Last Entry for 2009

My Last Days:

I went to the Oak Hall School the last two weeks and observed the middle school class I worked with. They were working and finishing up a 3-D horizon line drawing. This week they were finishing, while others had a free period to do what they wanted artistically.

Yesterday and today I helped the AP student with his airbrushing and painting. He asked me if I could come in today and I said sure. His work is really coming along, but I feel that I need to spend more time at the school to help instead of being there for 3-5 hours a week. Next semester I will be spending much more time with the students. He will be working on some of the pieces over break, so I said he could take the airbrush if he wanted. I also showed him how to use a foam pad to get a similar look to airbrushing. I wish the best of luck to him painting over the break.

Today I also went into Ponz's class to watch his student paint with the paintball gun. The students had blast, no pun intended. I am planning to do something like this when I begin teaching. It is something that students could look forward to at the end of the year. A carrot on a stick, if you will. They had to paint a background first, shoot, then incorporate the paint splatters into the painting. O f course the boys did a military invasion type piece.

In Closing:

My experience at Oak Hall has really opened my eyes to a lot of different methods of teaching and projects as well. From the international student exchange and action art in Ponz's class, to the experimental nature of studio art found in Gary's. I have a lot to learn from the both of them and hope to find a good midpoint of method. I started observing and teaching a little in Ponz's and then moved to Gary's because of the 3D focus in his classes.

Gary and I both learned about the material and student capabilities when I taught the skeleton-figure project. The material was new to both of us and when I think back, it did work pretty well as long as the students stay on task. Most of the students were able to bend the wire quite well, while others needed some assistance. I am looking forward to more experiments like this. I would like to run through some materials, such as wet clay and found objects to see how students react in a good of negative way. Approaches, such as demos and "example showing" (showing a finished product) will be tried to find out how well they work.

The advantages I have seen over the last four months has varied between the two. The skeleton project used a mixture of demonstration and finished example exposure. It worked well, but some of the students used the same idea as the examples. I don't like the idea of students "copying" the ideas or examples given. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but I want the students to think hard about the theme or idea and make it a personal one. If I were to do just a demo, it would be somewhat more of a modeling approach where our work progressed through steps as a whole instead of seeing and copying and allowing for more of a discovery-based learning. I don't want to come off wrong, since I do believe that finished examples do help students understand what needs to be accomplshed, but they need to be general, un-embellished or personalized examples. Such as the skeletons showing different positions w/o the personalization of a ninja or cheerleader.

I have maintained a good rapport with all of the students and they respect my opinions and are not afraid to ask for my help. The students' names are all pretty much learned except for a few. The only trouble I found was to keep the middle school ladies form talking and carrying on. They gossip more than high school girls. The boys work the entire class period except for the occasional gabbing.

I will begin the semester moonlighting on January 5th and 7th subbing for Gary. I will be using his projects, but I will develop my own method of introduction and demonstration.

I have fit in very well and the students get excited when I arrive. They are always respectful and inquisitive. I am having a great time teaching these children as well as learning from them.

Week 12

This week I went in to the middle school class that I was working with. They were working on a painting project. Some of them were on their second or "extra" one. These students seemed to be totally focused on their work. Others that were lagging behind a little were the talkative type or a little distracted by those talking.

I worked with the high school student Travis on the airbrushing of his sculptures. he is getting the hang of using the brush and seems to understand the settings on the gun for the amount of paint. He readily adjusts it back and forth if needed. The fins have come a long way since we have been working together. A parent of former students came in to observe students working and to speak with Gary. The parent is a professional fisherman and really appreciated Travis' work. He said that it needed "more gore" as Gary had suggested as well. This is something that I could surely help with considering my professional background in special effects. Travis has many fins within his piece, not to mention the shark bodies as well, which we haven't gotten to yet. I am enjoying working on this project with him and I think he will achieve a good solid piece once it is finished.

Will have pictures in a few days to show.

Week 11

The middle school class started a new project this past week with Gary that went along with the found-objects show in the school's gallery. It is a project he likes to do every year and is very in expensive. The students build an architectural sculpture out of cheap hot glued-together plastic silverware. The need to build it at least 18" high and use different techniques, such as X-ing the pieces, fan shapes, pyramiding ,and building a solid substructure. After the base, the students can apply decorative forms out of the silverware throughout the structure and at the apex. They had a lot of fun building and had somewhat of a competition to build the highest or most elaborate. using the hot glue gun was a plus for the boys. This project went quickly (about a week or less since they have art every day). Would take longer at a public school when you only have art once or twice a week. this project would be a good precursor to a larger found objects project. The larger could be a cooperative effort with students bringing in or finding objects and working together to design and place the materials.

Tuesday and Thursday I also worked with a high school student that i have mentioned in previous posts. he is working with the over grazing of fisherman and especially the shark fisherman off the coast of Japan harvesting fins and throwing the rest of the fish out. I took in my airbrush and showed him techniques to get a nice blended appearance on his fired-clay shark fins. The mastery will take a while because it takes a lot of practice to understand the techniques. The student is doing well and has improved the patina on the fins dramatically. He is considering acquiring his own air-brush. he has a lot of pieces to work on, so this will be an on-going project that I look forward to assisting him in.

Week 10

The project got finished up this week.

The students had a renewed interest in the project once they started to embellish the skeleton figures with hair, cloth, and beads. During the painting sequence, the students started to get a little restless, but as soon as they started cutting cloth for the clothes and applying hair, they were very focused. I think that having many stages to a project keeps it new and exciting to them. Gary said that the students are more focused when they do a longer project since they are investing more time and want a good result. The timing of this project was unsure because of some scheduling issues due to assemblies the first couple of days. What I mean by timing is that we weren't too sure how long it would take the students to complete the sequences or the project as a whole.

I learned that the personal touches that students apply is probably one of the most engaging sequences of this project next to the actual sculpting/building. The students enjoyed the final embellishing sequence more because it reflected their interests and a part of themselves in the piece.

Week 9 Tues - Fri

Tuesday:

The students had to pick a persona for their skeleton. One student made an army soldier with a bazooka, while another student made Shakira. They had to bend the wire to fit the actions of their character before the clay was applied.

The students began putting on the DAS clay onto their armatures. The clay is somewhat dense, but was applied pretty well. I showed them on my example where to put the segments for the joints and the ribcage location. The material started to dry out toward the end of class so we put out some water dishes and a sprayer to keep them moist. The students didn't get finished modeling them.

Wednesday:

The students continued modeling their figures and adding details such as ribs and fingers. Most of the students seemed to work pretty well with the DAS clay, although some had some difficulty smoothing it out and balancing the figure because of figure form or clay weight. The main idea for today was to finish the figurative form and its details. The students finished so we left them uncovered to dry for the next day.

*For this project and for one similar, I don't think I would use this clay because it drys out too quickly for young artists. When it is drying out, it is hard to add more clay on top of it, so it has less chance of adhesion. This is a problem that I would rather not deal with especially with this age group because they get a little aggravated.

Thursday:

The students came in and began covering their projects with gesso. The gesso gave them a nice bright white appearance that the DAS didn't have. The DAS was a rather dull white. The gesso will also allow for other materials such as paint and glue stick a little better to the skeleton. This was a step that didn't take too long, but had to dry before the next step. The students finished applying the gesso and then we talked for the rest of the class. I asked one student what aspect of sculpture is different than 2D. He replied that "we get to see things for real and in 3D stuff".
I thought this was a good reply for a middle school student.

Friday

The students began painting the figures today. The students painted the bones on the body, if applicable because some were wearing clothes and some of the skeletons were girls. The bones were to be painted on very simply as the Mexicans do to their Day of the Dead sculptures. The students seemed to do very well painting on the bone lines and the skull features.

This project seemed as though it was challenging enough for them to keep their attention. they also had a lot of fun with the project as well becaus ethey all said that they enjoy sculpture and working with clay.

Week 8 and Monday 10/26

(10/22) I went in Thursday to try out the model magic over the wire armature. A few of the students were watching me learned a little from what I was doing. The model magic works well. I looked at it today and found that it is flexible to a point, but rips when bent too far. I left gaps in the material around the joints; this was a good idea that Gary had. I flexed them and it didn't rip the model magic. The students who were there were excited for next weeks lesson, which was today.

Today I went in prepared to do the sculpture lesson. Gary ended up getting some DAS air dry clay. The DAS had interesting tactile qualities because the texture was stiff, but it smoothed relatively well, but a lot better than the model magic, which could not be fully smoothed or blended when adding material. I think the DAS has some paper within the mixture because of the small fibers when torn apart.

The students came in and Gary introduced me and a little history about the Mexican celebration "Day of the Dead". I started by asking the students if they have done any figurative sculpture before. There were 3 hands raised out of the 17 students. The prepared wire pieces were handed out to the students. I showed them step by step where to bend the wire for the head and then twist down to the legs and stop. The next step was to wrap a piece of wire around the twisted torso area for the arms. the only problems we had was the lack of enough pliers and since the figures were smaller than my demo, the wire was harder for the students to bend. Aluminum would have been more ideal, but it is too expensive for a teacher's budget. Smaller steel wire may have worked out ok as well.

The school schedule was rearranged this morning for an assembly, so we didn't get them for the entire time. Tomorrow We will add the DAS clay to the armatures and staple them to wooden bases.

Overall the experience went well and the students were excited to be working with new material, but especially 3D material.

Week 7

I went in this week spoke with Gary about the lesson. We are going to postpone it until next week to coincide with the "Day of the Dead" holiday. The project has evolved many times since the initial idea. The students will be creating a wire armature and then use an air dry material such as Model Magic or something similar. They will be modeled after the Day of the Dead skeletons. The students don't get to do too many sculptural projects outside of water clay.

I had my trailer sculpture in the car and Gary wanted me to set it out for students to view it. It was nice having a discussion with the high school students about my work and my intentions. One student, creator of the fish and shark pieces, is wanting some help to "gore up", as Gary says by airbrushing and possibly finding other materials to create a better effect or power for his piece. I look forward to working with him because I love airbrushing and have yet to have the opportunity to teach it to someone.

Next week we will begin the sculpture lesson. I will record what aspects of the introduction works and what doesn't.