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!
Category Archives: 517: Visual Arts Research
Spring Schedule
Here is the combined Schedule for this spring. Group A talks with Kevin first, Group B talks with Andrea first.
More on artists mapping….from the Big Bang onward…..
Paul Chaney talking about his drawings made recently at Donetsk. Super interesting diagrams of nature-culture interactions, going back to the Big Bang, and forward to this coal town in the Ukraine.
http://tranzitdisplay.cz/cs/vystavy/paul-chaney-donetsk-syndrome-diagrammatic-vernisaz-15-12-1900
memo 4 – material culture in relation to student population- Brette
As I have been investigating both subjects of material culture and visual culture for my research proposal, I am more interested in further exploring modes of material instruction aimed at my alternative student population. I would like to understand how to identify and diagnose special educational needs of my students on a more personal level. I am planning on keeping my research, in regards to human subjects, anonymous ( this proposal will require much gathered data).
I plan on examining how exactly a student qualifies for accommodations. I will have to investigate the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act further and will most likely have to pair with some special educational specialists in my building for feedback. In regards to legalities, Kevin has advised that I re-visit the CITI training program as it will protect me as a researcher. I would like to understand further how I may implement material culture studies to better facilitate my instruction also. Many of my students at the alternative high school strive to remain on task, sometimes it is difficult when facilitating choice based instruction, to harness more than one skill set. How can I achieve better performance when what Im teaching is not meaningful to them? ( I feel that this is where elements of visual culture cross- pollinate material culture studies within the classroom) I seek to use material culture as a language set within the artroom…
I have noticed that many of my students have become declassified- and no longer require special educational services. I would like to determine on what platform and by whom, this is information is determined? I strive also to include more formal assessments within my teaching, however will this require data derived from interventions?
Some helpful resources ( books) I aim to obtain, also suggested by Kevin,
Matter Matters by ( Nadia Kaabi? ) Kevin can yoou verify this is the correct author?
Including Difference by, Keifer- Boyd and Kraft
Art for the exceptional child- Wexler
Memo 4- Reflecting on research
As I just started to finish a community based project through the city of Kingston and the Sinterklaas festivial I have had some moments of where I want my research to go. I am very interested on community based art education and how students can give back and really appreciate where they live by what they create for their community. Although I put my blood sweat and literal tears into this project I am unable to use it for my research due to an unwritten proposal and consent from parent/student/school.
However, I have found that this type of project is one that I would like to do on a smaller scale for my research. I want to also incorporate visual culture and make it more accessible to my students that are unable and unwillingly to travel to NYC to go to the met, moma, etc. to view contemporary and famous works of art.
In Kingston we do alot with the community and even though I was interested in community based art education before this, I am even more interested in it now. It was amazing to see my students voice opinions about the project and what they thought would be acceptable to put out in the community.
Memo 4 Reflecting on Research Process- Lindsay W.
My research is focusing on museum education and the exchange of teaching practices in both museum settings and educational settings. Museums are often thought of as rigid institutions with set rules on how to behave and who may come in to enjoy the contents, but similar to the reconceptualization art education has faced, so too have museums. The developments made in the art education field yield just as influential in museum education programs and there have been efforts made to increase their approach-ability to the public. Just as methods utilized in the art education field can be used in museum settings, so to can methods taught in museums be brought to more formal educational settings.
Museums offer a chance for students to become more familiar with the outside world, something I have found my students are not very aware of. Because of their disabilities, they only know the immediate world around them and not much else. Much of what they do know is information told to them by friends/family that often is biased. But getting the chance to go to a museum and see a new perspective or even new thing altogether can be an eye opening experience and show the students that there is more to the world than just what is immediately around them. It allows for conversation of understanding other cultures and encourage open-mindedness. My recent talk with Kevin also brought up the idea of accessibility to museums and how the demographic of an area affects visitation, as well as the impact that a museum may have on a community. These are ideas I definitely am interested in looking more into. As far as I know, the area I teach in has no museums in the immediate area, and accessing more well known museums of NYC, such as the Met and MoMA can take a while to get to (for example, the subway from Co-Op City to the Met can take up to an hour and half).
Memo #4 Reflecting on Research Process Melissa Mizerak
My research has been focusing on Visual Culture and place. As I have been reading articles on the subject matter, I constantly think about what my students are exposed to through media. I started thinking about one specific article that I read by Kristen Eglinton where she interviews boys through an after-school club called HOPE in NYC about masculinity. As she compiles her research about these boys’ perceptions about masculinity, she sees that many relate it to a ‘gangsta’ stereotype, as the boys call it. Visual culture which portrayed ‘gangstas’ created perceptions that caused youth to define masculinity as: overcoming hardships, violent, having sexist behavior, laid back, and having control or power.
My focus consistently comes back to these boys’ perceptions of ‘gangsta’ with overcoming hardships. I think about this when I see my seventh-grade males who define themselves under this stereotype. Why wouldn’t they want to define themselves this way? Many of them have been witnesses to murder, beaten mothers, sisters, brothers, themselves beaten, and witnesses to illegal acts. Overcoming hardships is what they are trying to do. Many times, in my head, I think if we could expose our youth that have been through hardships to visual culture that displays individuals that have been through similar experiences without the other stereotypes that come along with ‘gangsta’, that we could reduce some of the issues in school. I think what my students are holding onto is the idea of Hope. If they become a ‘gangsta,’ then they can overcome anything.
Memo 4
Reflecting on the Research Process
The research process to me was a bit all over the place. I was not sure exactly what I was doing for a while on top of the crazy first few months of the school year. I’m hoping to really develop my research even further throughout the year and gather my thoughts, but it’s just been tough with how work has been going. I think instead of using my students in my study, I would like to focus on my own practice and how place informs my art, and then in turn see how this could be incorporated into place-based education.
Memo 3 Reflecting on Pedagogical Ecology- Lindsay W.
I find that my pedagogical ecology right now is not what I really want it to be. Initially, I was interested in pursuing more independent-based projects in which students can think through the materials they use and be free to explore a range of techniques and ideas. However, because of the limitations I have with my students, I almost always have to create a strict structure for them to follow with not much room for true exploration. The space of my classroom also contributes to a feeling of limitation- it is a small room with not much space for students to walk around and with no windows, it can seem claustrophobic at times, and it is overheated, creating a feeling of being stifled and stuffy. I try to brighten it up with various artworks and create a positive/encouraging environment, but still, there are times when it feels like a very confining space and that affects both how I teach and how the students feel in the space.
Freedom in creating artwork is a very important belief I have, so it is difficult for me to feel that I have to control how the students work and what they do, and I am trying to push forward in fostering independent thinking. I have attempted to give some classes freedom to create their own art from their own ideas and open material choices, with only one class really succeeding so far. Seeing success with this class gives me hope that I can further reach other students from other classes and engage them in creating, rather than just copying what I do. Its the small victories like this that keep me going and all I can do is keep trying. 
memo 3- Brette Higgins
Brette Higgins
Memo 3
Exploring Ideas through Material Culture Studies
Upon posting the my last photo essay, I have begun to think more deeply about how the materials we choose to incorporate into the art room influences instruction. I am fortunate in that objects are most abundant in the art rooms I use during my day ( all 3 rooms). In the studio room I use, I have been having some difficulties with the teacher there. Although, I wish I could have more control over the physical space and the items I am permitted to store there, it is a constant struggle for me in the classroom. If I ever have a classroom of my own, I would love to incorporate models such as furnitures, plants, tea cups, flowers, fruits, human skeletons and instruments for drawing purposes. I can remember an art teacher years ago that had an enormous still life set up in her room that was simply amazing! Chairs and easels were set up accordingly and students were very engaged with the entire process of still life drawing. That still life remained setup for two months, I wish I could have the same opportunity if the circumstances permitted.
I would like to use traditional drawing as a departure for a still life, utilizing objects as the basis for a multitude of approaches to colour and painting techniques. I would manipulate and control light to create shadows and position the objects in interesting perspectives for advantageous angles. Viewfinders would be utilized and mirrors could be used for reflective drawing . Photographs could serve as reference to guide for future drawing processes – if we wished to take this lesson further after the breakdown of the still life. ( Most students possess camera phones and are able to document the objects in various positions). A teachable opportunity could be to introduce the history of the camera and discuss how it functions as a tool for observing, maybe collaborate with a photo teacher.
I really try to emphasize drawing in my instruction as it is a foundational skill that is essential for growing as a visual learner. However, it seems I always need prior approval from the teacher before I can begin any kind of lesson- which can be frustrating at times. Much of the material we are teaching to our classes is similar as she prefers it that way, as she sees it as a simple negotiation to sharing space. I do sometimes feel as I am limited to grow as a teacher and I feel constrained to what I can teach. I would love to incorporate graphic design such as logo design, advertising, and typeface exploration into the studio, but I’m not sure if she will approve of my ideas.
In regards to my own pedagogy, I have been struggling with how artifacts interpret the language of art? Artists use tools and objects to communicate visually ideas, pencils, pencils, brushes, papers, canvas etc. I personally use my sketchbook as a capacity to see, to assist me in recording, journaling, planning and sketching my ideas. As viewers, we require close contacts to the objects we are drawing thus, discoveries are made. I feel that my students are constantly searching for self-expression within their drawing. When I was teaching elementary arts, I recognized the power of symbols in children’s artwork. They draw from their imaginations frequently because the object they are recreating is unavailable to them. Some of the artwork was so interesting because some students are not strong verbally expressing themselves, but visually excel.
Thinking within the realm of design elements and principles of art, shapes and forms are contained by lines, they may vary from being organic to geometric. Forms represent the three dimensional characteristics of objects. Value changes with the use of shading can help in suggesting three dimensional forms. Something I struggle to teach students, is learning to see these elements on their own . High school students struggle I feel with being able to have awareness, sensing and reacting to their thought processes. Artist M.C. Escher for example, implements positive and negative space within his composition as he plays with the viewer’s perception. Maybe they weren’t prepared for Escher…possibly to deep? ( I incorporated him in a postive/ negative space lesson last week).
Overall, I feel like a bird with clipped wings at times, for five years now. I am struggling with ways to navigate the challenges of physical space. If things do not change I think I will start to look for other opportunities elsewhere. .