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An Uncomplicated Youth

  • Posted on August 2, 2010 at 11:58 am

There I am with momma holding me still. Life was uncomplicated.

Uncomplicated Katie

I grew up in an extremely large family, the child of two hard working parents.  We didn’t have a lot of things like most kids seem to have today.  We also didn’t have a lot of one on one “quality” time with our parents.  In many ways you might think that I grew up in a deprived family.  However, we never really thought of ourselves as poor and we never really felt deprived.  I do remember going to my aunt’s house and picking out clothes, after her children had already picked what they wanted, from boxes kept in an extra room.  I think they were donated clothes.  I remember getting a jumper that I wore for my school picture.  We didn’t have much in the way of toys and extras but it wasn’t that noticeable by any of us.

When we moved to Kingston I was going into third grade.  I had never even been on a bike before.  We didn’t even have any bikes.  My sister said at one time the bikes were backed over by a vehicle and never replaced.  The neighborhood girl who was a year older was very nice.  She helped me learn how to ride a bike by letting me borrow her bike.  I’d jump on and fly down the hill and hope I wouldn’t fall off.  It was a blast and we didn’t wear helmets back then!  I did get a bike when I was in seventh grade.  That was awesome.  I remember the freedom of riding around town and visiting my friends.  We used to play games like kick the can.  Sometimes at night when it was dark, we’d even play.  Nobody worried about perverts back then.  My parents were careful about what we were exposed to but everyone kind of watched out for each other’s children.  I’m sure someone would have noticed if a stranger was around.

Summer was a lot of fun even though we worked hard.  We would go back up north to Maple City.  My brothers and I would pick raspberries, strawberries and cherries in the summer.  Picking cherries was a dirty job and tiring too but oh so much fun.  Cherry juice always dripped down my arms and sometimes itched.  When we’d get a little bored we’d throw cherries at each other.  I remember the scary walks to the “out house” to use the toilet.  It was scary because they’re gross and I was afraid of the “Mexicans” as they spoke a different language and I didn’t know what they were saying.  We were generally kept away from the Mexican laborers.  You could hear them speaking Spanish but they were kept by themselves as we were kept with the other “locals” picking.  At the end of the day, we’d take Ivory soap and go to Little Traverse Lake and clean up.  You have to wonder about the outhouse and the cherries.  We didn’t have water to clean up.  Everything was much different back then.  I wonder if people got some kind of bacteria from that!

My education was small town stuff.  I wasn’t exposed to some things that I wish I had been exposed to such as art.  That is my one real regret about my childhood.  I feel like I missed something wonderful by missing all those art classes.  It really is amazing that I am an art teacher and artist today for never having been really exposed to the arts in my youth.  It never crossed my mind as a youngster as I didn’t even know what those things were.  Art, artists, art teachers, I was clueless to all aspects of art.  We did have pencil and paper and I did like to draw when I was in high school but I don’t have many real memories of art when I was young.  I do remember having a watercolor set and painting many pictures of waterfalls.  We visited my aunt in the upper peninsula of Michigan and I think I painted my memories.  My sister says that when I was five and my grandma died I drew lots of pictures of her in a coffin.

I have memories of playing under our great maple tree with cars and other vehicles.  There were roads that my brothers had set up and I’d drive little cars down them.  I also remember playing soccer with my brothers but I always had to be the goalie!  We also played croquet and I remember loving kick ball in school.  My days were mostly filled with school during the school year and picking cherries and fun in the summer time.  I had to help my mom in the house a lot especially on Saturdays.  The boys didn’t do much in the house.  That was the time when it was the girl’s job.  Unfortunately, my sisters were ten and twelve years older than me and were mostly on their own when I was doing the majority of my housework.  Weekdays I might have some homework but never remember a lot of homework.  I liked reading and I remember my favorite show was the “Monkees”.  Davey was so dreamy.  I was more like one of my brothers than one of the girls because I have no significant memory of dolls.  Besides my sister said the boys buried one of her dolls in some kind of funeral service.  I had always wanted a Barbie but my mom thought they were way too suggestive.  I got a fake Barbie when I was probably around a fifth grader.  I had one other doll in my life and it was a baby doll.  As I said, we didn’t have many toys.  Our real goal as kids was to be old enough to play cards.  I remember many fun nights growing up playing euchre and pinochle.  When we were old enough to sit still long enough to sit through a game, we got to play cards.

Life was largely uncomplicated.  Nothing like it is today.  Today’s kids have a lot more pressure on them than I ever felt.  I teach at the middle school level and I am amazed at the pressure our young children have on them.  They have to job shadow in 8th grade.  I hardly knew what a job was when I was in 8th grade.  I certainly wouldn’t have job shadowed an artist as I was never exposed to any.  They have to pick a “career pathway” for their classes when they go up to the high school.  They have pressure to pass tests that are tied to our funding, so you know we put a lot of pressure on them when they are taking the big MEAP test.  We, as teachers, don’t want them to be pressured but it’s unavoidable with the current direction of education.  Many students are involved in a countless number of activities that keep their parents and families in a hectic pace. They spend a lot of time rushing from one activity to another.  My family always had dinner together.  Today it doesn’t seem to be a priority.  Very few have much time for uncomplicated play time either.  Every moment of the day is structured for them.  They have less and less recess type time because more time is needed for “education”.  Students don’t have as much creative type playtime like I did as a kid.  They are on computers or phones text messaging each other because they are lonely.  Many have never had to really and truly entertain themselves.  They have either been in front of a TV or computer most of their lives.  When they aren’t doing that they are playing some structured sport or other activity.  Much is expected of them and I’m sure it must be frustrating at times and I think in many ways they are forced to grow up much too early.

Classes have been pushed down from the high school.  Math is harder than it was when I was in school.  Students at the middle school level are doing math that used to be taught at the high school level.  This year at our school science and language classes are being pushed down to the 8th grade from the high school.  The exploratory classes suffer because of this.  Very few 8th graders will have art this year and I feel sad for those that won’t have that opportunity.  There is more and more pressure to compete and the pressure can be so over the top that it can swallow up some kids.  They get discouraged and drop out of school out of sheer frustration and boredom.  I wish kids today could have some of the uncomplicated time that I had as a kid.  I know some kids probably experience much of what I felt when I did the cherries when they’re detasseling corn but most don’t do that job.  Most have much pressure to win on some team or get the grades in school.  Legislators have no idea what the modern classroom is like and they don’t see the stress that much of their efforts place on these students.

I wish all students would have the time to play and create as I think it clarifies the thought process.  Today kids can pass tests and perform like trained monkeys but many struggle processing the real “thinking” of life.  When something happens that isn’t on the test, they struggle with what to do.  We can’t teach to a test, we must teach how to think.  It takes time to accomplish this task.  It isn’t something like rote memorization with constant repetition.  It’s a thought process and it isn’t something that is automatically measured on a test.  The real test for this process is life.  We all know people that could do the book stuff but fail miserably at life’s lessons.  The true measure of all these tests we are giving our kids today will not be realized until these kids become adults and live their lives.  Will they think they had a deprived childhood much like I did when I discovered art and wished I’d had it as a youngster?  Will they be brave enough to try something new like I did taking art in college when I had never had art before?  Or will they go through life doing what has always been expected of them by living their lives like programmed little soldiers waiting for their next assignment?  Time will only tell

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Inspiration

  • Posted on July 22, 2010 at 3:52 pm

This July 11th on a beautiful Sunday my friend, Ellen, and I went to the St. Joseph Art Fair.  I know it’s a tough show to get into, so I wanted to see what it was like since I had never attended this show as an exhibitor.  I drove about an hour and a half to see what it is all about.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Every artist brought something different to the show with their unique selection of art.  http://www.krasl.org/art_fair.aspx

When we first got there it was a bit difficult to find parking as parking was limited and it was compounded by the many exhibitors’ vehicles.  We paid ten dollars to park in a commercial lot.  As we walked down to the art show we were greeted by many cheerfully painted dogs!

Moving on to the show we came upon a wide selection of two and three dimensional artwork.  Ellen and I both made several purchases through out the day and had many interesting conversations with artists that came from all over the United States.  I want to showcase a few of the artists here today.

One of the first artists’ artwork we came across was Michelle Mardis.  Her artwork is reminiscent of Andy Warhol with its pop art colors of large portraits of animals.  WWW.michellemardis.com I really enjoyed her large piece titled “Fetch”.

She wasn’t at the show at the time we went through as she wasn’t feeling well.  It is interesting to note that these art shows go on through all kinds of weather and even if the artist isn’t feeling well.  Just like in “show biz”, the show must go on!  There is quite an investment involved with doing an art show.  There is the entry fee, travel, the cost to produce and even display the art at the show.  This is why every artist designs their own booth to best showcase their style of artwork.  Some people attend art shows for something to do as entertainment.  I advise people to attend art shows and purchase from these artists as this, for many of them, is their sole source of employment.  Their art is not only their life but their livelihood.  You wouldn’t go to a movie without expecting to spend some money for your entertainment so it should also be with these art shows.  Many people spend the day perusing the exhibits and eating the food but may not ever think to buy from these fine artists.  However, if people don’t buy many of those traveling the longer distances will not be inclined to return to the show another year.

Many of the artists at the show were obviously influenced by the art of famous artists.  While Mardi must have been drawn to the art of Andy Warhol, Penny French-Deal was obviously influenced by the art of the Impressionists and especially “Monet”.  www.french-deal.com Ellen and I had stopped to have a quick lunch and upon walking back to the exhibits we were drawn in by a picture of two cows.  They were meticulously painted but when we got up close to them, the brushstrokes were really loose and large.  Her art was some what blurry upon close inspection.  There was a softness to it that revealed some inner feelings from the artist.

Another artist, Larry Smith, obviously favored the art of Vincent Van Gogh.  www.artistlarrysmith.com I bought a print from him and he told me much information about Van Gogh and the artwork that I purchased.  He obviously knew a lot about Vincent’s art and greatly admired it.  In his own artwork he used complementary colors such as red and green next to each other to create the vibrant effect of movement.  I genuinely enjoyed Larry’s personality and the obvious joy instilled in his art.

I ran across a potter that really impressed me with his cut out piercing work.  While it may seem very simple to most people as it is simple in color with its white, pearly surface, it is masterfully carved and pierced.  The work is porcelain fired at cone 10 which is around 2300 degrees Fahrenheit.  Artwork fired to this level has to be flawless.  In order to create a porcelain bowl pierced on the edge such as this is truly a masterful skill.  I’ve worked with porcelain for years.  If a large bowl has so much as a small hairline crack, its flaw will be huge after a cone 10 firing.  This bowl was priced at $1200.  I didn’t find that shocking because I figured he lost many bowls to create this one unique piece of art. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a card from this artist, so I don’t know his name.

Another clay artist, Scott Causey, has very unique sculptural artwork.  He won the non-functional clay award at this show.  He makes these large pieces out of very colorful glazes.  They can be frogs, salamanders and even monkeys.  He makes them and then bisque fires them and then breaks them apart.  He does this so he can glaze the different parts at different temperatures to get the special effects.  Some of his glazes are luster glazes that give off a pearly, iridescent quality.    http://www.scott.causey.com/

When I went to his website he is very proud of the fact that Al Gore has a piece of his artwork.  The story about how Al got the frog is here.  http://web.mac.com/scottcausey/Scott_Causey_/Al_Gores_Allegorical_Frog___.html

I bought a mug from two potters because they are working with cone 6 glazes and their work was well made and conceived.  I am interested in maybe lowering my reduction gas firing temperature to save the time and cost of firing to cone 10.  These guys called themselves the “Pottery Boys” and they live in Illinois.  www.potteryboys.com

Some of the artwork was silly and whimsical and just plain fun.  This art was artwork created to just inspire people with fun sayings and happy colors.  Some of the artists that fall under this category are Susan Kline, Anne Leuck Feldhaus, Holly Sue Foss, and Patricia Statzer.  I had so much fun reading the sayings and looking at the colors in these booths.

www.sptddog.etsy.com

www.AnnesArt.com

www.fossart.com

http://www.patstatzer.com/

Another inspirational artist I met was Tres Taylor from Alabama.  He paints on tar paper.  Ellen recognized the material as it is common roofing material.  She said they used to put it on the windows when she was a kid to keep out the cold.  Tres is a man that embraced his artistic side later in life and rejected his previous occupation as a biochemist.  His story is so interesting.  His artwork reminded me of Modigliani with its elongated features for the people.  There are also hints of Paul Klee and even Picasso in his shapes and faces.  His work is probably considered a sophisticated form of primitive art.  You can check out more of his artwork at his website.   http://trestaylor.com/ I highly suggest reading this article and viewing his installation artwork. http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2010/01/amazing_journey_artist_finds_m.html

It is just amazing in its concept and story as well as the many children that he has obviously touched through this installation process through art.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/12144219@N03/sets/72157623065536433/show/

It was fun talking to Tres.  I would be thrilled if my students could have the opportunity to work with him and see his installation artwork.

Another artist that I really enjoyed is Pat Custer Denison.  www.denisonartstudio.com Her artwork is created with ceramic tile and wood.  She is a painter and printmaker that studied at the University of Michigan.  She lives in Honor, Michigan so I’m hoping to stop by her studio when I visit the Traverse City, Maple City area.  Many artists live, as I used to, up in the Grand Traverse area.  It’s a great place to produce art as you are surrounded by all the beauty Michigan has to offer.  Her artwork is very fun and whimsical.  Some of the pieces are quite large.  She inserts commercial clay tiles into large cut out wood shapes.  Her artwork tends to have many colorful characters that seem to tell a story upon close inspection.  She screen prints some of the design on the clay tiles to reproduce the image more than once.  I found this process interesting as I have never silk screened on any of my artwork.  I have seen this done in books but have never actually met an artist using this method.

Two of the artists work in very traditional materials that I feel are almost like a lost art.  The first is Jane Bowers who creates “Pysanky” eggs.  These are the very colorful and skillfully designed eggs that are reminiscent of Easter but are so much more involved than a typical Easter egg.  Making pysanky has always been a part of her life as this tradition was passed down through her Ukrainian family for many generations.  On a trip to the Ukraine she had the honor of presenting one of her eggs to President Leonid Kuchma.  Jane was so open with me about how to create these eggs.  She wanted to help me as a teacher to pass on the beauty of this tradition.  I loved talking with Jane and many of the artists as they were all so open to me when they found out that I am a middle school art teacher.  Artists are great teachers and generally want to share their knowledge as long as you aren’t some “copy cat artist” just trying to steal their designs.

The other artist working in a highly traditional almost “lost” type art is Brian T. Keller.  Brian works with traditional egg tempera.  He mixes his own paints much like Van Dyke or other great artists of the past did.  This involves getting commercial pigments and using egg yokes.  Of course he doesn’t have to grind the pigments like the artists of the past might have done but this was still amazing to me as there are so many different types of art materials and paints that could be used today.  He works in a very highly detailed fashion.  Just looking at the detail in his wood grain floors is truly amazing.  Brian is highly skilled.  I just loved his artwork.  He told me that the he works in layers and that the egg tempera dries quickly.    http://www.btkeller.com/

As you can see by all that I’ve shared with you today I truly enjoyed this art exhibit not just for the art but for the many intriguing conversations I had with the artists.  It was fun going to an art show as a viewer and not a participant.  I loved hearing about the different stories each of these artists had in the story of their own art.  Only two artists didn’t want to be photographed.  The rest were happy to indulge me with the many pictures I took.  I ended the day being inspired by these wonderful people.  They are all gifted with amazing talents and they were more than willing to share their time and knowledge with me.  I ended up buying small pieces from several of the artists I spoke with as did Ellen.  We had a great day and we lucked out with beautiful weather.  I would definitely love to go back to St. Joseph again for this art show and to see the wonderful city nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan.  I will end by sharing some additional pictures from many other fine artists.  If you haven’t been to an art show lately get out there and meet some artists.  The Ann Arbor Art Street Fair is going on right now.  It’s a four day event so you still have plenty of time to visit through Saturday.

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Bravo’s Work of Art

  • Posted on May 22, 2010 at 8:11 pm

As if we needed another reality show!  Okay, so we might, if it involves art.  I love the concept of an art contest in the manner of “Project Runway”.  I don’t know what the artist wins exactly, maybe a special exhibit somewhere.  As an art teacher I know it is hard to tame the creative mind and lump it into a time frame for anything.  Creativity isn’t something that switches on necessarily at will.  I have a student right now in my advanced 8th grade class that is super talented.  She probably wouldn’t do well under this kind of pressure as she has a hard time meeting deadlines with her artwork.  How will these artists be challenged to create art and who will be judging the criteria for great art?  Those are the two questions that I have in my mind.  Don’t worry as I’ll be tuning in to see what happens with this show.  I hope it truly is creative and not some “staged” creativity that feeds the masses what they think art is all about.  Today art can be almost anything from realism to true fantasy to the fatally ugly.  Making a statement in art isn’t always beautiful and sometimes is political and at others it merely mocks reality.  I haven’t a clue what kind of art this show will have produced for it.  I find it mildly interesting that it is being produced by Sarah Jessica Parker.  I haven’t a clue what qualifies her for this.  Is she an art lover?  Is painting her secret passion?  I know she’s been featured lately on some shows like that ancestors, genealogy thing.  I really don’t care why she’s involved but I’m wondering why it’s being played at eleven at night.  I’ll still have one more day of school but knowing me, I’ll probably watch it and suffer through that last day!  I’m going to get my art on and have my art fix.  I hope this show pumps up the volume and pushes the envelope on creativity.

http://www.bravotv.com/work-of-art

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Sturgis Middle School Annual Art Show

  • Posted on May 12, 2010 at 10:29 pm

Another school year is almost finished and I’m busy with the end of the year art activities.  We recently had 6th grade orientation for next year’s sixth graders.  I put up an art display for that.  I’m putting up another display for the board meeting and orchestra concert on the 18th.  The show that I really look forward to is the annual art show at the Sturges Young Civic Auditorium.  I just set up that show Monday night.  Two of my students helped me set it up.  Every year I always think about how I’m going to put this together and every year I am filled with excitement at the talent my students exhibit.  This year was no exception.  I always think I don’t have enough variety of quality work to fill the show and of course I end up with enough to fill two shows.

There are about 140 artworks in the show by around 90 students.  Both two dimensional and three dimensional works are represented.  There are pencil drawings, colored pencil, watercolor, acrylic paintings, collage work, sumi-e painting, scratch art, sculpture, pottery and both oil and chalk pastel.  This is but a few of the shots that I took.

The show will be up through May 24th.  I encourage anyone that is in the Sturgis area to stop in and see it.  Here are some more three dimensional artworks.

As I said these are just some of the many artworks in the show.  Be inspired by the young people with artwork represented here.  I am.  I love working with these young students.  It is a thrill to see them develop their artwork under my tutelage.  I take great pride in what they accomplish and great ownership in the work that I do to get them to this level of development.  As I have said in past posts, “You got to have art!”  I can’t imagine my life never having explored the field of art and art education.

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Kalamazoo Art Institue, West Michigan Show and 8th Grade Art Students, What a Thrill!

  • Posted on May 2, 2010 at 12:13 pm

The artwork above received the Grand Prize.  It is Michele Shelton, A Moment to Remember, paper, fabric, metal, beads.  This picture is credited to the Kalamazoo Institute of Art website.

I am inspired.  Thursday I took my advanced eighth grade art class to the Kalamazoo Institute of Art.  None of my students had ever been there before.  We had a great time.  On exhibit was the “West Michigan Area Show”.  It is what inspired me and my students.  We were all blown away by the diverse collection of art in the show.  http://www.kiarts.org/page.php?page_id=104

The exhibit was selected by Chicago artist Gladys Nilsson.  Her selection showed much diversity from realism to abstraction.  Many pieces were an explosion of color but all seemed so unique and able to stand on their own let alone be part of this wonderful exhibit.  Many pieces begged discussion and wonderment as to what drove the artist.  Gladys Nilsson’s art really explains how she was able to select such a wonderful show.  Her artwork is full of color and while it is representational in its subject matter it is full of elongated shapes, disproportions that create whimsy and a sense of borderline abstraction.  Her work reminds me of Marc Chagall although there really isn’t a connection.  I love the rhythmic way her work is full of movement.  She uses color to saturate ones mind as though one is standing outside in a warm mist of color filled rain.

It is no wonder that this talented artist was able to select such an interesting exhibit for the West Michigan Show.

When I went home I marveled at the awesome ability of these west Michigan artists.  I thought that many of them probably benefited from a great public school education.  It is this creativity that has to be nurtured in our schools today.  In out effort to become the best we can be in our schools with test scores we sometimes lose sight of this much needed creativity.  It is the creativity in our country that develops new products that forces us to think outside of our limited boxes that we put ourselves in.  We must nurture this creativity through the arts.  Whether it be the visual arts, music or drama all of the arts nurture that creativity that is so necessary to the continuation of our own humanity.  It is this spirit of creation that drives us all to be unique enough to not blend into the sea of humanity that just goes with the flow.  These are the people that just continue to follow whatever they are told to do like mindless sheep.  The spirit of creativity makes us stop and think about what we are doing and how we can make improvements to our lives.  It is this spirit that I believe built our country and made it strong.

I enjoyed this show even more than some of the exhibits I’ve seen of famous artists.  This exhibit inspired me and my students to come back and make art.  I know my students are now anxious to get to their final painting that they will do this year.  Many found inspiration in the colors and shapes and subject matter they saw in the show.  The hour of our tour zoomed by and the students were very curious and inquisitive.  When I talked with them individually I know they were excited about what they saw.  This was a visual treat for all them and myself.  I hope anyone that reads this that has an opportunity to see this exhibit will attend the show.  It is well worth the drive.  You will be inspired and you will go away feeling like you participated in something special.  I say, “Kudos” to the Kalamazoo Institute of Art for bringing such a wonderful exhibit to the public and finding sponsors to make it free to the public.

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We’ve Gotta Have Art

  • Posted on April 2, 2010 at 11:11 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG6A71py9nE

Teaching middle school art today is very different from when I was young and just out of college.  I remember the enthusiasm I had for teaching my first class in Fowler, Michigan.  It was so exciting to be out of school and to finally get a job.  I graduated in December of 1977.  It was in the middle of the school year and there weren’t any jobs really available.  I started working at Sugar Loaf Mountain resort as a hostess for the restaurant.  It didn’t pay very much and I didn’t stay long after they wanted me to design wine labels for the same pay as the hostess job.  I also found it very elitist in their attitude.  As an employee we were not supposed to fraternize with the tourists coming to ski the mountain.  I didn’t have a problem with that but they really didn’t want us to even go to the bar or restaurant.  It felt more like the hired help wasn’t good enough to sit next to the wealthy establishment.  I found the place rather stifling with their rules and expectations for the “hired help”.  They found out I had an art background so they wanted to use that.  Regardless of their motives I soon found employment at Kmart in the camera department.  I really enjoyed working at Kmart as they put me in an area where I had a lot of expertise and they respected my intelligence.  In the summer when I was interviewing for a teaching position the management was overwhelmingly supportive.  I was given the time I needed to interview and people were very happy when I snagged my first teaching job.  It felt like a family at Kmart as everyone was very encouraging of the young people that had gone to college and were looking for jobs in their fields.

When I arrived at Fowler I got right to work on working with the young students to create art.  We had so much fun together.  At the end of the school year I organized an art show while the gym teacher organized a dance and the music teacher had a concert.  We had a great turn out from the community and this was established for each year until I left a few years later.  I did manage to paint an eagle with two boys, with scaffolding, on the gym wall.  What an experience that was for someone who is afraid of heights!  I took a break from teaching and devoted myself to my art, making pottery and traveling to different art shows in Oklahoma and Michigan.  For many years I was happy doing this but when my son started kindergarten I volunteered to bring in my pottery wheel and demonstrate for the students.  I fired pottery pieces the students made and fell in love with the idea of teaching again.  I decided to update my teaching credentials.

A lot had happened in my years away from teaching.  Something called D.B.A.E (Disciplined Based Art Education) happened.  I was out of the loop but I easily got back into the loop.  However, teaching art has to be more about art production than anything else.  The art history, aesthetics and art criticism are all important but working with young people today it is so important to actually get their hands on the art materials and help them experience what it feels like to produce art.  In this age of text messaging and quick technology fixes I think it is more important than ever to develop creativity within my students.  So many students don’t have a clue how things are really made and why we buy the things that we do.  While art is all around them in designs that they purchase from their shoes, totes, mp3 players and phones so many of them are clueless about the thought that these items are purchased because of their interesting design concepts.  Some of them think that a computer spits out the design.  They don’t think about what person may have put the idea into the computer.  I try to point this out to my students because there is vast ignorance from most people about these issues.  Art is so important in all of our lives today whether we are aware of it or not.  We are surrounded by art in many forms and we make decisions about art on a daily basis whether it is decorating our homes or buying a car.  Art surrounds us in ways we don’t even think about!

I had an opportunity to review my art curriculum this year.  I was able to add a document camera and a projector to my teaching tool box.  This has resulted in a major change in my instruction delivery.  When I would show students how to do things in the past they would have to look at a mirror placed strategically over my head.  Now it’s projected.  If I’m doing something very detailed I can even zoom in for the students.  That student sitting in the very back of the room can now actually see what I’m trying to show them.  I marvel at this new technology and how computers have snuck their way into the art classroom through art programs and even online galleries.  Some people might think art is a thing of the past but art really is evolving and is the future.  We, as consumers, will always be drawn to beauty and grace.  Art will be in our future designs and really the creativity of our nation is dependent on the continued exposure to all the arts in their many forms.  Without art we become a mass produced society, plastic in many ways, without a heart.  It is art that nourishes our souls and completes our craving to be unique, to know that we are original beings and that we aren’t just one of many but one in a million!

When I was young and a beginning teacher I never thought about how teaching art might change.  It was all pretty basic in my mind.  You draw, paint, and sculpt; whatever medium you use art remains fairly unchangeable in its end result.  However, now I realize that art and its medium is constantly changing.  Today we have artists creating art through recyclables, computers, videos and much more.  Art is never stagnant and never stays the same.  Art is truly the most original thing that one can do.  Art continues to allow our imaginations to soar and our creativity to flourish.  Today there is more to art than ever as we search for new ways to express ourselves.  The importance of art in this rigid testing structure of education cannot be overly emphasized.  If we are to truly think, dream and imagine we must have art in our lives and we must nourish our souls with the making of art.

A video from our high school art teachers and the 2010 Scholastic Art Awards

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The State of Michigan Needs Inspiration

  • Posted on March 30, 2010 at 10:00 pm

This is the time of year when schools look at their budgets and program offerings for the coming school year.  At Sturgis Middle school we recently found out about our MEAP scores.  Each year we hold our collective breath waiting for the results.  The MEAP doesn’t follow an individual class through their time in school but focuses on grade level.  This means that scores can go up and down sometimes based on the type of class that is currently being taught.  It has been my experience that some years we have classes that are challenging, usually behavior issues are the problem, and some years we have classes that are exceptional both in their behavior and their ability to pass the MEAP.  This year we all have let out our collective breath with a big “Hooray!” as our scores were very good.  We can only hope these scores will continue to be high in the coming years.  I know that everyone at our school is part of the team to help students pass these tests.  This year students, that needed extra time, were given extra “lab” time with their core teachers.  This was accomplished through much effort by the exploratory teachers.  Exploratory teachers were asked to develop a “split” time class in which they would have students for 25 minutes out of 50 minute period.  This has been a difficult thing to accomplish but exploratory teachers rose to the moment and did what was necessary to help make this program a reality.  Most days classes were normal but some days individual students were kept back for more lab time in math, science, etc.  This can be very challenging for any exploratory teacher working with project based media as the student can fall behind in that class and other students will get bored if they spend too much time waiting for the behind students to catch up.  There are often times teachers are pitted against each other based on being a “core” teacher or an “exploratory” teacher.  Core teachers always get the respect from everyone simply because they are teaching what most people see as being necessary for an education, “reading, writing, and arithmetic.”  Some core teachers see themselves as above exploratory teachers by virtue of their placement of importance in the system.   In my nearly seventeen years of teaching at Sturgis a well rounded education has been of utmost importance to Sturgis school district.  Unfortunately, with the current money problems I think many schools are being forced to make cuts to their programs.  Whether it is art, music, drama or extra curricular programs all will be judged regardless of their merits.  At Sturgis we have been able to maintain our programs.  I believe it helps us with the “school of choice” program but as people flee Michigan for other states where they hope to get a job, the outlook for our school is also dim.  The funding coming from the state is less and less each year while the costs for everything from staff to energy continue to rise.  This is forcing larger class sizes and the reduction of services just like what is happening to our state government.  It’s time for our state to develop some new ideas for funding and for surviving our current crisis in our schools as well as all other aspects of our lives.

Our state is in a crisis that can and has to be fixed.  We need more revenue coming into the state to fix these problems.  Either we must create more employment through industry of some type or we must raise taxes on those that are still here working.  The fact is we are going to see a reduction in services across our state in our schools, road work, police, secretary of state’s offices, and anything else that the state touches, if we don’t do something now.  Many people are tired of being taxed and feel it’s gone far enough but many don’t realize the perilous position the state of Michigan is in.  We have such a beautiful state.  I personally think it’s ridiculous that our state should be in such bad shape.  We have natural resources that are the envy of other states.  We have great universities where people come from all over the world to get their education from.  We have terrific hospitals across our state.  We have so much to offer for recreation all through the year from the lakes in the summer to the skiing in the winter.  Unfortunately, for many years we put all of our eggs in that one basket of the automobile industry.  It’s time for new industry to grow and prosper in Michigan.  I love our state.  I think it is an absolutely beautiful state.  We need to develop our commodities to attract people to the state.  We hear about the problems in Detroit but it isn’t just Detroit.  The problem is all across our state.  If you go to the thumb area it is just as depressed as Detroit.  It’s just a smaller population.  Here is Sturgis we too have lost business and of course the people that work in those businesses.  Yet, we have a beautiful little city that could be doing more to get people to stop and shop here and build our local community.  I find myself running to Coldwater and Three Rivers to get things because we don’t have the stores that those communities have to offer.  I’d like to keep my money local but I’m not willing to shop at the loss of choices in products.

Our current government continues to use the same old tactics and behaviors that they have been exhibiting for the past sixty years.  That is the Republicans want to argue about cutting programs and lower taxes and the Democrats want to maintain programs but don’t have the where with all to create the funding for them.  Neither of these approaches really seems to be working.  We need something new and daring to happen.  The same old politics just isn’t working.  Geoffrey Fieger was on a local television program and he was talking about being “inspired”.  He said, “We need someone that will inspire us.”   I couldn’t remember the last time a politician actually inspired me.  Maybe when I was a kid and learned all about John F. Kennedy I felt inspired.  As an art teacher I know that inspiration can lead to all kinds of wonderful thinking and problem solving.  I think maybe our politicians need to be inspirational to bring out the best in their constituents.  My sister is always talking about the “genius among us”.  These are every day people that come up with fantastic ideas and solutions to problems.  Many of them are over looked as being “kooks” or just flatly ignored but there may be somebody out there with great ideas for our state that is just being ignored and overlooked.  I think maybe our current government needs to go to the people for fresh, new ideas.  We need a suggestion box for the government just like those old suggestion boxes we used to see at restaurants.  Someone in Michigan has a great idea for this state and how to turn it around.  I just don’t think it’s a politician.  He or she may be sitting next to us with a wonderful imagination and a desire for change but not the where with all to make it happen.  The state of Michigan needs to set out the suggestion box to get this conversation moving.  Enough of the fighting over budgets and everything else, it’s time for new ideas for funding this state and developing it to its fullest potential.

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Starry Starry Night

  • Posted on February 10, 2010 at 8:57 pm

A Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh

Years ago I created a slide show similar to this one I found on Youtube.  I still have the slides in my desk at school.  Vincent Van Gogh is my all time favorite artist.  I love the Don McLean song.  The song fits Vincent’s work so well.  When I was in college back in the seventies I went down to the Toledo Art Museum.  I remember seeing a Vincent Van Gogh painting that I found just mesmerizing.  It was a wheat field with crows much like the one in this video.   I stood in front of the painting for probably a half an hour because I was sure that the wind was blowing the wheat.  It appeared to be moving.  How great an artist is that can capture the breath of the wind with the flick of a brush in dynamic brush strokes!  I have been a Van Gogh fan ever since.  There is something so painfully real in all of his work.  The people he painted were common.  Seemingly no one special but in every way full of humanity.

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Great Teachers Have a Great Heart

  • Posted on February 10, 2010 at 12:24 pm

I was listening to Dylan Ratigan’s show this morning as we have a snow day and it got me thinking and this is why I felt a need to write today.  He had a man on from New York that was pushing charter schools.  They talked about how to improve education.  This always gets me going because these talking heads from the media and the so called “leaders” of education never talk about the one thing that’s going to make a difference in a child’s educational life.  The child needs a teacher with a heart as well as the educational ability.  You can’t make someone love teaching but there are a lot of people out there that love to teach that are kept out of the education system through the “screening” process of interviews during college.  If we rely solely on the resume of a person for hiring teachers we will never end up transforming schools.  To transform schools we must have people teaching and administrating that care not just about their own children but about everyone’s children.  We must have teachers and administrators that have a heart and understand that the job is not about them but about the children.

I’ve been busy over the past month.  I was working on the middle school art curriculum review.  My school has been very supportive of the arts in education which includes both the visual, and the performing arts.  I needed to make an assessment of what I was currently doing and what I thought would be the best direction for the future.  I was to compile a wish list of items that I feel are necessary to develop the best possible art program.  I want to say, “I love my job.”  I needed time to do the review and do the work on Atlas, (A program on the web that helps teachers develop curriculum.) that was required of me.  I was given two days with a substitute, so I could get the work done.  Of course I had to devote time outside of this as well to adequately complete the review.  The reason I’m writing about this is to share the fact that my time wasn’t wasted.  Often times in school we are asked to fill out papers or some other request that ends up being put in a file and forgotten about.  Many teachers know this and get tired of repeating the same old task only knowing that it will end up being a big waste of their time.  Time is often wasted in school when we are asked to sit through meetings where it appears that we are working together as a team on some big plan.  Often times I believe the decisions are already made about the plan by the administration and the meeting is set up to make the teachers feel like they we’re a part of that the decision.  This time the decisions were made by me, the teacher, with the final financial decision made by the administration.  To me this makes the most sense as I am closer to what is happening in the art classroom than anyone else.  When treated with respect, as I was, a teacher will rise to the occasion.  When treated disrespectfully a teacher can also fall to failure.  I’m happy to say my requests were honored.

I know there are teachers out there that are not like me.  They go through the motions waiting for the day they can retire.  I’ve even heard young teachers discuss retirement, which always puzzles me.  They may think they are doing the best possible job for their students and blame any failures on the system, the parents, and anything else that pushes their buttons but the truth is there are many reasons for failure and one of them is at the heart of why someone becomes a teacher.  If we are to listen to the government the implication is that teachers today are not qualified to do their jobs.  Teachers are tested even though they just went through four or five years of test taking in college.  Teachers are required to have a major in the subject area they are teaching which means many classes taken in a single area whether it is math, science or art.  The government leaders would have us believe that we need to improve the teacher quality through their math, science and other abilities.  I think this is a false premise.  While there may be teachers that slip through the cracks with their educational abilities.  I think we need to have teachers that have the heart of a teacher.  We need teachers that are excited about children.  We need teachers that can look at a troubled child and see possibilities not problems.  We need teachers that can develop relationships with their students to ensure success.

Students today have a lot more going on than when I was in school.  Many of them come from homes with multiple marriages or live in relationships.  They have half brothers and sisters, dads out of the picture and moms and dads out dating.  I don’t remember anything like that when I was going to school in the sixties and seventies.  The lack of stability in many of their home lives can create chaos for any young person.  I think that the school system needs to insure the quality of their teachers by making sure that they hire people with great paper credentials that also have that heart necessary to teach in these troubled times.  You can improve your resume through classes and professional development but your heart is another matter.  If you are considering teaching ask yourself, “Why?”  Is it because you want the summers off, or you think it’s a good job while raising your own children, you like sports and want to coach or do you really love working with children and helping them develop their abilities?  To be a great teacher you have to stop thinking about what you need and start thinking about what your students need because it’s not about you!  You have to not be the star of the show but be able to set yourself aside and help develop the true stars of the show, your students.  Some people are too self-centered to be a great teacher.  Great teachers inspire others.  They don’t suck out the air in the room with their verbosity and pomposity.  We can all think back to the teachers that inspired us.  I bet you will remember teachers that made you feel good, smart or special.  The teachers we remember with hatred and disgust made us feel bad, stupid, small and unimportant.  If we really want students to excel in this world they keep labeling the “global community” than we must hire teachers that inspire and are devoted to their students.  We must hire teachers that have a heart and love teaching children.

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Teaching in a Disconnected World

  • Posted on January 9, 2010 at 12:59 am
Global Children

Let's Embrace the Creativity in our Children

The word we always hear about today is “global”.  We are either “going global” or we’re standing still.  However in the American classroom my life as a middle school art teacher has probably helped to make me a bit skeptical of new government educational plans.  We seem to be pressured to make our children “global” beings that will “beat” all the other “global village” people as the government keeps telling us our children are not quite up to par.  The arts are always the first to be cut because greater minds than mine have decided that they must be a “frill”.  I always think those people simply must have absolutely no talent and imagination.  The arts are far more than a “frill” and serve a far greater good than most people can even imagine.  If you are wearing beautiful clothes, driving a highly designed vehicle or live in a fabulous home thank the artist that brought the design to fruition.  I know that many people have absolutely no idea of how most items are created and even brought to market.  If it wasn’t for the very artists that create the cool designs that make us all want to buy the next great thing, we’d all be driving around in box shaped cars and still be computing on the old box shaped computers.

Artists have been treated poorly in this old educational process of teaching for a “test”.  I think picking a, b, c, or d on a test is basically pointless.   The truth is no one will really know the end result of all this testing until these test takers become productive tax paying citizens that the government and business clearly want to be the next little worker bees.   I, on the other hand, believe that a true education will encompass all aspects of our intelligence.  This fight for the “core” subjects is disheartening to those of us that are on the cutting edge of embracing our creativity.  It is through real creativity that we all can find our true purpose in life.  Creativity allows you to learn how to think and make decisions based on realizing that there might be more than one answer to a problem.  Test taking makes us believe there can only be one answer and it is the “right” answer.

In life we all know that sometimes things aren’t easy for us.  Sometimes we actually have to think our way out of problems.  The answer isn’t covered on a test.  I think it’s time that we taught students how to think and make creative decisions.  Many children are lost in this test taking mold.  Many have shut down because their exuberance is not appreciated.  Sometimes teachers are so busy teaching for the test that they can’t see the marvelous gifted mind of the student that may be simply struggling with the test taking process.  I don’t blame the teachers or even the administration.  I blame a society that allows arbitrary politicians that promote programs that are just a boon for the test taking industry and a peril for the poor student confronted with all of the tests they have to take.

I think students need to spend much more time using their hands and brains in the classroom whether it be a core subject or my art class.  Students today are spoon fed information and then given countless hours on the computer where things are really quite pointless in many ways.  It’s just a click here and a click there browsing through things but usually not really reading them all that clearly.  We are in such a hurry today that I think we have forgotten the true wonder of education.  It is a joy in my art classroom when I watch a student that didn’t think he or she could draw figure out the drawing process.

Education used to be a wonderful thing to embrace.  Students need to feel that thrill that comes with the discovery of new intelligence.  If we want students to be excited about learning then we have to embrace the creativity that the arts empower in individuals.  The true joy of learning comes through self expression.  While the arts are a power onto themselves they can also enhance the learning in the core classes as well.  It is the individual we need to embrace and cultivate to be the creative adult they are meant to be.  It is not the test taking process that is going to build the next “greatest” generation.  It is the almost innate creativity we all have within us when we are a child that has been suppressed through years of “drill” type instruction that needs to be embraced and nurtured.  If the government wants us to be a “global village” then we should empower our children through creativity in all of their classrooms.

Below I have included an excerpt from Eliot Eisner that I think needs to be examined further.  The truth is number 10 is what I have really been talking about.

10 Lessons the Arts Teach

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.
Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it
is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution
and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.
One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving
purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
The arts traffic in subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.
All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.
When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source
and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young
what adults believe is important.
SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants reprint permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper acknowledgment of its source and NAEA.

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