art ed digested

I have a problem.

I love to paint self-portraits, obsessively, as a form of introspection, a way to express what I want the world to see, almost a dissection of my face. Great, you say, so what’s the problem?

As an art teacher the subject has to seep it’s way into what I teach sooner or later, and can have mixed results. Most notably, it is difficult to draw the face, and HARDER to make it look like someone in particular. I struggle with getting a likeness of my face that I’ve been drawing for over 20 years. How do I share this love of self-portraiture with students who can be unsure of their abilities, and more importantly, how can I give them a successful experience when some students would rather not look at themselves in the first place?

Self-portraiture is inextricably linked with our egos and how we feel about ourselves, so the lesson becomes more about self-acceptance than mere proportions, observation and drawing techniques. I begin to share what I think are my own flaws with the students, laying it all out on the carpet in front of them and then I twist it around into a positive.

When I taught an 8th grade self-portraiture class, a student could not begin. He had become overwhelmed by staring at the acne he saw in his reflection. I sat down next to him and I wiped off the concealer on my face. “Everyone has pimples” I said. And he began working.

As teachers, I hope we’re all showing our students our proverbial pimples. They need to see them once in a while.

I am deeply into my second year at Kingsley, and loving every minute of it. It is especially nice to finally work with my co-teacher back from maternity leave!

I’ve neglected this blog for a few reasons, the main reason being that it’s tedious to record your progress and ideas to a seemingly empty audience. So, instead I focused myself on making a kick-ass curriculum and pushing our art students in ways they never expected. I am excited by the work we are creating together, and now I feel the urge to share with the world again, whether or not it is listening.

On January 31st our entire school community- students, parents, faculty and administration - are invited to challenge themselves to be creative for 15 minutes each day for a month. This can be keeping a sketchbook, writing in a journal, making a collage, or any other artistic endeavor that can be collected throughout the challenge. At the end of the month, anyone who chose to participate can show their work at an exhibition to celebrate.

I’ve chosen to keep a small sketchbook and do observational studies on my subway commute home from work, which has been an interesting project so far! A student has already approached me to mention she they will be making a crocheted rose each day, and at the end of the month piece them together to make an assembled garment. A colleague mentioned that he will be taking a photograph each day. It is energizing to get immediate and enthusiastic responses from so many here at my school.

(Here’s a link to a great list of prompts for those who need a little help acquiring inspiration.)

I’ve been adjusting my teaching style for my new students, who are aged 3.5-4 years old. Behavior and progress are very abstract concepts to them, so it is difficult to keep a my students aiming towards a goal throughout the day.

This chart has been very helpful so far in inspiring students to try their best all day. Each dolphin starts in the sand, and is moved up a level to the coral, seaweed, bubbles, and finally jumps out of the water each time a student does a good job listening, helping friends, cleaning up etc. When their dolphin jumps out of the water they are rewarded with a special sticker, activity or job to perform.

As I walked home from work this evening, I realized just how often I serenade my students.  Well, in truth, I’ll do just about anything to grab the interest and attention of a classroom.  Yesterday my gimmick involved wearing the discarded bathing suit of a pre-k girl as a hat while marching my campers back from the pool.

I tend to bridge the personas of a very serious professor and comedienne.

Feeling industrious, I opted to read the latest issue of Art Education journal on my commute today, rather than the most excellent fiction I’ve been reading lately, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

I was struck in a very personal way by:

Taking The 40/40 Challenge: Sixteen Painters Working Daily To Develop a Painting Discipline
by Camilla McComb

McComb chronicled the mental struggle when asked by her students, “Ms. McComb, do you paint every day?” A simple question at face value, but if I were asked the same question, it would churn up quite a bit of guilt and also a good deal of ambition.

Art teachers are asked to wear many hats. In my mind, we need to be foremost an educator, in order to effectively manage, teach and inspire students. Second, we must have a mastery of subject matter, very rarely do I consider the artwork created in my free time part of my career.
This hierarchy seems to have served me well thus far, but after reading that McComb considered this behavior in herself to be “perpetuating artistic fraud,” I had to do some soul searching and ask hard questions of myself.

In Camilla McComb’s case, she joined her students in a 40/40 Challenge, which was 40 paintings in 40 days, painting for one hour each night. Clearing the time, and the mind for an hour of painting nightly seems a monumental task in the busy, overstimulated “leisure time” of 2006.

I admire McComb for her ability to look honestly at herself and the work habits of her students while joining them in an endeavor to actively change how they create. I would love to see how the challenge would change if it became 40 sketches in 40 nights.