I am showing a few acrylic and watercolor pieces on this year's annual Artisans' Road Trip show. There are 41 artists showing work around the Iowa Great Lakes area and I am excited to be one of them. My show is at the Fieldstone RV park in the campground's community building. We keep our camper here year round so all I had to do was set up my work and put out the "Stop Here" signs. One of my pieces, this watercolor painting, has been used for a few of the group's advertising media. It's fun when guests come in and recognize it right away. "Oh, there it is." or "Oh, I didn't realize there was a face in it... no, there are two faces." Other than the reward of having gone through the process of getting ready for this show and then following through with it, I have made some wonderful contacts this weekend. Two different gallery owners have invited me to show my work in their galleries. Boy, now I truly have some work laid out in front of me.
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Students in grades 3 - 6 are participating in the STEAM project called Indisputable ME. They are determining traits and characteristics that indisputably explain and express who they are. The STEAM elements include forensic science (personal fingerprints), technology (graphic arts), and art (visual and creative representation of self.
The science teacher and I co-taught the forensics side of specific personal identification tools such as DNA, eye/iris patterns, and fingerprints. We also taught the kids a little history of these tools. After making their fingerprints, students scanned and uploaded their fingerprints to be used as one of their indisputable self representations. Other indisputable self representation elements will be chosen by the students. The technology teacher and I then co-taught a the free online graphics tool of Pixlr.com. We taught the kids some of the introductory skills necessary for students to begin exploring graphics editing on their own. In their process of creating personally expressive work, students will develop a series of six artworks that express those traits and characteristics they deem sharable. Work will be posted online once it is finished in an ISSUU publication. Change: Reinventing Perceptions of Concepts & Self
My newest unit has been published on a weebly for quite a while already. I am just now remembering to post it on my professional website. The thrill and excitement of completing and defending my thesis interfered with my remembering to update my collection of units on this website's "Unit Plans" tab. Please visit my newest unit at http://tahoart7.weebly.com. (Question posed by Anna Nichols on FaceBook. May 23, 2015) Is it possible for a teacher-led project to result in authentic (original) art by students? Example - a project begins as a lesson in using tints and shades of a color to create a monochromatic, non-objective painting. After the student creates the painting, s/he is encouraged to continue working on it by adding drawings, painted details, or change the painting into a representational piece by adding imagined images, etc. I am asking this because I have been engaged in a fabulous discussion here, but I can't seem to get an answer to this question from any but one. What do you think? (My personal reflections on this question.) Over a century ago Marcel Duchamp began asking about and challenging the notion of what is and is not art, just like you are now. With his readymades Duchamp made notable statements about his boredom with “retinal art” and his search for more substantially meaningful art. If meaning is the intention of an artwork, then the piece should show meaning, either meaning of the artist’s intention or meaning through the viewer’s interpretation. However, there are other purposes for creating artworks that probably should not be neglected: therapeutic, exploratory / discovery, storytelling, historical accounts, informational / educational, personal expression, humor, etc.
Another thing that could hold value in answering your question is intention. Although the works you mention may have begun as studies, worksheets, or teacher-directed segregated drills, there is no explicit barrier that prevents such drills from the possibility of becoming something more, bigger, better, real, or authentic. While there isn't a definitive answer, my opinion is, yes, authentic artwork can be created from something that was somebody else’s idea, intention, or creation. Our ideas and works are inspired by something or somebody from somewhere. One example I’m thinking of is if I were to take readymade garments (created by another designer/artist) and reassemble them into a sculptural weaving, I would call this weaving an authentic artwork in spite of the origin of the “intended” idea for the fibers. Another example that might support an answer of “yes” is the installation work of Sandy Skoglund. Although she made a number of the key pieces of her installations, she incorporates objects, artifacts, and other things that began with somebody else’s intentions for use and meaning. She even employed other people, under her artistically meaningful guidance, to do some of the labors for her installations. Finally, the collage work of Rauschenberg is a third example in support of work that can begin as somebody else’s idea or inspiration and then can certainly be turned into an authentic artwork once an artist imposes meaning and intention with/on/through its use. The process of putting together a capstone proposal is invigorating as well as trying and tiring. It will pay off at the end of this road; however, I do not see the singular research project as a destination. I see it as the beginning of more work just like it yet to come. It is a quality professional experience the encourages personal growth both in the present and for the future. I am a lifelong learner.
Environmentalism is a “concern about and action aimed at protecting the environment” and environmental is defined as “relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition.” With these Oxford Dictionaries definitions, the threat imposed on the global environment by climate change causes one to consider the possibilities of such a catastrophic possibility. Environmental art further develops the picture of the effects of globalization on climate change and ultimately humanity, growing environmentalism.
Click here to read my full research brief and to see my series of three artworks inspired by this research. Regularly visiting and updating my professional website always reinvigorates me--my personal as well as profession perspectives on things. First, reviewing the work I've done over the last few years motivates me to keep moving forward and gives me a strong foundation upon which to build. Growth comes with consistent effort and experience. Second, seeing my best professional work in one collective site keeps my professional mission and goals in the forefront of whatever I do, guiding my decisions and actions yet to come.
If you do not have a professional online presence already established, I emphatically recommend starting now with building that presence. Doing so is a personal and professional benefit both to yourself and to those you have yet to encounter. Proclaim to others who you are and where you are heading in your future, then keep revisiting your site to remind yourself of this same thing. |
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