This concerns me.....

The Teaching Tolerance website is a good place to go and assess your own teaching practices and ideologies. This new article really saddened me. I invite you to sign this petition in support of this educator. No matter what your perspective is on this tragic event, teachers should not be fired for dealing with current and contemporary topics in their classrooms.






Change.org|Online Petition Template

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

      

An invitation to visit "Somewhere Off Center"

It is currently spare and bare, but I can now invite everyone to visit my new blog dedicated to fine art and illustration titled "Somewhere Off Center"  The first post and works of art are up. Follow the link or paste http://sallyctaylor.blogspot.com/ into your browser.  Either one will get you there.  I hope my current followers will continue to follow my artistic journey on this new site.  I will be tweaking, organizing and improving it over the next several days.

Cheers!

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 - Shadow

Pasture Gate

9 x 6 inches

water soluble graphite and colored pencil 

on watercolor board

This is just a quick color and value sketch for an image that I would like to turn into a small oil painting.  I find a little pre-planning helps immensely.  This gate is just up the road from my house and on this particular day, the play of light and shadow created beautiful elongated patterns.  For me the most interesting times of day for shadows are early morning and late afternoon, but it is also the most fleeting.  The sun seems to move more quickly when it is near the horizon.  For this reason I am a strong proponent of carrying a camera in order to capture references of this magical part of the day.  I also like use the computer to desaturate my studies to make sure the composition holds up based on value in addition to color.  It is a good idea to do this with paintings while they are progressing as well.

Here is an example of this study in grey scale.  I think it is still fairly successful.  Time to get busy painting!

Art and Mutant Flowers

I have been crazy busy lately getting ready for art exhibits and possible art exhibits.  I spent the day yesterday at the family farm in Marshall, with my dad, making plinths for sculptures out of 100 year old barn wood.  Thanks Dad!  I couldn't have done it without you.  These are some sturdy (heavy) sculpture stands.

 

Barnwood Plinth

with 100 lb sculpture

I have also been painting as fast as I can... below is a small oil painting that I was actually fairly happy with.  I have plans for a couple more paintings along these lines.  I have been experimenting with a water soluble oil paint that can be mixed with acrylics. (I know, I couldn't believe it either!)  I have actually not been brave enough to try mixing it with acrylics yet, but I love the easy clean up of water soluble oil paints! I need to do a few test mixes next week when I have a little more free time.

 

Morning Light

6 x 12

Oil on Board

And here is a strange thing I just had to share.  (The science girl in me loves this kind of stuff.)  John and I went for a walk yesterday morning and I came across this freakishly mutated black eyed susan.  The stem is flattened out and twisted into a ribbon shape, and the center of the flower has grown elongated and curves into almost a complete circle.  As a result, there is an increased number of petals that are growing out from the sides of the center in voluminous ruffles.  I don't know if this is caused by disease or just a random mutation, but it is strange and fascinating no matter how it happened.

Crazy Mutant Black Eyed Susan

Lucy Revisited

Lucy Loves Ducky II
40 x 30

Acrylic on Canvas

A larger acrylic version of the last Illustration Friday image that I did.  

School is out for the summer and I will be taking two graduate classes, and making art like crazy! Who knows, if any of this stuff sells, I may have to give up teaching. :)