VISITORS

GREENWICH, CT HS. St. John the Divine, Food, Columbia Campus. A field trip! 

SHEYDA -AP ART, AP COMPUTER ART, PRINTMAKING, DRAWING AND PAINTING, ETC. 

ALL ARE FROM AP. 

AP NOT AN IDEAL WAY OF DOING ART. 

Monica 
Steven
Caty
Jack
Devan
Edith
Christian (Student Teacher) 

Steven: Having concentration is nice. 
Devan: Can be restrictive. 
Edith: Breath pieces first, concentration the second semester. 

Edith: A lot of kids come into it not working over the summer. 
Devan: You have time to develop your style 1st semester. 

MONICA: ANIMATION. DIGITAL ART. 3DS MAX. Ballerina in music box dancing. Outside of school a couple of months. 

Where did the idea come from: The Song. Animating something to the song. Song made her think about the music box and have the dancer come alive. Initially a little girls bedroom,  but kept more focused on the dancer. Watched alot of youtube. 

Difference between direct and digital? 
Personally like doing digital because of the undo button. More room for error and flexibility. Physical artwork is a little more stressful. Blending better. 

HENRY: Concentration: Legends an Myths. Draw own interpretation. Draw physically, and then digitally manipulate. Humanity in next step. 

Breaking point. Finish subject, then transfer over digitally. SCIFI. STANLEY KUBRIC SPACE ODYSSEY. Paper is a window to the world. Every color of rainbow and you don't have to buy it. UNDO BUTTON. 

CATY: PRINTMAKING EYEBALL. Never tried digital. Makes Jewelry. What does art do for you? Want to do something important. Want to be a fashion designer. Make own dresses for barbie. Also takes wearable art. 

JACK: Explore in many ways as possible. Reality versus mindset. Observation for college admissions. Passover meal/ Jewish. Work on digital art, but not as seriously. Experience-wise. Work from observation better than photograph. Etching is fun, because it's most new. Where do you see your work going? Design oriented. Art director, possibility. 

DEVAN:Everyone in family is musician. Keyboard mohawk.  Really like the band tool. ALEX GREY. A little gothic, princess of the night. Into 70s progressive rock music. Like political analogy. Human body deconstructed. SYMBOLISM. 

EYES: REALLY LIKE DRAWING EYES. I JUST LIKE DRAWING. Music and art pair really well. Take stories and translate. Want to write own books and illustrate them. Always a vocal kid. Always about self expression. Write it all down. (mom). Opportunity to create own world. Escape from real life. You make plans and God laughs. Emotions out there in a healthy outlet. 

EDITH: CONCENTRATION TWO HALFS: POLITICAL/ SOCIETY CULTURE AND THEN HUMOR. Television, product. Gasmasks on royal family, rich can not feel effects of pollution. Processwise really restrictive. Do you draw all the time? I draw alot, but usually only work with paints. More realistic. Not a picture perfect realist. 

In working concentration how did you make your choice? Did Dr. A intervene. 

Devan: I think she's great. She's really into letting you explore what you want. She's a sound board. She me well enough. 

Jack: She did a great job. I thought I could borrow a tablet, and she thought I stole one. Asked a little bit about me--looking at my list. Sometimes she'd pull the plug on an idea, can you think of 12 different ideas that work on this theme. 

Henry: Came in a little late. Looked at what had done and divided up into categories. Decided to go with subjects--5 ideas 3,2,1. She helped ME come up with the idea. 

Devan: Web for visually mapping. Julie Nixons students. 

How do you work together? Do you help each other? 

MAKE PANCAKES TOGETHER. DR. A MAKES PANCAKES. ART ROOM IS A SAFE SPACE. 

You are not the law, you are there to facilitate. 

It's good that you can disagree but it's still okay. 

If you only have your perspective, the scope would be narrow. 

We are a result of this department. 

Having freedom is important. She makes you talk about each others work, and talk with each other. 100% REFLECTIVE TALK, CERTAIN PATTERNS. 

ORAL REFLECTION IS INSTANT: THERE'S SO MUCH TO BE GAINED. 

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER. 

MONICA: WHEN YOU'RE TALKING TO THEM, THEY ASK YOU QUESTIONS IN RETURN. STUDENT DRIVEN ANSWERING. 
HENRY: LET THEM BE ARTISTS. ALLOW THEM TO BE CREATIVE. 
CATY: LET THE CLASS CRITIQUE THE WORK. 
STEVEN: CREATE MANTRAS THAT CAN DEVELOP NATURALLY. ENVIRONMENT: MAKE YOUR ROOM A NURTURING ENVIRONMENT. CAN SPARK CREATIVITY FROM STUDENTS. 
DEVAN: REALLY BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH STUDENTS. THEY CAN REALLY BE OPEN TO THEMSELVES. THEY'RE NOT AFRAID TO BE SHOT DOWN. CARING AND UPLIFTING ENVIRONMENT. BE A FRIEND. 
EDITH: 6-7 CLASSES ART SHOULDN'T BE THE CLASS YOU'RE STRESSING OUT ABOUT. NOT GOING TO GAIN RESPECT IF YOU RESTRAINING THEM. NO STIFLING. 

NOTES 3/21

NAEA PROPOSALS DUE END OF MAY. 

Interviews. How they negotiate those responses. 

THE HUMAN FIGURE. 

Drawing was a portrait of the experiential self. 
Sense of being present in their own space. 

Sense of volume and experiencing the body in the paper as opposed to on the paper. 
Capturing a sense of space in their papers, to have an ability to think around things. 

Looking at all of these different ways of looking at the world, what is the right way of looking at the world. The concreteness is beginning to give way. 

There is a socio-cultural determinant of how we think about the very same thing. 

What is right and truth? 

As they grow secondary schools, confronting ways if envisioning the world, and thinking about the world. 

The cognitive level has something to do with taking different perspectives and metaphorical thinking. 

ANOTHER LEVEL OF SELF. Adolescents themselves become the center of their own dramas and stories. 

1ST STORY: THE SELF
The self portrait. The experiential self --> now, what do I look like. 

In art, you can draw and destroy things, you can cancel things out. 

You can carry out acts of destruction. This isn't the invention of the adolescent. Art is a safe place to play out bad feelings. We all have bad feelings, it is inescapable. 

We can use the arts as a safe place to capture bad feelings. 

Using the material to destroy something. 

PORTRAIT THAT SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT THEMSELVES 
HOW DO YOU EXPRESS YOUR FEELINGS 

MOST METAPHORICAL LESSON: THE SHOE DRAWING

Shoe is unique to the self. 

THE SELF AS SOMETHING ELSE. 

The self as Leonardo da Vinci 
The self as a Mermaid 

ENGAGE PEOPLE 

Materials will provide the voices for the feelings. 

BEING LOOKED AT is another theme of adolescence. 

People being able to see inside your head. 
INSIDE HEAD PAINTING AND DRAWING

Aware of aesthetic style early on. Between 10-14 TRANSITIONAL YEARS. BEGIN TO FIND THEIR OWN STYLE. LET THEM DO THAT NATURALLY. 

LET THEM MAKE DECISIONS ON THEIR OWN AWAY FROM CONVENTION. 

THE KEY AND BASIS IN THAT YOU HAVE CHOICES. 

Offering them options to explore and try out new things. EMPOWER THEM with their own mind, their own style, their own decision making. 

Bodily vulnerability. 

THE SENSE OF BEING MULTIPLE SELVES

RELATIONSHIPS!!!

EXPLORING THE EXTREMES OF HUMAN ENDURANCE. 

DEATH COMMON THEME IN ADOLESCENTS
Suicide is now known. Physical pressures, extreme endurance. 

NOTES 3/7

Lending One's Life to Art: What to Say? 

Lending life to the arts

SERIOUS PLAY

• Learning from objects and museums 
• Learn to dialogue with objects and culture comes from practice
• A vernacular that open them to the works of others 

What kinds of questions might adults, children, and adolescents ask of works of art? 

• Ask works of art questions and it will respond. 
• Is it an specific body? 
• What is it made out of? 
• What is the woman holding?
• How old are you? Where?
• Facial features?
• How were you made? 
• Where do you reside now? 
• Where was the original location? 
• What kind of culture?
• Who made you? 
• Why didn't the artist finish it? 

• Why is the person shaped that way? 
• Is it really a person? 
• Is the person sitting down? 
• How big is this object? 
• Why is it broken, how did they put it back together? 

• Where are his clothes? 
• What is behind him? 
• What is he doing? 
• Did he really look like that? 
• What is he holding? 
• How old is he? 
• Prep kids before seeing naked people
• Do I look okay? Am I alright? Am I supposed to look like that? 

• STORY TELLING
• What happened to the person lying down? 
• Is this like a comic book? 
• Is there really two people? 
• Cover up nakedness- covering up human body. 

• Why are they all naked together? 
• Where are they? 
• What's the time period where that was acceptable? 
• Are they in a real space? 
• What are they doing? 
• Why are they so fat? 
• Why are they touching each other? 
• Are they beautiful? 

• Is she looking at herself or us? 
• Who are these people? 
• What is the relationship? 
• Why does the baby have wings? 
• Breathing skin

• Why isn't this real? 
• How do they make the strokes look like that? 
• Why doesn't he want her to look real? 
• Where are her fingers? 
• Is she walking toward me? or away? 
• Where is she? 

• What's all that  stuff
• What's wrong with her? 
• Is this real? 
• How old is she? 
• Did she kill herself? 
• Is it right to make pictures like this? 

• China. 1980s? Tiananmen Square?
• Is it right to do that? 
• Is it good art?

Images tell stories that present us with the human condition. Different times and places, artists have had the same preoccupations. 

Artistic experiences: Matisse 

CONCERN WITH PEOPLE AND IDENTIFICATION

"I think it's good, but someone else might not" 

OLDER- MORE METAPHORICAL THINKING

ART IS A CONDUIT INTO ADOLESCENTS LIVES. 

IN SOME POWERFUL AND FUNDAMENTAL WAY, THEY GET IT. 

Begin with an authentic questions which embraces what the youngsters bring with them

Then, Problematize. 

Value of conversation/dialogue

• For the educator: appraise and take account of a variety of ideas, responses, interpretations and perspectives 
• For children and adolescents: to learn from each other, taking account of different perspectives 
• Acknowledgement of ownership of learning
• Understanding art as a distinctive and important way of thinking, reasoning, and an important way of thinking.
• Learn the ideas about beauty/value are not stable concepts 
• Learn to participate with cultures

What if they mischaracterize the facts? 

Realistic --> Men

Ambiguous --> Women 

THE STORY OF ART  GUMBRIDGE