Art Journal #12

Art Journal #12

5/1/22

#ArtAsAnnotation

Before we get into the thick of things, I would like to lay out the framework/process for the final component of my art journal/final piece. In order to showcase the entirety of this journal/blog in a gallery space, I have chosen to make a physical rendition of my entires. The prompt for journal #12 asks that I embellish my 10 things to consider when you teach art that I wrote about for the very first entry of this journal. I was thinking about how an artist goes about reflexivity and revising philosophies and the idea of mark-making on a physical text. With that being said, I chose to reflect upon my original entry by reacting to the text with more marks and handwritten text. This is the physical art piece for this entry:

Journal #12 (online art journal)

Journal #1 (annotated physical journal)

This is a typed version of the annotations:

The ten things I’m tryna do as an art teacher:

1. There is hardly ever a right or a wrong when it comes to art. There are only suggestions.

2. Students learn by experimentation; trial and error, and looking at other artists.

I revised this entry as I learned how important it is for students to look at both the work and processes of contemporary artists as there is so much to learn from them. This was realized in Art Journal #3:

“I believed that you needed to know the rules of the arts to break them.. But, as I have learned from Teaching for Artistic Behavior, the process of an artist and the freedom to choose your means of creation are more important than understanding theories and practices. “

3. Building relationships with students is the top priority.

4. Students should experience a wide array of media, mediums, and concepts when creating their works.

5. Students need to understand color and composition.

I changed this entry from “to know the formal elements in order to break their properties” to understand color and composition because I don’t necessarily think that knowing the elements is super necessary for creating art. As a teacher, I plan on teaching the elements as a grounds for conversation in a critique space. I have noticed that most artists struggle with foremost the composition of their work and then the color. It is these two elements that I will focus on and then the rest should fall into place.

6. Art-making is vital to the human experience and humanity in general. This should be emphasized to students to ensure that they understand how utilizing the creative process strengthens all of their other abilities.

7. The meaning of an artwork is not fixed but ever-evolving and continues to reveal itself through new interactions.

8. Art Education is not solely about skill and craftsmanship. Ideation is just as important if not, more. The conceptual nature of a work should hold more merit than than technical aspects.

9. Artworks are more than the embodiment of a single theme - they are multidimensional (2D or 3D) objects with layers of interrelated meaning that inform, complement and contradict each other.

10. EVERYONE IS AN ARTIST.

I still believe that my original words, along with the annotations hold true to my teaching philosophy, but if I could add some more sub-points they would be the following:

• Challenging myself as an artist will help me challenge my students and become more well-versed in a variety of mediums. I learned this from the drawing randomizer activity that I discussed in journal #2

• Integrating other subjects, disciplines, and fields into my curriculum will not only help promote the arts, but allow students to conduct research as artists. This was learned from Journal #4:

“Students will be given an integrative prompt for their project. Sometimes the prompt will offer students an opportunity to research specific scientific concepts. Sometimes it will be a social justice issue to be addressed. And sometimes it will be totally chosen by the student.”

• Chapter Two of Teaching Meaning in Art-making has shown me that as a teacher, I need to help students sustain their interests and make their ideas worth pursuing.

• Students should understand nature and environment as an artists and use these concepts in their work. I have developed this framework by combining pedagogy and theory from my Indigenous Knowledges class that I took last fall. In that course we explored Nature as Teacher and I feel that my students can explore art without its western context.

• As a teacher I wish to integrate social justice into my curriculum. Journal #6:

“Per Rodriguez’s instruction, it’s our jobs as art educators to show young artists that their work both fluctuates between actions and ideas and serves to inspire change. A caveat of social justice-inspired artwork is that artists often create works that communicate what it is they are against, instead of what they are about or who they are. "

• Movement and Mindfullness should be a part of my students’ process as artists.

• Ideation processes should be differentiated depending on the work.

• Adapting and embracing circumstances are part of being an artists. Hick-ups should be welcomed and not scoffed at.

Overall, I feel as though I have a sound teaching philosophy that will shape my future teaching experiences. I want to emphasize that this list is ever-evolving and changing as my philosophy is both fluid and malleable. It is open to critique and it is a full representation of my experiences, thoughts, and dreams as an art teacher.