Socially Engaged Art, SICA 2017

Socially Engaged Art was the theme for the Summer Institute of Contemporary Art or SICA 2017. I attended SICA 2015 and I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't wait to return to Penn State to enjoy it again this year. It did not disappoint. Before I get into all the wonderful knowledge that I gained I want to say just how friendly and accommodating everyone was. I was given rides to and from my hotel by people attending the institute and by a dear woman who I met last time I was there. There's a special camaraderie among art teachers that just can't be beat. I am glowing and feeling super intelligent at the moment!

I gotta say I really didn't understand what I was getting myself into with the theme Socially Engaged Art. I thought is was about getting more social through your art, okay really clueless here. But I remembered how nice everyone was and how they fed us breakfast and lunch and paid for my hotel room and the institute was FREE. AND I really like learning NEW things.

So it turns out that one example of Socially Engaged Art is the melding of art and social work. In other words as an artist working in a community, one needs to be aware of what can help that community to thrive. An example of that would be the water filters we made on the second day of SICA.

I was stunned to learn that there are many people in the United States that do not have access to clean water. With that in mind using just clay, sawdust and water we learned how to make ceramic water filters.

First we sifted wood shavings (from the campus woodworking shop) through screens to separate the sawdust from the larger pieces.

Then we measured out equal amounts of sawdust and clay onto a large tarp and mixed it together. This was done by sifting the contents within the  tarp back and forth a few times. 

 

Then that mixture was gently poured into a wheel barrel along with some water scooped up from the ground. (It rained earlier.)

   

After that was all mixed together we used a plaster mold in which to make the water filter. (The mold was made using half a football nerf ball. As that was a perfect shape for the filter.) 

 We started out making a small pinch pot with our clay mixture and pressed it into the bottom of the plaster mold, then continued by adding coils until the inside of the mold, through to the lip of the mold, was covered in the clay mixture.

 

 

 When the clay is hard and dry it will be fired in a GAS kiln as the sawdust will burn out and not be kind to an electric kiln.

The finished water filter can then be placed on the lip of a bucket with a spout. Dirty water goes in the top and clean water comes out the bottom into the bucket. This process will clean the water by 95%. 

 

Now, we did not hide ourselves in some basement art studio, we did this outside accessible to people passing by. And people were curious and stopped to talk to us and find out what we were doing. And by talking to them, we were educating them as to a community's need for clean water.

So there you have it-artists socially engaged making art to help people. Okay, now that was just ONE example another example might be to make people aware of something you might not agree with. Sort of getting the word out, being an activist on a cause that’s important to you. But that my friends that is a whole another story!!

I want to give a shout out to both Dana Carlisle Kletchka and B. Stephen Carpenter II for ALL their hard work. Without them, I'm not sure there would be a Summer Institute.........

 Thanks for reading! 

I would love to hear about any fun summer professional development you have planned for the summer!

Art Inspires Fashion

I have a fascination with postcards. Not just any postcards, they must be Art Postcards. The ones that you can purchase at an Art Museum. The ones that are photographs of the art at that museum or on loan to that museum. I have been collecting postcards for YEARS! However, I have finally, during the last few years, figured out how to use them with my students in art.

In Art Centers for Extended Learning-students choose an art postcard, then using a work sheet, they answer questions and draw a small copy of the art. This activity helps students to make connections to different artists and their styles.

In Curating with Postcards-students explore different art careers and the responsibilities of a curator in an art museum as they use postcards to create their own exhibit. AND apparently because I shared this activity last summer at a Summer Institute at Penn State-I'm gonna be quoted in a textbook!!

In Happy Trees-I reference the book If Picasso Had a Christmas Tree, where students matched Art Postcards to the art in the book. This was a great activity for students to learn to recognize the style of different artists.

Soooo last summer on a trip to New York City, while in The Costume Institute at The Met, I came across this beautiful gown. It was part of an exhibit titled China: Through the Looking Glass.

It made me think of this: The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai.

Which eventually made me remember this: by Cassie Stephens  click on her name to read her blog and be prepared to be blown away by her talent and dedication to the field of art.

AND a new lesson was Born? Discovered? Created? After messaging Cassie Stephens, who by the way is the art teacher's ROCK STAR of art teachers, I put together a few slides showing off the incredible fashions she creates to inspire her students as they learn from her about different artists.

featured in Nashville Arts Magazine, Nov 2014

 

There were so many different directions to go in with this lesson. However, I love incorporating our school mascot into our art when ever I can. Soooooooo after sharing several photos of Cassie and her wonderful fashions I showed students some postcards and directed them as to what they would be doing. They could cover the whole shape of the lion or put the lion in a body suit. I did this with 2nd and 3rd grades. Would be a good lesson to leave for a sub.
My samples-

  

I thought they should do some planning first and use the sheet with the four lions traced out.  I insisted 3 out of the 4 needed to be art inspired from the postcards and one could be their own art.

On the back they should take notes as to the title and artist's name. And when they decided which one they liked the best they could do an enlarged version. It's a fun activity and introduces students to different kinds of art and how art inspires more art!

 

 

 

Now I vaguely remember taking more photos. Ones with students working on this and of more finished art. I'm sorry, no clue what happened to them.

Moving along........ I feel terrible that my blogging has slowed down. I'm still on medical leave, the surgery was a SUCCESS and I will eventually mend AND NOT want to sleep ALL day because I left the house the day before for a few hours. It is what it is.

My original goal was to blog 3 times a week.
My realistic goal was to blog ONCE a week.
My medical leave goal is to blog when I'm not sleeping, and can think clearly for more then 30 minutes at a time. Hopefully things will get back to normal in time for summer vacation................

Thanks for reading!!!!

Contemporary Self Portraits

 I made the decision almost a year ago when I started this blog that I would be very upbeat and positive. However, not every lesson I do as an art teacher is successful. Below is the sample that I started, which I did because my students didn't understand what I expected from them.  I told them my hand is important to me as an artist and that is why it is in the middle of the paper. And that they should think about what is the most important part of them to have in their art work.

 

My idea was totally inspired by the self portrait below when I was at Penn State for a Summer Institute on Contemporary Art.

 

 When school started back up last month I thought this would be a very different and exciting way to do self portraits with my 3rd-5th graders. We talked about the difference between a portrait and a self portrait. I showed students an enlarged photo of my inspiration. Looking closely you can see a lot of little vignettes that tell a story. My "I can" statement was "I can tell a story about myself using images".

We talked about the clues hidden in a self portrait or a portrait that might give us insight into that person. I had them write a list of their favorite things. Students practiced doing facial features and hands in their sketchbooks. The instructions sheets below can be found in Triarco.

They practiced doing 3D or joined figures, to get away from doing stick figures. This way they could include people in their story.

   

They practiced drawing out their stories in their sketchbooks.

 

 

Then they had the choice to color with markers, colored pencils or paint.

 

Shown are the the self portraits of the students that understood the lesson and were successful. Too many of the students copied me and just drew a hand in the middle of their paper. Some students heard the word paint and started over and just painted something not even closely related to the assignment. AND many still drew stick figures! Many students thought they were finished because they did the artwork in their sketchbooks, not realizing that, that is where you plan out your work. Obviously my communication to them was severely lacking!

While there were successful self portraits throughout all 3 grade levels, the percentage wasn't high enough for me to consider this lesson a success. In reflecting back maybe I should have limited it to one image that would tell us something about them. Or had samples of different ways to approach this. If I do this again I will have photos of student work to share. Perhaps both the ones that worked and the ones that didn't. I am also seriously considering having students do an artist statement to reflect on the assignment and what they learned from it.

I would be very interested in hearing about the lessons that you didn't think worked.

Thanks for reading!!