On a More Positive Note

On a more positive note, here are things I am grateful for.....

Getting ready for yet again, another long-term substituting job where I get to be in a high school! I decided last week that given the option of teaching art in elementary, middle, or high school, I'd choose high school.

The long-term sub job will likely last the whole rest of the school year starting somewhere around March 21st!

I'm thankful for my education and look forward to finishing my masters degree in the near future. 

I am grateful for all the principals out there who support the arts. Without principals using extra FTE towards art, there would be a lot less art teachers out there.

I'm grateful for the students who register for art classes, the less students there are, the less need for art teachers there are. That's why I've got to be a really good teacher that teaches fun and educational lessons.

I'm grateful that I received such a sound education in art, that I can push my students to be the best artists they can be because I can help them expand there talent as much as they're willing to. 

I'm grateful for other art teachers out there that show me it can all be done. Not without a lot of work, of course, but eventually I'll be in a spot, teaching what I want to teach at the school I want to teach at, and it will be so much fun. 

I'm grateful for all the examples that paved the way before me in both art and education. Faith Ringgold, for example, started teaching art at public schools in New York City, before she became recognized for her story quilts and children books. She is influenced feminist artwork in a big way.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due...

First, have I mentioned how brilliant Marc Johns is lately? I love him. Lastly, if you plan on using lesson plans in your class that were prepared and taught first by me, the one person you stuck your nose up at because I was teaching what I thought was best, most fun and more creative, (opposed to easy, stiff and outdated lessons that students couldn't relate to that you wanted me to teach) the least you could do is mention my name on a measly blog. Just sayin'.

And Happy Valentine's Day

From Robert Indiana

Value

I often ask students if they know what value means in terms of art. I always emphasize the 'in art' part, but I always get the same answer: How much something is worth. No, that's what students know from prior knowledge, in fact, it's the only definition of value they know. I define value (when referring to art) as the lightness and darkness of a color. I don't think it's very concise though...I'm searching for a better definition.

Here are some others I found: Shadows, darkness, contrasts and light are all values in artwork.
An element of art that refers to luminance or luminosity — the lightness or darkness of a color. This is important in any polychromatic image, but it can be more apparent when an image is monochromatic, as in many drawings, woodcuts, lithographs, and photographs. This is commonly the case in much sculpture and architecture too. 
The relative lightness or darkness of a hue. Black is low value. White is a high value.
the lightness or darkness of a color; contrasts between light and dark.
The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the lightest value; black is the darkest. The value halfway between these extremes is called middle gray. Because a painted image is physically two-dimensional, a painter must have some tool to create a false, but convincing illusion of three-dimensionality. Value is that tool. The effects of value are most easily seen in a black and white drawing. In such a drawing, one can find a range of tones from pure black, across a spectrum of gray, ending in pure white. By using such a scale of tones, a painter is able to recreate in two dimensions the effects of light and shadow on a three-dimensional object. In a painting, such tones are usually found in spectrums of color instead of gray, but the effect is the same. Value is extremely important to a painter because without its proper use it would be impossible for a painter to create convincingly realistic imagery. It’s also a useful tool for adding further definition to forms, of which line alone is incapable of doing. Value also works in conjunction with contrast.

Okay, so I guess my definition isn't so bad. I need to gather some good lessons to teach value because it's so important. I think it's the most important concept to grasp, because it makes a huuuge difference in drawing, painting and photography.

I'm going to gather them together and post here when I'm done.

Happy & Inspired

"Being born is like being kidnapped and sold into slavery." Andy Warhol

I've always loved pop art. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe because it was so unexpected and irreverent in that out-there sort of nature. Liechtenstein's over-sized, comic book inspired prints next to Jasper John's Flag, Theibaud's pies and Warhol's colorful soup cans seem pointless in nature and a little bit funny. What do they mean? Nothing? Something deeper? Like many art movements, art critics had a hard pill to swallow when the pop art movement started, many rejected it as art at first. I love color. A good use of color is over looked by many people, I believe. Bright colors and recognizable images, maybe that's what draws me into pop art. I love the fact that one of the said goals of pop art, was to make everyday things the subject of artwork. I think of it like this, many people are walking around blind to the beauty they see everyday because for one reason or another, they stop seeing these everyday objects.

Is that the Reichstag? Why is it wrapped in fabric?

 

One of my art professors in college defined art as learning to see. I absolutely think that is true. Maybe that was Christo and Jean-Claude's goal. To force people to see the beauty they ignored everyday.

Back to the quote by Warhol, I think I could use it as an anticiptory set in high school. Have students write a short paragraph in respone to the quote and then illustrate it. I guess it could be a full-fledged assignment as well. I think lots of teenagers can relate to the quote, which makes the assignment more interesting to the students because it's about themselves.