This week's artistic creations

I've been slow about blogging, distracted by the summer.  But it has been a few creative days, and I thought I'd share my creations!

While watching the Olympics on TV, I made these two bracelets using beads from my personal stash.

I decided to replace the faded curtains in our Adirondack lakeside camp, for the first time in almost 20 years!  Last week I sewed and hung new kitchen curtains, and today we put up new bathroom curtains that I finished sewing yesterday.  The next big job is the living/dining room, but there's a LOT of windows so that might just be a project for the winter. 

 And my 10-year old step-grandson came over for the afternoon, and we made thin crust personal-size pan pizzas to order for everyone (including his mom, dad, and brother, plus my husband and me), using herbs, kale, tomatoes and green peppers from my husband's backyard garden, as well as other toppings. 

Here they are, straight out of the oven.  They were as delicious as they look!

 

Being creative isn't always doing a drawing or painting.  A pizza can be creative too!!

Olympics of the Visual Arts 2016

Ever since I retired, I've annually volunteered as a judge at the fabulous Olympics of the Visual Arts.  OVA is a program/competition for students sponsored by NYSATA, the NY state art teacher's association.  *Note: The artwork in the first 4 photos in this post are from the sculpture category, and are each a sculptural interpretation of a piece of contemporary popular music. 

Styled after the Odyssey of the Mind model, OVA participating teams come from schools throughout the state, in elementary, middle, and high school levels, competing in both long term projects and a spontaneous competition.   The long term projects are based on tasks in selected categories. Students use research and brainstorming in their planning and are required to submit a portfolio documenting their work along with the final presentation.  The categories include sculpture, architecture, fashion design, drawing, painting, illustration, graphic design, and photography. You can see my previous annual OVA posts here (2015), here (2014), and here (2013).  To read more about the program, follow this link and this link to info on the NYSATA webpage;  to read this year's intriguing long term problems, hop on over to this link.

 The next batch of photos are from the photo category.  The theme had to do with reflections, and interpretations of the word were broad.  For example, the group creating the piece directly below was reflecting about toxic waste!  There were reflections on identity, and there were much more literal reflections as well. 

I was again a judge in the photography category.  We had more photography entries than in previous years, so we were judging and adding up scores until the last moment, including judging/scoring the spontaneous projects as well.  Unfortunately, this meant gobbling down lunch while we added up scores, and I had very little time this year to snap pics of the array of incredible work.  So forgive me if my photos aren't up to par!   Then I had to leave before the awards were given out, due to another commitment.  But at least I have a few fun photos to share with you!!

I was looking forward to seeing the Illustration category, since they were based on one of my all-time favorite poems from a favorite piece of literature: The Jabberwocky, from Lewis Carrol's Through the Looking Glass.  When I was in high school, my older brother gave me a copy of the Annotated Alice, and this book is still one of the most beloved books in my my personal collection.  Here's a few images from the student work based on this poem.

Here's a slightly better close-up of the piece above -

The painting category involved imagining a creative environment, an environment that would encourage creativity.

The fashion category is always everyone's big favorite, with the most entries.  The work is amazing!  Unfortunately, I didn't get to witness the catwalk modeling, which is the spontaneous portion of the fashion category.  But I did get to see some terrific pieces, still on their mannequins.  The theme was "Trashy", and the pieces are all made from paper products often found in the trash.  And no, the black dress is NOT made from duct tape.  Not allowed!!

 There were, along with the amazing outfits, several glamorous hats (like the one on the mannequin above, left) and this pair of adorable shoes below!!

I don't know if any other state has an event like OVA.  If not, you really should look at the model we've set up here in NY, and give it a try!  It's a phenomenal event, and it can be a pretty viable bit of advocacy for art education!

How Art Can Develop Your Brain

Can a walk through your favorite art museum increase your own creativity and ability to innovate?  Author and art historian Jonathan Fineberg thinks so! 

I turned on the radio in the car today to listen to my favorite public radio station (NCPR; North Country Public Radio broadcast from Canton NY).  The show Here and Now was on, and the story was so timely and meaningful that after I got home, I sat in my car in the hot driveway so that I could finish hearing the rest of the interview and scribble down some notes.

I want you to be able to hear this interview too, so without further ado, here's the link to the story: "How Art Can Develop Your Brain".  The interview was with art historian Jonathan Fineberg, talking about his his new book, Modern Art at the Border of Mind and Brain.  During the interview, he referenced works by Dubuffet, Calder, Motherwell, Miro, and Christo.  

Please note: the photos in this post are NOT from the book.  Rather, they are photos I have taken at visits to various art museums, and have all been previously featured in this blog.)

Fineberg's thesis is that viewing modern art makes our brains more creative.  He says when we look at modern art, we are increasing our ability to think creatively and to innovate. This is certainly an excellent bit of ammunition to have when fighting to protect our art programs!

Here's a quote from amazon.com describing the book:
"Based on Fineberg’s Presidential Lectures at the University of Nebraska, his book examines the relationship between artistic production, neuroscience, and the way we make meaning in form. Drawing on the art of Robert Motherwell, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Christo, Jean Dubuffet, and others, Fineberg helps us understand the visual unconscious, the limits of language, and the political impact of art. Throughout, he works from the conviction that looking is a form of thinking that has a profound impact on the structure of the mind."

I generally prefer reading fiction, but this is one non-fiction book I definitely not only WANT to read, but is also a book that I definitely NEED to read.  But it's a new book, just out in hardcover, with an amazon price of $31.60.  Oh dear...

Imagination

This is kind of a strange art lesson sort of post for me, because I unfortunately don't have any specific images related to it.  So I'll have to wing it, by adding random pics of student art.

Two divergent things led me to write this post today.  First of all, in the Facebook Art Teachers group and on the blogs, I often see lots of product-oriented art lessons, including many directed drawing lessons.  I'm not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing; it's just something I noticed, that got me thinking about some of the lessons that were my favorites over the years.  These lessons were often focused on getting my students to explore their imaginations.

 Then, today, another retired teacher friend and I went to the movies to see Before I Go to Sleep, with Nicole Kidman, and Colin Firth.  Without getting into to the movie plot too deeply, let's just say Ms. Kidman plays an amnesiac who wakes each morning with her memory totally erased.  A therapist gives her a camera to record her thoughts and memories each day, to help her attempt to recover memories.  This plays a pivotal part in the movie plot.  When the movie was over, and my friend and I were sitting in the local diner eating a lovely dinner and discussing the film, I said the movie reminded me of a lesson I used to do with my younger students.  Considering the twists of the movie plot, my friend was totally befuddled about how this thriller could possibly remind me of a lighthearted kindergarten art lesson!  But it did.  Here's the lesson, basically:

With my kiddos circled around me, I told them we were taking a trip, using our imaginations.  We closed our eyes, imagining it was bedtime, and we were tucked in with our coziest blanket and favorite stuffed toy under our arm.  And off we went to sleep.  While we were deep asleep, a little alien spacecraft landed outside our window.  Inside, the friendly aliens were discussing the celebration on their home planet, and how they wanted to bring some visitors to enjoy the fun, but would have them home in time for breakfast and school the next day.  They chose us to go to their celebration, and off we flew through the night.  We were given cameras to take pictures of the festivities, and all the creatures/aliens we met, the planet we visited, the space ship we rode in, and more.  We had a wonderful time, and tired, we were returned home, back to our cozy beds and stuffed animals before morning.  When we woke in the morning, we thought we'd had a crazy dream... until we saw the photos we'd taken!!  (This, of course, is the connection to the movie.)

We spent some time sharing what was in our photos before we started our artwork.  What did the aliens look like?  How many arms? Legs? Eyeballs? Ears?...  What color was the sky?  How many suns or moons?  What did the animals look like?  The food?  The space ship?  And so on.  No answer was wrong.  I gave them paper, and crayons or markers or whatever drawing or painting material I selected that year, and their charge was to draw their photos, and then to share the story of their artwork.  Very few rules (for example: no blood, no weapons; these were NICE aliens.)  I absolutely did NOT show them an exemplar.  I wanted the ideas to be THEIRS. 

 Above, a couple of aliens on school pictures; fun lesson idea courtesy of Mr.  E.

Anyhow - the point of my lesson was not to show everyone how to draw an alien.  The point, of course, was to encourage imaginative thinking. I wanted the kids to learn to trust their own ideas.  There were no wrong ideas.  I did, of course, expect them to use their best effort, and I used open-ended questions as I circulated, to encourage them to explore their imagination and develop their ideas. For kids doing simple line drawings, perhaps I would ask "what color skin does your alien have?  what color is the sky?" and so on...  For kids without  much detail, I would ask questions such as "How does your alien move?  (legs and feet? Or does he have fins?  Or wings?  Or wheels?)"  or "Where was the celebration?  What did it look like?  What kid of food did you eat?  Were there any animals or trees or houses? "  and so on...  Or simply "Can you tell me about your picture?"

Do you  have favorite lessons that encourage imaginative thinking?  I'd love your thoughts on this type of lesson! 

For a few other lessons that encourage imagination, check out my 3rd grade painting/collages of the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, or perhaps my Not a Box, Not a CD lessons for lower elementary, or maybe my 2nd graders' 'Texture Fauves'.