Every Wall is a Door

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the one who said, "Every wall is a door". This quote has always helped me to remain optimistic and hopeful. It seems fitting for this post and my student's work above.

My students are finished with their mixed media collages. And I'm happy to say once again, I am pleased with their results! Of course, being pleased does not mean it was easy. It's hard work to make a bunch of ideas, directions and materials come together to look like a meaningful and intentional finished piece.

For some of my students the topic of "identity" is a stumbling block, because they feel as if they don't actually have an identity yet. (You know, after all, they're only kids!!) It is definitely true that over time, we mature into knowing ourselves with a deeper understanding that's more reliable and consistent then when we were young, (thank goodness) but even at "middle-age", I still consider that knowing myself is a series of vistas, more than an actual destination. I don't view it as a place where one arrives, but more like opening doors. It's about what we see, but also what we allow ourselves to see...walls, doors, windows?

The Collage Detail above was created by Karen Graeber, Grade 12. Click on her blog link to read what she wrote about her collage. Thanks KG! :-)

Click here to see more students' works.

iphoto books!

Creating a book to document, celebrate or share your students’ work is easy and fun to do! If you use a mac, your iphoto has options built right in! If you use a PC, there are lots of resources, like Shutterfly, that will assist you in creating books using pictures you already have.

I developed a lesson for my sixth grade students that had them using Yann Arthus-Bertrand's Earth From Above photographs as inspiration. The students reacted and responded to several of his photographs and created their own interpretive tempera batik landscapes. In addition to being inspired by Bertrand's photographs, the students also learned a little bit about where his photos were taken and where those places exist on our planet.

I really loved the paintings and found myself drooling over them and their luscious textures and colors. My students enjoyed doing them too! My appreciation for Bertrand's work and my gratitude for the inspiration it provided me and my students, left me wanting to thank him directly. I had never made a book in iphoto, but I knew it would be the perfect thank you gift. Turns out, it's super easy to do and was only $39 for a beautiful, customized, 20 page, hard cover book! How great is that?

When we go back to school in September, I'm going to have my students sign it before I send it off to him! I think they will be thrilled to see their work published in a "real" book that's going to find its way into the hands of the artist they studied in class! It's not just good manners to thank the people who inspire you, it's also a good lesson for students to see demonstrated!

Click here to see examples of more students’ work. A complete PDF e-booklet of this lesson is included in the NEW Kiickstart Tempera Batik DVD, available this October!

Art is Elemental

In addition to rewriting the high school curriculum, I'm also writing the Middle School Art curriculum...I'm calling it, “Art is Elemental”. I meet my middle school students for a maximum of 22 class periods per year on a rotational cycle – on days 1 & 2 or days 3 & 4. It adds up to be about 15 hours total per year…wow, right? It’s such a short amount of time at such an important age, that I wanted our time together to mean something more than just “creative fun”, but of course, I also wanted it to BE creative and fun! I came up with the Art is Elemental theme, so that I could teach “big ideas” in a short period of time without my exploratory cycle class being a total drag. The learning experiences are structured so that my students gain knowledge about important environmental issues and then get to synthesize their understanding by making art. It’s a perfect combination that I’ve really enjoyed so far!

Over the course of three years, we will focus on earth, water and then fire/air, and address issues like conservation, pollution, waste & wastefulness, recycling & upcycling and sustainability. Once the rotation is complete, I’ll start the cycle all over again. Each grade level will learn about all of the elements and many environmental concerns associated with them, just in varying orders. Last year, all of our activities were centered on the Earth!

The essential questions that drive my planning and curriculum writing are:
Does art make you think about yourself and society in new ways?
How do artists use their creative skills, talents and ideas to influence how we view the world and our surroundings?
Does an individual have the power to make a lasting difference?
In what ways is our society more advanced than those of the past?
In what ways might we be moving backwards?
What can you do that will positively impact the environment?
How are things, events or people connected to each other?
If we don’t change, what will?

To get you inspired to think about weaving environmental themes into your own lessons, here are some terrific resources I find useful:
http://www.thinkgreen.com/second-life (short video I show my kids)
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/howstuffworks-recycling-aluminum.html (short video I show my kids)
http://www.terracycle.net
http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com

Our Bowls are Full

Hunger in America. The statistics are alarming. For one in every six Americans, being hungry or without enough nourishing food is a real concern. For children, the current national statistic is even more grim - one in four children can’t rely on having enough to eat.

Empty Bowls is an international grassroots effort to fight hunger and was created by The Imagine Render Group. The basic premise is simple: Artists, educators and others work with the community to create handcrafted bowls. Guests are invited to a simple meal of soup and bread. In exchange for a cash donation, guests are asked to keep a bowl as a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world. The money raised is donated to an organization working to end hunger and food insecurity.

This year, my art students, the NHS and the student council students, hosted their third dinner! As of 2011, our community has donated over $12,000 to The Foodbank of South Jersey, as well as over 60 gallons of leftover soup to a local soup kitchen, and hundreds of dollars worth of canned goods to a local shelter. This is a big shout out to my colleagues, Paul and Maura for helping to make it happen, and to my students who keep me smiling!

There are many organizations all over the United States that would benefit from an Empty Bowls event that you could host at your school, church or community center!! Helping others feels good, teaches an invaluable lesson and reminds us that being part of a community involves working together to impact change.

To learn more about our HTHS dinner event, click here.

Some other great links to inspire you to get started:
Philabundance
Feeding America
Share our Strength
Bread for the World
End Hunger Network
World Food Day – Annually on October 16th.

Bloom Where You are Planted

My twenty-first year teaching also marked my first year teaching high school drawing and painting. When I accepted my position at the high school back in 1996, I was hired to teach a highly specialized crafts program. For the past fifteen years, I taught three basic units of bookarts, metals and ceramics, smattered with some printmaking and mixed media while my colleague taught drawing and painting. The budget cuts eliminated any familiarity of what was our award winning art program and trimmed it down to one teacher (me) and one class (Creative Arts), taught three times a day. I also teach the entire middle school in cycle rotations, during the other three teaching periods of my day. whew.

I learned that resentment really wrecks a good mood! I wanted to feel good about my job again. This lesson helped me with that! It began with six beautiful bouquets of flowers ($20 at our local, bulk flower supplier). My room looked beautiful and smelled even better! The students drew using a viewfinder and created a composition for what was to become their tempera batik painting. The finished results are stunning!

This lesson yielded fantastic paintings for every student. It is the topic for my next DVD! If you’d like to see more student images, click here. The new video is scheduled for release in early October. Please check kiickstart.com for current information.