From Studio to Classroom

Tom Freidman at The New School

2011-12-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

Reflection in the Elementary Studio: Lower Grades

2011-11-23T08:47:00.001-08:00

As art educators, how can we model and encourage reflective practice for even the youngest of our students? This is a question that I have been thinking a lot about this year. Focusing on kindergarten and first grade, I am working on building structures into my lesson that allow students to participate in dialogue about their work and their art making process. I am wondering how small group reflection can become a part of the studio routine, and eventually, how it can be initiated by the students themselves. My hope is that this will deepen their understandings of the art concepts and processes that we are working on.

In the beginning of the year, we focused on sharing at the end of class. I would start by keeping the prompts simple--share something you discovered today or share what are you most proud of. As students became comfortable with this process, we began following up with comments on the work of others. There were two key phrases that students were asked to finish here "I notice..." and "I like it because..." With each of these, I encourage students to use words to describe specific details in the work. While this is difficult for some at first, by this point in the year, they are all able to participate. Kindergarten students are still working with this format. I have just begun to have them use the same prompts and "turn and talk" to the person next to them.

With first graders, we have incorporated reflection into the lesson structure. After a discussion with my principal and department head on how to structure small group reflection in the lesson, I have begun to test out a few ideas.

1. Stop studio time mid-way through the period and have students discuss what they are doing with students at their table.
2. When students are finished, they meet with a partner at the carpet to discuss their work. Once they have this discussion, they may decide to add more to their piece or leave it as is.
With both of these, I see that students really respond to giving each other ideas on what else to add to their work. I hear them come to the rug, find a partner and say "What else can I do?" without first discussing what they did or how they did it. While this can be one valuable part of the reflective process, my concern is that they will not move into discussing their process and noticing similarities and differences between their work and the work of others. Because of this, I am coming up with structures that remind the students how to have a reflective discussion in a small group. This may be a question to answer or a sentence to finish. I am hoping that with practice, students see this as part of their routine and something that is expected of them. As I continue to develop these strategies, I plan to observe classroom teachers using similar structures when discussing reading and writing to see how these can be utilized in art. I am also considering how the routine would change depending on the materials we are working with. These are just the beginnings of something that I see becoming an integral part of my teaching practice. How do you structure reflective dialogue into lessons for young students?

On Drawing

2011-11-20T19:23:00.000-08:00

A FSTC guest blooger, Ascha Drake, talks about drawing and teaching drawing. Enjoy.

Material Explorations

2011-11-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

I will soon share some ideas on reflection in the lower elementary grades, but first, I wanted to write a bit about what has been happening in our studio this week.

This week, students in my fourth grade classes have been exploring the possibilities of cardboard. Instead of heading in a specific direction during this lesson, the students were asked to experiment and consider the many possibilities that the material could offer. At first, many of the students were hesitant to start making without specific directions. They asked many questions about what was allowed and what they should make. The only criteria for their work was that it should be created by cutting the cardboard and gluing it to the base. Other than that, they were free to explore.

As they worked, we stopped often to share discoveries. Students created height by layering the pieces of cardboard. Many artists peeled away the layers of the corrugated cardboard and used the layers in different parts of their pieces. Students noticed that certain ideas would not be successful, so they changed course midway. Some students chose to create abstract compositions while others made more representational work. It was really interesting to see the students sharing their ideas and working off of one another. These types of explorations are something that I have been incorporating into my curriculum more and more. I have often taken this approach when working with much younger students, but I have noticed the same playfulness occurs with older children. Here are some examples of finished work:

Students will continue to work with cardboard, but we will be working within a common theme. I am interested to see how their approach to the project is influenced by this experience. I loved the idea of giving the students a chance to take risks with materials. My hope is that they continue to explore possibilities even when the project has a more distinct direction.

Breatrice Coron on TedTalks

2011-11-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

Reflection in the Elementary Studio: Upper Grade Mid-Project Reflective Dialogue

2011-11-06T09:21:00.001-08:00

Reflection and critical dialogue is an essential part of the art making process for adult artists. Very often, this practice is left out of the art making process of the youngest artists. I am not sure why this is, and it is something that I have continually tested, changed and struggled with throughout my education career. In an elementary school, the art product is often pushed to the forefront, and I initially felt like the more work you can get students to produce, the better. Early in my teaching career, I often brushed over the reflection aspect of the lesson to give students more time to actually create work.

In the past year, I have been thinking a lot about how we can teach our students to recognize the importance of looking at their own artwork, discussing it with their peers and making reflection a routine part of their own art making process. Since I have begun to stress this, students may be creating less work, but what they do create is more successful and it better reflects my own lesson objectives. My goal is to have the students initiate the reflection process on their own. I hope that eventually I will have structures in place that will allow them to stop working, ask a partner to participate in a discussion of the work and then take those discussion points back to finishing their work.

At this point in the year, I have begun to model this process with the whole group. At a mid-point in a project, we will meet on the rug and look at the work. I will often ask students to notice something about someone else's piece that is successful. Once we have discussed why it works, I will ask the students to give the artist suggestions on how to make it more successful. They will then provide a number of possibilities that the artist can decide to follow or not once we get back to work. We will repeat this for a few examples and then I will ask all of the students to bring their work back to their tables and continue the same discussion with the two other artists at their table before getting back to work.

The student reaction to this process is varied at this point. Some artists stick with their original intentions and ideas. While they may participate in the dialogue, I do not see evidence of the reflection changing their own art making process. Others clearly take what the other students say and re-engage with their work with the reflection dialogue in mind. Here is an example of one such artist. Fourth grade students were asked to create a collage of food with painted paper. They had just finished an abstract drawing project, so we had been talking a lot about composition. Here is his piece before the mid-project reflection:

During the reflection, he asked for suggestions for his work. He initially had felt like he was finished, but wanted feedback. Suggestions ranged from adding more detail to rethinking the composition (Students noticed that there was a lot of empty space in the lower part of the piece.). He went back to work after the reflection and finished at this point:

To me, the changes that he made evidenced that he considered what the students had said and reconsidered some of his choices. It inspired me to continue to look for other ways that students re-engage with their own work after discussing it with their peers. In this example, the changes he made are clearly reflective of the dialogue, but how can the importance of the reflection also be seen in students who do not as drastically change their work after a discussion? This too is obviously a valid artistic choice. I also am thinking a lot about how this reinforces the concepts that we are working on for each project.

In the final reflection (pictured above) students were really interested in seeing the changes from the earlier point. My integration of this process into the elementary studio is still evolving, but it is exciting to see young artists participating in this reflective dialogue and I hope that it will become a natural part of the process of making for them.

The Craft Clubs in UK Schools

2011-11-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

Recycled Rainforest Project, Lindens Primary School. © Lindsay Chalford-Brown

Watch a mini-documentary on how Craft Clubs have taken off in UK Schools, sponsored by the Crafts Council.

First Year Teacher Interview with Kevin Farrant

2011-11-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

Work in progress from the "Poster Portrait" project.

From Studio to Classroom spoke with Kevin Farrant, a first year teacher working on a design-based curriculum, about his experiences so far in the field.

Has your preparation for classes, in terms of both materials and mental preparation, changed over time?

KF: I think the main thing that has changed is that I have become more relaxed. And I guess what I mean is that the nerves and possibly the stress of giving a demo lesson and or just facilitating the day’s work has gone down if not completely dissipated. However, I think time management and my overall scheduling of project times could improve. I do worry about making sure we have enough time and don’t spend too much time working on any given assignment. My preparation in terms of materials has been unique in so far as most of our main assignments are on the computer. That’s not to say that I haven’t brought in outside, physical elements into the classroom, but most of my presentations or prompts have been on the Smartboard via a Powerpoint presentation or video on Youtube.

Do you have any projects that you are particularly proud of/that have been particularly successful with your class?

KF: As I only see my two classes once a week for 45 minutes, technically we’re still on our first assignment of the semester. We’ve had smaller homework drawing assignments and brainstorming exercises to lead into this project, but no fully finished work has been completed yet. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks!

Can you give us an idea of what you are working on?

KF: The project started around the idea of the self-portrait and how design has used this idea as an advertisement/product promotion/campaign posters, etc.
We looked at some iconic images that have resonated throughout recent and past history so I think this had an affect on their work. We had good conversations surrounding the images; Why these colors were chosen? What was the designer, or design team trying to say making the choices they made with the image? What was the artist trying to say about themselves in their self-portrait? What do you think their lives were like based off of this image of themselves? Lastly, I paired the students in groups of two. I wanted them to actively engage in the mind set of a designer. We talked about the "Design World" where a designer is rarely ever designing something for themselves, but rather working in a team or individually designing something for someone else. This is why I am having them design one anothers "self-portrait". They've had to discuss with each other what they wanted in their poster and go through a sort of interview Q&A process in order to better understand their "clients" needs/wants.


Project references

Project Example

How do you accommodate different types of learners in your lessons?

KF: This is something that I’m still observing and trying to be patient with. I think in the moment when one student asks you a question about something you’ve explained 5 times in the last five minutes, I wonder if it’s my delivery, am I not being clear, is this too complicated for this age group? But then I realize some if not most of the students are getting it, and maybe there’s one or two students missing the idea or instructions. In short I try to be patient, repeat myself and ask students who are understanding things to help explain it to their peers.

What resources have you found to be the most helpful to you?

KF: I am teaching a “Design” course to two groups of 5th graders in a great private school with a considerable budget. So I guess in a way the school has been the most helpful resource, and what I mean by that is they have already provided each student in my class room with a 13” MacBook Pro. I have a smart board in each of the two classrooms that I teach in. I’ve requested that they update their Photoshop version, and they did. We’re now on Photoshop CS5 with 10 year olds! It’s exciting. They are having a blast.

Vik Muniz on TedTalks

2011-10-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

Styrofoam (and other Trash)

2011-10-25T02:39:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I've been musing over the work of Jason Rogenes. His large scale installations and sculptures, consisting primarily of multiple pieces of expanded polystyrene (or Styrofoam), cardboard, and well placed lighting, create a sense of magic, playfulness, and perhaps a hint of ominous violence from the future.

In my determination to have this use of discarded packaging material come to life in my classroom, I stumbled upon an awesome show currently on view at The New Children's Museum in San Diego, California. The show, entitled Trash, brings together 12 different artists (including Rogenes) who all share an interest in the use (or re-use) of the used, discarded, unwanted bits of everyday detritus as a way to make art. All of the work on view is truly inspirational, but I am still very fond of Rogenes' aesthetic vision.

Rogenes' work "Megalittransponder" from the exhibit, Trash.

For any readers in the San Diego area, please go see the exhibit, and tell us all about it!

Paint Process: Gerhard Richter

2011-10-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

Watch Gerhard Richter paint. It is amazing.

Guerilla Knitting

2011-10-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

Street art in the form of Guerilla knitting was spotted in Reykjavik, Iceland. Also check the covered bench that is often found outside La Casita Yarn shop on Smith Street, Brooklyn or examples from around the country.

Dolls

2011-10-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Fashion dolls made by Lanvin for an HIV and Aids Charity.

In the studio class, From Studio to Classroom, we have been exploring the possibilities of dolls. Here are some examples as well as the process we used.

Step 1

Step 2

Hannah O.

Rohan C.

Erica

Cassette Tape

2011-10-09T02:49:00.000-07:00

Erika Iris Simmons is a self taught artist working with cassette tape.

The "conceptual art and social activism of interdisciplinary artist, Alyce Santoro"
also includes the use of recycled cassette tape. Her project, Sonic Fabric, utilizes the cassette tape as a material to construct garments that are accompanied with their own sound collages, which the artist describes as "strange and intricate music made by weaving together unlikely combinations of looped and layered samples of found, created, and collected sounds."

Siemon Allen is a South African artist who currently lives and works in the United States. The image above is of a large wall installation in Richmond, Virginia. With an intricate weaving process he dubbed the "mad weave," Allen created a massive, reflective surface out of used video tape purchased from an Army/Navy Surplus store.

Ms Riemer at New Voices Middle School, Brooklyn shared her students work with us. Take a look!

First Year Teacher Interview with John Bartlett

2011-10-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

From Studio to Classroom spoke with John Bartlett, a first year teacher, about his experiences starting the school year. Here is what he had to say:

Of course I was nervous as the first day of school approached, but I was also equally confused about what was expected of me - especially in terms of preparation. The school is a somewhat progressive private school and my immediate supervisor is generally informal and casual about everything. He would say things like "I don't do unit plans...when I do lesson plans it is on a post-it note at the breakfast table." He is an amazing mentor and I was (and am) very happy to work in a loose and adaptable process, allowing projects to unfold naturally, spending more or less time as needed. It's a luxury to have that kind of freedom, but some lack of clear expectations did add to the building nerves about the unknown.

The first day was hair-raising but by the end I was relieved and felt lucky to have landed at this school. It probably doesn't pay as well as some jobs and my wife and I did have to leave New York, but the school supports the arts, classes are small, and the kids are great. One thing I did that was special was to start baby ivy plants from rooted cuttings, dedicated one to each of my new classes, which they got to name. Getting rooms full of 5th graders to agree on a name was not easy but we were able to settle on three pet names. One of my favorites is PeeWee Nutterbutter Herbisaurus.

I have struggled a little with equipment and technology in my classrooms, even though I started coming into the studios and organizing during the summer. My classes include grades 5-12, with everything from painting to paper mache, printmaking, and even ceramics. I also teach darkroom photo, which I had not done for years. I have to relearn stuff everyday to stay ahead of the kids. When I talked about the gaps in my experience with my supervisor, he felt that me figuring things out together with the students would only improve their learning experience, and I think that has been true. I have also been very well served by the variety in my student teaching days. There is a lot to remember and prepare, and I have made plenty of mistakes--but no major fiascoes, so far...

Thanks John for talking to us! We look forward to hearing more from you later in the year.

D R A W I N G and the magic of line------------------

2011-09-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

In my Drawing 1a and 1b classes, students are redefining their definitions of what "drawing" is.

What is drawing?

What is a drawing?

We looked at a simple drawing created by Juan Gris ~ see above ~ and talked about mark-making.

Marks have weight and marks have meaning.

Lines can be scratchy, bold, elegant, delicate, definite, hatched, crackled, and weathered.

Marks can incite emotion, space, rhythm, and questioning.

Drawing 1b students worked with ink and bamboo pens while observing string compositions and configurations.

We have been investigating that many ways artists use materials to create a drawing.

Does a drawing have to be in pen or pencil?

Could a drawing be made out of tape?

Could a drawing be created in space?

Below are some of our findings.......

Richard Serra

http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/exhibitions/421

Michael Namkung

http://michaelnamkung.com/drawing_gym.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HjYn4hHqxo

Dan Perjovschi

http://www.perjovschi.ro/

William Kentridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1oK5LMJ3zY

Cai Guo-Qiang

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/cai/

Julie Mehretu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W1767svWPw&feature=related

Mark Lombardi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lombardi

C O L O R

2011-09-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

"He who knows how to appreciate colour relationships, the influence of one colour on another, their contrasts and dissonances, is promised an infinitely diverse imagery."

- Sonia Delaunay

Delving into color is like delving into a rich, deep, expansive universe.

Whether using colored pencils, Sharpies, acrylic paint, or tape - color presents a whole new language and set of considerations and options as an artist.

My Drawing 1a students just finished working drawings capturing elements from a still-life using a variety of charcoal tools, so I felt that soft chalk pastels would be a good introduction into color.

I welcomed my students into the studio with an array of color swatches, asking them to each choose one.

They were then asked to make a list of all the things they associated with the color or family of colors they chose.

The list had to be at least 15 words.

We then looked at the work of Sonia Delaunay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Delaunay

Students recognized her strong color combinations and willingness to be daring and brave when using color.

Color can be intellectually and emotionally charged.

As a warm-up, students folded a black piece of paper into 4 sections, and each section was devoted to a different kind of exploration working with 5 soft chalk pastels, a blending tool, an eraser, and a white colored pencil.

The investigations were vibrant, physical, exciting, and encouraged the students to work with the language of color in a renewed way.

They then returned to their plant specimen pieces with new discoveries that they were hopefully willing to apply to their drawings.

Report from the Field: Mass MOCA

2011-09-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

The last day of August and I'm not switched over to begin the new fall semester yet. Until Labor Day I am still on summer schedule so I would like to report on an amazing August visit to Mass MOCA. Every time I told someone that I wanted to visit Mass MOCA they would light up and glow about the place. Finally, I made the trip from Brooklyn to North Adams.

I arrived on a Friday night aware that it was close to Mass MOCA’s closing hour, but still left my car at the hotel in favor of walking, as I had read on their website that they held Friday night beer gardens in the summer. I figured this is my kind of museum. The atmosphere as I entered the main building was wonderfully relaxed. The galleries were closed, and I assumed the museum staff was moving visitors out, though not pushing too hard. I had the feeling that if I had crossed into a gallery, I wouldn’t have been hindered. I walked through the building and out the backside, thinking I would at least look at the huge factory with all of its components from the outside. After I turned a corner, I looked up and saw what I thought was a prop subway car left over from a disaster movie set, but it turned out to be a gleaming Air Stream trailer cantilevered off the side of one of the buildings with parachutes dangling and solar panels flanking the sides. Above my head, people were casually walking in and out of this structure, so I figured I would try to make my way up there, too. I entered the building which looked like a former power generating machine that was at least four stories high, composed of rusting beams and cogs and who knows what else. I found the stairs, climbed up and walked the plank to enter Mark Oatman’s, “The Shining.”

The exhibition that left the deepest impressions on me were Katharina Grosse’s “One Floor Up More Highly” and Nari Ward’s “Sub Mirage Lignum.” Katharina Grosse’s installation was in the largest space—a space big enough to land an airplane. She used mounds of soil, huge glaciers of white Styrofoam and brightly colored pigments. The pigments were sprayed onto the soil leaving the glacier-sized pieces of Styrofoam brilliantly white and heaved up as if an ice cutter just plowed through a frozen Yukon waterway. “One Floor Up More Highly” is sculpture and abstract impressionist painting taken to its zenith.

Nari Ward accomplished an amazing task by creating a huge sculptural installation that covered an entire floor of one building and still made it feel personal and intimate as if it was taken directly from his memory, personal associations, family, home, emotions and culture. When entering the rooms which were either filled with a ship that was sliced and perched on sheets of glass that floated like a mirage or a huge wooden vortex tornado filled with clattering spiraling remnants of memory, the enormity of the feelings and emotions being expressed felt overwhelming. It was as if a collective consciousness was having a simultaneous dream. The experience of going from one room to the next filled with so many references from Ward’s native Jamaica, his New York life and the museum itself was mesmerizing because of the imagery and the enormous scale of the pieces. One room was filled with 10-foot tall snowman shapes encrusted with found objects and mango seeds. It was like walking through the rooms of one’s subconscious and finding everything from centuries of reincarnations.

The Workers through March 15, 2012

Michael Oatman: All Utopias Fell through October 2011

I Am Searching for Field Character through September 30, 2011

Nari Ward: Sub Mirage Lignum through April 3, 2011

Memery: Imitation, Memory, and Internet Culture through winter

Kidspace: Color Forms II: The Basic Utensils through September 5,2011

San Foley: Ruse through Dec 31, 2011

Katharina Grosse: One Floor Up More Highly through October 31, 2011

Frederico Diaz: Geometric Death Frequency-141 through March 2012

Chris Cobb: A Changing Exhibition of Photographs through Dec 31, 2011

www.massmoca.org

How do we teach the creative habit?

2011-09-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

“I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands.”

- Louise Bourgeois

Learning to look takes patience.

Developing craft takes time.

Igniting inspiration takes perseverance.

As an educator, I am constantly thinking about how to teach, and how I am teaching.
Certainly there are days when I allow my students to explore and figure out material and meaning on their own.
And there are other days when I hear my voice talking about my own practice as an artist and what I have experienced and figured out works best for me when making and problem solving in the studio.

Bringing in the voices of other artists and creative practitioners encourages students to have an open idea of what the "creative habit" might be.
This is so important.

In my Drawing 1b class, students have been reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit

They were then asked to write about their impressions of her words and insights and reflections on the creative practice. I learned so much about my students when reading their submissions.
Many came away with the understanding that making takes initiative and consistency and the willingness to make mistakes and embrace frustration when it arises.

We constantly talk about the importance of pushing a material to its limits.
What can it do?
What do I appreciate about the material?
What do I wonder about the material?

And the sketchbook becomes a place to house the explorations and the moments of wonder.

And we have been looking at artists who push the definition of "what drawing is..."
Tara Donovan often works with everyday items to make impressions and marks and sculptures.

http://www.acegallery.net/artistmenu.php?Artist=8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Donovan

And we have been reading the writings of Louise Bourgeois

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/282500.Louise_Bourgeois

Teaching and learning is a constant process of finding, exposing, cultivating, capturing, and researching.

First Teaching Days

2011-09-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

Last week was the first week of school at the Bay School. http://www.bayschoolsf.org/ It is amazing to me how much energy an educator spends during the first week of school. No matter how long you have been teaching - it knocks your socks off. I am the new visual arts teacher at the school. When I was hired I was thrilled to become part of the Bay School community. The school opened in 2004, and now has 285 students, and a really incredible, vibrant faculty - all devoted to transforming kids' lives and engaging students. Before school began we had a week-long faculty institute. Each day was packed with information, ideas, connections, reflections, and dialogue about teaching. We watched the below link one morning, and it made us all THINK. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Drawing.

What is drawing?
As an artist and an art teacher, I am thinking about new approaches to teaching and encouraging drawing. It is this very delicate balance between wanting to give students the foundation to know how to draw, but then opening them up to rerouting their definition of what drawing is........For most students at the Bay School - their eyes and hands and minds are connected to a computer for a big chunk of the day. That is the language/tool/communication system of the 21st century. But when students come into the art studio, they are free from the computer, and they have the opportunity to use their motor skills differently, and they get to experiment and explore with tactile, messy materials. Both Drawing 1a and Drawing 1b began the week with LOOKING.

And we looked at objects.

objects you might find around the home...

And we looked at the drawings of Eva Hesse.

Learning how to draw is like learning a language.And you are developing your own language.
Over and over one has to bring a mark or marks to the surface, and over and over one has to consistently hone the relationship between drawing tool and space.
The tool might be an ebony pencil, or it could be masking tape on a white wall, or india ink and a bamboo pen. But regardless, drawing can be intimidating, and as a teacher, I want to make the learning experience accessible, exciting, physical, and compelling. It can be tiring.

Both classes participated in the first "Sketch-a-thon" of the year.A piece of 18inch x 18 inch drawing paper is folded into 16 squares, and each artist is equipped with some drawing tools; perhaps just a graphite pencil, or some classes had a variety of charcoals and an eraser.
A still-life was set up, and the timer was set.
1 minute thumbnail compositions.
There were moments in the session when students moved around and sat looking from a different vantage point.
The goal was for students to look and move quickly.
Capture the gesture.
Capture the feel of the object.
Maybe you are just interested in drawing the curve of the electrical cord.
Or maybe you want to fragment the coffee mug.
In the end, students gained a sensitivity to the drawing material or materials on hand.
They also learned to let go and move on and not tighten up with one little moment.

So here's to being committed to cultivating fully alive students who are interested in seeing and interacting with the world in a myriad of ways.

Duct Tape

2011-09-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

Duct tape is affordable, versatile and strong. Of course, there has long been a national craft competition using duct tape but that should not stop us sharing some recent examples of artists who use duct tape here. John Beech, is currently on at Portland Art Museum , has worked with some metallic tape in a number of the pieces in this show. Rebecca Ward is a Texas-born, Brooklyn based artist. She creates large-scale, site specific installations using colorful electrical tape. She has exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally in both commercial (earlier this year at Kate Spade's Soho boutique) and gallery spaces. She also collaborated with another tape-based artist, Emily Sal l, in a Kansas City exhibition titled "Information is Incidental."

Jyoti, a Brooklyn 4th grader, made this duct tape bag in a fashion design summer camp this year.

POST-ITS

2011-08-11T04:48:00.000-07:00

This blog likes post-its and has posted "post-it" animations and installations. Here is some street art with post-its: an interactive 'graffiti' project between Ubisoft Montreuil and BNP bank in Paris and a tribute to Peckham, a London neighborhood, during the riots there.

Why we love Peckham ... a message board set up by local theatre company Peckham Shed outside a Poundland store that was damaged during the rioting. Photograph: David Levene

"Post-it" office war, Paris, France

Amplify Action: Call for Artists

2011-08-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Amplify Action: Exhibition Announcement: " (BROOKLYN, NY) Spring 2012 – Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC), the Pratt Center for Community Development and Pratt’s Initiative for Arts, Community, and Social Change (IACSC) are honored to announce the presentation of “Amplify Action: Sustainability through the Arts”, an exhibition of works that will be presented by the Skylight Gallery, a department of BSRC's Center for Arts and Culture, created by both local artists and artists abroad that promote a civic dialogue about community sustainability. Please join the artists for the opening reception in Spring 2012 at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation’s Skylight Gallery, 1368 Fulton Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, New York.

“Amplify Action: Sustainability through the Arts” demonstrates how arts, culture and media are powerful catalysts for social change, and aims to engage neighborhoods in a dialogue about sustainable living, making healthy consumer choices, and taking environmental action. Works in the exhibit will directly and indirectly examine the different components of sustainability such as, but not limited to: ecology, economy, equity, environmental consciousness, resource conservation and efficiency, agriculture, architecture, infrastructure, environmental justice and health...."

Inside the Studio: "Aida" screenprinter to street artists

2011-07-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

Aida's Studio

"Visit" Aida's studio on Vandalog and read about her screen printing workshop, her clothing shop and her work with London street artists here.

The Issues With Art, Part IV: Veteran Artists’ Viewpoints

2011-07-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

The veteran artists mentioned in previous postings have definite impressions about the resources they employ in order to handle the issues they have with their visual art. These artists, veterans by the fact that they have been dedicated to their art for a period ranging from 11 to 32 years plus a record of commitment to improving and expanding their art so that new challenges arise, agreed to share their personal reflections about art making with me for the benefit of other artists. The comments I have selected (from personal interviews) contain a very brief synopsis of these artists’ extensive perceptions. In order to protect their privacy I have not identified any of the artists by name, however the words below represent the voices of six artists, three males and three females, organized according to the artist resources. This is certainly a small sample; I know there are many more veteran artists waiting to share their thoughts and opinions and if you happen to be one of them, please feel free to send your comments this way.

How artists view the self, and by consequence the world, because of their art making or being an artist are expressed by these artists. One says, “It's a whole other way of approaching the world, a whole other way of seeing, which I think is worth your weight in gold.” She explains, “Well, I think…when you’re a child you draw eyes a certain way, straight on, and then you realize as you start drawing that there’re all these other things that happen, that when you have a profile, the eye looks entirely different and you learn how to do that. And once you know all these things, you see them better…I just think if you can develop that side of yourself, for no other reason than it just enhances your life, you look at things in a different way…it's like a treasure that you have put in your soul because you have really looked at something.”

With regard to looking closely at the world around her, another believes, “You are more aware…what it does is just make life more interesting…if I put a camera in my pocket I am drawn to some piece of leaf that has a strange shape or a color or a light coming through something which I never would have noticed before...and so it just makes a difference in the way you want to get out of bed in the morning and want to get at something or other...but I do feel that exploring or furthering this idea of experiment and exploration and getting people involved in that, is not so much good for the person but it’s good for the society.”

Regarding examples for how art making personally affects these veteran artists, one says, “I'm lost in another zone. I’m not aware of time, I don't even think much about whether I'm hungry or anything else, it's a kind of bliss. That's not to say there aren't problems to solve, but I'm, I have no trouble focusing, I have trouble stopping.”

The resource of support includes people from one’s past as well as present. People from the past often include parents who demonstrated a creative personality through an active imagination or nurturing attitude. In the present, aside from professional groups, these artists report that the most supportive people have been spouses, friends and instructors who have become very precious to the artist, as close friends and mentors.

When working on a project, one artist says, “You don’t finish it exactly and then you come back and you look at it again, and then you talk to (his wife), about if it's done or not!” Another artist also relies on his spouse and says, “I have to ask her [his wife] and we argue sometimes but it's good stuff. I wouldn't let anything leave this house without her stamp of approval.”

The resource of situation includes inspiration (perhaps a singular moment or spark), motivation (more of an on-going process), and reflections (involving ways of looking at art and how artists approach their art). These issues are all specific to the artist’s particular situation. Sources of inspiration may include the news, magazines, museums, something from their lives, playing with materials and journaling. One artist says, “I get up in the middle of the night and write. I’m very influenced by dream and we [he and his wife] talk a lot about our dreams and in the morning often we stay in bed and just discuss our dreams and they’re very relevant and helpful and so some of my best work comes from getting up in the middle of the night….”

For others the source of inspiration is less specific. One says, “That question has been asked to me so many times, I don't know. I'll be walking along and an idea will pop into my head.” This same artist commented that often it was a matter of spontaneous reaction. He says, “I just sort of looked at a wall and thought, ‘What would look good there?’ Not that I could always accomplish it, but I could try.”

Motivation for these veteran artists includes germinating ideas, the desire to present an idea to the public, and the curiosity of finding out how the world would respond. For some, the motivation to enter into the arts was very strong and for many, the motivation to learn is what keeps them involved. One artist says, “For me it's just how I live in terms of seeing things around me and wondering if they could be otherwise, or what would happen if I did this to it or that, or…if you put things this way instead of that way, it makes a big difference. So I guess I’m responsive to what's around me. And being able to make it the way you want it is part of creating or…just wondering how else it could be than what you see is something I do all the time.”

Another says, “I don't think the instructors motivate me as much as I motivate myself and the other students motivate me. Well comments, critiques, informal conversations about your work. Suggesting an idea, suggesting taking an idea another step higher. Those are the things that motivate me.” He also says that competition motivates him. “I think not when I'm just working in my studio alone, no, but in a class if they give you an assignment I always want it to be really good. I mean I don’t really compete with the other people because how does an artist compete with another artist? But I compete with myself, I just want it to be the best that I can.”

The reflections that these artists report include how they perceive art. For instance one prefers art that makes one think and another says she believes in making art that will have meaning in order to fight for something. Another thread of reflections involves ways of approaching their art. In this vein, one artist says he is never constrained by anything, preferring instead to experiment and see what happens. Another feels that, “to put it on the wall and see what it is” is important with her art.

One artist believes, “A good picture, a good piece of art is like a poem, it’s something that should demand some real input and participation by the viewer. I like stuff like that, and you go back to it another time and see it a new way, I like something that’s not just bing, there it is, and you’re done with it.”

Another says, “I do ceramics and I do glass work, and a few acrylics, and I do oils, I do sculpture, so I do everything because I'm not constrained by any idea. So I just experiment and if it works, it works, if it doesn't work, doesn't work. I'm totally free and I don't have any pressure of having to perform or having to do something.”

Studio space is an interesting sub-theme of reflections, in that it affects the way one approaches his or her art and can be a key factor in the artist’s particular situation. As one artist explains, “You can't set yourself up in the living room and clean it up for dinner and then go back to where you were, that you really need to have a space…so I think having a space that's your space that you can leave, set something up, leave it there, make a mess…not worried about the floor, not worried about the wall, not worried about any other thing except what you're doing. Shut the door, no one bothers you. I think all that is really helpful.”

The resource of strategies implies that these veteran artists have it all figured out, yet there are still worries and issues of concern after all these years. However, these artists do have solutions for when they are stuck on a project, including stepping back from the work, looking at it upside down or turning it around. Also letting others know you are a beginner (because they will want to offer advice), experimentation, analyzing the process, using a different tool and making samples. One says he simply does some woodworking in order to keep himself engaged as he is waiting for the next idea to emerge. Another says, “When I'm doing nothing I am thinking of the next step what I'm going to do, I visualize and how it's going to be connected, it becomes a little complicated and I draw and I keep doing until everything is in my head and then I start doing it.”

Yet another says, “I'll go back at it and go back at it, and go back at it until I get it to some point where I can say it's done even if I don't like it done. But I've had projects that have hung around for years, literally, this is a piece in the making and it's 20 years old. I just look at them and sometimes I get an idea and it works.”

All of these veteran artists believe the benefits of art making far outweigh the fears and reservations of getting started. One says, “Do it! Yeah! Start playing baseball! Do anything. I mean if it's something you want to do, do it! Absolutely I would encourage them.”

Another says, “Don't be afraid of doing anything just get your feet wet and just keep trying that's all. I think everybody has some fear of failing and the question is why? So just keep trying and then you can find maybe you’re not good in watercolors but you would be very good in acrylics or glass. Just keep trying….”

One says, “Do it. Do Not Hesitate! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. There is nothing you can do wrong! Go with a friend! And get people to play with, I guess, get a group together…come back again and do more…keep at it, try again and try something new.”

And another says, “Well if they can play or just try it or something and see something valuable in just the first steps and build on. I come with the attitude, this is fun, you can have fun too, your fun might be a little different, you know, from mine or you might do it differently, that's fine, that’s yours and honoring the uniqueness of each person and their own ability is maybe different and not to compare with me, how I did it. Mine isn't the only way, it just happens to work for me but yours might be whole new thing.”

And lastly, “Try it, by all means! Because I think it's hugely life enhancing. I think people don't see, we're all so busy, we're all rushing around doing this, that and the other thing, we don't really take the time to see, drawing something drawing that shape with all the little shapes in the shapes, you really see it. And it's interesting, it's fun, it totally takes your mind to try to get all that detail on a piece of paper. I think it's good to do that because you're scattered all the time. And that hard work concentrates you and I think that in itself is good. And if the result is pleasing, terrific and if it isn't, just the process is great. It's a great process, so I would say, go for it!”

All photographs in this series are property of the author and may contain original artwork by the author.