Read and React

 

Inspiring Passion in Art

Art Educators love to teach Art but first of all they love Art! For us being passionate about what we do is easy, because we already know what we are passionate about. But what about our students who are still looking for their passions? The Art classroom should give them an atmosphere of learning, experimenting, and trying new ways to express themselves. Lessons that evoke interest by being relevant to the students’ lives will make the creative process easier. Students may not always be able to come up with new ideas so we as teachers should guide them on “scratching” for ideas. (Tharp)

Students learn to be persistent in Art lessons that cannot be completed overnight. Learning to work towards completing an Art project requires discipline and desire to see the final outcome. Students guided to plan the project completely with sketches of what they “envision” the final project to look like can help them keep on tract. (Hetland) Many Art projects can be broke down into smaller parts and these should be timed out so projects are completed by the deadline. There needs to be help in solving unexpected problems so students are able to feel the accomplishment of finishing the creative idea they had started.

“Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education” by Hetland, discusses the important lessons sometimes not seen that are learned in a “rigorous visual arts class”. These attributes are “Motivating and Instilling Passion, Cultivating sustained Attention, Combating Frustration, Working hard to meet a deadline, and developing the ability to delay gratification or working without seeing the endpoint”. Developing lessons that engage students to work in a persistent manner let students guide their own learning by designing and completing a piece of Art. 

When students enjoy creating in the Art classroom they will be more creative in other areas of their lives. Inspiring them to not be afraid to come up with something new is important in learning problem solving skills. Many times the best ideas come out of other ideas so learning to let their creative ideas flow is an important skill for their future. Working on a personal piece of Art can be important to our students even if no one sees a final product. The act of self expression and what they learn about their selves and their creative minds is an important lesson. Often people say they are not creative, but they really can be they just need more confidence in their creativity. Students may worry about what others may think of them but being creative takes some courage so we need to keep an atmosphere in the Art classroom that fosters freedom of ideas.

Resources:

Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema, S., & Sheridan, K., (2007) “Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education”, Teachers College Press, New York, NY

Thorp, Twyla, “Scratching”  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B8629DSgjkxyM2RmNTcxMTUtOGY4YS00NDhkLWExNjgtNzVjNDdhZmU1OGUx&hl=en&authkey=CPDIgfgI

How can we teach our students to act on their ideas?

Four ways to act on an idea have been cited by Harvard psychologist Stephen Kosslyn. They are:

Generation: come up with the idea in the first place

Retention: Hold onto the idea

Inspection: study and make inferences about an idea

Transformation: alter it in some way to suit your purpose

One good way to help the Art student come up with and use ideas is by having them keep a journal or sketchbook. They can play around with ideas this way before deciding on ones they want to use. They also can hold onto these ideas by recording them in a book they can keep. A new idea can come from different ideas and these fragmented ideas can be referred to later also. They can further explore an idea with sketches and construction plans. The actual piece may not work completely as planned or may not look exactly as the student had envisioned so they should always be flexible to make changes or corrections when actually completing it.

Gaining Engagement and Persistance through Art

“Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education” by Hetland, discusses the important lessons sometimes not seen that are learned in a “rigorous visual arts class”. These attributes are “Motivating and Instilling Passion, Cultivating sustained Attention, Combating Frustration, Working hard to meet a deadline, and developing the ability to delay gratification or working without seeing the endpoint”. Here are some ways these are passed on by a passionate Art Educator.

Motivating and Instilling Passion: Art is continually motivating. There is an intrinsic enjoyment in creating something that you envision with your own hands. Art Educators should model this passion and pass on their own excitement in creating to their students. “A good teacher loves what they teach”; a quote I’m not sure where it came from but I’m sure it’s true. Getting students involved in their school and world is one way to create motivation and engagement. 

Cultivating sustained Attention: Art projects that require students to plan how to construct the piece along with how much time it will take will help in facilitating sustained attention. In ceramics as well as other media you have to plan your time carefully. With thrown pieces they need to harden enough to turn them upside down to trim the feet, and with handbuilt pieces the process of letting the pieces dry to the correct hardness is very important. Many other mediums also can be broken down into different construction parts. The students should be guided to plan out their studio time and any outside time they may need to spend in preparation for class time. Large projects should be discussed to see if the time needed is appropriate and the student will be able to complete the piece they envision in the time available.

Combating Frustration: Art Educators need to combat frustration in the classroom by helping students deal with unexpected problems. Instilling an attitude of learning from our mistakes or our failures is important. When practicing an Art we are doing just that. When our ideas don’t work the way we planned we re-plan or we are flexible to change. When working on technical skills the students often find what works best for them by practicing. Curriculum should give students time to practice skills without expecting a perfect outcome. Being a coach for learning from our mistakes can instill a good attitude towards trying new things in the future for our students.

Working Hard to meet a Deadline: In my own artwork I have found I need a deadline as well as a timeline for completing a project. When I don’t have a deadline I sometimes leave the piece and start another one when the first one was almost done! Art class should give students a chance to display their work. To display a piece that they are happy with may mean waiting until they have spent time practicing the technical skill. They then can work on a finished piece that they would like to display and they will have to complete before the deadline. They will gain pride in all the work they did and gain an understanding of how much time is spent creating Art.

Developing the ability to delay gratification (working without seeing the endpoint): Practicing technical skills is important in working towards being able to construct a piece of Art you are envisioning. Learning to work with a media until they acquire competency needs an attitude of not worrying about a finished product at first. In ceramics there needs to be much time spent practicing working with the clay before they worry about finishing a professional looking bowel or cup. The atmosphere should be one of practicing and experimenting with the medium and allow the students to develop skills gradually before putting importance on final outcomes. Eventually they will feel comfortable with the material and finished pieces will emerge.

Learning to work together and respect each others work and work space is another important objective gained through Art Curriculum. The classroom becomes a place where they can feel safe to learn and create. Students gain self-esteem and self-awareness in expressing themselves creatively.

Resources:

Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema, S., & Sheridan, K., (2007) “Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education”, Teachers College Press, New York, NY

"Scratching" for a Visual plan for my Paintings

At this point I am only trying out Visual ideas by putting images together.

This is a rough draft of visual images I want to put together in a painting.

Developing a New Craft!

I have been inspired!! I'm studying Abstract Expressionism and was wildly drawn to creating some Abstract paintings myself showing my experience here at Mizzou. Even though painting is not a requirement of my Art History class I have already bought new paints and have 6 canvases ready to go so this is a great assignment for me and a great way for me to share the outcome of my aspirations with fellow Artists. I decided in studying the Expressionist Artists of the early 1900's there was just as much scientific thought going on in their paintings as in the old traditional realism paintings. Some of the German painters prided themselves in completing a painting  in 15 minutes and part of their success was in planning. They spent time observing people and places and then they did rough sketches of what they saw. So to plan these paintings I (using new technology) have been taking pictures around Mizzou. I have collected these and I'm still adding more. I want to use several images from the pictures but change and rearrange them to express the feelings attending Mizzou has had for me. I am including an example of one below. I am now going make a sketch or several sketches from looking at this collage before I decide on one to paint. When I get to the painting stage I am going to decide on lines and colors for their expressive qualities and "Try" to paint it in 15 minutes. I may take longer but I am looking forward to working on this body of work and I have found many things we've learned about using technology has helped me in breaking down the process in to steps that will make attempting a new craft easier for me.

Developing Studio Skills and Observational Skills In our Multi-Tasking Kids

Multi-tasking is an important skill and is a skill brought about by technology that we didn’t foresee. It’s easy to understand if you have worked for a company on their computer software that was at times slow moving. When you use a computer as a tool at your work and you are forced to wait between functions or screens you find ways to make good use of your time. You may be able to complete other office duties that can be done in while waiting for the screen or function without any difficulty. This is the way that technology has, you could way, forced our kids to multi-task, of course they may be using several computer applications at once, along with texting friends, which you could call hyper-tasking. I believe to be a successful multi-tasker they have to be good at balancing the tasks they are doing. In Chapter 4 of “Wired” by Larry Rosen the idea of deciding which activities to perform at the same time may seem absurd to our teenagers as they have been making these types of decisions for years and balancing tasks may seem natural for them. Of course they aren’t always making correct decision like in texting while driving but I think poor judgment aside they are being efficient with their time while excelling in many areas of life. They can be good multi-taskers and be learning to create balance in their lives at the same time.

When teaching Art we need to include instruction in “developing craft” as discussed in chapter 5 of “Studio Thinking”. Studio classes need to start with instruction in handling and taking care of tools, equipment and supplies. Art classrooms should display rules for clean-up and the teacher needs to cover this the first day. Don’t expect the students to know what to do, but with a few guidelines they leave things clean and organized for the next students and that will make studio time go smoother for everyone.

The practice of making Art or “developing craft” (Hetland) has many aspects and steps that can be followed. Instruction on many different techniques in the medium are included in a studio class. Students are inspired to follow further research and practice in using a technique that they are interested in. Learning to use a medium to express themselves is in part learning to practice techniques and aesthestic judgment in expressing themselves creatively. A part of developing craft is developing creative ideas. Students could be led to use visual images they find or take pictures of and collect them to give them creative ideas for studio practice. Practice in technical skills need not be creative when gaining proficiency in the technique is what the student is working on. They might need practice with the medium before they feel comfortable using their own ideas. This is where the lesson gives students opportunities to continue a desired practice and less importance is given on innovation. Then when the student feels they have mastered a degree of technical skill they then can see many ideas of what they want to do with this new talent. Then their collection of images and observations will help them see what interests them and will help them come up with creative ideas for their projects.

Part of understanding Art is learning to observe the world around us. Using digital cameras students can capture an image in their world in the viewfinder. Artists used a viewfinder without a camera to frame in the part of the image they want to capture in a drawing or painting. Today we can use the camera viewfinder to easily observe different perspectives of our visual world. In chapter 9 of “Studio Thinking” students look through a paper viewfinder for design elements, breaking down the image into shapes, colors, lines and textures. Looking at the world in different ways develops skills in observation. Using the light boxes example also given in “Studio Thinking” is a good way for students to practice seeing light and shadow and using it in a composition. Our young kids are bombarded with many images, quickly moving in front of them, and learning to really look at the world is now and has always been an important part of Art Education.

Resources:

Rosen, L. (2010). “Rewired: Understanding the net generation and how they learn.” New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hetland, l. (2010). “Studio thinking: The real benefits of visual arts education.” New York, NY: Teachers Press.