his or her art gallery. If the gallery is new to me I'll take my time to see what other artists are represented by that gallery.
Just the other day I found an interesting work of art on the Denver Museum of Art Web site. It had the flavor of Africa with a Western color scheme. I looked up the artist and found his Web site. I emailed him, set up a phone conference, and spoke with him. I was fascinated by his background. He was born in Nigeria, and went to art school in Ife. There, he was taught only Western art history. He told me that he did not learn about his country's rich visual history until he went to school in Maryland. He is currently teaching in Colorado. Needless to say, you will see his work in future editions of ArtTalk.
I can travel the world by wandering through the Web. I never know what surprises I will find.
June 1, 2009
Where are we going? How did we get here?
Before it ever had the name "art," people made it.
Prehistoric people painted and drew realistic animal images on the walls of caves.
People decorated their pots. They wove designs into their cloth. Why? We don't really know. Maybe they liked nice-looking things.
Before we knew the word "architecture," there were builders who created great structures. Temples and cathedrals and castles were built and fine objects were made to fill them. No one was an "artist." Creative people were guild members who started out as apprentices and learned their trades from master craftsmen.
Along came the Renaissance, when some artists were raised up to a high level. They were different from others. In Europe there grew a tradition of artists being different. Around the time of the Industrial Revolution, some elitists decided to divide the arts into fine and applied arts.
As they encountered various world cultures, some people from Western cultures assumed that non-Western peoples did not value their arts because their artworks were not signed. However, we have learned that the creators of certain works are known by name in their cultures. Every culture around the world values its creative people.
As we look back, we label the styles of Western Art as having been created in opposition to the style that came before. Modern art is the progression of one style developed from the previous one, until we reach the abstract expressionists and the minimalists. These artists reduced art to drips and splashes. The minimalists even took texture away and reduced art to pure color without any apparent meaning. Works were just shape and color to be enjoyed for what they were.
So, by the 1960s, art had nothing to say and nowhere to go.
Now we are suffering a big explosion of art, a "BIG BANG," which is loaded with meaning and not always created with traditional art skills. All the skills we admired in artists-such as accurate drawing, painting, sculpting, and printmaking-can now be accomplished with cameras, computers, and machines attached to computers.
Content is more important than the medium or the skill of using that medium properly.
That's the answer: CONTENT!
Artists have something to say and they are using many new and different combinations of media to express their messages. Instead of a few men in Paris at the turn of the last century, or a small group of people in New York at the end of World War Two, artists today are emerging from all over the world. With images available on the Internet, artists do not need to travel in order to study what other artists are doing. A painter in Nigeria can see what a painter in Los Angeles is doing. A potter in Ireland knows what potters in the South Pacific are doing. Northwest Coast Native American artists are using new media to create traditional works. Canadian artist Brian Jungen used Nike shoes to create images similar to Native American masks; British artist Andy Goldsworthy arranges organic objects into geometric designs; everyone and everything is influential. Artists speak to each other using the expressive language of visual images. The world of art no longer belongs to an elite few.
As you plan your curriculum for the next school year, think about where the world of art is going next. How you can help your students find their place in this world of art which belongs to everyone?
May 15, 2009
Appropriation Art
The issue concerning the line between appropriation art and plagiarism is coming to a classroom near you. A colleague described a problem that occurred last year during a national competition. A student from High School "X" submitted a photograph of a teen and won an award. At the award ceremony, students from High School "Y" recognized the photograph as one originally taken by a High School "Y" student and displayed on his Web page. The student from High School "X" appropriated the image and used Photoshop to alter the mouth and change the facial expression. The question is, was it right or wrong to do this? The student from High School "Y" who had taken this photo had not copyrighted the image. His work was in the public domain.
It's difficult for students to recognize plagiarism these days. They're surrounded by visual assemblages of all kinds. Bricolage, art made by assembling found materials, is an art form displayed everywhere from print ads to art galleries. Technology has made it easier to download someone else's image than to create your own. What can we teach students about plagiarism and copyright infringement in this hybrid-filled world?
According to the U. S. Copyright Office Web site, http://www.copyright.gov/, the American copyright law of 1978 states that the original artwork and all reproduction rights belong to the creator unless they are transferred in writing. The artwork and reproduction rights may be transferred together or separately. Notice of the artist's ownership may be placed on the work by adding the symbol © followed by the artist's name. For further protection, the image may be registered with the U.S. government copyright office, but the artist still owns the work and the rights even if it is not registered.
Students should realize that photographs, cartoon characters, and other images found on the Internet are the intellectual property of the original artists, and should not be used without permission. Copying photographs from magazines or the Internet, or including another artist's characters or images in one's artwork, are copyright infringement. Copying someone else's pictures may be useful for personal practice in drawing technique or color exercises. Copied images should not, however, appear in art shows or portfolios.
When a student is preparing a portfolio for college admission, it is important to choose the most creative and original works. "You should not submit work copied from film, television, photographs, magazine/book illustrations, or other sources," advises Erin Bennett Banks, Director of Recruitment at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. "If you do rely on reference material for media such as collage or other works inspired by pop culture, be sure to change the image enough that it demonstrates your own personal vision and does not violate the original artist's rights. You may even need to 'give credit where credit is due' in these types of gray areas."
A portfolio should reflect a broad range of skills, including the ability to choose interesting content. "We strongly encourage students to focus on foundation skills in particular, such as drawing, composition, values, technique, color perception, conceptual awareness, aesthetic awareness, and presentation quality," Ms. Banks points out. "In addition to a stronger overall representation, striving for originality will challenge and improve your skills as an artist. There is no comparison to the act of drawing from life and demonstrating technique through traditional means."
Choosing work for an art exhibit requires the same care as selecting portfolio pieces. Artwork to be seen in public should be the student's most original work. As one of my colleagues tells her students, "The world has already seen these Internet images. We're waiting to see your unique viewpoint!"
April 15, 2009
Grades in Studio Classes
I attended Hunter College in New York City in the early 1950s. Many of my professors were struggling Abstract Expressionists trying to earn enough to support themselves until they made it big. One in particular hated teaching because it kept him away from his studio. His assignments were as vague as, "Do something with a map." When I think about it now, I wonder if this had anything to do with the works of Jasper Johns, but back then I had no idea what he was talking about. The professors never said a word to us about Abstract Expressionism. It was their big secret and they were not going to let us know about it.
Most days this particular professor did not come to the studio when we were painting. Though if he did, he walked around the room making innocuous sounds, like "Hmmmm!" going down the scale, and then "Hmmmm?" going up the scale. Occasionally he uttered an "Uh-huh," or an "Uh-uh." Real words were scarce. He never voiced any for my ears. So when it came to grades in those studio classes, we just did not know what to expect. We had been given no specific directions and we were never told how our work was judged.
After that experience, I believed students should always know how they were being graded. So when I became an art teacher, I worked out a grading system in which I would tell the students what I wanted them to learn from each project, and post those concepts on a bulletin board. When the projects were finished, I would sort them into piles depending on how well the artwork exhibited understanding of the concepts: the "A" pile, the "B" pile, the "C" pile, and so on. For a long time, I never told anyone about my grading method; because I thought it was "illegal!"
One day I learned that my method had a name—rubrics—and that it was a perfectly legal, even preferred method of assessing student work. A rubric is a framework for grading an art project or a portfolio using criteria to describe levels of accomplishment. Two kinds of rubrics are commonly used in art. A holistic rubric provides rankings, such as:
- shows minimal growth
- shows some growth
- shows outstanding growth
The other type of rubric is an analytic rubric. This kind lists specific features that must be present. For example, in a comic strip project, the rubric might call for the use of specific cartooning techniques. Under "Techniques," the rubric may list the following:
- Needs Work, 0-1 point: Missing one or more cartooning techniques.
- Satisfactory, 2-3 points: All techniques are visible in the comic strip.
- Strong, 4-5 points: All techniques are visible and extensions of the lesson are included; techniques are used imaginatively.
The rubric should always be familiar to the students. It should be posted or provided on a handout when students begin work on their projects. Students should refer to the rubric as they work and be able to talk or write about how their piece meets the criteria set in the rubric.
Rubrics have been used in art classes for many years. It's interesting to see that after all this time, teachers in the core classes are now being encouraged to use rubrics to assess student work. Grading is beginning to open up and is moving away from narrow multiple-choice tests toward the wider view of rubrics. Rubrics put more quality control into the hands of students. Rubrics are also changeable and adaptable to the needs of the class. The rubric is a living type of assessment, one that gives a snapshot of the art class, what they're learning, and how they're growing as artists. And best of all, the student artist is no longer left in the dark about his or her grade!
March 15, 2009
Rough Times
Art teachers are having it rough. One friend has told me that she will have to give up her photography and computer graphic classes because she has to "make the numbers." Every teacher in the county will have to accommodate a minimum of 35 students per class. From all around I hear rumblings of supply budget cuts.
I've been through rough times before. NO, not in the 1930s—I'm not that old-but the 1970s were bad enough. It seemed like everything in my world was going wrong. The budget for my fledgling art program was down to less than fifty cents per student. I had run up an account at the local art store for supplies that my program needed and that I could not really afford. The two departments that had supported my program with fine art prints and other resource materials had informed me that I would get no funds from them the following year. Parent support was at a minimum; they saw no value in art. My high school boys were heading for Vietnam and they certainly didn't want to learn anything about art.
I wanted out. I wanted something different. I loved my students, but I was tired of fighting for recognition of my program.
I headed to the Southeastern Art Education Conference that year with the intention of looking for a new job. I didn't even want to teach any more. I was hoping I could connect with one of the supply companies so that I could get a job selling.
As I started to talk to teachers from all over the Southeast, I began to realize that things were bad all over. The more I listened, the more I realized what I did have. Needless to say, I went home to my world with a different attitude. I was ready to appreciate my job and make do with what I had.
Making do is nothing new for us; it's intrinsic to our craft. Artists at the time were salvaging, re-using, and creating with found objects long before anybody ever heard the word "recycle." Because multiple views come naturally to us, we can look around and find resources at hand to supplement our shrinking budgets. For example, altered book projects make good use of donated books. Use old magazines for visual journals and collages. Cut up discarded drawings and paintings to make mosaics or cut-paper art. Empty cardboard boxes can become sculptures or, when cut into flat pieces, acrylic painting boards.
When we're all in the same boat, things don't seem so impossible. Instead of sitting around complaining, we can take a friend and go scavenging. Visit a local frame shop and ask for "blanks," the centers cut from mats. Check out the local newspaper for a good deal on end rolls of newsprint. Clothes from your nearby thrift store can provide lace and satin fabrics, print fabrics, and interesting fiber textures.
We don't have to face the rough times alone. We can put our heads together and share ideas. Everyone has shortcuts and handy hints to contribute. Maybe you make collagraph printing plates from scraps of twine, rope, fabric, and other leftovers. Maybe you've discovered that cooking parchment from the grocery store makes economical tracing paper. Communicate with teachers at other schools to see if someone has a surplus of some material they'd like to trade.
We all hope the Arts are on the verge of a rebirth in schools. Regardless of what happens, art teachers have the creativity and resourcefulness to survive. As the old saying goes, "Tough times don't last, but tough people do!"
December 1, 2008
Teacher as Artist
Back in the late 1970s, my neighbor organized all the artists on Wendwood Drive to hold an open house "Studio Walk" in October. It was like a great big block party that hundreds of people visited. They parked their cars on one end of the street and just walked from one studio to the next. I hung all of my large batik paintings on the walls; but I also used to work like mad for a month or two before the studio walk making little batik paintings that I stretched on embroidery hoops and hung from the ceiling. (See examples.)
One school year I decided to pique my students' interest by telling them that a visiting artist was coming to our class. I hung some paintings and set up all of my dyes and my electric tjanting tools. When the students came into the room and sat on their listening benches I told them that the artist was going to do a demonstration for them. When it finally dawned on them that I was the artist, most of them were surprised. It was one thing for them to know that I had art skills, but it was amazing for them to think of me as a REAL ARTIST!
It's good for students to see us working on art. They need to see us solve artistic problems, since they are required to do the same with their projects. Sitting down at a table with the students is a good way to demonstrate how artists think through the design process. I liked to experiment with materials and encouraged students to take the techniques further. Teacher-made samples help students see the possibilities in each lesson.
Sometimes after a long day, we might wonder whether we are highly creative artists or just tired teachers. There's no doubt that teaching all day takes a lot of energy, and it's hard to find time to fit art-making into our day. A little guilt creeps into the back of our minds when we come home to that unfinished painting or the craft that never seems to progress. Yet, keeping up that creative momentum is as important to our health, well-being, and our lives as teaching artists.
I found ways to weave my own artwork into the week without having it become a chore. For example, I had a drawing in progress that I made additions to, a little at a time, in the evenings. I kept it on a drawing board so I could work sitting on the sofa or a comfortable chair. Some crafts also lent themselves to working in the living room while I watched television. I kept sketchbooks on the bedside table, the car, and even in the bathroom to capture ideas for future projects. And my small sketchbook went with me everywhere because I never knew when I might see something good to draw.
Banish the guilt. Remember that your entire life is artistic and your art comes through in everything you do, whether it's setting a nice table or making well-designed signs for your classroom. We may be creating an art piece or teaching someone else how to be creative, but whatever we're doing, we're constantly showing students how to live an artistic life twenty-four hours a day.
Examples of my batik paintings from the 1970s. The walls of my house used to be covered with them. I wish I had kept one of those cat batiks, which were based on sketches I made of Evie, my first pet.
Examples of my small batiks that I stretched on embroidery hoops and hung from the ceiling. These were always the first pieces that sold!
November 14, 2008
Artists as Forecasters
I've been wondering about artists and their ability to feel oncoming events. I wrote a paper in the 1960s about the relationship between Cubism's breaking up of space and the splitting of the atom. Similarly, in the last few years, I've been complaining to my friends how the art in Art News and Art in America was so ugly. It was dark, dull, and full of broken stuff-lots of trash art and pieces of broken wood is what I remember. I wonder if artists could feel what was coming? Could they tell that the world economy was going to collapse? Could they perceive how sad and frightened people would feel?
In 1970, U. S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin founded Earth Day. At first, few people participated. The public took the environment for granted; the prevailing view was that the earth was indestructible. That same year, artist Robert Smithson constructed Spiral Jetty, an earthwork sculpture of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, earth, and water on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Also in the early 1970s, Andy Goldsworthy launched his career as an environmental artist and continues to work with natural materials, such as leaves, rocks, and ice.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude began creating their environmental artworks in the late 1960s and continue their work today. Whether they hung a drape across a canyon, created a running fence that made us notice the shape of the land, or set up umbrellas on two continents, they forced us to become aware of the unique features of our surroundings. The artists were careful not to harm the things they wrapped, or the land they crossed. The Gates were freestanding and did not disturb Central Park. After they were removed, no one could tell they had been there. Christo and Jeanne-Claude recycled the materials they used. Nothing was ever thrown away. Part of their plan always included where the fabrics and materials would go and how they would be used. The duo's works express the fragile, ephemeral quality of our world. As Jeanne-Claude stated in an interview:
...we have love and tenderness for childhood because we know it will not last. We have love and tenderness for our own life because we know it will not last. That quality of love and tenderness, we wish to donate it, endow our work with it as an additional aesthetic quality. The fact that the work does not remain creates an urgency to see it. For instance, if someone were to tell you, 'Oh, look on the right, there is a rainbow.' You will never answer, 'I will look at it tomorrow.' (http://christojeanneclaude.net/eyeLevel.shtml)
These artists made us look at our surroundings with new eyes at a time when environmental awareness was just beginning. Artists were forecasters of a sea change in our outlook. I hope I'm right because, beginning this past September, my magazines have begun to make me feel better about the world of art—the colors in the ads appear brighter and the articles have more upbeat themes.
November 1, 2008
Interdisciplinary and Integrated Art
I was teaching interdisciplinary and integrated art before we ever had those terms in our curricular vocabulary. It is something so natural to the art teacher that we didn't need fancy titles to do it. Of course, I was working in a small Laboratory School where everyone knew everyone else, and I taught all the students from kindergarten through high school.
On my way to the art room in the morning I would stop and chat with the other teachers in the halls. They would let me know what they were going to be teaching and I knew I could modify my plans to reinforce their lessons. Kindergarten addressed patterns, so we created patterned designs on our pinch pots. First grade studied symmetry, so we made butterflies that had symmetrical designs and I still covered my existing plans to work with mixing red and yellow to make orange. Sixth grade was going to study the Stone Age in social studies, so I got out my chunks of colored earth and clay and borrowed mortars and pestles from the science lab so we could grind our own pigments and paint earth pigment paintings with them. The music teacher was planning a high school production of Oklahoma!, so I organized the high school art class to design and construct the scenery and costumes.
But today we live in a different world of "No Child Left Behind." It's a world of TESTS and more TESTS. A year or so ago my dear friend approached her high school's English department with a proposal that the art and English classes work together on writing and illustrating theme poems. The English teachers sadly declined. "We have no time for creative projects any more," they said. "All of our lessons must have test preparation objectives." There are so many restrictions now that no one can move out of their defined parameters.
Interdisciplinary and integrated learning refer to two ways of working together with other subjects. In an interdisciplinary approach, subjects areas remain distinct, but the curriculum is planned around "large concepts, themes, issues, problems, or questions that are meaningful to the lives of students and that are shared, or cross over subject or discipline areas" (Taylor et al., 20). My friend's poetry-illustration project is one example. An integrated curriculum also includes planning and teaching overarching themes, concepts, and issues; however, the subjects and disciplines are not separate. For example, a study of the art and culture of Mexico might show how "art" and "culture" overlap as areas that influence one another.
Interdisciplinary and integrated learning take students beyond collecting facts, toward inquiry, critical thinking, and understanding. Students connect and interpret knowledge and construct a richer picture of the topic. An interdisciplinary and integrated curriculum takes more collaborative planning and time to prepare, and therefore may be easier to organize at the elementary level where shared planning time is already a part of the schedule.
In middle and high schools, interdisciplinary and integrated art cannot be achieved casually. Support must come from the top administrative levels, with adequate planning, budget, and time provided. Teachers will need time in the school day to plan for the interdisciplinary or integrated art lesson. There may be opposition from subject area teachers who feel their territory is threatened by a non-traditional approach. Parents may have questions about the project. If classes will be combined, a larger space may be needed. A budget for supplies must be allotted. It's important that both building administrators and system administrators can articulate the value of interdisciplinary and integrated learning. With proper support, it is possible to organize a successful interdisciplinary or integrated art lesson. It's learning that moves us beyond testing toward collaborative exploration.
Reference:
Taylor, Pamela G., B. Stephen Carpenter, III, Christine Ballengee-Morris, and Billie Sessions. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Art in High School. Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association, 2006.
October 15, 2008
Making It Real
I always make a big fuss abut learning to read the credit line for a work of art. Well, this all started with James, a very serious and lonely boy who was having a lot of problems at home. It was around September 1986, and I was deep into finishing the book I'd been working on since 1975.
James was new to my gifted art class. He was a very religious boy and he wanted to create a painting of a crucifixion scene for his minister. I pulled some art books off my shelves for him to study. After going through the books, James explained that all of the paintings in the books I gave him were too pretty. He wanted to see how an artist created a crucifixion scene that expressed the pain and suffering of Christ as a man. (This all probably had something to do with the "pain and suffering" he was experiencing at home.)
I was perplexed for a while, and then I had an "ah-ha" moment. I rushed across the street to the college library during my planning period. (Yep, back in those days I could still "rush" with the aid of a cane.) I checked out a book about the works of Matthias Grunewald, a German Renaissance artist who ignored the realism of Renaissance Italy and stayed with the style of the late Medieval art of Central Europe. He believed in expression through distortion.
As James was leaving school that afternoon, I handed the book to him with only a quick comment that I was sure this would help. The next day he entered my art room eager to share his findings. As he opened the book for me to see, he said "Look! This artist not only painted the whole crucifixion scene, but he painted a separate little painting of the feet, another one of a hand, another of the head..." Well, here was something I had taken for granted! I assumed that I had explained to the class what a "detail" was.
And this is why I added the lesson "Decoding a Credit Line" to the very first edition of ArtTalk (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000 and 2005). We often assume students know things like what an artwork detail is, or what the other information in a credit line means. A discussion in art class, however, may be the first time they've ever thought about such information. Fortunately, there are many ways to make this knowledge real to the students.
When we talk about the date in the credit line, we explain that "c. 1200" or "ca. 1200" means "circa" or "approximately" the year 1200. A secular alternative to using "B.C." (Before Christ) and "A.D." (Anno Domini, Latin for "In the year of our Lord"), is to indicate dates before and after the year zero with the initials "B.C.E." (Before the Common Era) and "C.E." (Common Era). A hyphenated date of an artwork, for example "1992-1994," indicates that the artist worked on the piece for several years or made significant changes to it after it was apparently finished.
The medium of an artwork becomes real to students when they can touch it. Show the texture of a Van Gogh painting by demonstrating or allowing students to experiment with modeling paste, palette knives, and acrylic paints. Talk about or even make paints, such as the original recipe for tempera (pigment suspended in an egg yolk binder) or the precious ground stones used as pigment in some oil paints. Bring real materials into class, such as a piece of scrap wood or a baseball bat when looking at a Louise Nevelson sculpture or something made of stainless steel when looking at a David Smith work. This is a good time to talk about the tools and skills it takes to form these materials. Students are curious about how artists work with different materials on a large scale.
Measurements in a credit line are just numbers until you point out that the painting is the size of the classroom window, or the sculpture is as high as the doorway. To show scale, position a magazine cutout of a human figure next to an architectural photo or a photo of a large outdoor sculpture. Students understand that three-dimensional art is meant to be viewed from all sides when they visualize a form and then create it in modeling clay, or create "human sculptures" by posing with their classmates.
It would be wonderful if we could all go to museums and see the sizes and textures with our own eyes. Distance and fuel costs make that impossible for many art classes. But the credit line is packed with interesting information. With a little creativity, we can use this information to make the artwork real for our students.
October 1, 2008
Differentiated Instruction
One special needs student stands out in my memory. The same year that I started a program for gifted art students I was asked to mainstream a very special girl, Christine, who was severely disabled by Cerebral Palsy. She was confined to a wheel chair, her arm movements were difficult for her to control, her fingers were cramped, and she was deaf. But she had a will to participate and a shining smile that almost made you forget everything else. I placed her in my special class for gifted students because they met every day. Also, because they were such nice kids, I knew they would be kind to her. She came to my class with an aide who helped us all communicate with her. Christine could not sign, but she could understand sign language, she could read lips, and she could read. I would talk directly to her and her aide would sign.
We found out that Christine's 16th birthday was coming up during the second week of school, and we wanted to celebrate. One student, Jon, came up with an idea for a present—her portrait drawn by the class. When Christine showed up for class, her van was met outside by a row of students sitting with drawing boards on their laps. We stopped her chair lift and drew her in her wheelchair on the van lift. The boys especially enjoyed drawing the van.
This started a tradition in the class called "Birthday Drawing." Everyone in the class had to pose for figure drawing on his or her birthday. The model was allowed to choose what to wear and what props to use. We had everything from high fashion to football uniforms, with a smattering of comedians in between. I found it an easy way to improve everyone's observational drawing skills. And because no one wanted to insult their friends, they all did their best on "Birthday Drawing Day."
Jon's birthday drawing idea triggered differentiated learning through student interest. The students enthusiastically embraced a new approach based on their personal involvement with the portrait drawing. Differentiated learning encompasses the beginning level of each student, and moving him or her forward from that point. This means we need to understand how each student learns best and build on what they already know. Students with specific needs should have opportunities to develop certain skills. At the same time, all students should have the chance to showcase their strengths. Moreover, advanced students need higher level thinking activities with more complexity.
Besides student interest, differentiated learning in the art studio can be framed in other ways. One is by designing a unit with varying levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives). For example, a unit on Cubism might feature the following:
- Reading component with comprehension questions to be answered in writing
- Presentation to the class with an analysis of a Cubist artwork using the elements of art
- Synthesis project in which a Cubist collage is created in paper shapes
Students might work in pairs or groups, and activities may be arranged by complexity. As students gain skills, they should be allowed to move to more advanced groups.
Peer teaching is another differentiated learning technique that lends itself well to the art studio. A student who has learned a skill quickly can be named "resident expert" and can give one-on-one help to his or her classmates. The "expert" gains valuable practice and the other students benefit from dedicated assistance.
Learning centers can provide differentiated activities for students who have finished their assignments early or who have "in-between" time, such as those who are waiting for clay projects to dry. The learning center may offer short projects, such as sketching, or longer assignments. Themed projects relating to a class unit could be included. This is a great place to hook into student interests, such as fashion design or drawing motorcycles. Students can work at their own pace, but should always have productive work to do. It is important to include complete instructions and to provide ways for students to account for their time.
In the differentiated art studio, students of varying abilities and interests can find many paths to learning. Each day, students will discover ways to absorb, use, develop, and present ideas. In the process, they will take greater responsibility for their own learning and, like Christine and Jon in my class, find the joy of learning with their fellow artists.
September 24, 2008
The outlook for art careers is looking bright!
I was just looking at some sketches yesterday that made me think of my former student, Steve. I taught Steve from kindergarten on up. He was bright, and he could draw! He filled all of his papers with cartoons. The other teachers were frustrated by this, but I saw Steve's creative thinking and encouraged him. He wasn't copying cartoons; he was making up his own characters and stories. His mind was always jumping ahead with a "what if...." But this was a rural community in the early 1970s. There was no way for Steve to move forward and build a career with his skills.
The last time I saw Steve, he was driving a truck for the university's Plant Operations, hauling stuff around campus. How he would have thrived in a creative job if such an opportunity had existed for him!
When I look at some of the witty, vivacious art students I know, I want to see them in careers that make use of their talents. Creative jobs are growing at a faster pace than the total United States business growth, and they demand workers who have skills that they gained in visual arts classes. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics now reports that more Americans are employed in the arts, entertainment, and design fields than as accountants, lawyers, and auditors. Also, architecture, advertising design, interior design, fashion, industrial design, illustration, and photography offer more varied and lucrative career paths than ever.
Besides these familiar fields, there are many new art careers that require combinations of skills. For example, Andrew loves to draw, and he learns computer programs quickly. As an interactive design and game developer he might work for a variety of media outlets, applying a combination of skills in drawing, computer applications, math, acting, and human and animal anatomy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Andrew may earn $35,000-40,000 per year as an entry-level game designer. With more experience in the field, Andrew could make as much as $150,000 per year.
Likewise, Stephanie creates clever comic characters and writes about them. As a sequential artist, she may see her work used in comic book art, cartoons, video games, toy design, or character design for films. This career will make the most of her aptitude for drawing, storytelling, character design, communications skills, and proficiency with computer drawing software. Stephanie's earnings will depend on her work output, amount of work available, and the size of the publishing company.
The demand for programming needed to fill cable and satellite television channels is expected to cause a 17 percent increase in salaries for production designers by 2014. Katrina, who designs costumes for school plays, and Demorrius, who builds models, might find exciting careers in the television production field. It encompasses a wide variety of jobs, including costume designer, model maker, scenic designer, studio film producer, and theme park designer. Katrina and Demorrius can expect to earn an average of $30,500 per year, but with experience, they could earn six-figure yearly salaries or more.
As cities realize the historic and economic value of preserving buildings and adapting them to serve new uses, there is a growing need for historic preservation professionals. Antoine loves both architecture and history. He could specialize in an area such as conservation, grant development, heritage tourism, museums, national parks, restoration (artisan), or urban and regional planning. Antoine's annual salary as a historic preservationist could range from $21,830-67,830. National park service salaries average $40,000-45,000 per year. As an urban or regional planner, Antoine could earn as much as $58,000 per year. Looking at an ordinary building and seeing great possibilities for it requires divergent thinking. As art teachers, we have the opportunity every day to think in a similar fashion. We can recognize the talents of our students, and point them toward careers that will maximize their skills.
Confucius said, "Do what you love and love what you do, and you'll never work another day in your life." Today our most creative students have more opportunities than ever to find careers that pay them for doing what they love. We can help our students to imagine themselves working in a creative field in the future-and loving it!
(Salary information comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
September 19, 2008
Building an Image of Your Art Program in the Community
In 1964 I landed my first southern art education position in the Laboratory School of Georgia Southern College in a small, rural town called Statesboro. While some of the college professors were cosmopolitan, the community had a pre-World War II mindset. Other than the few art professors who comported themselves according to the mores of Statesboro, the people there thought of art teachers as outside the realm of their community.
I felt I had to come up with a solution to win over these folks and my new community. I wanted to make them see that artists were positive contributors to society, not the strange creatures they saw over-emoting in movies.
I went around town taking pictures of ordinary things: vegetables in the grocery store, the back end of a logging truck, telephone poles, the black dirt that had just been plowed for planting and the textures of red clay where a road had been cut, the curved lines of tires winding over a field, the tangle of roots where a bunch of peanuts had been pulled from the ground, and the flowers—the beautiful dogwoods and azaleas all over town. When I had enough images, I put together a slide show that explained how I was trying to teach my students to see lines, shapes, colors, textures, and so on. First, I presented it to my PTA, then the Junior League, next the Pilots Club, the Kiwanis Club, and any other organization that would let me come and speak. I used ordinary words and they began to see what I was teaching—and art didn't seem so strange any more.
Today, most parents like to see art programs in schools because they know how much their children enjoy art. Parents know the art room is a place in which their child learns unique skills. These skills—such as how to communicate ideas visually, divergent thinking, how to use tools and techniques, and how to complete a project from imagining it through step-by-step until it becomes real-are not always taught in other classes.
Many of the art teachers I know are very good at showing the community the value of their programs. They "advertise" their programs both in school and in the community. Visitors who walk into the front door of the school may see a well-designed art display with wall texts that explain the lesson's objectives and techniques. Quotes from the student artists and photos of the students at work show how the artworks were created.
When a large art show is coming up, some art teachers send announcements and invitations to county office administrators and school board members. The art show may feature a brochure with art reviews written by students. "Commercials" for the art show are read on the school's morning announcements.
The art program goes out into the community in a variety of ways. Some businesses are happy to display student work in their lobbies on a rotating basis. You might want to start planning now for Youth Art Month, which is in March. Art festivals bring art lovers of all ages to parks and schools to participate in the creative process. Many art teachers organize activities that interest young children, like marble printing, beading, and face-painting. Older children enjoy volunteering at these booths. Billboards and newspaper articles bring attention to art activities going on throughout the community. You too can win over your community by spreading the message that art is for everyone!
Have a nice day!
August 29, 2008
Hi! I'm Roz Ragans, your SRA and Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Fine Arts author, and I'm really excited about sharing my thoughts about teaching art with y'all! Okay, although I was born in New York City, I moved to Georgia when I was 29 in 1962. (You do the math! I think I deserve a little southern accent.)
As I watch my grandson get ready for the first day of school, I remember the excitement I felt every year getting ready for the first day of teaching. Each year was an opportunity for a new beginning - a clean slate - a chance to do something better than I did it last year.
When I started teaching, I was an Art-on-the-Cart teacher, so I never had to worry about the classroom organization. So, when I got my first art room, I didn't have the first idea about how to organize supplies and storage. All I ever learned in methods class was how to make stuff. We never talked about lesson plans or ordering and organizing supplies. That first year, my students never knew where to put things during clean-up. So by the end of my first year the room was a disorganized disaster.
But I learned from my mistakes. So that summer I made a plan. When school started I made sure there was a place for everything. I had a new beginning!
Despite my plans, I found my mornings were still like a three-ring circus, with me as the juggler, rushing around, gathering the day's supplies and handouts while watching the clock and trying to arrive on time at my morning hall duty. It finally dawned on me that spending a few minutes after school, standing in the middle of the room, looking carefully at what was around me, just might produce a smoother beginning the next day.
For example, as I looked at the counters, I was reminded to lay out the supplies for each of tomorrow's activities. Alternatively, I could have arranged the supplies on a kitchen cart or utility cart. I divided the materials so that there was an adequate supply for each class, plus a little extra for unexpected events, like the arrival of new students.
Looking at the sink prompted me to be sure brushes were clean, and to rinse the yellow watercolors if they had become soiled with other colors. I took a moment to count and be sure there were enough tools.
Next, I considered the order in which I would use my visual aids and prints. I'd place them on an easel (or tape them to the wall) in consecutive order.
The paper cutter helped me remember to cut paper into pieces sized to minimize waste. I'd place a box in a handy place to catch usable scraps.
The storage area reminded me to plan for storage of projects in progress. Signs helped students see where to put wet paintings or clay projects at the end of the period. I labeled storage areas by class period.
The desk made me think about checking my supply of classroom necessities, like dry erase markers, tape, staples, hall passes, forms, paper towels, and other items needed from the custodians or front office. I made a note of supplies needed and picked them up on the way out.
The bulletin board jogged my memory about copies of handouts needed for tomorrow; I made a few extras just in case. The board alerted me to post tomorrow's warm-up assignment, along with tomorrow's date.
Now I was ready to turn off the lights and head for home, happy in the knowledge that a stress-free morning really was possible.
And so I learned, good mornings add up to a great year!
So here's wishing y'all many good mornings to come, and another great year!