Greetings from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I am here with MAE student Jayson Luce to present on the work we ( as in Visual Studies) is doing with the 25 million dollar Promise Neighborhood grant in Lubbock. Long way to talk about an after school project for under served kids in Middle school. It is what each of us do every day. And in fact I end the presentation talking about our program and how our classes celebrate collaborative efforts (glass, clay ...loading a kiln), the fresco) and how you all go on to do wonderful things beyond what I could have ever dreamed...Liz and Ana at the 10K run silkscreen event. So in a way all of you will be a part of this conference.
This is part of my research, trying to find other like minded folks that understand what we do . Or find sort of like minded that might challenge me to re-think how I do what I do. I did bring some sewing but have not begun yet. Still getting use to this conference of 500 where I know 3 people.
For next week, much like Martha's response to my question on her first clay doll, or Germaine's response from his Uncle...tell me more about how your research is influencing your art/ your writing. If you are like Lynn, a person of multi-layers that somehow operate all at once still give me a reason why you are following one path. Here is an example: this conference has me asking why do we try so hard to understand cultures from around the world by no the culture in our back yard or our neighborhoods? Why is what we accept as home is often overlooked. What do we know about our communities?
Send my hellos to Jayson! Looking forward to hearing about the presentation upon your return.
ReplyDeleteLove seeing everyone’s post about their work, research, and the melding of the two. I am starting by book on Craftivism this weekend and I am looking forward to some lighter reading compared to the intensive book on identity and the museum visit.
ReplyDeleteSo how has my research into museum visitors roles, identities, prior knowledge, expectations, and motivational factors affected how I approach my own work? While the research focuses not on production of work but on how these factors shape a visit to a learning institution and the outcome of a visit, the shift in my thinking results not in a new direction of my Art work ( yet) it did result in a more self-aware visit to the Texas Tech Museum a week ago.
First off, to relate back to the point brought up by Future about studying other cultures while at times ignoring what is in our own backyard I am guilty. I LOVE going to museums and travel all over the place to visit them. Denver, DFW, NYC, Houston, SLC, San Angelo, San Antonio, Paris, London, Rome, Austin, Birmingham. List goes on and on, growing each year, but I had never visited the TTU museum in the 12 years I have lived in Lubbock. So I finally packed the family in the car and headed down to see the Inuit Art exhibit.
Having spent the last three weeks reading about how visit motivators and my expected learning outcomes would dramatically affect how I used the museum, and what I got out of the visit, more so than the actual content and design of the exhibit, I made an effort to identify what role was I expecting of myself before even entering. Would I be taking in the museum as a Explorer, having never been to the museum? Would I be taking on the role of facilitator since I was dragging my family along? Would I be simply fulfilling the Recharger roll, or maybe viewing it all through a Hobbyist / Professional capacity? I started to realize I was all at once, and my learning outcome would be affected by these factors. Would my visit be different if I was going to the Menil Collection in Houston by myself? A place I have visited many times in the past, without the responsibility of giving insight to my wife about what was on display (unsolicited usually) would have almost certainly giving the visit a different twist regardless of what was on display.
I am really curious about your thoughts on Craftivism when you get to it, I was thinking about getting that book.
DeleteThe exhibit focused on contemporary Inuit print making, and gave a bit of background about the process but not a lot of attention was paid to indigenous traditions and how they made their way into the work. For myself as a hobbyist/professional I wanted more background info. On the other hand as an explore it was great to see a new space, and work that I was totally unfamiliar with. The information that was given was displayed in a manner that was a bit odd to navigate as a facilitator and it was all on the walls, nothing was printed up for you to look at as you walked to display. Normally that wouldn’t have even registered on my radar, but I was trying to be critical of the key elements that different identify classes would be looking for. Clearly it is hard to meet the needs of every visitor, finding a balance takes a lot of consideration for the curator.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me to one of the key points I took away from the book. Many of the same factors that determine the learning / experience outcome of a museum visit can be apply to public education. One’s prior experience, expectations, personal perceptions and prior knowledge, motivational factors ( or lack of), and identity needs all affect how they perform in public education. In the reading this success was framed as visitor satisfaction, but could be termed student satisfaction-fulfilment-success if applied to public Ed.
Here is a section taken from the book.
“Thousands of customer satisfaction surveys have been done in museums …results are consistently high. Is this because museums are great places? In part, but the more likely answer is that most people who visit museums already possess some reasonable understanding of what museums afford in the way of leisure benefits ( learning opportunities). High ratings are the result of a strong match between the entering identity-related visit motivators of visitors and the realities of the actual museum visit they experience.”
Great points. I remember times when I had literally take the Maines Brothers (father and uncles of Natalie Maines fo the Dixie Chicks) and Jesse Taylor (the late, great guitar player) by the hand because they did not believe they belonged in a museum.Or were dressed correctly for a museum. We were honoring them in the exhibit "Honky Tonk Visions' but they still did not feel good enough to come in....how many others feel the same. Maybe this is one of main reason it is so important to take students to museums, so they will learn early on they are worthy of looking at the art/artifacts.
DeleteOn another note most people judge a museum by how clean the bathrooms are and if the guards are nice to them.
I never thought of how people judge museums Future, but you are correct. I judge restaurants by how clean their bathrooms are so it makes sense that this would be something that is important to visitors at a Museum.
DeleteAs to the guards: Sometimes I enjoy dialoguing with the guards to find out what their thoughts are on what they are "guarding". In retrospect, I seem to think the guards at the DMA are much friendlier than the guards at The Kimbell Museum. I am going to be more observant and see if my memory is correct.
ReplyDeleteI kept thinking that the same would not be true if applied to public education institutions. There is a disconnect between many students’ expectations of school and themselves and what the realities of school, and their abilities and possible outcomes are. So how do I as an educator ( facilitator) realign the realities with the expectations my students face not only in my class but in life.
The myth of genius or talent-
DeleteAlso the result of the "in crowd" or popular kids and the experience of a regular/great/growing/ exploring kid. Schools are not nice places. Think about the other teachers you know that HATE being there and teach the same way the have taught for 20 years. Or the mean kids. Or the dismissive administration. Image being new and not knowing the secret codes and customs.
DeleteThink what it would be like to study what you wanted to, to research your interest, to have small classes without having to work so hard to be cool and controlled.
For the past 8 years or so I have incorporated what I call "Fun Friday" in my Middle School/High School art classes. The concept is that for four days students are working on assignments that I give them, and on Fridays they are allowed to choose what they want to pursue. If they cannot think of something else they want to pursue, they work on their assigned piece. Last year this concept has been implemented in several of the other classes - not because I was doing it; they did not even know that I did this. In these other classes, students can either work alone or in groups and they are allowed to decide what they want to study or create.
DeleteThe title "Fun Friday" is not to imply that the other four days what we do is NOT fun; I labeled it that for lack of a better word and also because there are times that students are not happy with the given assignment. Can any of you think of a better title for my Friday Independent Study Practice?
DeletePamela, I really like that idea of having a day where the students can work on an Independent Study. My Art I and lower level drawing courses could definitely use a little freedom to create/dabble in mediums they are interested in. As far as another name for this....hmmm I don't know. But I wonder if doing this on Monday will help my students transition better from the weekend. I notice that they drag on Mondays (like all of us do).
DeleteI was able to go to listen to Cheech Marin the actor, comedian, and a collector of Chicano and Chicana art who came to speak at Texas Tech. He shared his different experiences of living in LA in an African American community and later in an all white community. He said these experiences allowed him to relate to these cultures and he also said his identity as a Mexican American was deeply rooted regardless of where he lived. I can only imagine what it would be like if I moved to the East side of Lubbock where predominantly African American’s live or an area where mostly Hispanics live. I can definitely see how these experiences could truly help me understand the culture and the language of these particular communities. My wife and I occasionally go to Confederation of choirs where all black churches gather to sing spirituals and it has always been a very moving experience for both of us. We also like to go to “Jamicas” (festivals) and Posadas (reenactment of the Christmas story) at all Hispanic churches. I agree with Cheech that over 50% of babies born in America are Hispanic and with that will bring a cultural change. I also loved what he said to us about getting ready to eat more guacamole and drink more Corona!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun and enlightening experience!
DeleteEast Lubbock is not 49% Hispanic and around 19% white. So everyone has to learn to adapt to change...which is hard.
DeleteHow fun!! This is one of the reasons that I wish I lived closer to Lubbock. I miss a great deal of events like this one!
DeleteThat sounds like such a great experience. When I started teaching at my school 6 years ago I felt very out of place. I (a white girl) teach at a 97% Hispanic school, many of my kinders do not speak English and I do not know Spanish. Today I can not imagine teaching another demographic. These students feel like home. Their families feel like home. Even when my vocabulary can not communicate with them we communicate through our art and with help of other students and I love that we can come together as a class community to help each other understand language barriers that we (the student and I) both have. Plus my students are great teachers to me when it comes to learning Spanish.
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ReplyDeleteI think you bring up great points! I love the school I teach at for this reason, we have so and I mean SO many different cultures in our school it's amazing! And all of them are celebrated! We have several multicultural festivals where others can learn about each other's traditions, values, celebrations, Etc. I also have my son at another Harmony school because of this. His dad is very much a racist white man and views other races and cultures very badly.. I do NOT want my son raised in that and do everything I can to reflect the acceptance of others no matter what skin color, gender, culture, etc. And it shows... He has soo many friends that are from other countries and he sees no difference but that they are all the same in first grade and either boys or girls! I love it! It shouldn't make a difference! His art teacher had them all make self portraits as well and I love seeing all the different shades of skin, different shapes of heads, eyes, mouths, noses, hair styles, and backgrounds, it shows how much they are all alike and yet so very very different. This eke my AP students constantly said how my room is a no judge zone! I love that! They know it's a safe place to create, be themselves, express themselves, and they will not be judged by others, that to me is a start to teaching empathy... Setting the tone for all to be accepted no matter what!
DeleteGreat questions...we teach by doing...everyday, every moment even when we are tired. You are the lesson.
DeleteNo judge zone... what a great concept!
DeleteWe have a lot of foreign students attending our High School. Several years ago one of my art students started a club called "CIA" - Cultures In Action. They meet on the two lunch hours, and each time they meet a different student give a presentation, and has food to sample from that particular country. I have had the pleasure of sitting in on some of them and they are fabulous. We learn many different things about each country: some things people have talked about are political systems, typical foods eaten, types of music and instruments, as well as any other information that the facilitator wishes to include. One of the benefits has been that the foreign student sees we wish to learn more about them and their country, and it helps up to understand a little more about them and their culture.
This week I started my book "Daring Greatly" by Brene Brown! WOW! THANK YOU FUTURE!!!! This is such a good read, I find myself underlining EVERYTHING! The book is mainly so far about allowing yourself to be vulnerable and how to do this and what it feels like. It is really scary to allow yourself to be vulnerable. Before this book allowing myself to be vulnerable meant to be weak, or let others in, to bring my walls down... All things I struggle with.... When really being vulnerable is so much more!
ReplyDeleteTaking the first step toward what you fear the most
Being ALL in
A lump in my throat and a know in my chest
FREEDOM AND LIBERATION
Panic, anxiety, fear, and hysteria, followed by freedom, pride, and amazement -then a little more panic
It feels like free-falling
LETTING GO OF CONTROL
Vulnerability is like being naked onstage and hoping for applause rather than laughter
(All examples given in the book of what it feels like to be vulnerable, that really stood out to me or that I really relate to)
Another part that really stuck out is:
"Love is uncertain. It's incredibly risky. And loving someone leaves us emotionally exposed. Yes, it's scary and yes we're open to being hurt, but can you imagine your life without loving or being loved?" WOW! What thought provoking questions, and word of wisdom... As I have really been struggling with being single again, and loving it but wanting to have someone in my life but scared to put myself out there for fear of being hurt again. All in Gods timing...
As to your question Future about how my work is influenced by my readings.. WOW has it changed! I actually went through my list of artworks I thought I needed to create and realized I no longer need to! I've done so much healing I'm ready to work on the positive the good stuff! I have works coming to me that are about the peace, the chains breaking, the forgiveness, the redemption, the letting go... All my work has gotten so much lighter in colors, in concepts, in ideas, and I feel like I have truly forgiven and let go of so much I can finally let go of the dark and bring in the light! All my artwork for my show has taken on such a warmth and I feel like my art has improved tremendously and what I am creating has honestly just impressed me beyond belief!
Not really a non sequitar-some hospitals have adopted the use of evidence based art -which relies on the notion that representational art and photography (both of natural scenes) are healing.
DeleteHealing, to heal, to recognize a wound, to want to mend not to scar- it's very courageous.
YEAH...your art will continue to grow as you grow.
DeleteThis week has been busy with a variety things, jumping around to different creative ventures.
ReplyDeleteFor myself, I have started to work on more of my embroidery skills. I have started one of my subscriptions, but while working on it I started thinking of a larger piece I plan on beginning soon. I want to work on some quilt squares based on the Golden Books of my childhood. Those books, the illustrations, the stories, even just rubbing my finger along the spine, would bring me such comfort in my childhood. For my embroideries I want to take some of my favorite illustrations and stories and create quilt squares based on them, then eventually combine them into a child sized quilt all based around the idea of comfort.
For school, I have been working on collecting work for a 2nd grade art show that I am having next Thursday. Tomorrow I am going to learn how to screen print so that the night of the show I can screen print with the families and everyone can leave with their own screen printed reading tote. I've been getting a lot of help from the parents at school to help prepare for this event, so I'm really excited that it's finally here.
For fun/local community - I have been helping my husband create a music video. I'm in charge of props and scouting locations. So when I haven't been working, or working on school stuff, this week has been filled with making props for a music video which will feature many local landmarks in Denton (where I live) - Today we will be shooting a lot of the video. So this has also been keeping me very busy.
I feel like my creative cup overflows right now, and I only wish I had more time in the day to work.
It all comes together, life, work, art, dreams, hopes. Enjoy the journey.
DeleteI too began an embroidery while in Canada...needed the time to just watch thread turn into lines, then into shapes and then become a story.
Carleen,
DeleteThis is very exciting - both your ideas for embroidery/quilting inspired by Golden Books and the upcoming art show/silkscreen event! I think that is a great way to bring art/community together. In fact, it sounds SO good I think I might try to incorporate something like that at my school - once I learn how to silkscreen properly! I hope you can get someone to take pictures of the event in case you are too busy to take them yourself. What time will you be doing the art show/silkscreen event?
And it does sound like your creative cup is very full indeed!
DeleteI agree...I also wish I had more time in the day to work too!!!
DeleteI have so many special memories of my mom teaching me how to cross stitch as a little girl. We crocheted, embroidered, and all kinds of crafty things. Her spinning wheel for wool sat in our living room for years. I loved to play with the wool and feel its texture. Something about your fibers journey makes me reminisce on my childhood.
DeleteI LOVE the screen printing with the parents idea! It is so great that you involve the parents so well. Did your husband do the screen designs? Or did you?
This week I read the book Ceramics and the Human Figure by Edith Garcia. The book interviews many contemporary ceramic artists who use the human figure in their work. For each artist the book describes the idea behind their work and the working method.
ReplyDeleteIt has been most helpful to me to read the concepts behind each artists work in addition to the working method. Most of these sculpture artists coil build sculpture while I create it solidly and hollow it out later. I’m interested in trying a new method of creating my sculptures after I finish my current work. It seems more difficult for me personally, but I’d like to try it.
Christie Brown and Claire Partington were the two artists I identified the most with. Christie Brown creates many types of sculpture, but in particular she creates some life size pieces of human and rabbit hybrids. She uses some very interesting glazing techniques using slips and stains, as well as printing onto the clay. I have started practicing image transfers with my students and I am eager to start to incorporate them into my own work. Claire Partington comes from and arts administration background (something I’m interested in) and creates these delicate porcelain figures with a heavy 18th century porcelain influence. She then paints delicate designs with enamels on them. I appreciated her work primarily for the background that she brings from outside the studio world. She brings interesting combinations of work you would see in a museum with contemporary ceramics.
As I’m continuing to work on the sculpture based on my grandmother, I’m constantly challenged by new ideas and methods of working. I feel like I’m still trying to find my footing for my process.
Good work. Grandmothers are complicated and they are our history.
DeleteMartha,
DeleteI want to see the work your students are doing with the image transfers!
Pamela, we don't have anything done yet, but hopefully in November or December we will really be finishing them up!
DeleteThis week I was under the weather and was out from work 2 days. My boss, who is great suggested I catch up on mindless tv as a restorative.
ReplyDeleteI did.
It was also the studio tour -which I have participated in for many years. For the last couple of years I could have done it without the support of some great artist friends-this year was no different. With joy-I painted bells.
Hope you are feeling better Lynn after your rest.
DeleteI've also had to take a day because of my knee. I tore my MCL and it has started to tighten up on me. Not a great feeling...but the day off helped me more than I imagined.
DeleteHello Class!
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone is holding up well with their classes/work/life. I have started my own page on this blog titled Progression. I invite everyone to visit it and give their thoughts.
Still working on getting approval to send out the teacher and student surveys. I'm thinking of going to a different AP to get approval this next week. I'm about half-way done with Richard E. Mayer's book on Multimedia Learning and it pretty much aligns with the articles I had read last week.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to start a thread that documents the designs of each of the chapters that I plan to re-design in the textbooks I checked out from school. Like I mentioned last week, much of the information is wordy and the visuals are very basic. I would like to use Mayer's idea of summarizing key points in the chapter and recreating more aesthetically pleasing visuals to help engage. To do that, I need to access the TEKS of each of the subjects I want to cover. First, because I'm a Science nerd, I plan to redesign a science chapter and move on from there. I'm still not sure how long this will take and how many subjects I will get done, but for now my goal is at least one.
Just an idea...I might be able to convince a couple of teachers to incorporate my new designs in their lessons as a reference for their students. In doing so, I could get some feedback on whether or not the designs were more engaging to the class.