The past couple of months has been a whirlwind of activity and creativity. Spring has actually flown by, as it does in the desert, and summer is on the doorstep. A few more days of school, and we break for our summer program. In the middle of it all I was wondering what was actually being accomplished. Now, looking back, I am amazed at all that was created. The artspace is overflowing with works.
I decided to participate in the Global Art Project for Peace this year. I let the students take the lead, and just observed the discussions as they developed the theme for their collaborative work.
After brainstorming and deciding on the main theme, they began realizing their ideas.
Hands on fire!
and the final piece…….
This program matches schools, individuals, and organizations around the world to participate in the art exchange. We will be mailing our piece to a school in Pennsylvania, and are looking forward to receiving one from them as well.
My fifth-grade students were the artists behind this effort, and have since worked collaboratively to write some lyrics that will be set to music by a friend of mine (Thanks Michael!) who is a brilliant visual artist and musician in his own right. Here are their words:
A Place to Shine
Our strength is in our friendship
Our power is in our love
Doing the right thing
brings happiness to our world.
We build a place to shine,
Our hands, our hearts, our minds,
strengthen humankind
and our creativity
will protect our Earth,
the blue-green jewel that is our home
and a gift.
So all the birds and fish and animals that run
will sing together with grace
for our success.
Sing with them! Our voices calling out
all the names of beauty!
Trees flowers seeds animals people water air sky moon fruits minerals breezes stars oceans planets rain
rainbows rivers lightening shining sun waterfalls thunder skies night rivers fish butterflies the sun the moon tears of joy cries of sadness
clapping hands building houses planting giving singing laughing
put it all together and we
have a place to shine.
Tagged as:
art of teaching,
creativity and education,
social justice education,
visual arts activism
by Linda on September 28, 2009
I had a call the other day from the local Children’s Museum asking if we would like to create a display for their Dia de Los Muertos celebration. Because it is a display meant for children, explained the coordinator, there should be no reference to cigarettes or alcohol. Reasonable parameters. I am always happy to have our work here at school moved out into the world, so I agreed to work on the project.
Traditionally, the objects that represent Dia de Los Muertos are skeletons adorned with objects from life. The visual impact of these displays are profound and poetic. I wanted to allow this to be a project for peronal reflection on loss and the importance of relationships. The project had potential to be moved into a direction of personal relevance and maybe to a place that might be a little uncomfortable for my students. We talked about the idea in the 7th grade class and I passed out paper for some writing and intial sketching. The students became storytellers right away.
I have learned that if you are not prepared to hear the answers, don’t ask the question. So, actually, I was prepared for the kind of stories the students wrote about people lost to them. One student remembered his cousin, who he was very close to, and who loved to skate, who died of a drug overdose. Another student wrote about being out with his cousin, who was a very talented guitarist, and who was shot in a gang-related drive-by as my student looked on. Another remembered a grandfather that he loved very much, but could not remember how his grandfather came to be a paraplegic.
Now we are working to move the visual works towards being a celebration of the relationship rather than a chronicle of the tragedy or loss. I am looking for objects for the students to create their pieces on: a guitar, a skateboard, a wheelchair. Transforming the object into a statement about love and relationship. Honoring the dead. Exploring the transcendental power of love.
I will review the traditional imagery and craft of Dia de Los Muertos with the students so that they can incorporate those images and techniques into the works should that feel relevant. At least there are no images of alcohol or cigarettes. Maybe there will be another home for this exhibit other than the Children’s Museum because I will not censor the voice. I will post pictures as the works progress.
Tagged as:
project-based learning,
visual arts activism
by Linda on September 23, 2009
Yesterday I took my architecture group (three students from last year’s team) around the corner to the local public school. This year we are serving as mentors to that school as they participate in the School of the Future Design Competition. After last year’s first place win, and given all that we accomplished and learned, it is now time to move all of that out into our community. I want my students to understand the responsibility that comes with receiving such honors.
My students did a great job of sharing what they have learned with the other class. The students had so many questions, and I was so pleased to have my students work in the role as mentors and leaders. I am still so struck with the distance traveled when I think of where we were when we began this process so many eons ago.
We have realized that our responsibility looks like this: Learn it, earn it, live it, teach it. Throw yourself into your learning, take it in through your eyes, your ears, your mind, your heart. Earn your place, your degree, your honors, recognize yourself for all of your achievements. Live what you have learned: move your learning out of your head and put it into action always. Then share: teach others what you have learned, continue the momentum so that it expands exponentially. This is a sustainable learning model.
Tagged as:
architecture,
sustainability education,
visual arts activism
by Linda on September 21, 2009
The 6th graders completed a project last week having to do with rare color and creating new and surprising color relationships. This sounds like a project for a Color and Composition course on the college level, which it actually is, come to think of it. I guess I think my students can do anything. A seemingly simple project, more difficult than it appears. I will post the specifices another time in the “Projects” section of this blog.
We have never spent time talking about color wheels, and I ran them through a quick explanation of warm and cool color, and spent a little longer talking about color representing concept or emotion. But I really believe that our relationship with color is intuitive, so I decided to approach the project in an experiential and intuitive manner.
We study color because color is part of our vocabulary, like words and mathematical formulas and music. We also study line and form and light, because these are parts of our vocabulary also. We need all these languages to give voice to our experiences and ideas and dreams.
I want to teach art as if I am teaching a language. I want my students to understand the power of visual voice. I tell them all the time that each time they engage in the creative process, each time they build or paint or adorn, they are connecting themselves to the great chain of humanity that has honored beauty and voice since the beginning of time, that has recorded its collective experience through pictures and sculptures and structures, enduring in the most painful and difficult of circumstances.
When we talk about rare color, we talk about finding a color that is so personal and so unusual in its relationships to other colors that it tells a story that has never been told. A rare color is the newly invented word or note that expresses the experience with impact and clarity. Rare color holds unimaginable powers of expression. Rare color turns the predictable on its head and asks many questions. Each of us, each human being, is a rare color. And just as a painter can spend a lifetime understanding and developing a palette of rare color, each one of us spends our lifetime trying to understand the power of our own rare color.
Tagged as:
art of teaching,
visual arts activism
