Thoughts from Teaching Artist Handbook Volume 1, Chapter 1

Yesterday at dinner, a friend suggested that teaching art would be hard. He said, "How do you teach the emotion and the expressive part?" I thought for a minute and said that generally I teach tools such as drawing skills and design and composition and use of media. Then we set up opportunities for students to use the tools and to create their own self expression. This question caused me to think more about what it is that I teach.

In Chapter 1, p. 12, the author states, "no one needs a teaching artist around to make art. But a teaching artist can help people make their own art and make it better, deeper, more interesting and original." Additionally, the author talks about how teaching artists can help students not only experience art, but respond to it. Currently, I am not teaching, however, for the past several years, I have been creating art as time allows. Occasionally in recent years, I have had the opportunity of teaching small classes and art lessons. As I produce my own artwork, I am more readily able to discover and assess, in advance of the students, what some of their concerns will be. For example, composition/design can be a challenge for all artists at any given time. When I'm concentrating on one kind of composition, I may be ignoring something that is equally important. Let's say that I'm working on a piece with asymmetrical balance, but I have placed one element too close to the edge, creating a tangent, and leading the eye off the page.

How do I describe what I do as an artist? Basically, being an artist is another form of problem solving. When I begin a piece of art, I don't have everything figured out before hand. I will generally set up some kind of composition either in my head, or in the form of a preliminary drawing, noting not only the value patterns but the basic design. If I'm working in oil paint, I set up a specific palette to work from or experiment with. As the work progresses, I'm constantly evaluating the overall design, as well as the detail and color harmonies in various areas. Sometimes I have a concept that I want to express or expand. Other times the concept is about the object of the art. A large portion of my work has been landscape-based. I am easily drawn to the natural world, and in viewing and expressing what I see. I occasionally exhibit and sell my work. I have learned much from preparing work for a show, and viewing my work as someone else might be viewing it for the first time.

Regarding concepts in art, my work has often been about beauty in nature, but it also describes opposition in nature: light and dark, life and death, growth and progression. I find many parts of the process enjoyable. Coming up with an initial concept is energizing. Working through a piece, and being in the zone, is often relaxing. I'm more of a solo artist, although I have participated in group art projects occasionally. Currently, I am working on a large (3' x 4') handcart painting. Additionally, I want to start making a series of small paintings again (about 6" x 6"). Most of these depict the natural world in both macro and micro settings. I use one of the bedrooms in my condo as an art studio (the master bedroom...I have my priorities). I sleep in a smaller room.

In setting up experiences for students, there are always constraints, either from me, from the students, or from the environment itself. Students work within those constraints, adding to it their own thinking and imagination.

Within this chapter, I was also interested in the section on "race, ethnicity, gender, politics, and what you teach." The authors state, "stereotypical expectations about artists and students based on their perceived cultural roots can needlessly narrow a student's sense of what is possible to make or do across a range of disciplines." (p. 17) The idea of pigeonholing could stifle creativity by limiting students, based on their own cultural experiences. Wouldn't it be better to broaden their horizons, allowing more freedom of expression?

On p. 20, I was humored by the "Golden Rule of teaching artist work," which is: "Don't ask your students to do things that you yourself would find artistically superficial, boring, limiting, manipulative, pedantic or dumb." Conversely, it is suggested that the assignments be those that the teaching artist would find energizing and interesting.

Drawing Ideas

Drawing: Personally, I love to draw, render, and "noodle." I just generally like to create images. But, in a classroom setting, where the students may know little about drawing, and may not know their 6H from their 4B pencils and likely have no idea what a gesture drawing is, etc., I would be inclined to start simply. The key is to keep it interesting. As mentioned by others, if not handled correctly, it could be boring.

One idea for the first day of a drawing class:
1. Bring in a large poster, a piece of cardstock with a 9" x 9" square cut out of it, and do a line drawing demo of only what you see through the 9" square, talking about measuring as you go.
2. After the demo, pass out 1 photograph, 1 sheet of 8.5 x 11" white paper, scissors, a 2B pencil and 1 index card to each student. Have the students each make a 1-inch square on the index card and cut it out with scissors or an xacto knife.
3. Have the students place the card with the hole in it, over a section of the photograph. On an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, have the students draw a 6" x 6" square. The part that they see through the 1-inch square is what they will draw, using line only. At this point, what they are drawing will be abstract.
4. Show everyone's artwork.

Continuing on...
1. One-point perspective: I have found that most people are a bit fascinated with 1-pt. perspective. Show photos in a power-point of highways, buildings, and, of course, railroad tracks, indicating how one-point perspective is being used. Then some instruction could be given showing the horizon line and the dot, and how lines connect to the dot, creating the illusion of one-point perspective.
2. Assignment: Have the students design their own room (bedroom, etc.) with anything they want in it, using one-point perspective. Materials needed: White or light paper, pencil and eraser.

On January 11th, our Art Ed 450 class visited the Springville Art Museum for the last night of the Spiritual and Religious show. There were many pieces that I found interesting. I'm posting a few of those here.

#1: by Fahimeh Amiri, this was interesting because of the underlying compositional break-up of the space, the flat shapes, and the color palette.
#2 Manti Temple with Sheep, by Jennifer Yvonne Paget: This piece attracted my attention because of how the light was used on the backs of the sheep, and the value contrasts between foreground and background. This is ultimately the same effect that one might get of taking a photograph of the same scene. But if a photo and a painting look the same, one of them is redundant. However, in this case, the artist creates a "painterly" piece and sets up a condition where the shadows appear as solid, yet believable, shapes.
#3 Traveler, by Alexander Morris: The artist creates a piece that appears, at first glance, to be some kind of writing on tablets or in a notebook. The note by the artist discussers Christ as a traveler, and perhaps this is some form of ancient writing.  I found myself wondering what this "traveler" was writing about.
#4 by Laura Erekson Atkinson: This piece was large, and fascinating because of the double-meaning behind the tools, and how they radiated from the first panel on the left.
#5 by Jenna von Benedikt: The movement from the bottom left corner upward and to the right, ultimately forming an S shape, achieved through the use of line, value and color, caught my attention.