Summer Watercolors

Teaching Art 40 hours a week, takes so much creative energy, that I'm usually too wiped out by the time I come home to make art in the evenings. Luckily, summer break gives me a chance to brush up on my skills as an artist, so I recently dusted off my watercolors and try to capture some of the spots I visited this summer. I attempted a landscape that included water, which was a first for me.

But I wanted my watercolor to be more fluid and spontaneous, so I worked half the size, and spent less than half the time, to simplify and be a little more gestural. These ancient ruins at Hovenweep, provided enough structure to allow me to go really loose with the sky.

Working small means I can start and finish a project in an afternoon. The smaller commitment, the more I'm more likely to pick up my pencils and brushes; and the more times I draw and paint, the faster I can grow. Painting is one thing you can learn how to do before spending the rest of your life learning how to do it better. And as an art teacher who wants to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk, I hope my students can understand the power of life long learning.

 

James Turrell's "Air Apparent" was a must-see on my recent trip to Tempe, Arizona to visit my brother. I love how Turrell creates experiences for the viewer, encourage us to slow down and heighten our awareness. The clouds are moving over our head all the time. The color of the sky is shifting in value and intensity. We could stop and watch and notice, but we're too busy. We can go all day without pausing to just watch and think about the sky. 

With Turrell's work, it's always more about what's going on behind the eye instead of in front. Air Apparent consists of four outdoor walls with benches, with backs that tilt back, allowing visitors to lean back and watch the sky through the square hole in the floating roof. The ceiling itself is shifting colors at an in-perceptible increments. The color of the ceiling affects the perception of the blue of the sky, thanks to a principle of simultaneous contrast. After ten or fifteen minutes of mindful presence in this installation, I felt as refreshed and relaxed as if I had been meditating. Quite the break from flashing images on a phone screen!

The fact that this art piece is open to the public for free, on Arizona State Universities campus, made me wonder why no one else was there. Often universities offer life enriching experiences. I spent much of my 20's as a student, going to International Cinema, visiting the campus art museum, attending clubs, weekly recitals, dances, and student plays. College campuses are cultural hot spots and some students take advantage of the education that is offered beyond the classroom, and others do not. It's too bad. One friend recently told me that they had been to the National Park site in our town for the first time. He'd lived here for almost as long as I had, and I've probably been there twenty times. With minimal research, you could find local library family history centers, line dancing groups, hot yoga classes, bike riding clubs, city arboretums, or kayak outfitters. James Turrell's artwork makes glad for such an opportunity for the Temple community. It reminds me to slow down, pay attention, and live life more fully.

 

America the Beautiful: Roadtrip of Landscapes

Every few years I like to take a 3 week road trip and try to visit a couple dozen National Park sites. This year, I've been able to go to about 40 park sites in about half a year, including Big Bend, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sand Dunes, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Great Sand Dunes, Zion, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountains. National Monuments and often State Parks are just as impressive, and less crowded, so I've learned not to dismiss those. I love the landscapes of this gorgeous country and I love each one more when I can contrast it with other, different types of beautiful geography. White sands, red rock, underground caverns, mountain tops, amber waves of grain. We've got it all! Here are some of my favorite moments from my recent travel. 

Ramona Read Alouds for Art Class

I've always agreed with the idea that literacy should be integrated into every subject area, which is why I use vocabulary, written assignments and articles as part of our units in Art class. But this is the first year that I've just used non-fiction for the pure joy of literature as a perk of being an art student.

First, let's please acknowledge that Beverly Cleary is a genius. She bridges generations and understands how to create relatable characters. I read the first chapter of Ramona the Pest on the first day of school, just because I knew we'd have time after going over the syllabus and the sharing of summer memories, but also because it tells the story of a child's first day of kindergarten and the newness of it all. I expected to take the book back to the library the next day, but the students loved it so much that I found it to be the perfect sponge activity, to absorb the last five minutes of class, after cleaning up and before the bell. In fact, students were motivated to work more efficiently to get a little story time in. And when artwork could be made independently, I would read while they worked. This was such a relaxing and enjoyable activity for students: laughing out loud a the antics of a fictional little girl, while doing under-paintings or glazing ceramic pieces. 

"Leave your worries at the door" is my attitude. "This class period is your spa portion of the day." And more than once students have told me as they were leaving class that it felt like an hour therapy. For classes that can't keep the drama out of my classroom with their endless bickering or malicious gossip, I found reading to them was my ticket to sanity. It was the only way to keep the garbage out of my room.

Throughout the year, we made our way through more than 1,000 pages between the five or six Ramona books in each of my 5 daily class periods that I would read. When I'd suggest a more age appropriate book for my high school students, the majority insisted at staying with the series. They wanted to know what happened next. With the humanities taking a back seat, it's important to remember how to be human, how to walk around in other people shoes, even fictional eight year old's shoes.

The Learning Tree: Large Wooden Sculpture

I wanted to brighten the dreary patio outside my classroom door with a 10 foot sculpture: The Tree of Learning. This represents the growth and change I expect from my students as they strive to become better versions of themselves. I used three 8'X4' pieces of nice birch wood: two boards for tree shapes, and the 3rd board (and scrap pieces from the first 2 boards) were used to make fluffy tree leaf cloud shapes. 

Once these were cut out and edges sanded, a slit was cut (the width of the board) 4 feet up from the bottom, on one tree, and a slit 4 feet down from the top of the other tree.

Students helped paint every part of the tree front and back in black. There were a handful of students with a little bit of vision who I trusted to follow the marks of dark brown bark (both sides of both trunks and every extra big of root pieces). Then light brown to fill in some gaps and brighten it up. I painted dark green spirals throughout the leafy areas and then students traced with a lighter green, before doing 3rd green which was the lightest and yellowest green. 

Students brushed two layers of deck sealant on both sides of each piece of wood, totally 6 coats (of paint and sealant) on each side of the tree top. With a day to dry between each coat, it was a long process.

I bought a 5 foot pole to put in the ground and strap the tree to, and I made sure that none of the roots were touching dirt directly since that will promote rot. Hopefully we'll get some gravel or pebbles to fill in around the base and that the tree will weather well.

 

History of Architecture Totem Pole

The sensory garden at the Academy for the Blind is a place where "orientation and mobility" training can take place, as students have to navigate paths that go from brick to pebbles, to mulch. There are wind chimes, and the smells of pine and rosemary. But there wasn't much to touch there until a four years ago, when my students each made a part of our Georgia totem pole, displaying the state bird, flower, fish, reptile , motto, map, and more!

Two years ago, we added a school spirit pole, complete with braille I LOVE GAB, a Perkins Brailler, white canes, our school mascot, and glasses. We even had an un-vailing ceremony with drummers, cheerleaders, a speech about the symbolism of the piece.

This year, my students were studying architecture and each one picked a famous building from art history to write about. Then they creatd a 3D version in clay, with a clay cylinder through the center of each sculpture. These were then strung on a metal pole in the ground, filled with Great Stuff, that foams and hardens. We piped caulk between each layer to keep moisture and bugs out.

I've spotted students feeling the pole and trying to guess the name of each famous building: From the pyramids to the Guggenheim.

 

Aloha! A Luau themed Prom

 

I feel like this years prom was lots of fun, with a  Beach (specificially Hawain) themed decorations. As soon as the D.J. walked in he vowed to play some Beach Boys and the theme song from Hawaii 5-0.

My goal is to always transform the cafeteria into a place that makes students feel transported to a more special venue then the place they ate tator-tots a few hours earlier. In order to do this, I have to essentially create a wall to hide the lunch line. a beach scene on painted on vinyl and stretched on 4X8 foot boards helps cover most of the heating trays and salad bar area.

The tray drop off window had a screen placed in front of it, and the refreshments were served on a table decorated with pineapple palm trees and more pineapples wearing sunglasses. 

Our surf shop and tiki head area were a great place to have photo shoots. There were 18 palm trees scattered throughout the room. Only once did a tree get knocked over and it was caught before it hit anyone or toppled more. It was a prom-night miracle considering that all of our students are legally blind.

Beachballs and leis hung from the light fixtures above. And more beachballs were scattered on the floor, hiding the uplights. Ferns hid the set stands.

The surfboard out of foam was reversible to match moods and clothing: serious and sporty on one side, playful and floral on the other.

I made a second, reversible surfboard out of cardboard, which we could stand on, without fear of ruining it with our feet & weight.

I taped a cardboard pole between a tree and a set to hold up blue, tinsel streamers. The air vent on the wall behind it was blowing like crazy, so I needed to add hang turquoise fabric from the same pole, behind the tinsel. I taped the stand behind the foam wave to the floor so that it wouldn't be knocked over. I'm always happy when I can figure out last minute installation logistics, whether it be for this surfing photo booth, or how to string the beachballs and hang them from above in a seamless way.

Towards the end of the evening, my paraprofessional and I lit up some foam glow sticks and handed them out to students. Even students with no vision loved waving them around. I love how this picture shows the Cheshire Cat on the back of our tiki head from our Alice in Wonderland Prom two years ago.  I spent almost no money on prom decorations since almost all of it was made from discarded cardboard, hangers, and wall paper. I wish I could share pictures and videos of the students. Everyone had a great time!