Congrats on a Wonderful Art Show!

2013 District Art Show Information

Note that there is a page above titled Art Show 2013. It is extremely important that you read it as you will be held accountable for the information posted.

Collaboration & Monster K-laboration

Here are to web galleries devoted to some of this year’s collaborative efforts. The one titled Collaboration is work done early in the year by my Honors Art & Portfolio Art students. The one titled Monster K-laboration was done between my high school students and Mr. Williamson’s kindergarten students from Lower Gwynedd Elementary School. Click on the images to enjoy.

Monster K-laboration

Honors and Portfolio Art Collaboration

Archiving Sketchbook: 3rd Marking Period

On Thursday, April 25 I will check the Sketchbook page of your WordPress sites to confirm that you have photographed and archived your Sketchbook work from the 3rd marking period (yearlong students) and 1st marking period (spring semester students). Yes, this is for a grade…

Reactive Expression: Art as Challenge & Change

Art has functioned as a powerful agent of ideological challenge and change throughout history. Our next investigation will explore that notion. We brainstormed in class topics of disturbance from this school year. There were many and yesterday’s tragedy in Boston added further angst to the zeitgeist.

Your next studio investigation is to use media of your choice to create 2 works intended to serve as agents of ideological change. Due Thursday, May 9, 2013.

• Students are not to use standard 18” x 24” drawing paper.
• Possible modes of expression may include, but not be limited to, stop-motion animation, video, audio, documented performance, documented installation, sculpture, painting, poster, zine, graphic design, etc.
• Students will archive their work on their WordPress sites.

To prepare for this I asked you to locate and contextualize 3 historical (or contemporary) examples of art used as an agent of challenge and change. I spoke with you about  a few examples such as Goya’s 3rd of May, Picasso’s Guernica & Massacre in Korea, Adbusters, Culture Jamming, Barbie Liberation Front, the Interventionists, Sonic Outlaws, Benetton ads, Memes, Hacking, etc. Due Friday, April 19, 2013.

• Use the internet to locate 3 examples of art being used as an agent of change. May be historical or contemporary.
• Post the images to the Writing page of student WordPress sites.
• Accompany images with contextual descriptors: Who, What, When, Where and Why.

Some guiding questions I asked you in class were:

• Why has art been used so often through the ages as an agent of challenge and change?
• How has art been used through the ages as an agent of challenge and change?
• How can we become artists of change?
• What can we construct/create to draw attention to contemporary issues in our global or local community?

The video pieces I shared with you are:

• Why Man Creates, by Saul Bass (The Edifice, Fooling Around, The Process, Judgment, A Parable, Digression, The Search, The Mark).
• Art Speaks: Springfield (IL) Public Schools
• Power of Art: Can Painting Improve Your Grades? BBC
• Advice for a Young Artist: Penn State School of Visual Arts Faculty
• Sticks and Stones: Amy Blumenthal, WHS grad.

Why Man Creates

The 1968 award winning film, Why Man Creates, by Saul Bass.

Described on back of DVD case as: A series of exploration, episodes, and comments on creativity by a master of conceptual design. Humor, satire and irony are combined with serious questions about the creative process and how it comes into play for different individuals. (A) fascinating cornucopia of trenchant ideas and important truths…

The film focuses on the creative process and is divided into eight parts:

• The Ediface
• Fooling Around
• The Process
• Judgement
• A Parable
• Digression
• The Search
• The Mark

Power of Art: Can Painting Improve Your Grades?

I can’t even comprehend a school that was willing to try to exchange security guards for more art teachers.

Click on the image for a very intriguing video from BBC News Magazine.

Advice For a Young Artist – Penn State School of Visual Arts Faculty

Here’s a very nice video that includes several faculty members who have visited our District Art Show as judges and a couple who will visit us this year.

Simple Stiks by Rosaire Appel

An asemic poem by Rosaire Appel. This might inspire the wordless poetry portion of your sketchbook assignment. I also find her blog very inspiring.

Monster K-Lab(oration)

As you know by now we have embarked on a very fun collaborative endeavor with Mr. Williamson’s kindergarten art students from Lower Gwynedd Elementary School. The idea stems from illustrator, Dave Devries, who was inspired by his 6 year old niece caught drawing a monster in his sketchbook while vacationing at the Jersey shore. He was curious about what might happen if he took children’s drawings and rendered them “realistically”. He has been pursuing the idea for a few years though his website, Monster Engine, books and guest appearances. We watched a wonderful segment about him from CBS news, which can be viewed here.

We have received some wonderful drawings from the kindergarten students, most of which have some descriptive notes written on the back. Our part of the collaboration will be to enlarge the drawings and to put our high school spin on them.

• Your rendering should be no smaller than 18″ x 24″.
• Maintain the integrity of the original as much as possible.
• Pay close attention to the notes on the back. If the child specifies 9 eyes you should honor that.
• You are to create an environment for the in the background.

Brian Cypher “visiting artist”

Brian Cypher

On this past Friday we had the artist, Brian Cypher, “visit” with us via Google Hangouts. In spite of the technical difficulties Brian’s answers to our questions were insightful and enlightening. We wish to express our gratitude to Brian for his time and willingness to speak with us.

Brian Cypher is a nationally exhibiting artist based in Burlington, Washington. More information can be found at Brian’s website. He is also interviewed on Studio Critical by Valerie Brennan where he responds to the same questions we asked him. Valerie graciously allowed us to use her questions.

Thanks!

Brian Cypher

Reflection: What is art & who decides?

I’m very excited about being able to see the results of your investigation today and tomorrow. It has been rewarding to observe you make discoveries, intervene, construct and assemble different and very fresh ways to “make art”.

I’m also pleased by your efforts to record and archive your work on your WordPress sites. Being able to see your work in a clear and professional manner adds an enormous amount of credibility to your endeavors. Duchamp’s readymades would have had little to no significance had they not been presented in a public, professional setting for all to see. A urinal in the corner of his studio would have sparked no debate.

Now that you have created your artifacts I want to know about the real meat and potatoes of our investigation. I want to know where your head is now in comparison to where it was when we began the investigation.

Assignment: 250 word reflection (posted to your Writing page) in response to What is art and who decides?

• What were/was your thoughts/position before our investigation regarding materials and authorship.
• What were some significant discoveries during the investigation?
• What are your thoughts now and how would you rationalize them?
• What role does recording, presenting and archiving play in answering our essential question of What is art and who decides?

Due Wednesday, March 20, 2013

What is art & who decides? Update & due date

As you all know by now we’ve added a fourth group to our investigation. Since many of you wanted to construct in the round I decided to add Assemblage. You were told to make 5 pieces of found material sculpture that are no taller than 8 inches. When you photograph them for your WordPress sites I expect you to photograph the pieces from 2 views. I also expect them to be photographed  using the small black or white backdrops I made for this purpose. I do not want to see the room or the top of your dresser in the background.

Do not forget you are expected to edit and re-size all of these pieces in Photoshop before you put them on your WordPress sites.

These will all be due on Wednesday, March 13, at the beginning of class. We will review your works on the Smartboard. You will have at least 25 images. All images are to be labeled by category and are to be in the same gallery. Do not put them in separate galleries.

• Discovery : 5
• Intervention: 5
• Construction: 5
• Assemblage: 10 (2 photos each of 5 pieces)

What is art and who decides: part umpteen…

Disparate juxtapositions – precarious equilibrium of disparate elements.

Over the past 2 days I have attempted to set you up for our next investigation. I’ve reminded you that my favorite question in the universe is what is art and who decides? This question is really good for starting arguments (right up there with politics and religion). Philosophic blood has been shed from the cafes of Paris to the Cedar Bar in NYC to the classrooms of Wissahickon HS.

I talked you through a nickel tour of some historical highlights of recent art history representing shifts and challenges to standing “laws of art”. I reminded you of these avant-garde moments that we take for granted that were cataclysmic breeches of protocol at their time. I took you up to the combined proclamation of Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol that everything is art and everybody is an artist.

So, my challenge to you is to discover, intervene and construct 15 occurrences of art, which will be presented electronically on your WordPress sites.

You are to have a minimum of 15 pieces, five from each category below.

Discover: Identify some existing occurrence/visual relationship in your environment to photograph. Then open in Photoshop to crop, re-size and post on the Art Work page of your WordPress site.

Intervene: Take discarded ephemera that has printed text/images such as labels, tickets, receipts, boxes, packaging, maps, instructions, portions of game boards, etc. and perform a non-representational palimpsestic intervention with paint and/or ink. Scan the pieces then open in Photoshop to crop, re-size and post on the Art Work page of your WordPress site.

Construct: Gather relatively flat scraps of materials such as corrugated cardboard, wood, metal, cloth, etc. and assemble into a composition. Do not embellish. Photograph the pieces then open in Photoshop to crop, re-size and post on the Art Work page of your WordPress site. Be prepared to verbally connect each of your 5 constructions to a genre of music such as blues, classical, hip hop, rock, gospel, jazz, etc.

Size and editing requirements: Once you have your work in Photoshop you are to crop it the way you wish and re-size the image to a resolution of 100 and make the longest dimension 8 inches. Everything you need to do will be found under the Image drop down menu at the top. Compare your images under Auto Levels, Auto Contrast and Auto Color to decide which one to save as your final image. Do not trick anything out with filters.

Vocabulary I used and explained:

• Academy: the French Académie whose theories dominated art until the 20^th century. Everything was neatly ordered, very serious and justifiable. The academy valued tradition, technique and hierarchies. There was a hierarchy of artistic subjects. History painting was at the top followed by religion, portraits, landscape, scenes from life or genre, animals and still life.
• Biedermeier Aesthetic: Connotes ridicule. A “Biedermeier” is one who is drawn to art that “looks like what it is” and is easy to think of as technically “good”.
• Avant-garde: Being regarded as ahead of one’s time. The “advance guard”. Or, as Alan described – cannon fodder…
• Collage: From the French verb meaning “to glue”. To collage is to attach papers or objects to a two-dimensional surface.
• Assemblage: The three-dimensional counterpart to collage. Assemblage involves the transformation of non-art objects and materials into sculpture through constructing techniques such as gluing, welding, lashing, nailing etc.
• Cubism: (1908 –1918) Movement that broke away from conventional perspective and representation opening the way for modern abstract art. It placed emphasis on geometrical shapes and structure as opposed to traditional representation.
• Palimpsestic: A manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain. Figurative: something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.
• Ready-mades: Adding a title to an unaltered, mass-produced object or combination of objects to present as “high art”. Marcel Duchamp was the key proponent.
• Non-objective painting: Nonrepresentational art. It doesn’t have any recognizable image. It is based on color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale and process.
• Intervention: An interaction with a previous existing artwork, action, space, etc.
• Parataxis: phrases/clauses arranged independently rather than subordinately.

Some artists I referred to:

• Pablo Picasso
• Georges Braque
• Paul Cezanne
• Marcel Duchamp
• Jackson Pollock
• Joseph Beuys
• Andy Warhol

Thank you to my students

I want to thank my wonderful art students for the heart-warming get well cards. I was very touched and grateful. See you soon!

Expectations while I’m away

Most of you know I’ll be absent until the end of next week. I have thoroughly explained my expectations, but this will serve as a reminder and a resource.

Year-long students in both courses are expected to finish archiving your work and posting it to the appropriate page on your WordPress sites. This can be part of your Project Proposal if you are a Portfolio student. Use the cameras, copy stand, tripod, and scanners to capture your images and do your editing in Photoshop according to the directions posted on this site.

New students are to build their WordPress sites according to directions posted on this site. When you have done this you are to email me your user name, password and URL. You are to compose and post an Artist Statement to the appropriate page.

All Honors Art students are to additionally make substantial progress on the sketchbook assignment.

Portfolio students are to get their Fall work archived quickly and move into whatever their Project Proposal indicates.

All students should consider getting a head start on their Community Connections assignments.

I’ll be checking in with Mrs. Deininger and I look forward to your progress upon my return.

Welcome to the Spring 2013 Semester!

I hope everybody is getting pumped up for the Best Spring Semester ever! I’ve enjoyed meeting the new students and I welcome back the year-long students in Honors Art & Portfolio Art. The spring semester always brings major events such as Youth Art Month (March), Spring Break and the District Art Show (26th year). Oh, and there’s that little event called GRADUATION, which will be the portal to the future for our seniors. For some of you who began kindergarten in our district the District Art Show will be your 13th opportunity to show your art work at the Big Show. Need I say more?

Honors Art and Portfolio Art Collaboration

It occurred to me that I had not posted the video of our earlier collaboration. Honors Art & Portfolio Art students collaborated on a body of work while questioning notions of authorship and completion. The collaboration was inspired by Bushwick artist and curator Julie Torres. Thanks to Suzie S. for her narrative and to Sizie S. & Lydia L. for their curatorial skills. Thankd to the WHS TV Lab for making this video.

 

Still Life: Triptych & Graphic Novella

Happy New Year! I hope you had a relaxing and rewarding Holiday Break. I also hope you are up for crunch time: the final push of the semester.

As you know we’ve been working from the still life. Our investigation has essentially been three 18″ x 24″ drawings and a two-page graphic novella with a storyline inspired by objects and their relationships found in the still life in the middle of the room. I will review our discussions and directions.

Essential questions:

• Why does the act of drawing from observation intimidate high school art students?
• How can we express a narrative while drawing from the still life in the classroom?
• What narrative and illustrational trends appear to be most popular with our (student) age group and why?
• Do some of our graphic stories communicate more clearly than others and why?
• How should grades be determined for our work?

Goals:

• Recognize that drawing from observation allows for personal interpretation as opposed to photorealistic representation.
• Recodify the possible narratives observable in the objects and physical arrangement of the still life.
• Render a two page graphic novella based on observations of the still life.
• Reconnect the goals of the investigation in the context of classmates’ work and identify unique and/or common approaches to visual communication.
• Reflect on process and outcomes by responding to a rubric and writing a rationale.

Activity:

• Individually render three 18”x 24” contour line compositions based on actual object relationships observed in the still life.
• Use liquid media (watercolor & ink) to add color to the three drawings using color schemes of individual choice.
• Independently create a two page graphic novella based on observations of the still life.
  • Size: 2 pages that are 18” x 24” each.
  • Each page will have a minimum of 8 frames.
  • Materials are to be 2 dimensional and may include collage, ink, pencil, watercolor and acrylic paint.
  • Note: story chronology does not have to be linear. You may move back and forth between scenes.

Vocabulary/terminology: Contour line, embellishment, narrative, chronology, layout, panels/boxes, framing devices, speech & thought balloons, captions, lettering and sound effects.

Due date reminders

Since we have had many interruptions over the past month I thought it might be helpful to remind you of due dates you might have overlooked. Remember that most of these are on the course syllabus and on my calendar page.

• Wednesday, Nov. 7: Project Proposal for Portfolio students
• Thursday, Nov. 15: Progress Report #3 and Portfolio Day Reflection (both are for Portfolio students. Note: your Portfolio Day reflection should be uploaded as a post – not on a page.
• Thursday, Nov. 29: Community Connection #3 for both Honors & Portfolio students.
• Monday, Dec. 10: Conflict Book reflection for Honors atudents.