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.
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