A new meaning for art

Today a classmate shared with me a very special piece of art. The piece was from a family member who has passed away. The art quite obviously means a lot to my classmate, and I cannot describe how touching it was for her to share it with me.

The piece itself conveys a lot about the artist that made it. I loved seeing something done by someone over 30 years ago, simply for the sake of expression. It was interesting to see all the elements and creativity that the piece entailed, along with the artist's very unique and crafty pen work. The drawings were all very well done, but when placed together, it made for a piece that I could have looked at for hours. With my own interest in a piece like that, my friend's attachment to the artpiece, and my increasing appreciation for art- I gained an insight at another meaning for art.

Art, when it is something we love and enjoy creating, maintains a piece of us in it. It isn't just a reflection, but something more. We give the paper (or whatever medium chosen), aspects of ourselves. Our dynamic, soulful, flawed, beautiful human nature is put into our work. We couldn't explain our entire self in one piece of art, but then again, we couldn't explain our entire self using words and imagery if we lived for a thousand years. People are so much bigger on the inside, and art allows us to let a flash of that out. In some cases it evokes a question, makes us think, makes us cry, steals our gaze, or just causes us to look twice. In any case, it is significant. To that end, I now see a beauty in the frailty of art. It is destructible. It shouldn't be. But neither should we be. It can be stolen, destroyed, and defaced; much like human beings. That's why we need to safeguard it, learn to respect it, and teach others how to do the same. Thank you Julie.

Seeing My "Immural" hung up in the classroom

When I came into class today I saw my artwork hung up on the classroom wall. It made me feel good when one of my classmates pointed it out and said they hung it up there for me. I am not typically proud of any artwork that I have created, until I made that piece. It was exposing, divulging, and risky making a piece like that. After the fact I have never really felt better about any of my other artwork. I look up at it with pride, and I found myself today thinking about what else I would like to make in that style.

Sculpture

As I started my fourth and final piece of artwork for my art class, I had a lot of interests on what materials to use for my sculpture piece. I thought that it would be interesting to do a recycled art piece but I would have had to find something junk to make anything out of (which I don't have). I was interested in making an accordion paper sculpture like the ones that Li Hongbo has created. I started to question about the time and money that could go into all of the layers of paper. As I set out to create the paper sculpture, I backpedalled on my other ideas, and realized that I have always had an interest in sculpting using clay but never had an opportunity. I spoke to one of my classmates about the Crayola self drying clay. It did not take me long to arrive at the subject of my sculpting, my dog Fedor. What better subject than Fedor for my hand created piece, because I know the shape of his face and head far better than my own. My job is petting that dog. So I started, and this was the conclusion of my work after the first night. I didn't have to look at him or call him into the room for sizing. My hands knew what the piece should feel like which made the rest really easy.
Here is a link to Li Hongbo's website, which features some of his amazing work.

Dragonfly Pond Project

This past week we completed our "Dragonfly Pond", (through Project Wild) community project in which each member of the class constructed a house and a business to contribute to the town. I think we settled on the name,"Circletown", in relation to our Facebook group of IUSB elementary education majors. The project was very dynamic in that it inspired all of us to ask some pedagogical questions about how we could teach civics using this community model in our classroom. We also went deeper into the heart of a successful community on many different levels. This was an intriguing process looking at the structures we inadvertently depend on to create the order and structure in our lives. Altogether this is a great way to look at the aspects of infrastructure and government, and hopefully devise some creative and engaging ways to educate our students.