What's in your Locker?

After an entire unit exploring space (perspective, forced perspective, positive and negative space, stencils, etc) we decided to close out the unit wit ha look at installation art. What do installation artists do? Well, they take a pre-existing space and change it using their artist abilities. 

As crowded as Apex has been, there are some spaces that are simply underutilized. In particular the lockers. In a school as large as ours, it's just not practical for students to stash their books in a locker. Not when their other classes are on the other side of campus. So the lockers remain empty. empty, until this week.

Assignment: You have a locker and it is a space. Change the space. Create an installation in a locker. here are some of the results...

Disney

the theme is Meme!

Above: Close up of the Nightmare

The Nightmare: Person in bed below dreams of nightmare above.

In progress, the Balloon Ride

The Asylum

The bottom scene of a two part locker: Heaven and Hell

the Volcano

A take on the short clip: the Maker

Emphasizing the Elements Part 2

Here are some examples from our first project, Emphasize the Element. Since this was a first piece, we decided to keep it simple. The only requirement was to pick an element to emphasize. Beyond that, the subject and media was open. We did suggest the artists select a media that they were familiar with. 

Emphasis on value, Audry Hepburn in charcoal pencil

Emphasis on color and movement using dance. 

The dancers dipped their hands and feet in paint as they danced

watch the video below

Video projected on the sheet that the dancers created

Color and shape. Cut paint color samples.

Shape with particular interest how spontaneous shapes can resemble representational one.

Line and value using chalk pastels on wood

Color and shape using watercolor

Color and text to emphasize meaning

Originally line but later evolved into using color. Pastel on wood.

Line. Watercolor and pen and ink.

The Locker Project: Part 1

What's in Your Locker?

Our first unit in Art One is Artists Explore Space. We made a few trips to the hall and learned about 1 and 2 point linear perspective. We took to the streets with our cameras in hand for a little forced perspective action. next, we explore positive and negative space by creating stencils.. here are some in the process...

For our final space project, we took another field trip to the hall. There we peeked inside the space of the empty lockers. We talked a bit about installation art had how artists change the space of an area. We looked at the work of artists like Tara Donavan and even Banksy's Dismaland.

We wondered what we might do if we could change the inside space of the lockers? Create our own installations behind the metal doors? Let's do it!

Messurign the lockers to see how much material will be necessary for the background.

This locker is going to be Heaven.. can you guess what the locker directly below will be?

Creating props for this locker project includes plaster casts of hands.

Creating props for the skateboard locker.

That cute little bunny is about to become creepy.

Emphasize the Elements

We're back in the swing of it. For this first project, we are taking a look at the elements of art and how different artists emphasize different elements in their work. Each student selected an element that they wanted to emphasize and is creating a piece that well, emphasizes it.

The choice of medium was open though I suggested they consider selecting one they were familiar with for this first project. Don't worry, we'll be working outside out comfort zone soon enough :)

Above, emphasis on line using charcoal on wood.

So remember when I said they might want to start with a medium in their comfort zone? Well, that didn't last so long. Bailey is trying out oil pastel on canvas using baby oil and also baby powder. Her art smells really good.

TAB Institute at MassArt Boston 2015

Ian just spent a week teaching Track Two students at the TAB Institute at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. This one-week Teaching for Artistic Behavior course offered intensive inquiry into the practice of choice-based art education and students could earn graduate credit, so how fun is that? So here is a look into some of the stuff we did...

Day One: Introducing The panel. These are the folks I worked with, from left to right: Katherine Douglas, Diane Jaquith, Clyde Gaw, and Julie Toole.

These are some of the students listening to the people on the panel above. I would list their names but as you can see, it was day one and they were wearing name tags. So you can just read their names.

One day, George Szekely came and spoke. Do you know George? He is the president elect for the NAEA.

Besides all the great presentations and break out session, we did take some time to explore the city a bit. Here we were visiting Fenway Studios and some of the local artists including Mae Chevrette.

We also had a docent led tour of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They had a Tara Donavan piece. That was fun.

It's summer, y'all must be sitting round the pool

Sure, it's summer and that gives everyone a chance to kick back and relax a bit. While we at Apex Art don't mind spending a day at the beach, we aren't about to dedicate our entire summer to slacking off. Instead, here are just a few of the summer events we are taking part in..


Southeast TAB Retreat
Ian Sands was asked to present at the Southeast Teaching for Artistic Behaviors Retreat in the mountains of NC. In June, Ian joined the group and presented, What is Assessment? It's Not What We Think. This was a great time to share ideas with this spontaneous professional development setting.


Art of Education Summer 2015 Conference
On July 16, Melissa Purtee and Ian will be presenting at the AOE Summer Conference. Our topic, “How to Share a Room and Collaborate Without Going Crazy!” is an in-depth look at the difficulties as well as the advantages of sharing a space and working together. We will explore the four stages of team work, (forming, storming, norming, performing) and provide real life examples of how two teachers that are paired together, can go from storming to performing.

Writing for AOE
From the Art of Education website, July 7th: Today we welcome AOE’s newest writer, Melissa Purtee. Melissa is a phenomenal writer that is passionate about student choice in the art room. Melissa will contribute three articles a month. Look for her articles here.

#AOELive
Speaking of AOE, did you catch Ian on AOE LIVE EP. 9 "Envisioning the Future of Art Education". You can listen to the podcast on iTunes or view the video on youTube.

TAB Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Ian will spend a week teaching Track Two students at the TAB Institute at Mass Art in Boston. This one-week Teaching for Artistic Behavior course offers intensive inquiry into the practice of choice-based art education for beginning and experienced TAB teachers. This is the only course exclusively offered by the founders of Teaching for Artistic Behavior. This course is available for graduate credit.

A Vision for Art Education Part One:

This month, After two years and almost 100 articles, I will be stepping down as a contributing writer for the Art of Education. For my send off articles, we thought it would be interesting to run a three part series on a Vision for the Future of Art Ed.

The first part in the series was posted today. It covers a look at where the future of the physical space in the art room should be as well as the way we teach materials and display art. Below are a few excerpts. For the full article click here!

Separation of Studio and Classroom Space

The traditional art room is designed for one function to take place at a time. For example, in the conventional configuration, it would be difficult to teach a lesson to one group of students while other students were walking around the room or working on projects.

Many shop classes have overcome this issue by separating the lesson area from the workspace. Auto tech classes will often have the garage to work on cars and a separate classroom setting for book work.

Stocking the 21st Century Art Room

The art room of the future will need to stock the storage room with materials that go beyond those items listed in the fine art supply catalogues. While the room will still be fully equipped with traditional art supplies such as paint, pastels, and pencils, we need to save room on the other side of the supply closet for materials that will spark the creative imagination of the 21st century artist.

The Future of Art Displays

While the display case and the bulletin board have long been staples of the art class gallery space, the future art teacher needs to consider any space as display space. We need to train our students, as well as ourselves, to break free of the gallery mentality. 

Stay tuned for Part Two and Three...