Greetings! From Day 2

It is a beautiful fall morning here, just south of Boston. 

Driving down to the South Coast, not to be confused with the South Shore, the last two days, the sun warmly greeted me, rising through the trees much like the image above. I don't always get to appreciate the beauty as I rush off to work in the morning. The chance to relax with hardly anyone else on the road and my music coming through the speakers, was very welcomed.

The second day of the MAEA regional conference was held at UMass Dartmouth's New Bedford Campus, also fondly called the Star Store. Before the university purchased the building, sometime before 2001, the building was a store, hence the name. The artisan program is housed here in addition to gallery and studio space.

My studio space was behind the column on the right in the photo above. I had a large table, a section of cork board and access to print tables and the dye kitchen pictured below.

I spent a lot of time here junior and senior year, wearing my blue apron, plugged into my first ever iPod.

The first session I took yesterday was absolutely for selfish reasons and I'm not afraid to say it! (Nor was I the only one!)  I spent many hours at these printmaking tables as an undergraduate and when I saw that my professor was leading a workshop, I absolutely had to sign up. While he couldn't remember my name, he did remember my face!

The photo process printmaking that was demonstrated for us would seriously need to be adapted, modified and previously prepared if it was to work with even high school students. I think the biggest take away as art educators was the idea of inquiry. There is so much left to chance, or the unknown, between light exposure times, how much time in the developer, what certain materials and pigments will and will not do... the list could go on... but printmaking can provide students with a sense of play and questioning that students can so often loose with painting or drawing. I guess that's what I took from the session. Others may have had a hard time with it, but beyond printing making for oneself, I can see it could benefit the students.

The second session I attended was about how a small, disjointed, hardly recognized art department became a power house in a now regional-ized high school. The quote above is placed on every bulletin and program this department publishes. I left the session empowered by some great ideas and much to think about over the next years...

I totally skipped the lunch provided by the conference, even though the buffet the day before was awesome. Instead I opted for the local burrito joint, No Problemo. I "checked-in" on Facebook and let me tell you, my friends were all sooo jealous. There are a bunch of places to eat and shop in New Bedford, in fact the little down town area, complete with cobblestone streets, has had a bit of a comeback in recent years. But nothing beats No Problemo. The food is fresh and tastey and the music and skate culture is popular with the clientele and staff alike. Its the kind of place that writes on the chalk board near the tip jar "a free kiss with every tip." (I didn't get mine.)

This has gone on way too long. I will wrap up with this:
The UMass Dartmouth Art Education Association Student Chapter had a great presence at the conference. You could tell that each was involved in some capacity or another, from attending the sessions, to guiding conference goers, to discussion panels. The buttons on the right and in the middle above were being sold by the chapter as a fundraiser. They are trying to raise enough money to represent UMass at the National Art Education Association Conference in San Diego this spring. In addition to the buttons, students produced 8"x8" art works, displayed in a gallery the second day of the conference, and held a silent auction.  Both are fantastic ideas (that I might need to steal borrow, for art club) and I wish them luck with their endeavor!

Fall Reflections

I've found this year that every once in awhile I need to throw in a one day lesson. Or at least vary it from long term (more than two classes) to short term activities with my middle school students. About two years ago I found this lesson on The Incredible Art Department and felt like it really fit in as a transition from printmaking to painting with a focus on nature, which upcoming in sixth grade.  

Before students arrive, premix a light blue. I made a big batch in a large yogurt container that has lasted for my five sections. Also, figure out how you will dispense paint. I used a method like you see below and use red, yellow, green and the premixed blue (tempera)

 

1. At the beginning of the lesson, I have the word MONOPRINT on the board. I always start by asking what the prefix "mono" means. Usually one or two students knows that it means one. I then explain the difference between the prints we just did and what we will be doing.
• This year, I am super lucky to have a document camera, so I got to do the activity along with my students. I went back to my old saying of "watch what I do, then you do it too." However, I also explained, that once I show students, if they have another idea, and its still within the materials available AND printing, then go for it!
2. Fold paper in half like a hot dog.
3. Add a land mass by painting above the fold. Before the paint dries, refold the paper and apply pressure.
4. Add bare trees by using oil pastel heavy and dark. Refold the paper and use a popsicle stick to rub the paper. The pastel should "jump" to the other side.
5. Add leaves and print as before
6. Paint and print the sky in sections as the tempera can dry fast.

Printed Calaveras

This lesson is straight from Calvert Canvas.
However, instead of linoleum, we used foam AND mounted two (out of three) instead of four prints.

I started my lesson with this image:

I used Visual Thinking Strategies to get student's minds going. 
I asked, "Whats going on in this picture?"
Eventually students started to come up with a story, after pointing out elements of the work, and I would ask "What evidence do you have of that?" in order to have the class see the visual clues. As students were talking, I would point to what they were talking about and paraphrase. 
I think this activity, in addition to the rest of the power point presentation, helped students understand that a skull and skeleton might have different meanings in other cultures. I have done this lesson before and this has been the only time where the majority of the calaveras are not creepy and frightening.  

First we viewed the power point and practiced drawing a calavera as other students completed the previous assignment.
The next class, we revisited symmetry, finalized our calaveras and traced them onto foam.
Finally, after a printmaking demo, we created at least three prints. This took about two classes. At each table, there were written directions in case students forgot about the demo from the previous class. I was stationed with the ink, in order to monitor how much was being given out. We used a variety of colors and I pretty much used all of the random papers that were donated over the last year. 

 I love that the student above wanted to make her calavera into an animal. I love her enthusiasm too. 

I think that if I were to do this again, I would make the foam and paper smaller. The prints and foam above were 6x9. I was afraid that 3x4.5 would be too small to really get detail. However, I think the smaller size would balance out the negative space, as the majority of students had trouble drawing large.