Artist Research Resources

1. http://witcombe.sbc.edu/

This is a website created and maintained by Dr. Christopher Whitcombe, who heads the Department of Art History at Sweet Briar College in VA. It contains an enormous amount of detailed and very well-organized art history (though it doesn't look much into contemporary art I don't think). You can do  search within the website for about anything and it will pull up short articles that explore both history and big ideas within history.

2. http://www.ted.com/

Kathy has showed us this website (at least in the grad courses) multiple times. It is a collection of various and wonderful presentations from the TED conferences made by some very influential people in all sorts of disciplines. 

Lesson Brainstorm: Secrecy

I'm playing around with the big idea of Secrecy in the art classroom, and how that could be connected to a painting and drawing lesson. So far, this is what I've come up with:

     - I like the idea of narrative in 2D artworks, and I also like the exploration of symbolism and metaphor on a more complex level with secondary students. I'm thinking about having students create a work that symbolizes or secretly expresses a secret of their own, or even their feelings about a secret that they keep/have kept
     - I read once that Dali claimed that dreams and surrealist works expressed the secret desires of the unconscious. I think I could tie his narrative and symbolist works into the above-mentioned nicely. Now I just need to think of a contemporary artist that does something similar...
     - I would like to introduce the concept of layering painting and drawing on a technical as well as conceptual level. What does is mean to work in layers? What about embedding writing or other "layers" into the work?
     - I think it would be beneficial to do some research on cultural iconography and symbolism as well as look into possible ideas of "universal" symbols
     - It could be interesting to have the students explore a stream of consciousness approach to beginning their work, instead of the typical well-planned composition
     - There is a book called A Blue So Dark, a young adult fiction story, that deals with themes of art and secrecy (among many others) that would be interesting contemporary fiction to bring into the right classroom. Maybe a reading and reflection group would be a good way to spark some insight and promote some conceptual foundation-building.

Read and React: Chapter 3

 

            Chapter 3 is a brief look at the importance of building a conceptual knowledge base in student instruction before beginning the actual artmaking process. Walker says early on, “students often fail to make the necessary connections between what they know and the artmaking task at hand because their knowledge is dormant or inert” (39). Accessing that knowledge with simple classroom exercises—listing, writing, etc.—can help students to deepen their insights regarding the artistic task.

Walker then discusses the involved process of research and discovery that Robert Motherwell undertook before even beginning making his Elegies series, and then paralleled that process with a classroom unit that explored his Elegies series. Using their understanding of the process of building knowledge, students were able to create deeper and richer works of their own, with more insightful reactions to the work they viewed. They also explored how working in a series using the same subject matter repeatedly also influenced their creativity. Walker closes the chapter by suggesting that students who are led to probe more deeply into subjects are able to sustain attention longer in the artmaking process.

As I gain experience working with students of all ages, I believe more and more that discussion, questioning, and reflection are under-utilized in the typical classroom experience, which is unfortunate because I think that using those tools can produce some excellent student responses. Although I know I’m inexperienced, I have made sure to include all three of those experiences in the lessons I write and implement with the Columbia Art League as well as with my TA course, and so far they have greatly enhanced my students’ responses and the quality of my lessons. I think that building an artmaking knowledge base—both technical and conceptual—is also important for the structure and organization of a class. Sometimes it is necessary to break up time or intervene occasionally in order to redirect or refocus the attention of the students, especially during long periods of independent work time.

I was a little disappointed, however, that this chapter almost totally disregarded the importance of building up technical artmaking skills as well as conceptual. I understand that the stance is that there is “too much focus” on technical practice, however I think it is a mistake to put it aside totally instead of strategically combining technical with conceptual development. In my experiences, I have found that the frustration with one’s lack of technical skill can also lead to a dead end: giving up, shutting down, not even starting, starting over and over again, etc. I think you have to let the conceptual knowledge and the technical knowledge support each other, kind of let them feed each other’s knowledge.

I did however agree completely with the idea that researching the artistic process is a very important part of building an understanding of an artist’s conceptual idea. For example, I took my TA class (Art Appreciation) to the museum recently and introduced them to the Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery. Most of the students are business or engineering majors, so I figured it would be an interesting experience to show them works that they could not immediately understand or relate to—i.e. works that were not representational.  After I discussed the reactionary history of abstract art I began to explain that much of the conceptual backing behind abstract art concerns the process that artist took to make it. Andy Warhol did not want the artist’s hand to be present and literally manufactured his work, while Jackson Pollock literally walked about his work flinging blood, sweat, and tears into it. Although still somewhat a surface level understanding, I think that this helped to build some appreciation of what was otherwise a total disconnect.

Tilleke Schwarz

While researching artists for a fibers paper, I came upon Tilleke Schwarz, who works with embroidery and stream of consciousness design.  In terms of her process, we are total opposites. Tilleke works on the fly, never pre-planning or worrying about if the viewer will get the hint on what the work is all about.  Instead, Tilleke just puts it out there as it comes to her mind, and lets the viewer freely associate and divulge meaning as it comes to him or her.

I am someone who generally likes to pre-plan, and I'm always worried that the viewer will not understand my symbolism and references. But when I look at Tilleke's work and her philosophy, I start to understand that I have to loosen up and allow things to happen naturally in my work. I'm actually getting much better at it...but it's difficult to go against one's nature in terms of process. I'm actually beginning work on a fibers project that follows the thinking process of Tilleke a bit (although I have plenty of sketches already!). Hopefully I'll lighten up enough to let happy accident and happenstance occur!

This is Tilleke's Work:

How I Work

     Personally, I am a fan of research. I've been working with the same topic for a few years now, and as long as I read literature about it, I never run out of fuel for the flame. I just started reading a new book recently, one which Jo Stealey recommended me, called Women Who Run with the Wolves (I get a lot of "you're a feminist!" teasing at home).
     Anyway, I'm someone who feels the need to pre-plan before attacking the proverbial blank canvas, so I do some compositional sketches, write some things down, play around with iconography and historical contexts. As I mentioned in my previous blog, though, I am trying to let go a little bit of all of the preconceptions I bring to a new image. I think experimentation with new media really helps me to take a new stance when starting a work. For example, the digital image of the woman and the wolf was made with a Bamboo pen, which was brand new to me at the time. Since I was simultaneously playing with the pen and some Photoshop functions, I had more on my mind than then exact placement of every correct piece.
       I'm also, very happily, starting to love the idea of layering and spending time really putting meaning into the process and material that I choose. I feel that in my undergrad years I was very focused on developing my style and my interests, and now that I kind of have that in my grasp, I can focus on depth of the image both conceptually and technically.
     I guess I'm the kind of person, like Sandy Skoglund, who takes many months or years to really think "now it's ready to do!" Many times I start something only to get frustrated with it or totally unimpressed with it and just kind of scoot it under the bed. I'm bad a not finishing things...although I think that I learn a lot from everything I start. But if I have a bad start to it, it's not likely to be finished.

Read and React: The Artist Process

             This chapter of Walker’s Teaching Meaning in Artmaking discussed the differences and similarities in a handful of artists and their processes, and then tied those elements into how we should be encouraging risk, play, experimentation, and deeper interpretation in our own students. The chapter started out with Sandy Skoglund and how she begins with a notion and works with it without much worry for the final presentation of the idea. She allows meaning to evolve, especially through her play with media, subject matter, and composition of her installations. When tied to real classroom practice, the author warns against allowing students to begin to too preconceived notions, which leads to narrow and contrived works.

            Claes Oldenburg, and his team, are often buried in extensive research and thought before the final product is assembled. There is a lot of seeking involved, especially in terms of the correct historical and cultural connotations for a particular sculpture. Often, Oldenburg investigates actual objects intensely before he is ready to commit to a final form, which is collaboratively constructed.

            Finally, Keith Haring’s graffiti works exemplify play, risk, and experimentation with symbolism and a personal language. In the case of Haring, as with many other artists, it was in the series of a work that the power of communication lay. Like the other two artists mentioned above, meaning in Haring’s works evolved over time and were not initially limited by preconceptions. The art education connection to Haring was powerful communication through a series, and how students are forced to delve into deeper creativity when asked to use the same subject matter differently over and over again.

            This chapter really resonated with me because this is a struggle within my self that I am very well aware of but have a difficult time letting go of. It is very difficult for me not pre-plan so extensively that the whole work goes together like a jigsaw puzzle: lined up for success. I greatly fear failure in a work of art (and therefore avoid risk) for reasons that are unclear to me still. I remember reading about how Leonardo da Vinci didn’t finish most of his works because they weren’t perfect enough; sometimes I think I understand that perfectly. I guess it stems from an obsession with a perfectly finished glowing “product” after all that work, and if you don’t have it, it wasn’t worth it. Sadly, I am very aware of how this narrows my potential, and I spend a lot of time trying to correct it.

            I can actually remember the exact moment that I realized that my preconceptions and advanced plannings were creating work that felt too contrived. It was after I learned to underpaint, and after painstakingly setting colors on top, I sat back and realized that what I was doing was resulting in a total lack of life. This was the actual artwork:

            After that, I loosened up a little bit and obsessed less with placing objects so carefully and so frontally. I tried to let go of my very traditional Renaissance ideals and move into contemporary ideas of painting. And while I love painting, it wasn’t until I started playing with other media that I was really able to experiment and take risks. Finally, now that I’m well out of art school, I just now feel like the things I produce are really relevant to today, and have a liveliness and looseness about them that I feel confident about. 

             Now, after several years of stewing on the same ideas and vocabulary, I feel that I am just now arriving at the type of work that is not so conceptually in your face, but deals with similar ideas a little more subtlety and leave more room for imagination and interpretation on the part of the viewer.

Visual Metaphor

The artist teacher is a contortionist- a performer of flexibility and balance. She must bend and twist to accommodate the many tasks that are asked of her, all while balancing the many facets of her career and life: students, co-workers, principals and administration, paperwork, standards, content, profession and social life. She is a person of strength and continual practice, never for one day letting her skills go without thought or refinement or practice.

Adolescence Project

So, I'm not really a photographer or a "digital artist," but I thought I'd give it a try anyway just to do something different. So this is the beginnings of the response to Speak. It's more of a general "adolescence" theme than a specific reference to the book, but I threw in some fairy tale themes here and there to try and make connections to my larger body of work.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I have so far!

Prezi-Freaking Awesome

So, turns out that Powerpoint can sometimes be awfully boring after you've made and seen about a hundred-million of them (this is what I'm learning as I'm TAing). Then my fiancee introduced me to Prezi, which is an entirely new web-based software (free to educators and students) that is far more artistic and creative in its creation and presentation of information. It would be difficult for me to describe it, so I will just post it here and you can check it out:


http://prezi.com/

Prezi, however, does take a little getting used to, as it is a very different system from powerpoint. However, I could see a lot of use in the classroom, from having students create their own prezi's based on a theme, to having my own teacher presentations through Prezi.




I've posted here an official Prezi introduction video. The introduction video was made with Prezi, so you can get the feel for how it looks and works. Check it out!

Prezi Introduction Video

Being An Adolescent

I've had this conversation with people many times: "If you could be 16 again, would you go back?" That's a difficult question...

Adolescence was not easy on many of us, although it usually got easier after the braces came off and the zits backed-off a little bit). For me, it was often a boxing match between my parents, my desire to be independent, and my wild boyfriend who as hard as he tried couldn't pull the wool over Mom and Dad's eyes.

I think the struggle for identity is one of the most difficult struggles in life, because as long as you are a little bit lost everything is thrown off balance. I myself did not hang around with one particular group, but rather I bounced around among them all. Many times I felt a little lost at sea, totally anchorless, while both my sisters were having the times of their lives.

I did not have the time of my life in high school, unfortunately, and everyday I was ready to move on. And usually I can see that in certain young people's eyes as well. That old soul, a little bitter, a little sarcastic, a little outside the mainstream. Where do people like that come from? Wherever it is, they usually end up in the arts. The arts: where self-dealing and self-reflexivity are absolutely required. Where whatever is outside your brain, your world, can be selectively chosen to be incorporated while the rest of that 'stuff' is...left out.  I think that's what a lot of high school students--the "art kids"--are attracted to in art classes. It's a special time of day where they are asked to please step outside the box. Please run around outside the box, social rules be damned.

At least, that's what it was for me.

I think adolescence is interesting from a teacher standpoint because it is probably the time in life when one felt everything, all at once, more strongly than one ever will again. The teacher can see it in nearly every student, that awareness yet total lack of understanding that everyone really does feel the same, the world is not ending and the sky is not falling (although for some, it truly does). There is such an incredible energy in an adolescent, and it's usually directed at a million things at once, not all of them good. To me, working with those students feels so much more purposeful and layered than working with younger students, who have different needs. I think the connections made, though rare as they may be, are so solid and so important for both involved.

I know this from experience, as I had a very close teacher when I was in high school. He was a math teacher to us all, but to me specifically he was a friend and a guide during a difficult time for me. One day he offered to lend me an ear, and for a long time I would wander into his classroom after school and just talk with him for a long time. Thinking back now, that seems like an odd thing for me to do, as I'm not typically the type to really open up to someone. I guess that's living proof of the importance that a teacher can play in an adolescent's life. I know we all hear that a lot, and most of the time in goes in one ear and out the other. Until you actually remember a time in middle or high school when you felt so cared for by a teacher. Sometimes it takes a few years to really hit you, but eventually it does.

I guess my question is: Why do some students never make a strong connection with a teacher?

Power to the Teacher! A Philosophy of Sorts

True learning is a product of interest, relevance, and a safe and open
community, and I firmly believe that these three elements can be most richly
developed in the art classroom. Art—though sadly many times stripped of its true
complexities in the classroom—is a timeless and universal link among mankind that
many times transcends the power and influence of the word. Our very culture has
exploded into a world driven by the image, all of which try to tell us something, try
to urge us or influence us or seduce us.

In such a world, I ask: how can the art classroom not inspire relevance and
interest when there is such a deep and churning river of inspiration from which to
draw? How can we not allow our students to find their personal voice and explore
their greatest interests when art truly lives and breathes among every field? And
how can we ignore the fact that art is not only a personal venture, but in fact a social
dialogue and communal experience both in the real world and, if nurtured, in the
classroom?

I advocate that art is not about a student’s talent or ability to replicate
what is sheer technique and “science.” Rather, we as art teachers must fuse
skill with content, form with message, contemporary with traditional, and the
student’s voice with the repertoire of tools available to facilitate that message.

As art teachers, we must recognize our role as guide and inspirer, at times
to lead and at times to follow. We have such little time with our students and such
a great task of instilling within them the capacity to navigate this visual world, both
commercial and fine. But in a world so flooded with messages and so filled with
innovation and creativity, it is a task well worth the effort.