November 16, 2017

A Long Time Coming

First, I have such respect for artists who also have other vocations. Ones that inform or inspire their art-making. They, to me, defy all the stereotypes about artists... I had a boss say to me once, "You're just the pretty picture person right?!" He said that -- after I designed and created all of his company's marketing, sales, annual reports, and trade show exhibits! Imagine that?! Okay, so I digress.

M.C. Escher (Dutch) is that kind of artist to me. His father wanted him to be an architect, but he chose to be a graphic artist. He was mathematically brilliant, as is demonstrated in tons of his drawings, prints, and woodcuts. He was fascinated with the Regular Division of the Plane. http://www.mcescher.com/ He was also an illustrator and painter, who created masterfully realistic works as well.

I could have approached the creation of the tessellations in many ways: Tracing Paper Translation- Slide; Tracing Paper Translation- Rotation, but I decided to try the Cut Paper Method (I discovered that an actual teenager came up with it). It's very similar to the Slice Method, but it's a bit simpler, and the resulting shapes are random, which allows the artist more creative freedom in the final results. I tried a few methods, made a couple exemplars, and decided for my students I would also add various instructional devices as well: video, visual diagrams, as well as direct instruction.


The Math Connection
There were two other lesson plans where I’d included geometry where students were required to draw a rhombus, a trapezoid, or an ellipse as a method of seeing the illusion of depth. This lesson was a good segue after having that experience. I asked the students to sketch regular shapes in their sketchbook - just taking it back to the basics - that there are three regular shapes that make up regular tessellations: the equilateral triangle, the square, and the regular hexagon. For a visual example, I showed them how a regular hexagon is used in the pattern of a honeycomb, the nesting structure of the honeybee. However, the artworks -- ah hum…. Tessellations I wanted the students to create were no average semi-regular tessellation! Ours were verrrry irregular with all kinds of convex and concave angles. What I would describe as more organic than geometric, but the math can be found in them.

They got this!
I am very contemplative about my teaching. The average size of my classes was 36, at the highest I had 38 mostly freshman/generalist students. I haven't been able to have a studio-type environment, where I could assign a cerebral challenge and send students off to think creatively to solve the problem, then bring to me sketches that they proudly created and are anxious to share. I'ma be real!
A student finds a rabbit in her tile.
Student using a window to trace repeated design.
I'm a Graphic Designer at Heart... and Practice.
My undergrad degree is a B.F.A. and my first professional experience was as a graphic designer. I often forget how much my education at the Philadelphia College of Art informs my teaching methods and production strategies. After each student created their tile (the kinda easy part), I encouraged them to look carefully at the contour and to imagine what image or images could be congruent with it. Before they could create their large painting with no gaps or overlaps, I had them create thumbnails sketches. Instead of free-drawing their design from tile to tile, I encouraged tracing their image over and over, so that they were interlocked and covered the plane. That was important because, as I explained ". . . most of your tessellations are irregular polygons, not parallelograms, nor equilaterals. . ."

Understanding Color Theory - another important component of the project.
While some students were working on their designs, others would mix colors to paint a color wheel. In addition, they were supposed to choose a complementary color pair, then paint tints and shades in a seven-step scale. This introduced them to low key and high key colors, as well as truly developing a sensitivity to color mixing -- discovering on their own -- "is this really orange? How much red do I need to make this orange and not red-orange?"



I would teach this again, and again. I think my students were challenged and quite proud of the results. Students who finished early were encouraged to repeat their design onto ceiling tiles. That presented an interesting challenge because all ceiling tiles are squares. Nevertheless, for my population of students, this worked as a late second-semester project. I'm not sure I would have presented this fist quarter. However, perhaps I am wrong? Perhaps this could have been the BANG! that set things off and kept them engaged from the start? I'll never know. For now, enjoy their creations.


























September 11, 2017

Reduction Junction What's Your Function?

Examples of student's completed prints.
Exemplary example of student research and sketches prior to creating relief print. I required that students chart their short-term and long-term goals, next create thumbnail sketches, then to increase their skill with reading and measuring with a ruler each created a 1:1 drawing of their composition which would then be transferred onto their substrate.


A developing example of student concept development work.


Typically a relief print is created with wood or linoleum, or that rubbery stuff they sell art teachers for students. In this project each student received a foam sheet, on which they traced their composition. Once that step was completed,  they pasted the foam with rubber cement onto cut mat board squares. Then they would cut the recessed areas that would not print on the first pass.
I honestly would not ever suggest this. It sucked up SO MUCH material: foam, rubber cement and mat board. Ridiculous!
Here a student pulls his first prints with the rubbery linoleum substrate (because I ran out of the other supplies). I had approximately 260 Intro students working on this project.



More student prints.


December 16, 2016

Let's Get it Poppin'!

Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol these are the artists most known for the Pop Art Movement. Emerging in America and in Britain in the late 50s, this art style was impacted by the burgeoning mass culture of a post-war America. My students researched to understand how the politics, economics, and social issues of the mid-century had an impact on the art of the time.

Today's students face just as many societal issues, some that have always been there and others that are polarized due to the widespread access technology. Social Media, political and racial tension, and poverty are increasing. As has been customary, the music of the youth reflects a great deal of their frustrations and aspirations. I asked students to consider Popular Culture today: If they were Andy, Roy or Claes what or who would they paint, print, or sculpt? Most students used the techniques of Lichtenstein and Warhol to create their compositions: projecting the images and tracing lines and shapes in the images. My everyday students really impressed me with their perserverance. This was an end of semester project, where one could really see their learning and progress over that time. Their composition sizes range from 11 x 14" to 18 x 24" and were painted with acrylic on paper, canvas, wood or fabric.

Michael Jackson w Cracked Face, by Honor B.
Commentary on Social Media, by Justin S.



Whitney Houston as a Blond, by Kiera W.
MAC Lipstick soft sculpture (in progress.)

Future, by Christopher G
Jordan by _______________
"Little Boat" by ________________


       

Painting Jay-Z, by  R. Cherry
Michelle & Barack, by R. Rodriquez



Superstar Jordan, by Quantavius
Dave Chapelle, by Bobby 

September 5, 2016

Authentic Art Assessments

I think Fine Artist - Art Educators are reticent to administer traditional assessments. However art teachers can get a really good grasp on student growth and development with the data gathered from pre, post and benchmark data. In fact data collection really does mesh with creativity in the classroom. Nowadays there are really efficient web tools to use with your students to administer authentic summative and formative assessments, that will also help you analyze the data for instruction.

What are authentic assessments?"...Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field." -- Grant Wiggins -- (Wiggins, 1993, p. 229).

There was once a time when I would give every student a 6-page paper test; I would manually grade them; I would analyze trends - what standards students mastered what standards, and which standards students needed more emphasis on. It took a while to do, a long while. The assessment informed my instruction, for example if 90% of all students demonstrate mastery of color theory in the formative assessment, I'll know that when I start teaching that unit, I should have a great deal of understanding, and not so much re-teaching of the concepts/elements.

Then to prepare for our Quarterly Data Presentations, I would import the numbers into MS Word graphs or PowerPoint to get some cool graphics (Not cool). That was after I add up all the test scores, divide... you know the drill. It was time consuming, and it was stressful! Stressful or not, doing this. . . collecting the data allowed me to advocate for my art program by sharing the legitimacy of standards-based Art Ed. We all know how important it is to advocate for Art Ed.

Use RUBRICS with numeric values to collect data. 
Each student gets a rubric at the beginning of a project and I'll review it with them, so that they're aware of what the mastery criterion is, and can be more in charge of their educational choices. I like to have them tape it into their sketchbook/journal for regular reference. The project rubric data should have some correlation to the pre and post data. If not you may have to look at your instructional strategies. Imagine, it's like a road map to your students.


With all that said, here's what I've learned:
So... I get excited about sharing this... I create my assessment in Google Forms, which is FREE and so easy to use (GF). See image right. Students can take the assessment right on their smart phones, or in a lab if you have access to one. During it you can see right away which students have completed it and submitted it. After you have them all, GF will give you a whole class analysis with color pie charts and all right in it. See image below left. BUT THE AMAZING PART IS: that GF has an Add-on called Flubaroo. Flubaroo analyzes all the data for you! Student by student, it colors it and everything. This is a game changer. Get ready to be a 21st Century Learning Art Educator, and to move your students into the 21st Century as well.

I hope this helps you with assessments, and data collection in your Art Ed classes.