Great Book Find - Michael Freeman's "Photographer's" Series

An event earlier this week got me to thinking about my experiences with photography in the classroom; how I have approached it in the past, and how I would like to approach it in the future.  In my previous classrooms I have always had groups of students who were devoted to photography as a media, and also those who saw photography as an easy way out of what they viewed as more difficult art assignments.  After all, it is easy enough to push a shutter button on a camera.   I always explained to those who thought photography was an easy option, that good photography is nothing like easy.  Though I was also willing to admit to them that sometimes even a bad/mediocre photographer could get lucky and produce a compelling image.  I just didn't want them to base their grade in my class on a stroke of luck.  I needed to see evidence of thought, planning, problem solving, composition, content, technique.....you know, all those things we art teachers work so hard to instill in our students.

With all of this inner reflection floating around in my head, I found myself wandering into the photography section of my local Barnes and Noble Bookstore.  Most of the books I picked up were the expected technique driven tomes that I have perused over and over again when I have photography on my brain.  These books are interesting and useful, and often visually appealing, but they all fall short as an aide in helping to explain the difference between a technically good photograph and an exceptional work of fine art in which photography happens to be the media. That distinction is the hardest thing for most burgeoning photography/art students to grasp.

Just before giving up and wandering off to another section of the bookstore, a title caught my eye. "The Photographer's Vision - Understanding and Appreciating Great Photography" by Michael Freeman.  Aha! This one sounded promising.  As I started leafing through the pages I quickly realized that it was just exactly the kind of resource that I was hoping to find.  Mr. Freeman's book looks at a lot of excellent imagery throughout the history of photography and goes into details about why these images are accepted as significant contributions to the world of art and photography; what the artist was thinking, what was their process, their "vision."  And even better, right next to this book were two more on the shelf by the same author titled " The Photographer's Eye- Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos," and "The Photographer's Mind - Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos."  I can only say that I felt like I was in a state of photography book euphoria. :)  All of these beautiful image filled books, while touching on technique, focused more specifically on the intent and creativity of the artists within the art form; just exactly the concepts I feel are most important to convey in an art classroom.  Technique is very learn-able and can be developed with time and practice, but the development of technique requires lower order thinking skills.  Developing a mental construct for creating content, meaning, composition, and artistry requires a student to  not only use but to stretch their higher order thinking skills.

Needless to say, I purchased all three of these books for my personal library, and I have been blissfully pouring over them since they arrived.  I admittedly wrote down the author, titles, and publisher (Focal Press) and ordered them from Amazon where they cost me nearly half what I would have paid at Barnes and Noble. I highly recommend these books to any art teacher or artist whether you teach/practice photography or not.  The visual concepts contained in them can be applied to any media.

Thank you Michael Freeman for filling an important void in the book market.  I love your books!

Exit Through the Gift Shop - Movie Review

I rarely spend more than about $10 on additions to my DVD collection, but when I happened upon this Banksy film while perusing the movie section of BestBuy, I quickly plunked down the $25 that it cost.  My high school students have always been fascinated by the illusive street artist Banksy, and the risk taking associated with his particular art form.  I like him because he is such an excellent example of the power of art as a means of communicating complex ideas and personal/political/cultural statements. 

This movie is rated R.  It has a documentary format and the "F word" pops up sporadically.  I would have no problem showing this movie to an upper level high school art class after sending home parental permission forms.  The best advice I can give here is to know your principle well and run it by him or her before showing it in any class.  That said, it is a very watchable and fascinating film.  Though Banksy is ultimately responsible for the existence of the film in its final version, the documentary is not about Banksey and his work per-se.  Instead, it is about a French film/video photographer who becomes obsessive about documenting street artists at work and ultimately becomes a participating street/pop artist himself.  Banksy and well known American street artist Shepard Fairey play pivotal roles in the development of the storyline. The film addresses the bizarre conditions at play when street art becomes commercially valuable.  It questions the nature of art, artists, and the art market.  It can lead to some solid reality based questions for your students to consider.  What is it that we value about art?  What is illegal about graffiti? What makes something "good art" or "bad art?"  How important is originality in making art?  Can someone become an artist overnight? How does marketing impact the value of art?

Speaking of marketing, the DVD comes packed with a few fun extras: the star-shaped paper glasses that you see in the photo above, a couple of grafitti art postcards, and a couple of grafitti art stickers are included.

I really enjoyed this film and give it a solid A.

Artist Spotlight - Jay Shinn

Bi-Slanted V
2009
stainless steel, latex paint, shadow
32" x 60" x 8"

Jay Shinn is an artists working and living in both Texas and New York.  Along with the other artists I have recently spotlighted, Shinn contributed to the “Silent Transmissions” exhibit that hung at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches Texas from Jan 28^th – Mar 31^st of 2012.  The works included by Shinn were 3 dimensional installations that were composed of stainless steel sculpture, painted shadows, and the variable actual shadows that were a function of lighting and daylight.  The resulting work is a form of tromp l’oeil that forces the viewer to really closely consider what he/she is seeing.  The painted shadows were so convincing that I viewed several of Shinn’s pieces before I recognized the visual trickery of Shinn’s technique.  To see more of Shinn’s hard-edged geometric art visit his website at http://www.jayshinn.com/ .

Artist Spotlight – James Marshall

Large Works:
glazed ceramic,
approx. 28" x 26" x 4”

James Marshall is a ceramic artist and college instructor from Santa Fe, NM.   He recently exhibited a group of large ceramic works at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas that he calls “Liminal Objects”.  In his artist statement Marshall explains:

“If subliminal means that which is below the threshold of ordinary consciousness and perception, then the liminal is the point of emergence, the threshold itself, the turning point between one realm and another. The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. Liminality is a period of transition, during which usual boundaries of thought, self-understanding, and behavior shift, opening the way to something new.” 

Marshall creates bold monolithic ceramic sculptures coated in bright primary and secondary colored glazes.  From a distance the glazes appear to be a solid gloss of color, but on closer inspection divides into subtle shifts of texture and hue creating added interest to the simple but massive forms.  You can see more of Marshall’s work on his website at http://www.jamesmarshallart.com/index.html .

Artist Spotlight – Vincent Falsetta

191

14" x 14"

oil on panel

2008

Vincent Falsetta is a professor of Drawing and Painting at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.  He recently exhibited a number of his artworks at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas in a group exhibit titled “Silent Transmissions.”   Falsetta’s large non-objective paintings vibrate with the energy of contrasting color choice and a unique manipulation of the actual physical paint.  Falsetta references nature, technology, and energy as sources of inspiration.  In his artist statement Falsetta notes “There is a feeling of a steady electric flow, somewhat like a visual electro-magnetic field that pulls the eye in every direction simultaneously.  The paintings evoke the natural world while acknowledging the technology that measures or records it.”

My first impressions on viewing Falsetta’s paintings was that they reminded me of beautifully marbled paper; much like the endpapers found in fine old leather bound books.  You can see more of Vincent Falsetta’s work on the REM Gallery website at http://www.remgallery.com/artists/falsetta1.html .

Here's Lookin' at You Kid: The Use and Meaning of “Gaze” in Art

      The Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, TX is hosting a thought provoking exhibit titled "Silent Transmissions."  The exhibit includes the current work of contemporary artists Frances Bagley, Vincent Falsetta, James Marshall, John Pomara, and Jay Shinn.  Silent Transmissions will be on view at the Cole through March 31, 2012
     Of particular interest to me is Frances Bagley's video installation titled "Witness." (Follow the hyperlink for an image directly from Bagley's website.)  Bagley took video of a variety of different people's eyes while they were looking straight forward.  She then created a display of 26 video players on metal stands that plays in a continuous loop. The only noticeable movement is the occasional random blink of the eyes.  Bagley's purpose is to psychologically turn the viewer into the one who is being viewed, creating an unexpected tension.  The artist is manipulating a concept known in the worlds of art and psychology as "gaze."
     There are many different specific kinds of "gaze" that get talked about in the art world.  One of the most common is "the male gaze."  It is a hot topic in the world of art history and contemporary feminism, perhaps too hot of a topic for most public school systems.  But perfectly acceptable in a high school setting are the concepts of spectator gaze, intra-diegetic gaze, and extra-diegetic gaze.  ( Intra-what!!!  Don't worry I had to look it up too.)  Spectator gaze is of course the gaze of the actual viewer who is looking at the subject of a painting.  Intra-diegetic gaze is the gaze of a subject within work of art looking at another subject within that same work of art.  Diegetic essentially means "within the story", or "within the work of art."  So logically extra-diegetic means a subject in a work of art looking out to the viewer or out to the fourth wall beyond the visible illusions of the artwork.  
     Even though these concepts have only found their most comprehensive forms in contemporary psychology and art, artist have known about the power of a subject's gaze for hundreds of years.  As human beings we are instinctively interested in what other people (or animals) are looking at.  This tendency is actually a critical part of our own survival instinct.  Artist use their knowledge of the power of gaze to help drive the composition and message of their artwork.  In response to the Silent Transmissions exhibit I have developed a high school art lesson plan around the Francis Bagley video installation and the concept of "gaze" in art work.  If you are interested in a printable copy of the lesson plan drop me an email at edenhound@tannertaylor.com.  I will be happy to forward a copy of it to you either as a pdf or a word document.
     If you are in the vicinity of Nacogdoches, Texas between now and the end of March be sure to check out all of the outstanding artwork included in the "Silent Transmissions" exhibit.
     Below are a few images from art history that would be great discussion starters for the topic of "gaze".  The Bosch and Velasquez paintings are both part of my lesson plan in addition to the Bagley installation. 

Hieronymus Bosch, The Conjurer, 1475 -1505. oil on wood

Gustav Corbet, The Desperate Man, 1844 - 1845, oil on canvas

Caracalla, c. A.D. 215, marble, life size

Diego Velásquez, Las Meninas, 1656. oil on canvas

      

Illustration Friday - Stay

 

Stay With Me

(while I monkey around with my career)

Collage and graphite

9.25 x 5 inches

Big changes have happened in my life since my last post.  I did something even I couldn't have anticipated.  I resigned my high school art teaching position.  This was one of the hardest decisions I have made in a long time, and I know a lot of people think I must be off my rocker.  Maybe I am...  I absolutely love teaching.  I work very hard to be good at it, and I can only hope that the effort is understood and appreciated by those who retain my services as an educator.  The students always get it, maybe not at first, but eventually and reliably.  I miss them already and we are only half way through the summer.  

But change is good even if it is hard.  As Newton tells us, a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and I am no exception to that rule.  The current plan is:

1. Make art full time -  It is a now or never opportunity to promote myself as a professional artist.  Teaching gave me freedom to make art for personal intellectual pleasure at my leisure.  I have been much more productive in the last couple of years than in the past but now is the time to ramp it up to the next level.

2. Finish up my Masters degree - I am five classes away from completion.  With more free time I should be able to finish up by the end of next spring semester

3. Start a new blog - I will be putting up a new blog that will deal more specifically with my production of fine art and illustration. Illustration Friday submissions will be posted there as well.  I have three recently completed large canvases that are the beginnings of a new body of work.  As soon as I have good photos, I will inaugurate the new blog.

4. Work part time at Micheal's - As a evening/weekend "Customer Experience Manager" and hopefully fine art instructor... I still need to be able to make my car payment and tuition. :(  I worked at Micheal's about six years ago as a framer and event coordinator before I started teaching.  They still like me and have been kind enough to take me back.

I showed my son Todd, the illustration for this week.  He asked me what the word was, when I told him, he looked blankly at me and said "I don't get it."  If you have read to this point I hope it now makes sense.  To those who have been kind enough to follow this blog, I hope you will "stay with me" as I move on in another direction.  I'll post here to let everyone know when the new blog is up and running.

Make art with all your heart, mind, and soul!

Sally

Illustration Friday - Cultivate

2 point perspective drawing sample

I am teaching perspective drawing at school to my Art 1 students this week, and it just occurred to me today that my sample drawing could work for this weeks Illustration Friday word.  The drawing is not finished, but it is far enough along that it is a good example for my students on drawing a cityscape with details in two point perspective.

In addition to cultivating young minds, I have been doing a lot of literal cultivating this week.  I have built three raised vegetable and flower garden beds using the a square foot gardening plan.  I also purchased root stock of male and female hardy kiwi berry plants at Sam's club. I have been researching online to determine the best way to plant them.  It turns out that the vines get really large, (think Kudzu) so I am going to have to find some spare fence line to plant them on, or consider building an arbor.

You might remember a couple of posts back that I commented on my notoriously black thumb.   I figure I have about a 25% chance that any of these current gardening efforts will turn out to be successful.  I am ever optimistic that I will find the magic spell that will turn my black thumb green.  The above drawing is pure fantasy. :)

Upcoming One Day Photography Exhibit

This is one of about ten photographs that I will be exhibiting alongside the work of my colleague Walter James at the Lindale Library in a couple of weekends.  He had taken a number of photographs in the town of Marfa, Texas over the summer, and I have been spending a lot of time in the town of Marshall, Texas where my family owns a farm.  Walter thought it would be a good idea to put up a one day exhibit of images from both towns.  The names of the towns have a nice ring together.  Marfa is representative the western side of the state while Marshall is typical of East Texas.

I really loved the distorted visage of this poorly repaired Madonna, as well as the intense turquoise of her painted robe.  The day was bright and clear and the paint color perfectly complemented the cerulean blue sky behind her

Lindale Students Attend State VASE

I apologize for being slow getting these up, but as we get closer to the end of the school year I only seem to get busier and busier.

This year five of our students advanced to state competition in art.  We traveled to Seabrook, Texas and the University of Houston - Clear Lake for the event.  Due to the distance, we arrived on Friday, April 9th and spent the afternoon visiting the Museum of Fine Arts - Houston and the Menil Collection.  This was my first opportunity to visit both of these institutions and I must say that they are now some of my favorite art museums in the state of Texas.  In addition I was able to visit the Rothko Chapel.  While not my favorite example of Rothko's work, it was still a serene experience and worth the visit.

 Left to right - Walter James, Katherine Trevarrow, Brenda Arzola, Matthew Sutter, Brittany Hudspeth, and Carianne Starling

Our students at the Flavin Installation - part of the Menil Collection


We spent Saturday at the State VASE competition where we viewed a staggering amount of outstanding high school art.  Our students were able to participate in studio activities as well as watch some fantastic demonstrations by working Texas artists.  All in all it was a successful and inspiring trip.   We made it home safe and sound by about 9:30 Saturday night. 

A chalk artist working with high school students for one of the demonstrations.  I apologize,  I have  forgotten her name.

Participants viewing some of the 2D art.

The 3D work was shown on multiple levels of the building

I can't wait to go again next year.

Illustration Friday - Unbalanced

12 x 15 3/4 inches

Pen and ink

Self Portrait

This is a sample of a project that I do with my Art 1 students.  It starts as a grid drawing that is then developed by creating values using patterns and textures.  Students have to control the value within a given pattern as well since the pattern/texture changes with each grid square.  I am always trying to get the students to take more compositionally interesting photos to work from so that we get more dynamic final images.  This means that I start by taking a lot of very unflattering pictures of myself to get them to loosen up about how they look.  The girls always want to be "pretty" and the boys just want to give me mug shots.  Teenagers are soooooo self-conscious!  I just tell them to loosen up and let their freak flag fly!  Of course they are certain that I am completely mentally unbalanced as the above image would seem to prove.  I also let a student choose which image I will work from which is guaranteed to be the one that is the most unforgiving. :)  Good fun!

Illustration Friday - Skinny or A Peace Crane Project Update

mixed media ATCs

Dancing Japanese Cranes

I came close to not getting this week done in time again.  The word "skinny" can be a touchy word especially for women.  So about 4:00 AM this morning I finally settled on doing a series of ATCs with some skinny birds that would also allow me to give an update on my origami peace crane project that I am spearheading at school.  We currently have about 588 cranes produced by students, teachers and a few community members at large.  We are a little over half way done with folding and I would like to have the installation hung by early December.  It seems a fitting theme for the upcoming holiday season.  If you would like to know more about this project you can see the entry on my blog at http://msartlady.blogspot.com/2009/10/illustration-friday-pattern-or-put-up.html .   Oh and by the way, these cards are available for trade for comparable hand drawn or painted cards. Show me what cha got. :)

Illustration Friday - Pattern or the PUT UP A CRANE Peace Project

hand decorated paper origami crane

This is the first week since I started the self-imposed Illustration Friday assignments that I almost missed participating.  I feel like I have a very good excuse for being so late this week.  Besides grades being due for the 1st six weeks of school, I have initiated a somewhat ambitious project that I am trying to get not only my students, but the community involved in. 

First a little background information.  Last week a teacher at a nearby high school was stabbed to death by a student in his classroom.  The exact motivation for this tragic event is still somewhat sketchy, but it impacted me deeply as I am sure it did many other students and teachers in this part of East Texas.  In response to this heartbreaking incident, I decided to have my students make a positive statement to our community concerning their personal accountability for promoting peace, tolerance and understanding in our community.  What I had initially intended to offer my own Art students, I have broadened to include the entire high school,  I hope to continue to extend it even further into the school district and the community.

So here is what we are doing:
 Participants are asked to take a 6x6 inch piece of copy paper, and write on one side of the paper, their thoughts, hopes, wishes and intent for promoting peace and tolerance in our community.  After writing, they are asked to draw on the other side of the paper an image that relates to what they have just written.  With my students, I talked about a lot of different traditional/cultural symbols for peace.  Students are allowed to use one or more of these symbols in their drawn images if they wish.  One well-known symbol that we talk about is folded origami cranes, and the story of how a wish is granted if you fold a thousand cranes.  I tell the students that if we are of one mind and have essentially the same wish, that we as a group can have our wish granted as well.  We then fold the written and drawn paper into origami cranes.  We will string our cranes on fishing line and hang them as an art installation in the school.  I encourage those who participate to imagine the power of a work of art in which so many people have the same goals and the same desires for our community.  No one will be able to read what is written or see the entire drawn image, because it is all folded up inside the crane, but everyone will know its collective meaning.  The strength of the message is in each individual crane.

I came up with a simple anagram for the title of the project. It helps us talk about connected themes that participants might write/draw about
P eace
U understanding
T olerance
U nity
P ersonal
A ccountability
C ommunity
R espect
A ltruism
N on-violence
E mpathy

I have it in my head that either the entire art installation, or maybe individual strands of cranes can be offered to other schools in the future to encourage them to participate along with us.  We'll see how successful I am at getting that first 1000 cranes.  We currently have a little over 200 finished cranes so we have a long way to go.  I'll keep our progress posted here as we approach our goal.

The pattern on the paper for the crane above is supposed to be an olive branch design - another common symbol for peace.

Wish me luck!