I’m currently out in Colorado on a combination vacation/look around a possibly moving out here trip. While I was exploring Denver, I got to go to the Denver Art Museum and was not disappointed. They had an amazing exhibition about the costumes of Star Wars. It was especially interesting getting to see and hear about the different cultural influences that went into the design of many of the costumes and scenery of the films.

There also was another exhibit called Mi Tierra, in which contemporary Hispanic/Latino artists explore place. Here are just some of my favorite works from that show.

I decided to try out painting similarly to my earlier feeling paintings on top of these super imposed graphic images. The bars create the trapped feeling I feel everyday at school and the colors (both of the image and paint) themselves reflect my feelings from that location.

I recently found this article talking about Gerhard Richter and how/why he destroy his own artwork (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/27/why-artist-gerhard-richter-destroys-his-own-art.html). His argument for doing so was that in doing so, it was like an act of liberation, as well as a way for him to maintain a control of sort over the narrative of his career.  Before destroying his work, Richter does take pictures of them but regardless, the art itself can never really be recreated. While Richter is far from wing the only artist to destroy his own work (the article mentions Claude Monet and Jasper Johns as doing so as well), it never the less brought to mind this question of permanency of the art that we make, as well as further questions of permanency itself. I delved into this concept over the summer, questioning permanence of memory utilizing photography, and reading about how Richter remembers artworks only through photographic images and his own memory of it was an interesting add on in thinking about this concept.  How do was as artists ensure the permanence of our artworks that we create? In destroying our own artwork, we essentially give ourselves the ability to begin anew with no limitations, but we also lose a part of ourselves that is left in the artwork from when we made it.

This is an extremely deep question that I find myself starting to think about more and more, in particular the idea of larger idea of permanency in multiple contexts outside of artworks. Permanency of myself in the location I am teaching in and of lessons “learned” by students (and furthermore, how permanent is knowledge itself?).

In the past week, it’s been crazy busy between running to all5 schools to take Santa pictures and also getting ready for the Chritsmas show this Friday, but when I actually have had the chance to have a class and teach, I’ve been doing this lesson inspired by Sol Le Witt and his wall paintings. I create instructions for the students similar to LeWitts (these vary in complexity with the different level students I work with) and allow the students to utilize any colors that they may want.  I only have these four visual examples currently from one of my lowest functioning classes but I think they did a pretty good job! I really am looking forward to soon covering at entire wall with these brightly designed paintings.

This reading was quite interesting, though I struggled at times with being able to stay focused on the writing as I would get distracted by the drawings. Regardless, it was interesting to see how the two go hand in hand with one another.  After all, just as words are often used to convey our own thoughts, so to can drawing be utilized as well. I feel like so often, words are the automatic go-to for expressing ourselves- perhaps this is due to the notion that words have a more definite meaning with less room for interpretation. Drawings and imagery itself however I feel often is perceived as having a looser meaning to it, feeling not as rigid.  Thus, I feel that it is important to remind ourselves of the duality of word and drawing, and consider more deeply how the two relate to one another and also how they can be utilized together. The five drawing actions referred to served as a way of looking deeper at the roles that different actions used in actually drawing play and how they can relate to larger ideas trying to be portrayed. Often when I draw, I do not usually put a deeper meaning into what I am making- I often draw just because. However, it certainly is worth a second look if there could really be more to what I am drawing that I may not be consciously aware of.

I think after this week, I just really need to talk and vent. I thought that I could hold out at my job for the rest of the year, but this week has confirmed that I really do not think I can. Administration issues have escalated and we currently have an overload of students in the cafeteria with one person essentially watching half the school (usually me).  Communication itself is extremely lacking and the blame-game is a common occurrence. I know this really is not anything new is school environment, but add in the struggle of the students and everything seems to just piling on top of each other. Today, I also had a kid go off on me, telling me to shut up and calling me the N word. I know as teachers we should expect this type of behavior but it really is getting to be too much for me at this point. I have had 4 separate people tell me that I shouldn’t be there and that I should go teach gen ed where I would be more appreciated and really get to teach the kind of art that  I want to. It’s just been an incredibly difficult year so far and December is not even over yet. Already tonight, I have applied for two other teaching positions. And while I go through all of this, I also am struggling with thinking that I am simply abandoning my current school. I really am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and all that I have learned, but at a certain point I also need to take care of me and what is best for me (and that makes me feel incredibly selfish). I apologize for this rant to rantsville but I just needed to let all of this out.

There’s this great article from Artsy that talks about 7 artworks in various subway stations around the world. Some are simply decorative while some are architectural. Regardless, it is extremely interesting to see the different art styles and ways that art is incorporated in public spaces, particularly one that maintains almost constant traffic of commuters.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-7-unexpected-artworks-to-see-in-subway-stations-around-the-globe

Continuing with the idea of observing place, I started doing these photo collages of different places/element of my school blending together. I tried experimenting with the effects that black & white vs color images have against one another. I’m not sure if I should also try to incorporate paint into them as I have been doing. Thoughts?

I’ve been really enjoying the Facebook group/site called Artsy.  They also have a website as well. It has all different stories and articles with working artists, art history, and contemporary art events. I feel like t can be hard to not be able to keep up with all of the stuff happening in the contemporary art world, and this has just been a really great resource full on interesting information.

https://www.facebook.com/artsy/

https://www.artsy.net/articles

Today I was looking for some new art history lectures to watch/listen to and I found this great lecture given by my current Chancellor, Carmen Fariña. I had heard previously that she wanted to emphasize the arts in NYC’s schools, but it was great actually getting to hear her discuss such. There can often be a disconnect between teachers and higher up administrators (especially when working in the largest district in the US) so to hear such an influential figure in the district discuss the importance of the subject that I am teaching made me really proud of teaching art. The lecture itself brings up good points about the real importance that the arts can play in public education and also let me get to understand more about Chancellor Fariña.

http://www.frick.org/interact/carmen_fariña_essential_role_arts_public_education