Rally, Rally, Rally, What art for Rally?

I attended that rally I spoke of the other day. Here is a pic.

It was great, it was loud, lots of people spoke up and the crowd chanted vigorously through the campus.
But, when the request went out to the crowd for a student to say something, I had no idea what I would say.
While rallys are great for bringing awareness to a specific issue and drawing a crowd, do they actually encourage dialogue?

At one point, actually a few points, there were references to what is going on in Wisconsin. In case you need a refresher, in a nutshell, the powers that be are trying to get rid of the Union's right and Teacher's right to collective bargaining. Meaning it would be nearly impossible for a teacher to bargain on contracts. The state would decide on the contracts and probably create a situation where every teacher had the same terms, regardless of many factors.

Im not so sure that a comparison was warranted. What I do want to say in regards to Wisconsin is that states are in trouble financially, and I understand taking drastic measures to deal with budget issues. However, Education, Health Care, and social programs that help people are not the places to make cuts. Do not take power away from teachers or even schools for that matter. That move will end bad I promise. In an ideal world, I feel that Unions are middle people who get in the way of communication between schools and teachers. Schools should be doing what is best for the students and productivity of the school, and therefore need to be employed by smart, able-bodied administrators. Each school should be able to react to their environment and that environment will differ from school to school. Communication and empathy are so crucial moving forward.

Which brings me back to the rally. I need to hear both sides, and need to understand the situation better. While I want teachers to have environments that facilitate greater learning opportunities, I also understand the need to make cuts in a financial burden. I also value having diversity among the educators, and employing part-time teachers is a way of having that, so taking away their classes is a hurtful move. I think it is fair to ask more of our teachers, especially during a crisis. If they can work more to preserve their jobs, and other's jobs, then that should happen.

The sign above, created by the talented Todd Irwin reads, "Don't Threaten Quality Education." A fellow student replied to that, DUH!

The financial crisis in America is making it harder on everyone. Cuts are going to be necessary, but what many Republican movements are doing is just idiotic and irresponsible. How could anyone want to cut programs that fund education such as PBS or NPR, organizations that I happen to love and use as a teacher daily. How could an intelligent mind want to shut down places like Planned Parenthood who save lives and help people get the needed healthcare. Is it not ironic that the same people who fight agains the programs that bring health to the population like Planned Parenthood, also feel it unnecessary to provide health care to the masses? I am growing tired of politics, but these kinds of movements must not prevail. Yes, the nation's budget is hurting, but none of these cuts to important programs leave the United States in any better of a situation, both financially and socially.

Enough about that here is some art work.

This one reminds me of my wife.

This is done by Eric Otto, an artist I am finding much inspiration in these days.

Art with nails. Pretty amazing.

Before I go I wanted to point out a crystallizing moment that happened recently in one of my classes. A student who is an ESL learner and might also have a few learning disabilities as well has been struggling in my classes. She finds it hard to understand my instruction and often stares into space while other students work hard. Currently, we are working on abstract, urban collages and I have drilled into them the mantra, "I create art through destruction," a Rauschenberg quote. 

The idea is that they can never make a wrong move, or choice in their art. The process is about spontaneous choices, expressive mark making and adding layers. If they do not like an area they can always go over it again. 

This particular student was at a turning point in her work and unhappy with the present result. I tried through words to get her to understand how she could develop the piece more, but she was unwilling. So, I took a brush, soaked it into some orange paint (never a bad color) and applied quick, expressive strokes onto her work. She shrieked in horror as she claimed I was destroying her work. I referred to the mantra of the assignment and continued to add value and movement to her work. I asked he to pay attention to the way I was directing my brush around her canvas and then I left her with a new color and a new brush. The I said, since I have already ruined your work you shouldn't have to worry about making it worse. Have fun with the paint and I will check back in a moment. 

When I came back she was celebrating over her beautiful work of art. She was excited and happy with the new result of her hard work. She told me to look at how beautiful the colors were on her canvas and how images could still be seen behind the paint. I think this might have been a breakthrough.

Rally Behind Art

I woke up today to an invite for a rally, or maybe I should say "protest" instead, against new initiatives presented by my university. From what I can gather (I should gather more, because you should always be informed before making a stand) Northeastern is cutting funding to the art department in some shape or form. It seems that Tenured Teachers (professors, instructors) are being asked to teach more classes while part-time art teachers are losing their positions in the process. The result is an overworked group of teachers who will have less time for outside projects and less diversity among the teaching body. Lose, Lose from most perspectives.
It is important to note that Northeastern is having some money issues, and also some bureaucratic and organizational concerns to boot. Cutting funding to school departments might be necessary. However, they (the administrators) seem to be giving themselves raises. If true, it is unacceptable. I would also be interested to find out if Art is the first on the chopping block.

You know what I say, "Strong Arts, Strong Schools."

Art is the pathway to higher education, when explored and respected, the originality of each human being becomes a way to save schools from the boredom and rigid learning that is corrupting them.

And so it is that on Thursday at 3pm, I will join my fellow students to send a message of creativity to the administration. Art is humanity.
Here is some art.

I love Swoon. She rocks! The delicacy in which she approaches a very urban and industrial canvas is unmatched in the art world. Here creativity, passion for activism and art is a true motivation to get out there and create.

Some wonderful photography

And some more Street Art

Gleaming the Schools

This blog is about promoting art through education. I truly believe that it can be and is a gateway to further enlightenment for students from all walks of life. As I have probably already stated somewhere on this blog, "Art is Humanity, and when it is utilized correctly, and when it is respected and explored, the originality of each human being becomes a way to save schools from the irrelevance and boredom that prevails in so many classrooms." Art is the meaning behind the content.

These might seem like overbearing words, or maybe even extreme, but I truly believe that if schools accepted this philosophy that things would change for the better quickly. I find it disturbing that we are still in a collective mindset that focuses on math and science scores over everything else. Then schools cut funding to "electives" classes when the math test scores are low, and give that money into the those departments. 

How can we continue on this path when the evidence is so strong against it. My guess would be that it is just plain easier to look at hard data (found in test scores) than to really evaluate each student as an individual. Howard Gardner has pointed out how schools restrict the development of the human intellect by concentrating on nurturing only the linguistic and mathematical/logical parts of the brain. There needs to be a realization that students have many varying strengths. Gardner has exposed 7 different forms of intelligence that a person could have. If we overlook the 5 to focus on 2 then we are failing our students, and setting them up for failure.

Promoting the arts is a way of fighting this near sited perspective. The arts are a way to self-exploration and fulfillment. If a student is weak in math, but strong in art, how will they become more successful by taking them out of art and placing them in more math? When a student has confidence in their performance within the school walls, that confidence will extend into other classrooms. Art also overlaps with just about any area of study. Establishing connections from art to other subjects is a way of promoting the bigger picture and facilitating true learning.

So what does it mean to learn? I can tell you that it has nothing to do with copying data, or regurgitating information. It does however stem from exercising creativity and imagination.

The Crystallizing moment in education is that point when a student realizes their strengths and the brain truly begins to grow mentally. It is that click, or wow moment when everything makes sense. This just can not happen through studying for tests, or copying information down.

As an Art Educator, it is my goal to make Art majors and minors out of undeclared students who “see with eyes unclouded” the multiple sides of visual artmaking as opposed to the often intimidating and disempowering side of Art visible to many outsiders. I enhance students critical sense by arming them with a useful vocabulary with which to speak about art and the visual world. People miss understand art because they lack the language to understand it.

But enough about that. Lets look at some art.

Under Water Sculpture

Pretty darn amazing if you ask me.

Mixing it up a bit, here are a few photographs.

Though I am not a fan of Mark Rothko's art, but I do like some of the things that he has said. So, I end this post with a quote from him.

"I'm not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on."

Lesson Plan, oh Lesson Plan, where art thou?

It has recently come to my attention that a lesson plan which I have been working on for a drawing/painting class might resemble a lesson that some students have already done in a prior year. I had lots of hopes for this lesson, and it is a shame that I must ditch it. Fear not, for this plan shall be used in the future. The challenge now, is developing a new lesson that deals with similar techniques and study, but does not resemble the prior lesson's end result.

The goal is to develop a lesson plan that deals with contour line, and value. The original had students drawing a group of still life objects (bottles, vases, etc) three times from different perspectives and then over lapping all of those drawings to create a cubist final piece. The final piece would be finished in color and utilize value changes. So, now I set out to create something that deals with the same methods, but renders a different result.

My sights have turned to Escher for inspiration

Something along the lines of this drawing here, but with still life objects as the subject material.
Another idea would be to create an odd shaped grid and fitting the entire scene of the still life set-up on the page, but morphing it with the changes in grid. That would hopefully end with something similar to the image below.

Other images that have provided inspiration by Escher:

Maybe, the project could involve fitting the objects into a puzzle of some sort. The end result would leave no background space; every shape is an object that fits into every other shape. This could work, but might involve too much morphing of objects, which is beyond many of the students abilities and falls too far away from the intended skill learner, which is direct observation drawing.

I shall put on my thinking cap and continue to search through media.

This searching always presents interesting finds. Such as this amazing picture inspired by Escher's famous work.

Makes me think of Star Wars. Awesome.

Weekly Artist Presentations

I am thinking about introducing a weekly unit into the curriculum for the AP Studio class at Niles West High School. This is kind of a reaction to what I see as the need for art history and criticism in the art student's experience. My goal is to spend about 10 minutes every week exploring the work of a different artist. 5 minutes for exposure, and the 5 minutes for conversation. One of the first artists that I thought about introducing is Kehinde Wiley. A New York based portrait painter, who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of contemporary African (African-American) men in heroic poses that seem to reference the renaissance style of production.

I have had the honor of viewing one of his giant works at the contemporary museum on the Johnson County Community College campus, and it is mind blowing really. Here he is with some examples of his work. I find his focus to be really necessary in today's art world and social climate.

Kehinde at a world show opening in front of his work.

His paintings have gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture. They often blur the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation. The works are a sort of fusion between "Old Master" style paintings, Rococo paintings, Textile art, and Urban Hip Hop.

First Post: Educational Philosophy.

    Individuality is an imperative concept in the educational system. As an educator, my focus is on showing students how to question the world around them, ask what the character of knowledge is, search for the nature of learning, attach meaning to experience and foster personal enlightenment. I have come to understand that the very purpose of education is to help individuals step outside of their own worldview, appreciate the problems that others face, see multiple perspectives, and develop their own solutions after weighing many factors. All people should share in the benefits of society regardless of background, be allowed to realize their unique abilities and be given the freedom to personal expression. I will remember, always, that my desires are in helping students grow and finding ways to make positive contributions to society. In every student I see myself, the challenges I have faced and still face today. I will always remember that every person holds within them, an active soul, free and excited to grow. This, every person has the privilege to cultivate and have exposed to a multitude of experiences, even though that privilege may be restricted and not yet evident.

I look at my life as a journey to grow intellectually and find the person I was meant to be. I can see no greater purpose than to help others on their own journeys. Teaching feels like the most natural process that I can be a part of. I am seeking to educate within the fine arts because, art pushes us to learn that it is our mistakes that we can find creative design, and valuable lessons. It helps to assimilate the idea that we are all different, and in these differences become stronger as a whole. Art teaches that “the journey is the destination,” (Dan Eldon) art is about process. The journey is that which helps define us and find our own truths, I believe that, “truth is an event and only through experience can the veracity of a truth be realized” (William James). It is with this appreciation for art and the world that I come to understand the impact that the words I speak in front of all students will have. I believe that by delivering my words with energy and enthusiasm, they can stay with an individual for years to come, simultaneously stimulating his or her motivation towards further learning. Ultimately, art is my passion and I feel that if more people were exposed to its wonders, it could become a door to self-exploration, expression, help students become balanced, and lead to a better learning experience in all areas of education.

I have come to Northeastern University with a purpose. I have a lack of trust in what the educational system has become and an acceptance of the trials that lay before me if I choose to fix it. The student has too often, become a grade or liability rather than an individual or an opportunity. It is unfortunate, but I see this on a daily basis. I want to bring an education to people, not just an imitation. All students bring his or her experiences to the table, and I bring my own. People see the world from completely different sides of a colorful spectrum and I welcome that. My goal will be to help my students find his or her personal realities through self-expression and then, hopefully, they can begin to see new realities and possibilities for their futures.

There are many facets to the human experience: religion (culture, nurture), science (technology, intelligence), growth (education, physical), and art (expression, emotion). I believe that art education is a way to unify all of these aspects and cause a greater educational experience for all.

“Art is the difference between the Laborer and the Craftsmen. It is beauty and expression revealed in the works of man”. – Robert M. Pirsig.