The beginning of a soft pastel drawing in which I will be removing areas. I am going to place two images next to each other–two part piece. I am still hoping to explore visual material culture and place.
Tag Archives: Melissa
Drawing Response to Twyla Thorp
Scratching out the creativity of color. Literal meets figurative response to the reading.
Melissa Mizerak ARS 512 Twyla Thorp Reading Response
Twyla Thorp, The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life
The first thing that came to mind after reading the small section in Thorp’s book The Creative Habit: Learn it and use it for life was to look up more about her. Inferring that she was a choreographer from her writing, I wanted to find out more about what she worked on and is currently creating. “Reading fat,” as she calls it is something that I find myself unconsciously doing when I have found something of interest—to learn more about that something. I found this to be very interesting because if you have the interest then the desire to learn more is naturally there. I believe this to be true for my students as well. When finding something of interest, you are naturally curious and want to seek out more information until you ease the scratch; until something else sparks your interest and causes you to scratch for more.
Thorp’s description of scratching was beautifully poignant. I took to her description instantly, and was somewhat jealous of how she found one word that could affectively describe the process we all take in finding our next creative focus. Her lists of areas to find inspiration to scratch, such as books, nature, mentors, and her rules of managing them I enjoyed greatly. I instantly related it to advice I was given when I was sick in Ghana. Never scratch the same place twice, be in shape, and maintain the white hot pitch. I instantly internalized it as a survival tool, categorizing it next to my Ghana life survival tips.
Melissa Mizerak’s Response to Burton’s Presence of Life in Art
Judith Burton discusses the need to focus on the personal expression of youth and adolescents in art making rather than directed art techniques and outcomes. In her article, “The integrity of personal, experience, or the presence of life in art,” she explains the developmental stage of youth and adolescents, and breaks down the thought process during art making for these age groups. Her article also discusses how fostering youths’ expression of personal experience with imagination can cultivate better perspectives toward the arts, be it: visual, written, auditory, or performative. If art education was directed in such a manner, then much of the youth would not find it to be pointless but pertinent.
Burton’s essay arouses many questions for me. Many focusing around Rolling’s Analytic form of Arts Based Research (ABR). The main overarching question was how do you foster Analytic self-expression with youth when administration and parents’ perceptions are similar to Burton’s statement that, “in the western world, grown-ups were not so comfortable with the works that denied acceptable standards of beauty or realism in the art of the children however young,” (p 13)? I have a tendency to think that art education is run the way it is currently in public education settings because many districts’ administration view art education this way (this bias only coming from the perspective of my current district where I am employed). The overall arching theme of education currently is statistic and data based research. Administration in my district has a tendency to only support the arts if we can focus it in this direction—which I believe is discipline based arts. Burton also made me question my current teaching because I do fit into the realms she describes as ineffective. I would love to implement strategies that focus on youths’ imaginative creative self, but the few times that I have tried, my students didn’t take interest. I fail at the implementation. I have started several lessons with my students where it has been working through materials. They stop about half way through a thirty-minute class and ask if we can start the real lesson. How do you carry on lessons that are self-explorative in theme? What if the overarching theme you introduce for some direction and scaffolding doesn’t fit? To be honest, I find frustration in these articles because, yes, these ideas are beautiful, and I do agree with them to a certain extent; but, how do you affectively approach implementing said ideas? In a bias, bold statement of my own narrowly formulated opinion, I feel these theoretical ideas seem untested in a variety of environments. I feel that these practices are implemented in settings that have income and support flexibility in the teaching atmosphere.
Melissa Mizerak Memo #2
Swimming Through Ideas
My ideas and focus first started around the idea of visual culture. I am still very much intrigued by the influence of visual imagery, and its impact on individuals consciously and subconsciously. However, the exploration into many of the articles for this course has caused me to think greater into material culture. The reality is, all things have an influence; not just visual images. With this idea, couldn’t things (objects) we even create or recreate impact our conscious and subconscious? Object and imagery influence has become my main focus now through material culture. I was even thinking about pursuing a research topic I came up with after reading “From Topics to Questions,” which was: I am studying/working on the disconnect between administration and teachers in creating effective school atmospheres. I want to find out whether this is the cause for failing large inner city school districts. I want to help my reader understand that teachers are not failing our students and deserve greater freedoms that allow for less testing and less strict surveillance. I am beginning to think that material culture could even give insight into this proposed topic. Since this topic was formulated after a day filled with disheartened belief in the abilities of my district to make decisions that were best for the success of students and their teachers. I also just read an article from City newspaper here in Rochester, the article is called, “Black Teachers Matter.” Tim Louis Macaluso writes on page 10 that, “we often view [black] students through the eyes of poverty and underappreciate some of their soft skills—the resilience and the ability to adjust to complex situations, code-switching, and being able to adapt.” I think through the exploration of objects with students, a teacher could find the way to reach a student’s adaptability to lead them to a successful route. Material culture will allow for a teacher to connect with a student’s strength.
Melissa Mizerak’s Review of Tim Ingold’s Essay “Bringing Things to Life:Creative Entanglements in a World of Materials”
Tim Ingold’s essay, “Bringing Things to Life: Creative Entanglements in a World of Materials,” is a summation that nothing is static or ever finished; material forms are always acted upon by various sources. He emphasizes more importance in the process than a static product. Ingold states five aspects that support this idea of process being more important than form. His first argument is that forms are not objects but things. Things respond and react to forces allowing us to be productive or do. A thing creates a space where living happens. Second, he continues with the idea of life and agency. He defines life and agency through boundaries—not separate-but rather points where things diffuse or stick; it’s a place where things mutually act upon each other. Third, materials and materiality, is where people bring together materials in hopes of what might emerge. His fourth argument he labels improvisation and abduction. He describes this as allowing things to unfold unexpectedly; not to force a set direction or reach an end but to keep going. Lastly, he mentions network and meshwork. He describes this area of interaction as a place where things act indirectly upon other things. Overall, Ingold states that there is mutual interaction among things, whether indirectly or directly, and that forms are not static objects, but necessities that allow us to experience. We should look at the process of things rather than things as dead objects.
Ingold utilizes beautiful descriptions or metaphors as examples to explain these areas of interaction among things. The reading is a beautiful analysis for artwork, and how artwork is not a static object with a set ending; rather, a boundary where interactions occur, or the areas in which materials are brought together with no set expectation just a hopeful emergence of an ever evolving thing. In essence, his five points of argument are powerful supporters for the description of creativity.
Melissa Mizerak’s Studio Work
Melissa Mizerak’s Studio Description
My current artwork is inspired by Lindsay W. I felt very sympathetic to her current situation because I am contemplating leaving my current teaching situation as well. Due to the stresses of my district, I was inspired to make art that is meditative–like Lindsay W. states. The past week, I have been doing art that achieves that state of mind for me. It has been very helpful, and I think it will be what saves me this year. Currently, I am taking an analytic approach to my own studio work and just working with very systematic, material approaches. I was researching some artist for one of my students projects, and I found the artist Maud Vantour. I fell in love with her paper sculptures, and I have been pursuing this approach to create my own forms of meditation as well as to represent meditation. I took the idea of paper sculpture, and Islamic/Mughal designs to create designs. I hope to eventually layer the papers as heavily as Maud does.
ARE 517, Memo #1 Melissa Mizerak
I hate to start off my year on a negative note, but the realities of my current teaching situation seem to be too much for me to handle this year. My district has broken my teaching contract several ways, and I feel as though I am struggling filling the duties asked of me. Duties that I should not have to do because my contract is supposed to protect me from such situations. I have become disgusted with the methods and decisions my district takes. It demonstrates lack of concern for students and teachers. I don’t know how to be heard in a district that services over 32,000 students and has 53 schools. The lack of organization is evident, and you can see most days that administration is just trying to get the most basic needs of the day met. I have come to relate my district to an abusive relationship. One in which many teachers stay because they love and are fighting for their students, but the people in power are beating us until we succumb to the inevitable.
I am not okay with the advice given to me from many teachers; implement easy lessons and do less with the students. I think this year will be the one where I quit. It breaks my heart to say such things because I have grown very fond of my student population. They are the reason I have great days. They fill my heart with love with the comments they make, but I feel it is no longer enough. I think of situations, such as; when I was met with heart felt smiles, and warm hugs during our school’s new grand opening (my home school—School 12- was newly renovated) to get me through the days. However, I no longer want to get through the days. I want them to be what they were the past four and half years…enjoyable. I had one of my favorite previous Kindergarten students run up to me and ask what kind of art we would be doing this year. It was sad for me to tell her that I was no longer her art teacher. The allocations for my school changed yet again this year. The school’s art program has decreased from a 2.5 art teaching position to a 1.6 position in three years. I don’t want to be forced to change schools every year, I want to grow with my kids.
I am not quite sure how graduate school will fit into my current situation. Organizing myself in an itinerant position has been very rough. Right now, giving my students the best of me is my main priority. I am hoping to find a routine that will give me some peace of mind. However, I do not feel I am there yet. Rather that I am barely staying afloat lost in the Pacific Ocean with nothing to help me besides a random piece of drift wood.
