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I was able to focus a lot on painting and my process over my week-long winter break. It was so nice. I made a point to go outside to a park every morning right when I woke up and painted for an hour or two. I began every session by journaling for a half hour. The days were warm, some were cold, but overall it was a really awesome experience. One day, I wasn’t able to get to the park in the morning because of an appointment but I went later in the day. There were more people than ever before because it was later in the day and I hated it! I felt watched! People were very interested and asked me questions about my art and why I was out.

I also started to leave my paintings there. I wrote a message on the back of the paintings asking for them to be taken home to enjoy. It was interesting that people were hesitant to take them home. After the first few days, people came up to me and asked if I was the one leaving paintings around. Someone even took a picture of the first painting I left and was upset that someone else took it because she wanted it. It was cool! People said they would keep coming back to the park in hopes of finding one of my paintings to take home for themselves!

In terms of place, it was cool that this park allowed me to get outside and paint, and that the people in the place were inspired and motivated to come back because of the hidden art. I would like to keep hiding paintings in public places, just for fun, but it was a cool outcome to my initial research of getting outside and painting in different places.

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I am doing my research on place and the impact it has on an artist. My own teaching philosophy centers on promoting metacognition, encouraging equal respect for each other, and fostering deeper connections among the classroom community as well as the outside community. Thinking and community are my two main topics that relate to both my research topic and teaching philosophy. I wrote some words that related to my process when reflecting on my art and some words that also relate to my pedagogy n the classroom. There is no formula to viewing or making art, but I aim to interpret how an environment can impact an artist. I find myself asking students to think beyond what can be seen or known. The arts are essential in building confidence, cognitive ability, and critical thinking. In a broad sense, art expands students’ ability to use it as a tool for deconstructing the world around them but to also explore and reflect on individuality and the role they play in the world. I encourage students to learn from the inside out. By contemplating and examining their own personalities, interests and relationships, they may better understand the world around them. This same approach to art making and thinking in the classroom is what shaped me into the artist and thinker that I am today.

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I chose George Allen Durkee as my first mentor artist. As I have been reflecting on my memories, I notice that the sun has been one of the most important aspects. I decided to look up artists that capture the way light reflects off surfaces and creates the landscapes that we see.

Durkee traveled much of his life and worked very, very hard to become the painter he is today. He mostly works in landscape oil paintings. He creates his paintings out in the streets of San Francisco as a way of marketing his artwork.

His artwork is very inspiring to me because I have been working towards capturing light the same way he does. It actually is pretty interesting because he has educational videos that teach people how to capture light in paintings. I know that Andrea told me that she is not sure about creating abstract paintings, but perhaps I could use my digital paintings as sketches for large-scale paintings. I know that I woul like to use my studio time over the summer to paint.

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Baird Park

The night before, I’d had a dream that took place at one specific place at Baird Park. I felt like I needed to go there, so we went and looked around. It was here that I told Alex that this was my favorite time of day because of the way the sun hit the leaves and made them seem like they were glowing. He’d never noticed it before but I noticed my whole life.

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So far, I have purchased a sketchbook, a small set of acrylic paints and some paintbrushes. Every day, I take about 30 minutes to take in the space and reflect on one page in the sketchbook. I have some clear overhead transparencies so I cut out four rectangles and that is where I paint my four color swatches. Some things I have noticed is the way the sun lights up the room, subsequent shadows and that when forced to take down colors, I do it quite literally. Sometimes I’ve been with people and other times I haven’t. I tend to use a lot of yellows in places where I feel comfortable and some blues when I am not as familiar with space. I write down my feelings and thoughts in a sort of stream of consciousness style so that my journal is more authentic. This style of painting is a lot easier for me. I am glad that I came up with a set of guidelines to follow every time I sit down to paint. I’m hoping as time goes on I focus less onthe colors right in front of me and more on the colors that come to mind. Like I said before, I don’t normally reflect on my thoughts while I paint, so this is very new to me! Pretty cool though. I hope to also go to more places as it gets warmer so that I can really compare and contrast the color swatches. Right now I have only been able to journal about my house or work since those are really the only two places I go during the week…. 🙁 Maybe my life will become more interesting because of this research! I wouldn’t mind that!

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Taylor Coleman

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Studio Plan Draft

Throughout the spring semester, I will be creating one digital memory drawing based on place and memory. These memories will be based on my relationship that I keep very private and focus on memories that are candid and quiet yet meaningful. They are not memories that would normally be shared or curated to be shared, but rather unspoken memories that define the relationship.  I will upload four in progress drawings per week as well as the final drawing. I will also include feelings, colors and objects associated with these candid moments. I will log these feelings for more accurate portrayals. This log will be the basis of my research for the summer studio session. I will be looking for feedback from my peers and asking myself which five digital paintings are the most successful in terms of colors, feelings and portrayal of a memory.

Eventually over the summer I will choose five of my digital memory paintings to use as inspiration for five large paintings. These paintings will be abstract representations of those memories using only the colors, shapes and feelings that I had logged and used in my digital painting. I am hoping to finish one painting per week. Since I don’t normally sketch out my paintings in advance, I don’t plan on creating a sketch of my abstract painting but rather let the painting develop naturally. I will use oil paint since it does not dry right away and is my preferred medium.  My plan for the summer show is to hang the paintings horizontally with the smaller digital painting underneath each painting.