as your art teacher, i strongly advise you to...

who are we art teachers kidding? really? there is a fine line between teaching a student and simply telling them what to do. it's a struggle. how do you really teach a student art?

i have been teaching these after school art classes for almost a year now. and sadly, i fear that the school's main focus is simply telling them what to do. i feel that i break the rules when i allow my students to "stray" from the exercise without proper "guidance".

but then i would miss out on amazing pieces like this...

we were working on valentine hearts by collaging paper and then painting the hearts over the collage. she couldn't visualize the end product. instead, she saw this.

WHA???? this is great stuff! she's a highly creative student and this imagery comes to her naturally. she's in elementary school and she is fully capable of creating implied textures, showing proper proportion, foreshortening, detail, and more. she just doesn't know how to articulate all that. she hasn't heard of balance, texture, color theory, realism, dadaism... she just does...

it's pretty fantastic... and definitely inspiring...

...soundtrack...

every artist needs a good soundtrack. not some dinky playlist you can throw together by hitting shuffle on your itunes. i mean a real soundtrack.

well...in my case it would be a sound collection, preferably vinyl...

so here's a future collection list. maybe i can start collecting these again. great stuff to listen to while you create.

• "nebraksa" from the boss
• "born to run" also from the boss
• every radiohead album ever made
• "ten", "vs", "vitalogy", "no code", and "yeild" from pearl jam
• "stop making sense" talking heads
• "purple rain" prince
• "thriller" michael jackson...of course
• "pet sounds" the beach boys
• "songs in the key of life" stevie wonder
• "blue" joni mitchell
• "grace" jeff buckley
• "melancholy and the infinite sadness", "gish", "siamese dream" smashing pumpkins
• "moondance" van morrison...man that's a great album!
• "harvest moon" and "after the gold rush" neil young
• "diva" from annie lennox with the accompanying eurythmics albums!
• "heartbreaker", "gold", "demolition" and "easy tiger" ryan adams
• "come away with me" norah jones
• pretty much every beatle album
• "blonde on blonde" and "highway 61 revisited" from bob dylan
• "mezzanine" and "blue lines" from massive attack
• "the velvet underground and nico" from the velvet underground
• ...and on that note...some lou reed. "berlin"
• "at folsom prison" johnny cash
• "superunknown" soundgarden
• "trust no one" dave navarro
• "blood sugar sex magik" ad "one hot minute" rhcp
• any miles and coltrane
• "horses" patti smith
• simon and garfunkel...and "graceland" from paul simon

that's probably a good start...

oh boy...i'm gonna need to sell WAY more art work to afford this collection...

just in time for valentine's day...

i remember as a child learning about the true meaning of valentine's day. it all started with a saint, saint valentine. according to the catholic faith, st. valentine was a priest during the roman era. he was martyred for marrying christian couples. he was stoned, beatened, and eventually beheaded. graphic stuff for an elementary kid. maybe this is why we just focus on hearts in art class!

for class this past wednesday, my students at griffin elementary made some pretty spectacular valentine hearts in the style of jim dine. i think they turned out pretty good! we used white lace decorative paper to create texture on the heart. the background was created by making a collage from water color paper and painting it with acrylic in a very free manner. the students were instructed not to mix their paint on their palettes. instead, they created swirls and funky colors by mixing on the actual art work. pretty impressive for 5-8 year olds!
 

goals!

after a few conversations, i have decided on some achievable goals for myself. as an artist, i have goals; and as a person i have goals. i guess i should just list them by category...

as an artist:

• i will photograph everyday
• i will complete one painting or a painting series every week
• i will start sketching again and putting ideas down on paper!
• i will actually use my pastels that i have been collecting

as a person:

• i will learn to use what i have
• i will plant a potted garden this spring! i'm already salivating thinking about sweet potatoes, bell peppers, and zucchini!
• i will brush my teeth twice a day and floss at least once! ha ha! 

i suppose working at zumiez has rubbed off on me a bit. i keep thinking of plans and goals; how to implement them; how to measure them. and i believe this is a good thing. it just seems better to use it in real life, not in the retail environment. i honestly don't care about $100 sales. i do care about about bettering myself. 

...itching to work...

recently, i had to travel up to the petco in seattle to drop off some supplies for the northern instructors. i decided to kill some time by going to the ac art supply shop on the same block. that place is HUGE!

i grabbed a couple tubs of golden acrylic medium to get some inspiration. i got fiber paste and heavy gel medium in matte. i'm not much of a glossy kind of gal.

the fiber paste looks like loads of fun! i am planning on using it for pastel works on canvas instead of a ground medium. it will be a bit of an experiment. i may even try using neutral colors mixed with the paste to create a nice primer for the canvas. i am really getting into the idea of urban cityscapes...especially at night.

i have used the heavy gel before on a few art pieces. i think i am going to go for 3-D, using the medium more as a glue to hold different natural objects to the canvas. looks like it's time for a few nature hikes and beach walks.