Xeroxes...one of my favorite materials.

I fear that someday there won't be a Xerox machine in the building. It's one of my very favorite art making tools. In fact, I wish I had one right in my classroom. Something I love to have my students do, especially in the Advanced 2D Art class where they're all working with different themes, is to make pictures using only a small selection of Xeroxes I provide (see yesterdays' selection in the photo above).

The limitations make their imaginations go wild and it's always interesting to see how differently each student uses them. I have a small collection of National Geographics from the 70's and 80's and they work best. The images are just strange enough to force students to think hard about how to use them. Here are some of the results. I really love the first one.

Brainstorming webs.

In my Advanced 2D Art class yesterday students started brainstorming their themes for the term. As I've done in the past, the class spent some time looking at art from throughout history and talking about the themes and subject matter that come up again and again. We discussed the difference between subject matter (person, building, animal) and themes (beauty, heroes, identity)...and thought about the big questions that artists have been asking for ages. After making a huge list of possible themes, students chose one, and created webs, some of which you see below.

I just love watching students make these webs. It's like a window into their mind. I did it with them and we talked as we worked about how and why certain ideas come up more than once in different sections of the web, and how my web about beauty would be very different from theirs. We talked about how helpful these webs will be as we try to work from ideas as a starting point, rather than materials, techniques, or processes. We will pull these webs out again and again as we move through the projects for the course. More to come...

differentiation...is exhausting.

we talk a lot here at my school about differentiation...figuring out how to reach each student with their various learning styles...how to create a learning environment that allows each student to thrive. i feel like this is something i've always been concerned about. i've always felt strongly that the kids should be making their work, not mine. so many schools you visit and all the art on the walls looks the same.

so especially at the junior and senior level i make every effort to design projects that are open-ended, that allow each student to find their own personal solution. i am also pretty loose with deadlines, introducing a new project every week but allowing them to finish them at their own speed. this can be tiring (for me) because at any one time each student might need to be using different materials or need a different kind of feedback. i took all the photos you see below in the span of about 2 minutes and all the students are in the same class...and yes that IS a blow torch. wait till you see the results.

advanced 2d - project 2.

i've been trying to get my advanced students to think about their theme in a more global way. so i made this chart to show them what i meant.

for this 2nd project i'm asking them to make a diptych in which the two pictures address opposite points of view on an aspect of their chosen theme. in this class i don't emphasize traditional drawing and painting. i'm more interested in seeing them spend their energy on developing sophisticated ways to communicate visually about ideas they've developed thoughtfully. so i'm seeing some interesting methods for generating imagery.

from l to r: paint on xerox, xerox transfer, collage, using the in-focus projector to create a turntable made from traditional instruments

watching students watch.

one of my students said he wanted to do some marbling for his materials project. in my head i'm thinking...marbling? that sounds kind of crafty and lame. but...in an effort to relax my inner control freakiness i stood by and watched...luckily he proved me very wrong and has made some of the most beautiful work i've seen in this studio. check out the crowd gathering to watch the process in the videos below. i'll post the results when i snap some photos of them.

carianne's spill project.

carianne worked with my advanced 2d art students today. she talked about "spilling" paint and working from and with accidents. they loved this...naturally.

after "spilling" they looked for imagery within the spills and further developed the "spill" into a painting. the picture on the right became a design full of hearts.

index card project.

the first project i usually give my advanced 2d students is the index card project. they have to make 25 pictures related to their theme using at least 10 different types of imagery and 10 different approaches to materials...and they have about 4 hours of class time to do it in.

they consistently think this is THE most outrageous thing any teacher has ever asked of them and balk at the bulk of the work. 

my school is great for kids in many many ways but one thing it teaches them that concerns me is that the world will adjust to their pace. now i'm not a teacher who fusses over deadlines but i do think there's a lot to be learned especially in terms of artmaking by many thing very fast or one thing very slow...neither of which my students love to do. so i try to impress on them that there is something to be learned by working within my parameters. oh and by the way i went to 7 years of art school and have been teaching for 8 years so i kind of know what i'm talking about.

so i tried something different this term to try to move them along a little...to set the pace, literally. i gave them each the same 3 xeroxes and told them they had 15 minutes to make 2 pictures about their theme using only the xeroxes, glue stick, and scissors. and then...i set the magical timer. teachers know about the timer. what is it about it? the omnipotent timer. something about that ticking makes the kids take it more seriously and argue less. and they did it without debate. they each made 2 images in 15 minutes. next year i'll make it only 10.

and they proceeded to make the other 23 pictures without much complaint.

note the ever-present webs in the photos.

advanced 2d art.

this term i'm teaching advanced 2d art. it's one of my favorite classes to teach because it is so much about ideas. it's about the kids making their own work, not mine. it can be tiring but incredibly fulfilling for me...and for them.

i spend the entire first week teaching them how to develop a theme they can work with for the whole term. this year what i did was to put pictures of famous works of art around the room. i then asked them to walk around and look at the work recording what they observed. 

 

on the worksheets you see below i asked them to generally record themes & concepts (what the work was about) and subject matter (what was the work a picture of).

 

after a healthy debate about what i meant by themes & concepts, the difference between themes and subject matter, and a discussion about how anything could be a theme and the fact that many themes overlap we made this list as a group of possible themes to work with. 

we also decided as a group that a theme was a big idea and definitely something you could hold or touch.

after this activity each student chose a theme they were willing to commit to for the entire term and they made a brainstorming web with their theme at the center. i use these webs as starting points for almost all the projects over the course of the term. 

some students chose themes that are way too big. some chose themes that will go cliche real fast. i tried hard to control my natural tendency to save them by correcting these mistakes. they will suffer a bit, but through the suffering they will learn either not to choose such things in the future or how to grapple with it today. either way i'm pretty happy. 

we'll see what kind of work we get.