Despite hurricane Dorian's best efforts to put a damper, literally, on the start of our year, we were back at school this week and our TAB class is up and running. There is a lot going on.

Our Beginner Art students have completed the media fair and have started their first Nine Unit, the Object. Our other classes, went through the week using the Modular Method. This includes starting with an Artistic Behavior Unit. This week's units introduced proportion and repetition. We also opened the first Table of the year with marbling. 

Above, Max is working on a suit of armor. The piece shown is part of the helmet he's working on. The images below show the process he's been working through.

AP Art is back for the third year at South Brunswick and it's our biggest class ever. 16 students are enrolled with 13 taking 2D and three students in 3D. However, its all new this year. the AP class no longer has a Breadth section and to be honest, we're glad. TAB lends itself perfectly to working a sustained investigation.

Our motto for this year: It's the Journey: Question - Experiment - Grow 

Brooke is starting the year by asking how she can use her art to open a dialog about anxiety. This first piece, which is digital, is a work in progress and not finished yet. Below, you can see her process as she moves from sketch to finished product.

Natalie's investigation consists of her starting with a drawing from nature. The flower pictured here is one example, though she plans to incorporate other types of plants and trees as she works through the process. She starts with a drawing that she creates in traditional media. The drawing of the flower below on the left was created in charcoal. She then imports her traditional work into Photoshop were she creates many new designs and compositions.

Meanwhile, in the other art classes, we are introducing new concepts each week. Some of these are in the form of Artistic Behavior Units such as Artists Steal and Artists Solve Problems. Other units ask the student to consider more traditional topics such as elements and principles of art.  One of the units we are currently exploring is Proportion. We looked at proportion and the figure, as well as foreshortening, exaggeration and distortion. The students then have the option to create a work of art that incorporates proportion in some way. 

Meanwhile, over in Beginning Art, we have started our first of the Nine with The Object. To kick off the unit, the students were given the Tantamounter challenge.  Groups of students try to recreate an object using art supplies available in the room. The replicas are created tantamount to the original though often in clever and whimsical ways. 

Our Intermediate class follows a Modular system. Each day, they are introduced to a new module of a unit. These modules cover a Concept, an Artist and a Technique. There is also an optional module called the Table that is offered to students each Tuesday. The Table projects are usually hands on, craft type work that gets students out of their seats. 

This week we offered our first table, marbling. We used shaving cream and watered down tempera paint to create the marble effect. After students marbled sheets of paper, they were encouraged to take the marbling to the next level. Some made cards, others found images in the marbling. One student turned his marbled paper into a walking, flying paper airplane. 

As an art teacher I long embraced the mantra, “Make Art.” I had these words emblazoned on T-shirts, a coffee mug, my classroom blog banner, even the license plate on my car. I had good reason for accepting this catchy slogan. After all, my job was to teach my students to make art.

​One day while looking over my students’ art, I noticed that their work all looked the same. In fact, their art looked more than similar, their work was unrecognizable as individual pieces. When I laid it out on a table, I couldn’t tell which work belonged to which student. Though I had been teaching my students to make art, I hadn’t been teaching them how to be artists. It was at this point I realized a paradigm shift in my thinking was required. I would no longer be interested in “making art” but, rather, “making artists.”

This difference in my thinking can best be understood by comparing the product vs. the process. As an art teacher who was interested in making art, I incorporated a product-based mentality. My old way of thinking leaned heavily on a desired and predetermined outcome. In other words, I was interested in what students’ project would look like when they were completed.

​As I switched to being a more choice-based teacher, I became interested in making artists. My focus now turns to a set of artistic behaviors my students will acquire while creating art. I want to make sure they understand steps artists take and decisions artists make when creating art. In other words, I became interested in the process.

In order to implement my newfound desire to teach students to work like artists, I enlisted the help of fellow Apex High School art teacher, Melissa Purtee. Together we sat down and developed a list of ideas, not based on making art, but on being an artist. We considered what artist do, how they think and how they work to create art. From our very long inventory of topics, we scrubbed our list of artistic behaviors down to our top seven. This set of units would become our semester roadmap.

Here is our list of artistic-behavior units including short descriptions.

Artists Observe:
​This unit covers observational drawing and possibly painting. It incorporates still-life drawings and nature drawings, as well as architectural drawings, urban sketching or even plein air painting.

Resources for this Unit
Art of South B Artists Observe Presentation
Art by Barnett Artists Observe Blog Post
Artechtivity.com Artists Observe Blog Post
WHS Art Department Artists Observe Presentation

Artists Steal:
Discussions revolve around artists such as Lichtenstein, Shepard Fairey and Damien Hirst. Themes are based on concepts such as appropriation and intertextuality.

​Resources for this Unit
Art of South B Artists Steal Presentation
The Salisbury  School Artists Steal Resources
WHS Artists Steal Presentation
Art by Barnett Artists Steal Blog Post

Artists Solve Problems:
​This unit examines how artists work with limitations and constraints. Students research the limitations artists overcome such as; Henri Matisse working with compromised vision, Chuck Close painting from his wheelchair, or Phil Hansen’s TED talk, “Embrace the Shake.” Students explore self-inflicted limitations from materials to working in difficult situations.
​
Resources for this Unit
Art of South B Artists Solve Problems Presentation
Thoughts On Arting Artists Solve Problems Blog Post
Pierz HS Art Artists Solve Problems Blog Post
Art by Barnett Artists Solve Problems Blog Post

Artists Communicate:
This unit covers the many ways art is used to communicate ideas and thoughts. It covers a range of art works from contemporary artists to commercial fields such as advertising and illustration to video and animation. This unit culminates with a theme-based project.

Artists Collaborate:
This unit introduces the concept of working together to build something bigger than the sum of its parts. Consider discussing and contrasting different ways artists collaborate, from Jeff Koons, who hires people to create his art, to teams like Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who worked together.

Artists Curate:
​This unit covers how museum and gallery exhibits are conceived and works are assembled in groups. It covers everything from artist styles and collections to how museum curators pick topics for shows. This unit also explores how artists create individual style.

Artists are Self-Learners:
​This unit provides students an opportunity to experiment with new materials, styles, skills and techniques. It encourages them to utilize tutorials, and to create tutorials themselves. They are also encouraged to share what they learn with others.

​Making the shift from product-based to process-based thinking opened avenues of creativity, originality and personal voice in my students’ work that I had not previously seen. Where before I couldn’t tell two works apart, I now see projects that are created in a style unique to each student. Their works no longer resemble exercises in the elements and principles of design, but rather, art that is personal and meaningful to each individual artist.

Artists Seek Inspiration
Artists Engage
Artists Synthesize
Artist have a Style
Artists Tell Stories
Artists Impact their Communities
Artists Collect
Artists Research
Artists Experiment
Artists Repurpose
Artists Make a Difference
Artists Educate
Artists Explore a Theme
Artists are Self Promoters
Artists Play with Materials
Developed Art Making Skills
Artists Question
Artists Transform
Artist Create Temporary Art
Artists Pay Tribute
​

​Did you ever see an art project and immediately fall in love with it? Perhaps you found the application of color fascinating or you were intrigued by the technique. Maybe the particular use of media struck your fancy or the subject matter just happened to be your favorite. Your reaction was immediate and your response was the same as would be expected from most any art teacher: “I have got to do this lesson with my class!”

We see projects on Pinterest, works by artists, or even every day real life objects that make us want to create art. Our desire is to share our enthusiasm by having our students emulate what has inspired us. We recreate lesson plans, or write entirely new ones, in order for our students to create an artwork based on the work that we found so intriguing. From the position of an art teacher, this makes absolute sense. However, it often does not generate the results we anticipate.

While we are interested in our selected subject, this does not always equate to our students sharing our enthusiasm. After we eagerly present the project, our students often plod along at a level that might be described as only one step higher than total apathy.

​Once the project is completed, we are quick to express our disappointment when a student wants to trash a project. While we may be discouraged that our students didn't share our zeal for our selected project, the stakes are even higher for the students. Their disinterest and lack of commitment to the project often results in not only poor work, but  low grades  as well.

If we consider how artists think and work, then we will come to the realization that using the teacher’s inspiration to kick off a project is inherently backwards.

When beginning a work of art, an artist will make three decisions: They will decide the subject, the technique and the media. Many artists—from old masters such as Rubens to today’s contemporaries such as Jeff Koons—first made these decisions, but then had other people execute their directives. These artists selected the subject, the technique and media, and then incorporated assistants to execute their vision.

​Their assistants, however, were not the artists. They were assistants. When we as art teachers make the decisions about the subject, the techniques, or the medium, we run the risk of becoming the artist. Our students in turn become the assistants. Our students should never be the assistants. They should always be the artists.

As teachers, we do not need to provide students with a subject, technique or required medium. Instead, we should allow them to become the artists and to make those decisions. Many students already have something in their life they are passionate about. These interests make excellent starting subjects for making art. For other students who do not have an immediate passion to draw from, it may be more challenging to think of a subject. Nonetheless, everyone has something that they find interesting. It is the work of the artist to seek out the subject matter that they will use as inspiration. Our students need to take on this role and become the artists.

​Once the student becomes the artist, the teacher is free to take on the role of facilitator. Our responsibility changes from that of one who imposes a technique or medium, to one who demonstrates technique and use of media as needed throughout the development of the project. As teacher-facilitator, teachers allow students the freedom to seek out and discover their own inspiration. We can still encourage our students to explore artists that match their interests. We can also support their learning when it comes to new techniques. We can help them discover ways to turn their newly found inspiration into project ideas.

When the student finds the inspiration, ​engagement will increase and learning and growth will result. Students will then share their enthusiasm with us. They will express excitement for the subject, the technique, or chosen medium through the art making process. After all, this is the job of the artist; to visually explore and express inspiration. The teacher’s job is not to be concerned with students making art, but rather with making artists.

Links of interest mentioned in this post:

The Teaching for Artistic Behavior Website
When Art Goes in the Trash
I Don’t Like Grading, And, Uh, I Don’t Think I’m Gonna Grade Anymore
​The Essential Framework for Teaching Creativity

We kicked off week one with a few Artistic Behavior Units. The first unit is titled Artists Ask & Respond. For this unit we ask students to start with a word. From that word, we ask the students to develop five questions. from that lists of questions, we ask the student to select one and then create a work of art that responds to the question.

Above: The student picked the word Easy. From that, the student developed the question; 
What Makes You Feel Uneasy?
​He then asked his peers the question and received responses such as spiders and baby dolls. The student then developed the work of art above to respond to his question, What makes you feel uneasy? Nailed it.

This second unit is titled Artists Steal. For this unit, we looked at artworks and artists that appropriated other works to create their own. Sometimes they did this legally and other times they ran into trouble. Next, we asked the students to create their own work of appropriation. They could do this by combining two or more things or simply changes something about one thing. 

Ninja turtles remixed with Power Rangers, work still in progress.

Over in Beginner Art, we kicked off the week with a Media Fair. The Media Fair provides those students new to art, an opportunity to explore the different traditional materials available in the room. Definitely a benefit for those students who have never  had the chance to work with these materials in the past. Students had the choice of exploring the media on their own, or selecting and following an online tutorial.

After the Media Fair is over , students will be able to select any media for their first unit project. Its a great way to get students up to speed and ensure they have full choice regarding media for their first unit.

The process of making art includes four phases that align with the National Standards. The phases include Inspiration, Design, Creation and Reflection. Learning and growth occurs as students work through the four phases of this art making process. For this reason, students are assessed weekly based on their engagement. The expectation is that students are fully engaged in the process daily, taking part in all activities.
 
The left column identifies the phases of the process. The middle column defines the phase. The right column presents the practices the students should be accomplishing for each phase.  

If you would like to learn more, here are a few links that go deeper into a few of the topics mentioned in this post...

​More about Teaching for Artistic Behavior
More about Realigning the Standards
More about working with Learning Targets
​

Some students are still working on the last day of school, trying to finish projects. However, most students are packing up and getting ready for summer fun! Before we go, I wanted to share a few of the final Seesaw posts. These students worked hard, developed skills, took risks, experimented and did all the other things artists do. 

"This project was most definitely my most successful because I broke out of my old shading method where I would spend days just blending in the shading to a new, more cartoon like, blending style of just harsh change of color to make it POP more. I’m also working on doing more logo like things so I can build a good portfolio in order to get a logo designing job in my future." ~Lainey 

"This piece that I call the spider web is the one that I learned the most from. This was one of the first pieces that I did when first starting this art class. I learned how we can be creative with just lines and dots to put together to form a oddly satisfying piece to look at. I would later use this technique in some other pieces but with some contrasting colors. This also transferred into some 3D pieces as well inside a fortune teller. " ~ Lexey

"I chose to redo this project because I didn’t like the first one. When I redid this piece I decided to make it bigger but couldn’t find paper big enough so we found a glass to paint on. I added more colors to it and tried blending some more into it. Once I was done I decided to shine a light through the glass to see how it would look. So now it is painted of a different canvas and a bigger image." ~ Amandelyn​

"I choose to redo my fabric sloth because I felt like I could have done better if I had chosen to do acrylic paint (which I like using that medium anyway). Simon is currently sitting in a case alone and I feel like he should have a friend join him, so her name is Sami. I had a really fun time creating her. I even repainting her like, 5 times, finding a brown is hard. I’ve come a long way since 6th grade and I hope to only improve" ~ Ashton

As part of their final exam, students were asked to Redo one of their previous projects. For the redo students could choose to remake their project better (demonstrating improved skills or techniques), or make it different (demonstrate a use of a different medium), or rearrange it (Demonstrate a different composition). 

The redo project are currently in progress but here is a look at some of the ideas our artists are working on. Above, making it different. Recreating an original marker drawing and recreating the image using an actual hand.

Redo demonstrating improved skills. The image on the left if the original. The remake (still in progress) demonstrates improved use of texture, brighter colors and more detail.

The original on the left, the redo (still in progress) demonstrating a different composition and different medium.

'Meanwhile the results of the Young Artists Patriot Competition came in. Keely won third place for her piece. Parker took second and Gail's piece won first place. Gail's piece has advanced to the state level!

Ashton painting the canvas blue and purple and then covered it with strips of tape. Later she decided to paint an eyeball. i'm not sure why. When it was dry, she removed the tape, which was fun to watch so I captured the process with these photos. Overall, its an interesting piece, don't you think?

This art one student decided to create a stencil of the artist Khalid. But first, she created this large collage. Hidden in the collage are titles and lyrics captured in both word and images. How cool is that? Look below to see what I mean. 

The giant reverse color Tweety Bird is now hanging in the cafeteria. Best way to end a weekly post!

There is one question that is often asked specifically in regards to a choice-based program. The question is; does choice-based teaching meet the standards and if so, how?  The answer is a resounding yes. The Standards align perfectly with choice-based teaching, and in particular, they align with TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior). Here’s how. ​

Read the full article in the Summer issue of SchoolArts Magazine here.
You can also read more about Aligning the Standards here.
More about how we align the standards with Learning Targets here.
More about aligning the standards with Writing Prompts here.

A look what the AP class wrote on the whiteboard sums it up. We completed all 12 Breadth and all 12 Concentration pieces. We matted all the quality works and packed the box, ready to ship. AP Art 2019 is done!

Here is a look at the student's Sustained Investigation; the concept of producing a series of sequential visual forms to explore in greater depth a particular visual concern.

"My concentration  is a series of original characters that are interacting and showing emotion to the implied environment around them while exploring contrast, color theory, and proportion. "

"My concentration is a series of stylized self portraits depicting different aspects of my personality through either accurate proportions or exaggerated features while exploring the relationship between the background and the foreground of each piece." 

"​My artwork is a series of abstracts using a technique called acrylic pouring. This technique interested me because I had to experiment with different densities of paint mixed with my medium and water to get my desired consistency that would flow smoothly when doing different pouring techniques."

"My concentration is a series of humanoid figures depicting various emotions and various positions, as I demonstrate this by using watercolors, pencil and markers in a cartoon style."

"My concentration is a series of original works of art symbols inspired/depicting things found in history with tribal arts and patterns found in different cultures while emphasizing the darkness and lights in each cultures, movement and balance."

"My concentration is a series of original animal shapeshifters that are placed in different positions/perspectives and backgrounds some of which are interacting with their human counterparts. All pieces were done in  mixed media most of which was water color paint and colored pencils."

"​My concentration is a series of kids in Guatemala depicting the experiences and relationships formed throughout my trip while exploring a creative way to incorporate Guatemala through the background ,with the contrast, value."

"​My concentration is a series of Crow/Ravens. With each Image I started with a drawing/painting using traditional materials. I then imported those art works into Photoshop where I digitally edited each one. My projects depict the beauty of crows through their actions, such as flying patterns."

"​My concentration captures lights reflecting our culture. My concentration depicts the complexity of how much life lights brings to our culture. My concentration stemmed off the idea go how light reacts to the photograph."

We are back from spring break and heading into the last few weeks of the 2018-2019 school year. Next week we will present our last unit of the year and the week after that we start our final project. So wow, it's going quickly. Still, lots of fun stuff happening as the year wind down here's a look at some of the happenings....

Tie dye stuffed turtle! There is no more that needs to be said!

He wants to take AP next year but recreates a lot of copyright characters. We talked and I let him know if he wants to take AP then he has to create original works. so he drew his classmate sitting next to him. I don't think we'll have much trouble with AP ;)

This is a landscape by one of our beginner art students. And this is one of her first paintings. Imagine were she'll be next year. 

This is a diorama of a mountain that was created from a chunk of plaster that dried in a container. The plaster was carved to resemble a mountain with a river and water fall. The two bears and tree were printed on the Makerbot 3D printer.

Who doesn't like a good stencil? Another beginner art student creating a series of large, stencils displayed in the hall. 

Art, need I say more?