Responding Through Art

I have a painting to share. I created it two years ago in response to course material I had read from a First Nations Women's Studies course. The readings were heavy and emotional and hugely inspiring. We had the option of responding to the readings any way we wished. I was inspired to create a painting as a way to release some of the pent up emotions from the course but also as a way to celebrate the strength and resilience of the women who I was reading about. This is truly one of my favourite pieces because it came from my personal response to what I was reading at the time.

This picture has made me think about how important it is for us to allow our students to respond to complex, emotional, or challenging topics through art. It is a great way to make cross-curricular connections as well!!

I addition, I am adding the King Tut artifact painting that my son created (I talked about this painting in my first blog post but finally took a picture to upload). Just to recap, Mattias painted this picture in response to the Ancient Egypt unit he was studying in his Grade 6/7 class last year. I have never seen him so immersed in a school project before. Likewise, I have never before seen him so proud of something he has done in school. I attribute this connection to the fact that he was given a choice and therefore, took ownership and pride in his learning. He was able to respond in a way that felt meaningful to him. Isn't that wonderful?!

Earth Mother

Mattias' Painting of an Artifact from King Tut's Tomb

Hope through Music

I came across this video (link below) on Facebook and it was truly inspiring (and humbling). I am soooo not musical and so I find myself intimidated by this component of the Fine Arts curriculum. Yet, I have had many opportunities (and still do) to learn an instrument. If I decided I wanted to learn, I could have a shiny new instrument at my finger tips by this afternoon. I have taken this luxury for granted. Sadly, there are children in the world who desperately want to make music...and cannot because of the socioeconomic conditions that they live in. The children in this video clip not only love to make music, they don't let the barriers in their life prevent them from doing so. And the music they create brings love, joy, hope, and courage in to their lives. What I| can learn from this is how the arts can be a means for fostering beauty in a world that is often ugly for children. The children in our own classrooms may come from adversity--we need to give them opportunities to create beauty.
Please connect to the link below for a truly inspiring video!

Hope through Music

Creative Much?

 

Yesterday, in our Fine Arts class, Willow had us create observational art. As I felt the pressure lift off myself I noticed a few people got tense when asked to draw (tense like I get when I'm asked to role play, sing, or dance--that's right, 3 out of the 4 parts of fine arts fill me with fear!). As we worked through the steps I observed that even those who are uncomfortable drawing were engaged and quite successful. This made me think about how we are creating a safety net for students to practice the SKILL of drawing--sometimes just getting comfortable putting pen to paper is the biggest hurdle, I think! So how can we apply this same safety net to the other areas in the Fine Arts curriculum? Can we break down the process of drama or dance in a similar way? Would it feel as safe? Or are those who are uncomfortable in these areas too afraid of their own bodies or their own voices making "art" as opposed to the art left behind on an external sheet of paper?

When I was in high school, all I really did was observational drawing. When we drew still life or modelled portraits, I was praised by my art teacher for this skill (I was awarded top art student in the junior high). However, in grade 11, when I created a series of observational pen or pencil drawings from photographs, my art teacher at the high school compared me to nothing better than a "human photocopier"--and he meant this in a highly insulting way--and gave me a C+....apparently I lacked creativity. Insulted I was. Uncreative I felt. (Did that sound like Yoda to anyone else?) It's hard to get over being told you are uncreative. It felt as though any skill I had honed was irrelevant. I tried to draw without something to observe but suddenly all I could draw was cartoony, sloppy doodles that easily could have passed as pictionary drawings (I'm the worst pictionary partner by the way!)! Eventually, if I were to ever enjoy art again, I had to come to the conclusion that I probably won't be much more than an observational artist...(can I refer to myself as an artist if it's observational? my grade 11 art teacher would likely say no).

Here are some of my observational drawings...(the funniest thing to me is that my maiden name is on all of these...the saddest thing is seeing that the date says 1991-1993! haha



Jim Morrison, Cover of the Rolling Stones Magazine, pencil

Pencil crayon sketch, from a water color instructional text?

Pencil Sketch

Pencil sketch from a magazine ad

 

Pencil sketch from magazine ad

 

Computers in the Art Classroom

So I have been thinking lately about how to incorporate technology into our lessons. Some subjects seem to lend themselves well to technology while I tend to think that visual arts and technology really don't go together at all. Of course I'm wrong (that darned fixed mindset!). I know that technology doesn't have to mean "plugged in"...after all, tools and materials are a form of technology too, but the technology I'm thinking of moves beyond the hands-on to the pixels on a computer screen...how can we use computers to support visual arts education?

In my art/Internet adventures, I came upon a pretty cool website by SD 71 here in BC. Here, they offer lesson plans for using computers and Internet to teach visual arts--all linked to BC IRPs and for multiple grade levels! They provide the PLOs, websites for students to access, and software for students to use to create their art projects. Not only do students study the lives and works of great artists like Monet, Picasso, and Van Gogh (and more!), but they hone their research and computer skills as well as have the opportunity to create interesting famous-artist-inspired artwork of their own.

Now...my only question left is this: what do you do with the computer generated art piece? It seems like it might cost a small fortune in printer ink if we were to create hard copies for each student! Hmmm...what about taking the computer-art connection a step further and creating a class blog where they could post computer-generated art? Now where oh where did I get the idea for an art blog from??

Check out this excellent BC resource!

http://www.sd71.bc.ca/sd71/edulinks/art/art.pdf

Finding Balance

As I've been pouring myself in to my art lesson plans this week I haven't had time to give much thought to my blog...I'm supposed to be finishing the lesson plans right now but all the whining going on in my head gave me an idea for my blog post so I had to stop and do this first!

My art lessons focus on artwork from another culture...which I really didn't know enough about! So, like everything I do (it seems), I spent endless hours researching background and looking in depth at the subject instead of getting to it and writing lesson plans. I'm not sure, but this might be a case of   an easy-to-justify form of procrastination..."I'm not procrastinating, I'm researching!". Oh the hours I will never get back! I can't help it though...I feel like if I'm going to teach something then I have to know it really, really well! (Do I though? didn't I just learn from Jana-Rae, Cheyenne, and Milana in their presentation that we can all just learn together through inquiry?) Unfortunately, it's what I did...it's what I do. This time-engulfing process means my lesson plans aren't done yet!

Looking back, I wish I had picked a simpler art project...one that has less background and less history, not because I am not happy with the project itself (I'm super excited about it!) but because I don't feel like I have the time right now to invest in all this research...

This has got me thinking about how easy it would be for teachers to burn themselves out when they spend too much time on just one art project when there are so many other subjects to plan for each day/week/month/year!

I can see why once teachers have a repertoire of art projects they use them over again year after year (or else beg, borrow, and steal ideas from colleagues...hmmm...maybe next time that wouldn't be a bad idea!)

The bottom line is this...as teachers of art, or any subject, we must find a balance between creating the "amazing" lessons and having time for ourselves. OK...I guess that just qualified as "me time"...back to the lesson planning!!

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