BOOOOOOOKS!

A Book
There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away, Nor any coursers like a page Of prancing poetry. This traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of toll; How frugal is the chariot That bears a human soul! Emily Dickinson

We started the last class with Aileen passing around a few books that had been printed online.  This really expanded my ideas on "homemade books".  And I am really excited for Christmas this year as I plan on using one of the online sources for a few gifts... Hopefully the people receiving these gifts are as excited as me!  (or they might have a bummer of a holiday :)

She recommended Lulu and Blurb as a couple of good online publishing places.

And we discussed some uses for them in the classroom:

• you can create documentation of student work in an end of the year book, 
• or one themed idea into a book...like "3rd grade Falls into Autumn" book.  
• Parents can order it directly online or you could use it for fundraising for other classroom needs.  (i.e. class trips or special supplies).
• Its also smart to document your teaching portfolio.  Printing one book a year, will be a great reference for yourself as well as for future career moves.  I plan on doing this!

We then looked at a few published books which were creatively organized (like this one):

It really opened my eyes to the limitless ways you can expand on book making. Seriously, you could spend an entire semester working with this theme and apply it to a variety of age groups.

A book called Eco Books was passed around which is a great reference for green recycled materials book ideas.

Another good idea besides the technique we are using for book covers is taking an old folder and transforming it with paper mache.

We also looked at home-made paper which Aileen had made and Alessandra shared some of her original  paper as well. They were beautiful!

Aileen's paper

Alexandra's paper

Its a pretty simple process.  Basically, shred paper and add water.  Blend in a blender and smoosh "pulp" onto a screen, where you can flatten and dry.  Easy, cheap, and fun with beautiful results!

check out this how to video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlX87tvei7c

We then went on to begin our graphic novels.  It was nice to have work time and to be able to discuss and bounce ideas off my classmates.  Although this graphic novel assignment is limited to pencil or black ink/sharpies..Romina and Sarah suggested for the future (sense I'm really into photographic collage at the moment) to use a marker called a white blender prisma, or winter green oil, which can be used to transfer xeroxed pictures onto other surfaces by placing the printed paper faced down on the other surface and rubbing the prisma or oil on the other side.  Super excited to try this technique!!

Finally, Here are my sketches from last week:

I went upstate and found these old classic prints at an antique shop.  So I cut them up and collaged them into a couple of recent photos that I took.

Bah Bah Black Sheep

This week we went through the rough drafts of our creative alphabets as a class. Before hand, Aileen handed out forms in order for us to decide together the grading perimeters of the assignment.  Although grading is a bummer...it is required. :(

Here is an example of the form we filled out and used as a guide:

What I liked, and plan to use, is that we decided together what the requirements should be.  There was dialogue, which makes the grading fair along with everyone being clear on what the expectations are.

The key proponents we chose for grading were:

• 4 letters created by the artist, mixed with the collaboration of letters made by peers.
• Title and credit page.
• Images are cropped and aligned proportionately on the screen.
• Color is correct and vibrant

Again during crit, there was a note keeper, time keeper, and crit leader.  And here we are doin' what we do:

After getting feedback, I realized some of my images needed to be corrected.  I also got some suggestions on the music I am using for the slideshow.  After experimenting, this is my final alphabet primer aka creative alphabet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Kds5HRReE

We then moved on to our books which is dealing with the theme of contemporary ruins and attempted to finish our covers.

The next step was to glue the card stock onto the wax resisted painted packing paper, and insert our folded white paper pages into the covers.  Sarah taught me a great technique for having the accordion paper line up crisply.  First, you fold the paper in half and then make folds on either side, as opposed to folding over from one end (If that makes any sense!)  Thanks Sarah!

As we continued along, Aileen stopped the group.  She said, sometimes you must regroup, get everyone back on the same page before students start getting ahead and possibly making mistakes.  I couldn't help but think of us kind of being like lost sheep, and she the shepherd making sure we don't wander off a cliff...to die...or glue our covers down incorrectly (maybe not that morbid)  Since one of her great childhood friends is now a shepherd in Scotland,  I think she may enjoy the analogy :)

The shepherd with her lost lamb, Jake :)

On a side note, this week while observing for my fieldwork class, I stumbled across this display in the hallway, made by the students of a Pratt Alum, Shervone Neckles at Brooklyn Prep, in Williamsburg.  I think it fits perfectly with our theme of contemporary ruins.

 

And Finally, here are my sketches from this week.  Really loving silhouettes!

Shhhhhh.....

Herb Kohl said: "Always be on the side of the learner."  

After Critique, Aileen listed some observations.

• It takes a lot of care and practice to critique student work. Be careful not to say everything is great, rather continue moving students in the right direction.  You can do a lot of damage if you are not careful.
• You must have conversation with a purpose. You are attempting to help someone become a better artist.  Sometimes asking a provocative question can aide in this.
• There must be a language shift. Maybe start with common words, but bring dialogue to a professional level.
• Find connections with other artists.
• Listen.  Listening to students speak about their work can bring great insight to who they are as artists.  "Teachers like to talk, and sometimes we need to listen"-Aileen

So during the critique of our letters, that is exactly what she did.  Here are some photos during crit.

Sarah's painted hand W-O-R-D projected

I was really impressed by my classmates work!  The materials used varied from food to feathers, painted hands to alginate molds of hands,  and everything in between.  Here is some of what they did...

Lucinda's N

Lucinda made an N using orange peals, but she coooooould lie and say Nectarine peals :)...or Naranja peals in spanish.  The blue painters tape background really made it pop!

Adnan made his G out of hair...G for gross or grodey!  But I loved it!

Adnan's G

And I also really loved Romina's U.  It was very warm, clean, and simple.  The repetition of the braid and color choices reminded me a lot of Eva Hesse's work.

Romina's U

Here is my rough draft of the animated alphabet: Missing F and L...who has those??
(The letters I made are in my previous blog post).

We then moved on to our next project with books and continued on the creation of our book covers.

We are making graphic novels with a theme of contemporary ruins and disappearing places. (spooky!)

In fact, many artists have dealt with this concept.

Christoph Buchel. 

the Chapman brothers

 and Felix Schram

to name a few.

Also a movie called The Road:

                                                                                   

And here are my sketches from last week.

Animated Alphabet Letters

We each were assigned letters to create using different mediums.  Mine were A, X, P, and Z.

1 sewn:

pink, poka-dotted panty P :)

1 printed collage:

Advertising A

1 found image:

X marks the spot where puppies pee (fire hydrant)

and 1 material of our choice:

zzz sleepytime arms in bed

New clearer version of Z:

These are mine.   And now we will collaborate to create slideshows.

Keep Chuggin along...

As the semester continues along, Aileen has responded to classroom dynamics and interest in a conscious way.  "Sometimes the more casual a classroom seems, the more thought out it actually is," she said last class, and this has stuck with me through the week.  Although, this may make some students anxious, their are reasons for a responsive/ emergent curriculum that make a lot of sense. 

For example, our sketchpad crit, went longer then I know Aileen had planned on Tuesday night. And this is because, many students felt that they wanted a bit more time for feedback.  So she went with the energy of the class and we spent a substantial amount of time critiquing our peers. 




During my critique, William Wegman, and his work he did with manipulaing photographs was brought up by Sarah.  I always loved his work with his dogs, (Even though I know some don't agree), and had never seen this other side of his work.


Here are my drawings from last week.

And here are some of WW's sketches that were discussed.  I love them.

A few other points, brought up in crit that I found interesting were:

• Kids curating.  This could be done in soooo many exciting ways, but the example given was by assigning a project that involved children collecting small objects for 2 weeks or so, and then discussing ways for them to display these pieces.  Which could broaden a discussion/ lesson on found objects and art.
• Framing Areas.  In Jake's sketches this week, he had a small black square cut, framing one part of his drawing.  It made the drawing seem very narrative. By zooming in, it created a loose story for the viewer to follow.  This could be assigned with children as at art and literacy component.



Jake's sketch.

• Aaaand, Mark Making.  My friend Clare's sketches were interesting to many of us because of the marks she used to create the drawing, and less about what she physically drew, i.e. a bird, cat, or tree.  This brought up an assignment that Sarah was once given about creating a drawing using 1000 marks, which I would love to assign with students one day, but maybe a smaller amount of marks would be more attainable for a younger group.  This could be assigned with children as an art and mathematics component.

Mark Making segwayed into a discussion about Lauren Tickle who while studying abroad discovered her love for drawing circles.  You can check out her work at her website: http://www.laurentickle.com/ 




We also started on our next project of making books.  

Aileen's books

Without letting on too much Aileen had us create the covers using thick card stock and either brown packing paper or construction paper. We set up around the classroom and found interesting textures using wax resist. She gave us each a simple white candle that we rubbed on our paper over different surfaces. The wax resist was cool because it has an element of surprise that is fun :). And expanding on this with my own students, I could see an art and nature component of going out side and doing rubbings on trees and rocks/ grass or leaves.


Here are some pics of the process:

what I did the rubbing on.

my book cover so far.

Really excited to continue with this project :)