Inspiration: Ceramics + Fibers

I love hybrid and mixed-media art. While reading the Dec/Jan 11 issue of American Craft, I learned about Hannie Goldgewicht. She is a sculpture who is mixing media. She actually sews fibers onto ceramic vessels to make gorgeous works of art that have amazing color and texture. They make you stop and look twice and three times because they're so stunning.

Beautiful Oops

A colleague of mine recommended A Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg  after we taught our Saturday art class. Her unit was about "play" where her students were to imagine a place that they would like to play and then they built it using shoeboxes and and other mixed media. It turned out really cool. This book helped her students free themselves from the constraints of "right" and "wrong." It shows young kids that it's ok to make mistakes, that a "mistake is an adventure in creativity, a portal of discovery."

Alphabeasties!

The end of the semester and and the holidays turns November and December into a blur. I'm super excited to finish up my last semester of classes before student teaching. They're really interesting and I really hope I can get everything done the way I want before the end of the semester.

While studying at the library, I found this clever book called Alphabeasties and other AmaZing Types by Sharon Werner and Sarah Foss.

 It's a flip book with an animal illustrated in one letter for each letter of the alphabet. The letters are then turned into a couple smaller illustrations using the different cases and different fonts to showcase something else about the letter. This is definitely geared toward lower elementary students if you're reinforcing the alphabet, however, one could easily show this to even high school age students and ask them to pick a letter and created a type-based illustration. The content and design of this book is very cool and worth taking a peek. I love it and the kids do too!

Art + Technology Integration

Oh my inner nerd is so excited today! I love technology. And I love art. Check out what Mercy High School in Farmington Hills is doing with technology. A little background first -- MHS is a private college-prep school, has a 1:1 computing program that requires students to purchase a tablet PC when they begin school. On this tablet, they read textbooks, take notes, share presentations, and now they create art too!

Susan Young, the art department head posted this youtube video showing how they integrated technology into art education. It's cool the way the compare/contrast working with real charcoal vs. tablet-simulated charcoal, sketch and plan 3-d projects, and get assessment/feedback online.


Larry Baker, an Apple Distinguished Educator Class of '09 and MHS teacher, has a blog that covers what he's doing with technology in education. Here's his description, "I blog from 'down in the trenches' of 35 years of high school teaching and have found my muse. Here I offer my perspectives on technology, free of dogma and seasoned with practicality. I chat about tech integration and use this space to archive my presentations."

How to Think Like a Child

Think like a child suggests that loosening up can benefit our lives and boost creativity.

Darya Zabelina and Michael Robinson, who carried out a US study into adult creativity have discovered that the more an adult acts and thinks like a child, the more imaginative he or she becomes. "Thinking like a child is entirely possible for adults," says Robinson. "And we found that doing so is beneficial for certain types of creative activities."

Here are some of the things the author suggests doing in order to lose those inhibitions that are holding you creativity back:

• Lose your cool
• Have a bad idea
• Learn to dawdle
• Be bored
• Break the rules
• Get yourself a babysitter
• Sit in the backseat of a car
• Get an imaginary friend

Try taking just one of those suggestions and doing something new today. Sometimes that's all it takes to break free from a rut.

Inspiration: Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse is one of my favorite artists. His work brings so much joy and happiness. It's refreshing to have such positivity in a sea of social commentary, troubled images, and darkly colored images. His work is bright, graphic, bold, and happy. 

Henri Matisse. The Dance.

 

Henri Matisse. The Joy of Life.

Though the imagery looks simple, the pared-down shapes, color choices, and composition are all very well thought out to convey his message. He once said, "What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue." I love this idea of his work being comforting and soothing "like a good arm chair." It's like a deep breath of fresh air. 

Inspiration: Midcentury

I love mid-century anything. Recently I stumbled upon an American artist, Matte Stephens, who is painting in an updated mid-century style and I just love it. Here are some samples of his work:

Autumn in NY

King Richard never lost his love of Falconry even though he had a few minor mishaps

Meeting to feed birds

Monster Mash

These toilet-paper tube monster project is more of a craft than art, however they're fun and it involves painting so I'm going to go ahead and post it. I'm sure there are ways to add more substance to it if you were to use it as part of a lesson plan. Start with empty toilet paper and paper towel tubes. Add paint, cut construction paper, markers, and anything else you've got laying around and you have monsters, ghosts, and bats - oh my! Here are some that we made at home:

This one from Ohdeedoh shows Max and the monsters from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Pairing the project with the book adds a literacy element to the lesson. Sendak's illustrations won him a Caldecott Medal -- an award for the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Having the students look at the artwork, make a character, and even add a bookmaking project make this project a more authentic learning experience.

Monsters from Craftzine Blog:

Sharpie Liquid Pencil

Have you seen the Sharpie Liquid Pencil yet? It claims to :

• Write as smooth as a pen
• Erase like a pencil
• Become permanent like a sharpie marker after three days

It seems like a good fit for somebody like me who typically sketches w/ pen or sharpie. The prospect of never having to shake out another mechanical pencil lead sounds pretty good. I also love the idea of it becoming permanent so sketch books don’t end up a fuzzy, blurry mess as the pencil gets smeared around the pages. I wonder if it works on scantron tests. Just looking at the pictures, I wish it came with a skinnier body because I don’t really like holding fat pens or pencils. Overall, it sounds like a pretty cool upgrade old-school and mechanical pencils.

Inspirational Quotes

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind!”
-Dr. Seuss

“All children are born artists. The problem is to remain artist as we grow up.”
-Pablo Picasso

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’s not open.”
-Frank Zappa

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”
-Malcolm Forbes

20th Century Fashion

While checking out books in the kids section of my local library, I stumbled upon a series called 20th Century Fashion.

I found the following six books: 1900-10s, 20s & 30s, 40s & 50s, 60s, 70s, and the 80s & 90s. Here is the library summary:

20th Century Fashion is a time capsule of clothing for every decade from the 1900s through the 1990s. This exciting series presents style and design as they relate to the world events, people, politics, social change, and technology of each era. Dynamic text and colorful images, along with a fashion time line that places clothing design alongside other world events, capture the glamour and artistry of fashion.

They’re perfect for junior high school students. The layout is great, it includes lots of pictures, and I love the inclusion of world history and technology from that era. There is also a companion series about 20th century design that is on my list to check out in the future.

Do schools kill creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Are we educating the creativity out of our children? This fascinating presentation on the value of creativity is well worth the 20 minutes to check it out. Enjoy!

Tempera Cakes

Tempera paint, also known as “poster paint” or “washable paint,” is one of the most versatile paints available for kids. It mixes well, costs less than acrylics, cleans easily, and comes in gallon size bottles. It’s a staple in any elementary school art classroom. I recently learned that it also comes in “cake” form:

The cakes resemble water colors, however, they don’t break down as quickly. One teacher claimed to use a dozen sets over the span of four school years — making it an excellent choice for tight budgets. You can also buy individual replacements for colors, instead of having to buy a whole set when colors get used up.
To use them, simply drop a cake into a 3.25-ounce solo cup, spray with water, and let the kids go to town with their paint brushes. When you’re done, pop the lid on the solo cup and cleanup is a snap!

Procraftination

Have you ever noticed that you feel most creative when you have a million other things going on? That’s what I call “procraftination.” A hybrid term borrowed from a friend of mine that combines procrastination + craft to mean that you put off work to take on creative projects. I believe that this happens because our mind is engaged and it’s hard to contain creative ideas and the energy that comes with them. Many artist-types struggle to stay focused and when you don’t want to do a task, art making and crafting seems even more enticing.

Have you ever experienced procraftination? How do you stay focused on the task at hand instead of getting derailed into making art?

The Creativity Crisis

I recently read this article in Newsweek online. It states that for the first time, American creativity is decreasing. It’s time to take a proactive approach to include creativity in all of the disciplines.

Around the world, though, other countries are making creativity development a national priority. In 2008 British secondary-school curricula—from science to foreign language—was revamped to emphasize idea generation, and pilot programs have begun using Torrance’s test to assess their progress. The European Union designated 2009 as the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, holding conferences on the neuroscience of creativity, financing teacher training, and instituting problem-based learning programs—curricula driven by real-world inquiry—for both children and adults. In China there has been widespread education reform to extinguish the drill and-kill teaching style. Instead, Chinese schools are also adopting a problem-based learning approach.