For our final book we are taking a wacky, fun filled detour into the educational style based on the teachings of a nun. Enjoy and remember what it was like to teach art before any state mandated tests or the emphasis on STEAM. If you have not figured it by now I teach like someone who plays the accordion, fully extended or open and then closed in or intimate.
I am interested in your take on this book. It was a surprise for me and I know of no one who has used it so I really do need your feedback.
Enjoying the week off and keep working on your final project.
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Melissa Hidalgo - My Love, Our Public Lands
This first semester of the MAE program has been inspiring due to the readings we have had. These readings have felt personal and heartfelt....
Of all the texts I’ve encountered during the MAE program, I believe Learning by Heart is my favorite. I have highlighted more quotes and morsels of insight in the first half than I can recall. I love the straightforward language, down to business pace and the juxtaposition of philosophy, life lessons and practical application. I have found several connections to my own thoughts and outlook and creativity and artistic practice. This will definitely be a source of insight for my own capstone research. All that being said, I was at first skeptical. The forward address and personal background of the authors did not pull me in right away. However, in the biography section, a reference to immersing “students in flow” struck a cord with me. I have been struggling to find ways to better incorporate the use of a flow state with my students. Later, in the Sources section, the author is discussing the merits of drawing a Shiva and an old ink bottle. The statue is drenched in intellectual and inherent aesthetic value, while the grimy bottle is seemingly uninspired and picturesque at best. Then in one bold statement the author sets a challenge stating, “The content of the object will not determine the success of my work.” This statement caught me off guard, because it is very similar to the thoughts that have been circling though my head the last couple of years. At that point, I knew that this book would be a valuable source of research and knowledge for me.
ReplyDeleteI too highlighted the part about the ink bottle and Shiva. Because copyright is such a big issue in AP now, it was a breathe of fresh air to see the statement, “Working from a source is not the same thing as copying. The work is yours only-drawn from your experience and colored by your perceptions….The source frees us to depart from something rather than from nothing or everything.” Sometime my students and I feel the “scary idea” she discusses when coming up with a completely new and different concept and art form. The reminder of using familiar objects from everyday life, similar to the ink bottle or a shell, then researching through art history and history books for direction was heartening.
DeleteJames, I think the biography was pretty interesting. I looked up the website and I watch couples of videos about her. She, as a person, seemed a really unique character.
DeleteI also liked her approach to spirituality. That she thought of spirituality as something broad and universal, not limited in a particular religion.
I am so glad. I too find this book on my list of favorites and one that brings a smile to my face whenever I pick it up.
ReplyDeleteI tore through the first part of the book. Each page made me curious what would come next. I had to make myself stop and hold off one reading the rest. I can’t wait to find what’s next.
DeleteI regret getting this book on the kindle app. I want to flip through it and share it a little easier than digitally. I appreciate the fact Carita wanted the book to be black and white to make it affordable and her law that the work photographed is anonymous folk. I wish I could have met her because she seems smart, humble, kind, but believed in “killer assignments.” Student who participated in her art classes expressed how she changed or saved their lives.
ReplyDeleteHer quote on page 161 about creativity and the responsibility of an artist I would like to post on my walls. How art is not separate from life, and how the energy in the creative process uplifts, unifies, and harmonizes all of us, but to prove work pays off. “If the job is done well, the work of art gives us an experience of wholeness called ecstasy...”
I am teaching an advanced photography class this year. Daily the photography students are asked to complete assignments while wandering the campus. Like Corita’s students, they have a small viewfinder and must find interesting principles and elements of design and subject. Recently, when they said they have exhausted the area, I have reviewed Corita’s assignment on “Pretend you are a Microscope.” We discuss how art can be found in cracked cement. Such a valuable tool to observe the unobserved. As well as using other quotes and assignments in the book, the first one will use is her contour drawing assignment. The enjoyment of drawing contour drawing, based on other contour drawings, and seeing how each drawing takes on a life of its own, sounds very appealing.
After teaching at the same school for 22 years, I also appreciate the part on tradition as structure, how tradition guides and acts as restraint, and how tradition arises from accumulated information. There are some policies at our school, I see come and go and others I have a strong opinion, mostly from tradition, think they should stay or be considered thoroughly.
Paige, I liked what you said "How art is not separate from life." I agree with you. This was an underlying idea in the book. I think that is powerful, particularly when we think that everyone can make art, and creativity is not only for some.
DeleteI think as teachers, it is very important for us to relate art to student's everyday lives in different ways.
When I first started teaching, I never really thought about my students point of view in relation to the projects we did. It sounds absurd to write this, but I know it is actually true. I worked under the mantra t hat if I developed meaningful and relevant lessons (relating to art concepts and skill building) that I was giving them what they needed to develop into competent artists. Although I still see the seedling of logic in that outlook, I now know that such an approach is not enough. I have worked diligently to retune my curriculum, in order to better challenge my student’s self reflection and incorporation of creativity into their everyday perspective. I am still navigating this path and agree with Corita’s wisdom regarding every student being able to create and incorporate art into their lives. It’s inspirational to hear how her students have used both the skills and philosophies that she taught to better their lives, whether they went on to be working artist or not.
DeleteI am glad you like the book ..I wanted to end the semester on a positive note with great examples of the beauty of creativity without all the pressure of state evaluations.
DeletePaige, I also really would like a hard copy of the book. Navigating digital is fine, but in a work situation I still prefer a physical media. It may be just as simple as the tactile connection of hand to spine and finger to page. This is definitely a book that I wouldn’t mind buying twice.
ReplyDeleteThe process of doing drawings based on drawings was really very intriguing to me. It seems to both help focus in on details and somewhat distance the artist from the subject matter, which could allow a more faithful rendering. It reminds me of some of the exercises in Arthur W. Dow’s book Composition. It stress variation and experimentation to help artist both develop skills and a creative, visual vocabulary. This book is written in a much warmer voice though.
I looked up Arthur W Dow's book on Composition. I found a pdf version of the book. I like the factual practice and easy guide book for teaching. It is a nice, basic, and simple to understand theory for art education. Thank you for the suggestion.
DeleteYou are very welcome. I learned of Dow through his influence on O'keeffe. I knew that if she appreciated his teaching, I mostly likely would too.
DeleteAs a teacher, teaching art has never been merely teaching art. Being a teacher for me has been like being an activist. Has been a tool to make a change in this world (at least to try ). This may sound very ambitious, or dreamlike, but I always have had a strong desire for change and participating in making positive changes. Changes that are good for everyone, for humanity and not for a group of people, or nation.
ReplyDeleteI felt connected to this book and Corita’s world, for having a similar approach. In this regard, I found this book and the Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and An Architecture of Decency to have many common grounds: in both teaching is a tool for changing.
As you may have noticed, I could sometimes be pessimistic that I have the power to make a change through my art or teaching. However, reading these books and the short discussion with Professor Future Akins made me more determined that this dream or desire is possible. We as teachers and artists should move for it no matter what obstacles we face…
Something very particular about this book, for me, was that for Corita art belongs to everyone. It seems that for her art means creating, and everyone can make. The process of creating and making art is then a metaphor for building or making a new world that is filled with peace and love. Therefore, everyone can make art and thus everyone can make a change. I think this was an excellent point I learned from this inspiring book.
Interesting the Balinese culture doesn’t have a word for the noun art, but is an “active verb: to dance, to sing, to paint, to play...To work, play, see, touch, laugh, cry, build, and use it all-even with the painful parts, and survive with style: that is what Corita taught.” Exerting her students to head down unfamiliar roads, in hopes of new experiences, new questions, and new answers. I agree Niloofar, Corita shows us everyone can inspire change and make change through art.
DeleteThat’s true Paige. You just remined me a great point in Corita’s teaching. That is to ask new questions. I think that questioning is important, and it is the beginning of change. Asking question is the first step that one take to challenge the existing beliefs, thoughts, etc. and to search for something different. I think that we as teachers, may not be able to answer many questions, but we can make our students to question.
DeleteI agree. I love what one radical nun can do with heart.
DeleteI think all of us go into teaching with a desire to affect positive change. It can be hard to figure out, especially with such competitive and rigid teaching models, how best to do that. I wish more people would write about their teaching theories and experiences, and what did and didn't work for them, like the authors have done here. If general academia were a more open model, and moved away from test scores and results and judging by how much is produced how fast, and back to a real focus on the learning rather than the results--I feel like we may have a much better world for learning in.
DeleteIt's too bad IHC closed, and it leads me to wonder if it was because it was different, and couldn't keep up with the insane rigidity of modern college culture. We have this template for what we think university and college education should be, and schools that don't meet that template may not do as well with enrollment. I wonder if that will turn around more as the foundation of post-secondary education continues to shift.
Sometimes it is hard to maintain passion and it is even harder to train or transfer passion to the a new group of leaders.
DeleteThis is a wonderful book and I cannot say how much I appreciate having it as a reading. In a way, I feel like this is an answer to something I have been constantly trying to do in the past couple of years, but without being fully aware of what I am searching for or want to achieve (photographing the shadows on the walls of different houses I lived in, many photographs taken of just a few trees, in different days, focusing on a series of details, series of birds on wires, photographs of cracks on old walls etc.). This book helps me to create a sort of frame for my random exercises of observation, in a way that makes creativity a truly purposeful quest. What I like about the assignments proposed by Corita is not necessarily their simplicity, although keeping things simple and straightforward is a key here, but especially their large applicability. You can take them as they are or you can play with them, transform them, and eventually bring them closer to your personal or educational purposes. I also like that their accomplishment is often meant to induce a state close to meditation, which I think is so important in this agitated, fragmented, and busy world we live in. Watching shadows on the same wall for several days in a row seems almost a luxury today. Most of us spend so much time doing things that seem important and urgent, wasting a tremendous amount of energy and wasting ourselves, without questioning what is imposed upon ourselves or trying more meaningful alternatives. The kind of actions Corita proposes, like staying focused on a simple task, having patience, opening your senses to fully observation, training yourself to see what at a normal pace remains obscured, seem to me ways of discovering and reconnecting with yourself and with the world around you. And without any doubt, it is also something worth of being passed along to future generations. As a matter of fact, another thing that this first part of the book made me think of, was how important good teaching models actually are. Corita was influenced by her “real teacher”, Charles Eames, whose teaching went beyond his time and continued to be alive in her own work, while Corita’ s students and their successors are carrying forward her vision. It really speaks about the kind of difference a good teacher can make in the world.
ReplyDeleteAmericans, among other Western cultures, are beginning to fall victim to a workaholic culture that rewards the all-work-no-play attitude and slowly kills its participants. It occurred to me today that when people stop socializing or making time for friends and family because they are "just too busy with work" it's no wonder anxiety and depression are at epidemic rates in western society. I wonder if we're doing the right thing, putting students in a pressure cooker so young and never letting them out? What if education did emphasize slowing down and looking, as is described in this book, and appreciating the small, immaterial things in life, rather than focusing so much on an invisible and unbeatable rat race?
DeleteI think you presented the secret beautifully. Keeping something simply does not mean it is easy. Allowing for variations and celebrating the successes along with the mis-steps.
DeleteThe thing I liked most about this book is its accepting, free-flowing nature and the reminder to me of what art was about when I was a kid in grade school. It was a bits sad even, since I've been steeped in the dogma of art school for almost a decade. Everything has to mean something, and something has to mean everything. I gave my lecture and passed my orals last week, and the questions I got from my audience and my committee really made me think. Not just about what they saw or wanted to see, but about why they saw what they saw and wanted to see what they wanted to see. I understand that in an MFA program the point is to keep you on your toes, always thinking about your next move...but I do miss the time when art could just be for art's sake, and there weren't considerations of historical context, contemporary context, can't do this because it's been done, can't do that because it's been seen, that looks too phallic/vaginal so unless this is about sex don't do that...the list goes on.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite chapter was the one about work and play, and where the lines are between the two, and how they are perceived in different cultures. One thing that is so great about art is the fact that it can be both; because it taps into our innate need to create and express, it fills a fundamental human desire while leading to creation of things we need in this world.
As a printmaking secondary, I also really enjoyed the section in Tools and Techniques about printing from vegetables, rubber erasers, and other found materials. A very interesting section! Something I caught was the instruction to fold paper with the grain. This works great for accordion books and books with traditional bindings, but once you get into fold books, concertinas, and other forms of paper engineering, folding both directions becomes necessary. This is where scoring with bone folders comes in handy. It doesn't need to be a bone folder, either--the corner of a ruler does a nice job.
I found the ideas in the first few chapters quite reminiscent of Drawing I and II tactics. The viewfinders are obvious, but we used some of the other tips and tricks too, like drawing negative space and experimenting with drawing implements. I have to say, though, the ideas in here really do above and beyond...drawing with a broom?
A very good book for someone deep in the MFA mindset for sure. It becomes so easy to fall into the academic rut you dig yourself in making a thesis that the reminder to play around and create art that at first glance doesn't mean a thing is really important. It's often the art we create without an eye for concept that becomes the best conceptually.
I knew you would pass your presentation. I am sorry I had to miss it due to the conference in Galveston (where I gave a talk on the Pedagogy of Kindness). I also wish I had been there just to support you and your adventure. Remember presentation are often about the "experts" reasserting themselves and not about you at all.
DeleteAnd what is wrong with sexual references...even if it is only in the mind of the viewer.
Keep this book in mind when you have your first job and can create your own class environment.
Thanks! And don't worry, I knew you wanted to be there but it sounds like you had your own VIP (presentation!) to give which I wish I could have seen. I did something similar in mine, discussing toward the end the importance of empathy, love, and human connection in coping with mental illness. Kindness seems to be so lost on so many people these days, especially in the workaholic culture I mentioned. Vital to do everything we can to keep it alive. So yes mine went very well and I hope yours did too!
DeleteNothing wrong with them, and I think it's important to keep talking about sexuality in a culture that supports a paradox in which sex is both commodified and demonized. I also think it's important that just because sexuality can be gleaned from a piece, doesn't meant that was the artist's intent, and I agree with you that THAT'S PERFECTLY ALL RIGHT.
I'll have this book close at hand. I liked it very much, and I like Pausch's as well. These are such important lessons that are so easily lost in our hustle-bustle lives.
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ReplyDeleteI am happy to have read this book. Fantastic beautiful inspiring book for art and living life to it's fullest. It teaches you to see and how to make what you see into art. Great art exercises! I feel like I will reference this book a lot in the near future. I love how Corita states; “I have used very few paintings or other art works by famous artists... By learning to see the beauty in the world around us, and by looking at many things, we can lose our judgment attitudes about pretty and ugly, good or bad art”. I had a student a few weeks ago ask me if we were just going to learning about a bunch of dead artists, and it caught me off guard. I had no clue how to respond, because I realized, as an elementary art teacher… WE DO! For the most part aleast. We typically focus on artist like Picasso, Kandinsky, Frida Kahlo, etc and do the same projects around the same time of year. This is the reason why I love Cassie Stephens! If you are not following her please do, even if you are not an elementary art teacher she is an inspiration and resourceful. She made a Facebook live video where she explains this point exactly. Its great to reference “old” artist but later states that kids just really don’t care. This year Cassie focuses on introducing living and working artists like Sandra Silberweig, Charley Harper, and Eloise Renouf. She is making connections to artists who are giving art-making a new name and revamping a new way to look at art.
ReplyDeleteThroughout her assignments they are simple and manageable. They are appropriate for almost all grade levels. I can implement Corita’s assignments as warm-ups or introducing new projects. The assignments are meant for kids to slow down and be more aware while they are examining artwork and even our surroundings, because there is art everywhere! She explains the differences between looking and seeing and how this helps develops our muscles. I need to go back and and try this again. My students are so quick to comment that I don’t think they fully understand “what” they are looking at. This will give a student a new way to process new information by breaking down what you are “looking at” into in most simplistic form. This book will be very close to me well as I develop new lesson plans! Thank Future for introducing this book to us!
you are welcomed...find your own artists among your classmates. Collect images and share their stories with your students.
ReplyDelete