Environment Lesson

On November 6^th 2012 Shannon and Sara taught their lesson on Environment. We received an e-mail from Shannon asking us to bring in five objects within our environment. At least one natural and one fabricated. We also were asked to bring in our cameras. I thought it was great that we got the chance to bring in our own objects. It made the project more personalized, and it was exciting (kind of like a show and tell). It encouraged the students to look around at what others brought in and interact with their peers. Shannon and Sara reviewed the slideshow of artist we had talked about earlier as well as some of the concepts we had learned.  I am very interested in the artist Andy Goldsworthy who creates earth art. I’m glad that during these lessons we are getting the chance to learn about contemporary artists. One thing I need to work on is gathering the names and artworks of artists who interest me; this will be extremely helpful in the future. The artist Banksy interests me; I like how he brings art to urban areas. I also enjoyed the artwork of Alexa Meade who used a contrast between the medium of paint and photography. Shannon and Sara discussed how a composition can be dynamic or it could be static. They both explained these concepts accurately and allowed students to add their input. We were asked to take photographs of both a dynamic and static composition. Shannon came around and asked me if my composition was static or dynamic and asked me why I thought so. I like that she was following up with students to check for understanding. The teacher examples were great! They looked very professional. Shannon and Sara seemed to cover all aspects of the lesson, and they showed different viewpoints of their topic.

Static

Dynamic

Gesture Lesson

November 2^nd 2012- Meagan and Amy taught their lesson on the theme of Gesture. There slideshow presentation showed the difference between the gestures of the young and old in photographs by the artist Nikki S. Lee. I liked that Meagan and Amy asked the class to show in gestures with our bodies what a young person looks like and what a young person looks like. This got the class involved and interacting. I also like the artwork with the hand gestures done by Avery Lucas this showed the class that emotion can be evoked through body language. The questions Meagan and Amy asked got the class involved. Students started talking about how the two hands together reached out look like someone asking for more, it is inviting compared to the other artwork. The other picture shows the hands squeezing the arms and moving away from the viewer, if the artwork could speak it might say “stay away”. These examples gave a variety of ways in which gesture could be used. This got the class ready to start our projects. Meagan and Amy gave a demo on how to use plaster and told the class they could use any body part we wanted. I worked in a group with Mikayla, Joe, and Taryn. We choose to plaster Mikayla’s nose.  We were a little confused by the goal of the project and didn’t think the body part was required to show a gesture, so our project in concept did not work. I think Meagan and Amy could have encouraged people to plaster their hands because that’s the most expressive body part. Their presentation as well as demo and class critique was very strong and the project was fun. I enjoyed using a material I had never worked with before. Great job guys! I thought  Amy was very enthusiastic and Meagan was inviting and engaged the class.

Theory and Practice

On October 30th 2012 my Theory and Practice class started theme-based lessons. Leah, Chris and Cameron were first to teach their lesson. Their theme was the Apocalypse, which I found to be a very exciting topic. I remember their images and I think the artwork with the mutant dog created an enthusiastic conversation and was a great intro to the theme of Apocalypse. The teacher’s samples were mutant creatures made out of clay and we were told our drawings would later be translated into clay. We were broken up into groups of three or four, and asked to collaborate with our classmates to create our own mutant. We were given four cards and we got to choose one from the pile, this was exciting  way to present the element of chance into the lesson it made the lesson like a game. The categories were arms, legs, body and head. I received the card for arms. From there we were asked to draw four drawings of our body part. I like this because it gave us options. Once we were done with our drawings we were asked to show our drawings to the group. We talked about which drawings worked the best and what kind of mutants we wanted to create from there. There were many drawings that looked robotic and others that looked more organic. Julia chose to create a plant creature with a human head. I decided to make a robot. I thought it was great that the teachers went around and asked if students thought they would have any difficulties when they were making their mutant in clay. Cameron was very helpful and he asked me if my robot would be able to stand? Then I noticed the legs were very thin and fragile, so I told him no it wouldn’t. He suggested I add a base to give my sculpture support, and that the base could reflect the environment the robot lives in. Cameron was very good at trouble shooting problems that students might have. The one thing I was a bit disappointed with was that we didn’t get to work with clay. There was extra time at the end and I think we could have started using clay and spend less time on the drawing part. During the critique of the teachers it was mentioned that the students could have worked with clay but I guess this is a drawback of going first. Groups that teach later have the advantage of learning from this.Overall I loved the lesson!