Week 8 Responses

To David-

This sculpture reminds me so much of Red Groom's work. The sculpture has a serious expression that contrasts with the humorous and exaggerated rendering. I would want to see an installation based on this piece. Is fishing time your protected thinking time in the outdoors? My interpretation of you from this piece is that you are a person of patience. You enjoy the process as much as the product. You are self-sufficient and can find value in basic living activities. You can find your way into nature and are comfortable in such non-fabricated environments. You are hands on and like to do the work yourself. You see yourself with a dose of humor.


To Katie-

I love the light humor, sense of movement, and playful overtones of your self-portrait. I also connect with how you have applied brushstrokes to your arms and legs in the painting. It appears that you are a process oriented person? It brings up personal connections that I have with art making and teaching. I love the process and often wear the supplies. It also noticed that you have intentionally let the "hand of the artist" be evident and become the building blocks of your self-portrait.

Creative Process - Visual

2 pieces poster board cut 12"x18" each, pencil, Sharpie

Olivia Gude's article talks about creative processes in regards to external (teacher generated) stimuli. The student is asked to accept the task and make it his/her own. I have completed the self-portrait assignment in response to this view of creative process.

For me, external stimuli can be teacher generated assignments and work projects for school committees. This process I use to get these works done is more linear and predictable. To complete this project,  I engaged in my usual hem-hawing and feet dragging. I reflected informally for about a week to slowly build the project up in my mind. I beat myself up for not sitting down and starting a week early. I cleaned the house. I set my nest to make it comfortable for working. I remained indecisive about what media to choose. I finally started work on a day my husband was out of town and my daughter was busy with homework.

I chose to mimic Rube Goldberg and his simple machines for this assignment - since I tend to take a simple problem and go the long way about solving it. The comic reads right to left, but the conclusion is on the left, where the viewer may start.  I often  feel that I have to knock myself on my head to get work done. The creative product comes as a result of kicking myself into gear.

The story for the illustration is as follows. I have distracted myself by cleaning until every surface shines. The rising sun glares of the surfaces into my husbands eyes and causes him to slip on notes I have organized on the kitchen floor. The papers go air born, and my (favorite) cat reaches for one, knocking over my stacked (mental) blocks. A toppling mental block lands in a basket attached to a pulley that closes the door to my work space. The door slamming causes my dog to bark - he doesn't like closed doors. My daughter's rather heavy cat is startled and jumps. The scale she was resting on lowers and the prop hand turns on my coffee pot. The vapor that escapes from the top of the coffee pot causes a toy hot air balloon to rise. The balloon is attached to a boot by a belt on a wheel and axle. As the balloon rises, the boot kicks my head. The kick would cause the pail of paint to spill onto the large pad of drawing paper, creating a spontaneous artwork.

The coffee pot, the robe I am wearing, the first cat, and the solitude are my comforts when I am working. 

My aha moment came when I was journaling in my notebook last week. I was thinking about the differences between projects that I am intrinsically motivated to do, verses ones that get completed due to external motivation. I realized I have two distinct creative processes. The idea isn't entirely novel. When I do creativity training with my students, we brain dump and do forced connections to get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes it is hard to be creative on the spot - I can't expect my students to walk into my room and spontaneously be creative in a forced setting with 27 other students present. But I never considered how environments and motivations can affect the creative process behaviors in one person.

The process above is not the one I engage in to do my classroom teaching. I still have the freedom to teach what I personally find of value. And I know very well that if I don't appear intrinsically motivated that my students will not get motivated or see value in the project. I do in depth lessons most of the time, and I ask a commitment of my students. The creative process I use for my teaching craft more closely mimics the own for my personal creative problem solving.

Creative process V. 1

How do you create? What does that process look like? How does the creative process we follow in our own lives, echo within our teaching styles? How are these processes the same? What can we learn about our teaching from this?

I have two creative processes. One creative process is spontaneous (internal).  The internal creative process has a genesis in an idea that comes to me. It is a sudden idea that feels right. Sometimes it is just a humorous idea that floats in my head for a while, evolving over time. In fact, the ideas are overarching themes I can play with for years. Idea development for me takes a long time and isn't often a linear path.  My elaborations take on the format of a story or a myth. Most of the work happens in my head, and I have no problem visualizing a products. I love the feeling of elation I have when I get a new idea. I love the process of creating concepts. The source material for my personal ideas comes from my own developmental experiences. The are expressed in my two favorite mediums, drawing or photography. Anxiety during this process comes from the itchy feeling of not getting the work done.

The second creative process is forced (response to external problems or projects gifted from others). When solving external problems, I have a more drawn out, anxiety filled, feet dragging ritual. If the resolution isn't readily visualized, I push the problem to the back of my mind and think about it from time to time. Ideas cycle through and bubble up. I feel guilty because I haven't sat down to work on the project. This feeds into the anxiety and I often engage is distractions, like cleaning until the deadline is upon me. It is only when it is about to be too late that I accept the project and get to work. I have ritualistic preparations, such as cleaning, brewing coffee, and setting up pillows in my work space. When I finally sit down to formally problem solve, I start with notes and other graphic organizational tools. I experience frustration and anxiety, and let my ideas glide on auto pilot for a day or two more. When I come up with a resolution, I experience relief, but I still mentally go wish-washy as I begin the project. I choose my medium after an academic consideration of materials. As work completes and I can visualize the final product, my confidence grows. I cannot leave these types of projects unfinished. When the work is done and I have shown it off, the work is often put in a closet.

My preferred teaching style most closely resembles the internal creative process. I love working with ideas that I am excited about sharing with the kids.  When I asked to teach something (like math) just because a math specialist said, "do this in art," I do not exude passionate involvement with the subject matter. The students can sense a rat. I suppose this is even more true for students, whose most creative problems have been handed to them. If they don't see the value in it, or see a resolution to the problem, they might turn their brains off to disengage from the frustration and anxiety.

Week 7 Responses

To Karen:

I wonder how many students give up on art simply because the classroom/studio environment just isn't comfortabl
\e or conducive to their best work?

I really like your last question. I would like to add to it.

How many students give up on art because their home environment isn't conducive to their best work?

We are lucky because we have at least one "safe" spot. I know some students of mine take what they learn in class and work with the ideas at home and bring it back to show off. Conversely, I also have had a few students who just don't try. Or if they do try, throw away their work as soon as it is time to take it home. Last year, I talked to a classroom teacher about one such fifth grade boy. He had done such good work, but then chucked it into the trash bin on the last day. The grade level teacher said that the parents would throw away the work at home. She observed the same behavior from him in her class.
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To Adair:

Hey Adair -

I love your Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sculptures! I am just tying up a literature unit about the book with a group of kids. How did you make your sculptures?

One place to start looking to help you with the resistant boys is literature about the 'creativity slump in adolescent boys.'

Also, have you tried validating their thoughts about art? They might just be looking for a cultural power struggle. For example, when the one eighth grader says something like "That guy has too much time on his hands," you could just calmly repeat his statement, then calmly ask him what he sees to make him say that. The student may get a few laughs from his peers, but over time, if you give him the same impartial answer and a chance to explain himself, it may neutralize him.

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To Sheryl-

I totally identify with your statement!

" For many years I have joked that I prefer the acquisition of art making supplies to the actual process of making art. That being said, I would like to say that time inhibits my creative development, in all actuality, I think it’s more a matter of discipline. I have no problem being creative, and dream-up, at least in my mind, wonderful ideas. Seeing the ideas become reality requires focus and commitment. "

What do your kitchen cabinets look like? Half of my cabinets are filled with art supplies! In my bedroom I have two big bookshelves overflowing with books and kits. I affectionately call it my "When I break my leg" collection. When do you work best, day or night? I am an early morning or late night person, but late night work affects me the next day. I can work to 3 or 4 am without caffeine if I am in the zone.

By looking at your blog posts and work, you seem to be self-actualized in your work as an artist. I have let myself go over the past 5 years, and enroll in online classes to give myself the external motivation to get stuff done.

What is one of your ideas that you haven't followed through on yet? Mine is a high end collection of house robes. I kid you not, I even have a very cheeky photography campaign to accompany my robes.

If you want to start a middle aged art renegade movement.....

Week 7: R&R

Summary: In a nutshell, Olivia Gude is suggesting the way we teach  may not inherently foster creative development. External forces upon students such as rubrics, critiques, peer pressure, and societal influences can combine to dampen creative expression. What we as educators need to do is encourage creative behaviors in our students. We can do this by encouraging acceptance of anxiety and discomfort during ideation, providing a psychologically safe environment free from external evaluational, and being empathetic by meeting students where they are at. Characteristics of creative people (C.R. Rogers) such as the ability to play, openness to experience, and having an inner locus of evaluation can be enhanced in safe classrooms that emphasize the importance of creative exploration over the structured standards and assessments. 

1. Where /when do you notice “discomfort” when you are teaching? Please illustrate with a teaching example. What do you think accounts for the discomfort?

Right now my third, fourth, and fifth graders are finishing up open ended projects that celebrate our school's 25th anniversary. I started the year explicitly teaching creativity training.  I did not want to look at 250 compositions using our school's mascot - the dolphin. In fact, I forbade use of the dolphin. Most students were eager to begin the culminating project. However, I have about a dozen students with whom I really had to hold their hand to chose a final project and start working.  With the grade level I teach, I noticed that these students share some common qualities: low self-efficacy, inability to trust their own choices, learned helplessness (pointing to underachievement), and a lack of a close relationship with the art teacher. Most students I can play around and joke with. These students I seem to maintain a distant relationship with.

2. What (if anything) inhibits your creative development?

 For me, personally, I have to have solitude. Before I hurt my back, I went for weekend hikes so I could have time to think. So, having anyone around when I am warming the egg is a deal breaker. 

 I also don't like to feel judged. At almost 40, I am still touchy feely when my ideas are in the incubation phase.  If I am at home, I snarl and lock my door to keep others away.

Conversely, not having an audience of peers at the end can be a downer.

Too much freedom also prevents me from creative production. If I don't have my own problem to solve, I will look for structured environments (such as graduate classes) to keep the brain juices flowing.

Week 6 Response: Sheryl

Can you spin on how celebration builds community, and talk a little bit what community is? Also, to give the wigglers some release, can you begin the class with a celebratory dance of some sort?

Are these students fifth graders, perchance :) ?

Week 6 Response: Gina

Do you have time to add another step, one that helps with the visualization? You have spoken before about using visual strategies in their journals. The students will respond more to something they have an emotional connection to. Could you ask them to describe a scene or character they saw in their head and compare contrast how the scene or character was portrayed in the movie? Then maybe have them write to the director using the analysis to make a persuasive writing about what was done well or what they considered a down fall.