I think that the easiest way to help students learn for cultural icons instead of just copying them is to make sure, as the teacher, that the objective of the lesson does not focus on creating art like the artist or icon but using them as a support and source of inspiration. For example when I was shadowing an art teacher in high school, instead of having her junior high students copy the work or style of the impressionists she showed their work and then turned it into a photography project where students were supposed to capture light outdoors like Monet, Renoir, and others had framed their subject matter in the changing light of the day. That way, students cannot copy the work but are forced to use it as an inspiration. I think most students resort to copying when they are lost for inspiration and the teacher has not presented them with a creative challenge.

If these images are considered inappropriate but the student wants to include them I think that I would in most cases let them use it but let them know they cannot display it (thanks for the idea Rachel) and also make sure that the school and parents know that it is being made and for what intention the icon/symbol is being used. However, I think I will always challenge my students to think outside the box and be limited to the images/icons/symbols they are used to but to have them make their own that even more significant.

I found the readings in In the Making about crafting an artistic self really interesting because it is something that so far in my art career I have not been asked to explain. I have written many times about individual pieces and written artist statements but in terms of crafting one artistic self I feel like it is a work in progress. Although there are many reoccurring themes in my work I am still learning new methods and materials that I feel make this more of an experimental time in my artistic career. The past four years here at the University of Iowa have also been very emotional and full of extremes. I have been learning new things about myself and reevaluating my beliefs and other things that have made up my life because of all the new things that I have been exposed to. When you add in these two factors I think that my artistic self at this point of my life is more about discovery and experimentation then centering my art on a specific set of ideals and mediums.
Nan Goldin has changed her artistic self over the many phases of her life. Although her purpose and medium have stayed the same her themes and images have changed dramatically to mirror the newest chapter of her life. She went from capturing the night life of the raging ‘80s to the spiritual awakening and emotions that are brought on by sobriety and traumatic loss. I see these evolutions happening in my own creation of my artistic self. I cannot say that I believe I have one now but I am in the process of creating one by evaluating what art means to me and what medium speaks best to my personality and beliefs. I still need to unearth the impact I want my work to have on an audience and who I want that audience to be. At this point in my life though I would want nothing else because I do not feel lost or uninspired but excited to explore and learn new things.
Thus far I have found that my best work has played with the idea of observing and enjoying the details in life. I have always felt that life is not fully lived unless you spend every day relishing in the small details of your day to day routines. Whether this be a new pair of socks, an unexpected compliment, your favorite coffee house, or a long laugh with a roommate. I have began experimenting with these ideas in my work by depicting the important things in my life, and also taking things that people usually do not notice and making them notice. Some of these pieces include a painting of the beach at my lake house at sun down, photographs of small corners and places in Iowa City, and sketches of the people that mean most to me. I like to keep a running list in my sketchbook of things that make me happy. It seems ridiculous but it can pick me out of any bad mood and provides as inspiration for art work. Another image I have been working with is the peacock. It really has no meaning to me other than I love their colors and think they are incredibly beautiful. However I have made a piece centered on a peacock in every medium I have worked with so far and they litter my sketchbook. In a way I guess it has come to represent myself but I am still not entirely sure why.
In terms of materials I tend to work best in the 2-D; coming into college I had an obsession with photography but since being introduced to oil painting my favorite medium has changed. Although I like oils most I still am very streaky and have found myself in love with certain mediums for semesters at a time. I think that this will continue until I have satisfied my curiosity with several mediums and work with one exclusively for more time.

This weeks topic is really tough to answer. Although, I feel strongly about LGBT rights I had never given thought to what would happen if a student came out to me. I had always planned on making my classroom a very safe place for students who identify as LGBT but had never stopped to question what I would do when this actually happened. But after some tought I think the first thing I would do is thank the student for trusting me and tell them in the most sincere manner possible that what they tell me will stay confidential and I am here only to help. From here I would try to get the student in contact with some other students who identify as LGBT in the school or community so that they have a good support system. I think it is also important to remind the child to be themsleves and to help the student discover their personal identity if they are stuggling.

One website I was reading on the subject had a good reminder: the student is the same person they were before they came out. I think this is SUPER important! I think that many people, whether they are aware of it or not, will begin treating a child differently based on personal judgement if they find out the student is not heterosexual. This could make the student self-concious, alienated, and distrusting of you as a confidant.

If the student had not come out to their family or friends yet, I think the first thing I would do is make sure they the student has a solid support system so they feel confident and safe when telling the people that are important to them. This could be a support group, the GSA at the school, etc. Although that student has trusted you enough to come out to you I think that there are other places that the student might get better support than from only you. Although you can help the student a lot within the school walls that will not be enough.

I found two really interesting artists that could be used in the art room to address LGBT issues. The first one is an artist name Claude Cahun who is a is a photograpgher who shots stagged portriats that challenge gender stereotypes. She is also a lesbian herself and could easily be incoperated into a portriat lesson with high school or junior high students. Her work is stunning. The other artsist that would be interesting to incopperate into the art room is Jeffery Jones who is a transgender cartoonist who has written comics in National Lampoon and Heavy Metal addressing LGBT issues.

The reading on Gillian Wearing was really interesting and made me question what it meant to have your secrets recorded on video the way they were in Confess. As a viewer it awakens questions of stereotypes and honesty but what relevance does it hold for the person who confessed? Their ideas are being shared with the world honestly. Is this freeing or disconcerting to them in this society? Did these people regret saying things to the camera to be permanently stored?

I love the idea of art as a storehouse for collective memories! It is obvious that this idea began in the beginning of time when people began using images to mark places they have been before language. They knew that by using artistic depiction their ideas would remain forever for people to see and learn from. These ideas were then exemplified in portraits in paint and sculpture and all the while the artist had in mind how people would interpret this in the future. You can see this in works like Colossal Head of Constantine the Great where his image has been altered so that people remember him as looking godly verse realistic. I am not sure when artists started depicting the neglected subjects, people like the Wright Brothers from the Medieval period began painting people in the lower ranks of society. Through out history I am sure that there have been people who have looked to depict these people and places but may not have made to full recognition.

Once photography was invented more true to life depictions of the neglected subjects were produced and this changed the idea of art as a storehouse in my opinion because now people knew they were seeing the truth and those neglected would never be forgotten. I think this was most evident in Diane Arbus’s work which brought the neglected parts of society to people’s attention in the most direct way possible. These people will never be forgotten because they will remain in photographs forever to challenge people’s ideas of stereotypes.

Ok so I have been posting my responses to In the Making in the wrong spot so here are my #1 and #2 excercizes from the last couple weeks. They has pictures but for whatever reason my blog won't let me put them up.

Skip Schukmann Assignment:

The artist Jane Ingram Allen embodies many of the same ideas in her environmental art that Skip does. She uses handmade paper, found natural materials and native seeds to make decomposable artwork across the U.S. and Asia. She is inspired by the natural environment much like Skip, but prefers to conduct her work collaboratively with people in the neighborhood and other artists.
One of her most well-known works is called “Disappearing Boundaries” from 1996. With the help of some fellow artists and volunteers she constructed a fence using fallen branches and homemade paper that was intended to dissolve with the natural occurrence of rain. Within the fence they had put flower seeds and had also plowed the strip of land beneath the fence. When the fence dissolved the seeds would begin to grow in the cultivated soil and fallen branches would provide natural mulch for the flowers to grow. The idea was for the flowers to eventually become part of the entire landscape and provide nourishment for the birds, animals, and other plants.
Jane Ingram Allen thrives on the idea of impermanence like Skip Schukmann; she feels like the natural process that occur to the land are an important and expressive part of her work. This is evident when she says, “nothing could ever be considered a 'permanent' work of art” or she explains, “the natural processes and human and animal interaction as a positive contribution to the artwork ... and to the environment."

In The Making Assignment 2:

The following are works of art that exemplify a viewer-artist relationship. Although there are many pieces that could fill these descriptions I found these to be some of the more fitting ones:
- A static, harmless art object: Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel would be a good example of a relationship where the view is engaged because they are questioning what makes art, art but the piece is still unmoving and unchanging.
- An active, harmless object: Although he is seen in the pop culture as a movie producer, Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas would be a perfect example of an active harmless object. The puppets he has created are moving and ever changing by the second to make them appear to be walking but they are harmless to the viewer. The viewer only has to sit back and enjoy, to participate in the relationship.
- An active, dangerous art object: Arnaldo Morales’s Kanika No.08 is active in the regard that it spins and is not static and would definitely inflict harm if used the way “intend” as a piece of seduction.

Ok, so now this is Week 4's response to Adolescents at School chapters 2 and 4:

The question that was posed with these chapters made me realize how fortunate I am. I had to think a long time to remember a time that I had been discriminated against. It makes me realize I blessed I am to have been raised in an environment where I have been equally presented opprotunities. However, the first memory that came to mind was when I tried to play on the basketball team in 5th grade. It was an intermural sport so everyone who wanted to play was put on a team. I was VERY short for my age so my couch only put me in for about 3 minutes the whole season. Although I was not very good when he did finally put me in, it was a real let down not to ever be given the chance just because I was short.

The other question asked was to discribe a time you discriminated against someone else. The memory I have for this one I will never forget. It was in my math class in high school and there was this girl that sat infront of me that was tall and blonde and was always really dressed up. I did not know who she was but had already informed the opinon that she was not going to be good at math, so when the time came around to start working on our homework I told the girl I would help her (even though she didn't ask) and it turns out she was brilliant and ended up helping me complete the assignment because I didn't understand it. I had completely formed my opinon of her from blond stereotypes and I felt awful about it. I was totally given a taste of my own medicine when she ended up give me help but I will still never make the same mistake. I felt so bad about it!

Both of these memories will help me in my future classroom because I now know what it feels like to be on both ends. I would never wish those feelings on anyone else and will forever keep them in the forfront of my memory. It will also remind me that there are stereotypes to be combated in other areas than race and gender. As teachers we need to always be on our gaurd and treat everyone fairly. By letting go of all prejudices and treating everyone with the same respect all students will know you care and a more harmonious school setting can be achieved.

Hello!

So I find this weeks discussion topic REALLY interesting and I want to know other people's opinon on the topic of finding a balance between realistic technical sketching and self-expression. This is something I think a lot about and really struggle with when I make lesson plans. I know from personal experience as a student that I would get really frusterated when I had an idea in my head of a good sketch but did not have the techniqual skills to execute it in a way that gave the idea any justice. So I have always wondered the best way to balance these to subjects.

I have never liked the traditional techniqual drawing assignments. I have always found them boring and impersonal but I understand their importance. I think in my classes I will definitly assign things like value sketches and skill lives but with things that are important to them. For example, in the book Ordinary to Extraordinary they show a lesson about making a small still life of objects that are meaningful to them. I feel like students would find more pride in bringing home this types of working and finding them relfective.

I also think it's important to build on the student's skills. I would think that it would be very benefical to the students to begin the semester in more skill-based lessons like the still lives and then move towards something more expressive as the year goes on. Another way you could balance skill and expression would be to have skill-based sketchbook assignments for homework and then work on more expressive works in class. With this however, you would have to still designate classroom time for instruction on the techniqcal skills. Because the truth is that although the skill-based stuff is boring it is VERY important to improvement and getting to the point where you can express yourself accurately.

John Singer Sargent is my personal favorite sketch artist. There is so much depth and emotion is his sketches. I love his use of tone and the line quality is really expressive. This one is my absolute favortie:

Hello!
There is no way to put into words how much my identity has changed since I was in high school. The same moral qualities in me have remained the same since childhood but the ways in which I express them have changed drastically. I have matured so much since coming to college and being independent. I think the most noticable difference is my drive and determination. Although I did ok in high school I did not feel the same passion I do now that I am deep into the study of what I love. I know that I have placed myself in the right major and am willing to work to my best ability to become the teacher I can be. This has affected my identity in the sense that I no longer see my self as just a student of many different subjects but a preteacher and an experienced artist.
My identity has also changed because of the relationships I have built here at UI. I have made many deep and meaningful relationships with girls that share my moral standing and standards but are diverse in the interests and backgrounds. These relationships have made me more confident in who I am. In high school your identity shifts and many self-concious ideas show through in your identity. That is no longer the case. My friends have taught me to be confident in who I am due to their unwavering friendship. They have also taught me many things about there interests and showed me many new things I would have never known before.
It is envitable that a shift in identity as major as the one from high school to college will effect your art work. I think the most noticable change is my techniqual skill and how that allows me to better express myself becuase I am more comfortable with the medium and depicting the images and ideas I need to to show my identity through my work.