Seed pod

            What is a seed?  It is pure potential.  It is a shell filled with the energy and knowledge of all that came before it.  It is a single point of initiation.  Essentially, it is an egg.  The beginning.  When life emerges it must break through its hard shell to sprout.  All the people, places and memories that have made the shell strong have created the opportunity for something new to emerge.   

The seed of me was planted in Virginia where I would be nurtured by the ocean, woods, mountains, animals and family around me.  Each contributed to the structure of the shell and the content of character inside.  The potential was there, given the strength, knowledge, compassion and wisdom passed on from ancestors, places and spaces.

Seed Pod is the result of my family migration study.  It is more of a local study as I chose to take a personal look at how my childhood made me strong through interaction with my family.

The bottom of the seed is the point at which the strength to grow began.  My parents, grandparents, great grandparents supported me as an infant, and each other as adults.  An image of “Granny”, the great matriarch of the Lampe/Bryan family, looking at her granddaughter, my mother, filling her with the knowledge of life in China, teaching, traveling and loving.  Each of the images that have been transferred onto the seed shell represent moments in the migration to who I am now.

            My mother grew up traveling the globe as a Navy officer’s daughter.  I never knew my mother’s Mom; she died when I was an infant.  I new her through Granny, who passed on the stories of what it was like growing up between the US and China with a father that was a layer for the International Settlement in China.

My Dad’s father, “Grandpa Jack”, was a farmer for most of his life, as was his family.  Even after leaving farm life for the railroad he raised my father on the values of hard work and perseverance, and instilled a love for working the land.  When my father turned 18 the draft was in full swing.  Instead of waiting to be drafted into the Vietnam War, he enlisted in the army.   Grandpa retired to the beach in Virginia, which is the only home of his I knew.  It was my favorite place to be.

Moving from the bottom of the seed toward the top are images of my childhood with my sister and parents, my wedding, places that brought inspiration, the fruits of our garden, the hiking trails, and then my children.  The layering of the images illustrates their order in history and in process of shaping the person I am sprouting into.  The choice of colors is symbolic of grounding (yellow), growth (green), and spirit (blue).  The supporting structure is a combination of vines, sticks, tissue paper and wire with a light socket in the center. 

It is lit from within.  This light from within that shines through the opening at the top of the seed is indicative of the inner light that shines out through all of us.  It is a single source of light that illuminates so much.  It is the moment, which ignites the potential stored within to grow.

Roots and Limbs

Roots and Limbs

Roots and Limbs that’s what I’m made of. Actually, that was the title of my senior show finalizing my undergrad. My family has given me strong roots so that I could grow long limbs and those limbs are still growing today.

     I spent my entire childhood in the same house in Newport News, VA. In a neighborhood where kids rode their bikes without helmets, spent hours trying to get lost but never crossing the “big road”, and went swimming at the neighborhood pool. We were told not to come in until dusk, but before the streetlights came on. I would spend weekends with my grandparents at the beach where they lived, which solidified my connection to water and my need for sand under my feet. I’d listen to stories of life on the Carolina farm from my Father, Grandfather and Aunts. I’d visit my Mother’s family and listen to their stories of life in the Navy, as missionaries in China and beyond, as educators, and international travelers. Two worlds so far apart connected for a while and built me.

     With a strong foundation I started out into college, marriage, career and children. Planting myself with my husband in Powhatan, VA gave me the solid ground I needed to venture across the ocean to Spain, Italy and France. When I took my first student group abroad for 14 days I had never been out of the country, been away from my young children for that long, and had never been responsible for 20 other people and myself and into a country where I didn’t peak the language. Even with so many people around me I was alone. It was scary, exciting, eye opening, inspiring, validating, and liberating. That first trip to Spain changed my view of the world, my place in it, and its possibilities for me to grow, learn and live.

In many ways I’ve felt that my adult eyes had never fully opened until I traveled to Spain. Since then, they have never closed. Seeing what I had only studied about and navigating through the winding streets, merchants, and locals going about their daily life made me both appreciate where I came from and want to see more, experience more, and learn more from the foreign places and spaces I continue to explore. I always thought Italy would be the country rich with art and history that I would fall in love with. Yet I ended up in Spain first and experienced Picasso, Miro, Velázquez, Goya, walled cities, tapas, olive oil, heavenly wine, classical guitar, flamenco and Sangria that made me realize there were parts of this great culture that I wanted to absorb into my daily life.  The question of what other great cultures appreciate different customs or ways of doing things that I could embrace into my own life has driven me to keep traveling

When Things Go Wrong

When things go wrong…….. 

I walked into the kiln room this morning to retrieve the relief sculptures some of my students resorted to creating after all other attempts at casting and carving had resulted in epic failures, and what I found both crushed and puzzled me.  Never in all my history of creating art have I seen such a disgusting pile of what can only be described as appearing like hardened diarrhea.  The clay had melted and liquefied to form low mounds of popped bubble ooze that congealed together when cooled to become slabs of hardened funk.  I was perplexed.  What happened?  It was the same red clay we had always used.  It was set to slow fire.  The pieces were not quite bone dry, which is why the kiln was set to such a low fire.  I didn’t understand.  Until…. I looked back at the cone chart and found my mistake.  There is about 1,000 degrees difference between a cone 6 and a cone 06.  I had set the kiln to 6 and melted my students’ clay pieces.  This effected 4 of my 25 students.  Their clay slab was the only thing (artwork) they were going to have to show for all their work, and I ruined it.  I seemed to have screwed most things up on this project.

The majority of this quarter has been, in the terminology of my students, an epic fail.  I started out with what I thought was a great concept.  The guiding question was how can relief sculpture be used to express a personal narrative?  The studio skills to be learned included modeling, additive and subtractive sculpture techniques, casting processes, and three dimensional surface designs.   The sculpture artist we mainly discussed was Ghiberti and his Gates of Paradise baptistery doors, but we also looked at several narrative paintings and discussed how the artists used imagery and object placement (background, middle ground and foreground) to show importance.  We also used Robert Hasting’s poem The Station as a discussion starter about important moments in life.  We went back to our mind map on identity and the things that shape it to look at possible starters for the personal narrative.  Here is where things started to go south. 

Problem 1: I don’t think I was clear enough or thorough enough in my instruction of narrative art and more contemporary artists who create personal narrative art.

Problem 2: Getting personally connected to the assignment.  Most students had a hard time coming up with imagery that could tell a story about an experience, memory or feeling that held any significance for them.  Seeing this I adjusted the motivator and we discussed how many songs tell a story.  Students could illustrate a song.   So we discussed song lyrics.  What’s your favorite song?  Why is it your favorite song?  Could any imagery be created from the lyrics?  This led some students to choosing a song to illustrate.  Most songs they wanted to use were either not school appropriate or it was the rhythm that made it a favorite song, not the lyrics.  I was then unable to get them to visualize how they could represent the rhythm.  With some students I compromised and let them create a relief of a favorite place or object.  At the beginning I told students they would be writing the narrative to accompany their final artwork.  I thought of having them write it first, but I was afraid if I did, they would never get to the making part of the assignment, which is what they all wanted to do.  With 25 students I had to get them moving or I’d definitely loose them.  In retrospect, I should have done that anyway.  May be then they would have thought more about the what, why and how of the art they were going to create and their designs would have been more successful.   

Problem 3:  Technical difficulties and underestimation of needed materials.  When I created my sample piece it all worked out great and seemed easy enough for my intermediate students to handle.  It would have been if I had enough material for every student to make their rubber mold and cast it in plaster like I had done.  Alas, that was not the case.  I didn’t limit the size of student’s clay models like I should have.  That, along with the fact that there were 25 of them, led to their not being enough casting material for every person to use.  I should have stopped here and just fired their clay slabs, but I was too focused on them learning about casting that I lost sight of the guiding concept, which was to create a narrative artwork.  I should have recognized that the process of casting was not as important as the concept behind the artwork.  Yes I wanted them to learn casting, but not at the expense of creating meaning with their art. So I pushed on.

Plan B was to place the clay slab in a plastic lined box, use the waste clay to form walls and pour a plaster mold around the clay relief.  Then students could dig out the clay and pour more plaster into the mold.  We could then break away the mold and we’d have the positive form that could then be painted.  I had enough plaster for the entire class if it had been mixed correctly and not wasted.  What actually happened was that students mixed their own plaster without paying attention to the ratio of plaster powder to water and their plaster either never set up, and fell apart because it wasn’t strong enough, or they waited too long and the plaster hardened in the mixing bowl before they ever poured it around their clay.  Why did this happen?  Again, I think this was my fault.  I was busy trying to get to each student who needed help with their original clay models or pushing some students to actually develop their image they would sculpt.  I told them as a group how to mix the plaster in my original demonstration and demonstrated it again with the class using the first student’s artwork.  I should have given them each written instructions.  I could have given them each a pre-measured about of plaster to mix, but then that takes away one opportunity to use their math skills.  And they need to use them.  I had one senior who could not figure out how to find out what 1/3^rd of 44oz was to know how much water to eliminate before mixing.  She would not even attempt to figure it out.  (This represents a larger problem in the high school population.  That is a story for another time.)  While I was working with some students, others were making their molds or casting from them.  When students leave out the step of applying the releasing agent their castings don’t come out of the mold. 

That led to going back to square one.  This time, instead of starting with clay and building up the design, they started with a plaster block and carved out their design.  This was more difficult and students became frustrated.

Problem 4: All the technical difficulties resulted in final artworks that looked nothing like students had planned and they did not know how to adjust and write a narrative to accompany their new artwork.  They were frustrated with the whole process and didn’t want to think about it anymore.  It was pulling teeth to get them to now write a story about the visual they had created. Especially when they were not happy with what they created.  

Research Directions

        In 7 weeks I have filled a 3 inch binder with different interpretations of the "right" research method to utilize for any given topic in art education.  From each method, quantitative and the diversity of qualitative methods, I have seen how I could implement all of them in my research towards creating a curriculum resource.  When I began this class I was sure that I wanted to create a curriculum guide based on identity that could be adopted by high school art teachers.  I have come to realize that is an unrealistic goal for me at this time.  Curriculum design is a living process that requires understanding the learner, learning environment, resources at hand, content knowledge, and local, state and national standards and making something that meets the needs of the teacher and student in their path to constructing knowledge.  No one person can do that.  So what can one person do?

                Art as research and research as art sticks in my brain like a metaphor that art brings to life.  Creating art is all about figuring out what works the best to communicate an idea and then putting those findings to work.  Figuring out what research method to use to do what it is I want to do requires me to know what I want to do.  That "knowing" keeps shifting and I've struggled with it all 7 weeks.  What do I want?  I want to understand.  I want to understand how I can find and utilize resources to make art education relevant to my high school learners.  From the process of developing an understanding I want to share what I have discovered with teachers so that they may not have to "re-invent the wheel" so to say. 

                From my pilot study I realized that many school systems can-not afford to purchase art textbooks for their art classes.  Art teachers are creative by nature so they find their information and lesson ideas through conversations with peers, surfing the net, looking through museum catalogs, participating in workshops and just about everywhere else they travel and then construct their own resources.  But wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to spend so many hours searching for lesson resources or so much money to buy a textbook that is outdated in five years, and that doesn't really relate to your classroom community?  I think so.  What if there was a place where an art teacher could go that could give them multiple options and ideas all based on a single theme, and that are developmentally appropriate?  For high school, what would be the most relevant themes?  What would that place look like?  I want to find that place. 

                In the process of creating art the artist learns what they need to make the artwork successful.  The answer is in the studio.  What do I do?  What do my colleagues do?  What do I use?  What do they use?  What doesn't work?  What can I learn from what doesn't work so that I can do something that does?  Answering these question are the stops along the way to my destination of understanding.  Once I understand then I can create something that does work and that may even help others.  My research will be a narrative of my journey to understanding.  Beyond that understanding will be application of those new understandings in the form of an open access teacher resource for information and lesson ideas for high school teachers working with the theme of identity. 

                The Abstract Expressionists taught me that the process of creating is just as important as the product itself.  From the process of creating we learn and grow.  From studying someone else's process we also learn and grow.  In Design for Inquiry, Instructional Theory, Research and Practice in Art Education (1999) Dr. Delacruz states that "Art teachers' thinking, planning, decision making, and response to the conditions of teaching are important but undervalued aspects of their work" (p.21).  The act of teaching art is not an act at all.  It is a process of learning, reflecting, implementing, assessing and staying current on theory, practice and the culture of their students.  Without these processes, what is presented to students becomes irrelevant to heir world.

                This is why I think my process of constructing the knowledge I need in order to develop an identity resource guide for myself and others is an important topic for further study; for research.    Documenting my processes of inquiry (classroom practice, textbook and web resource investigations, art education literature, and interviews with students and teachers) will take the form of a narrative as the final product of my journey.

Resources

Delacruz, E. M. (1999). Design for inquiry, instructional theory research and practice in art education. Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association.

Wirt, S. (2011).Title. (Unpublished pilot study). University of Florida.

OOPS, That Didn't Work

What went wrong and where do we go from here.

So the 3D project of carving and casting low relief went bust for some reasons that I know and some I do not.  Now what do I do?

1^st thing I need to do:

• ·       Don’t let students see their projects until after discussion.
• ·       Turn this into an opportunity for creative problems solving that requires some critical thinking.
• ·       Have a class discussion about what went wrong.  Come up with reasons why that may be
• ·       Brain storm ideas on what to do next.  Explain that often artists come into problems and then have to rethink their project design.·       

• So now what do I do to figure out what went wrong wand what to do next.

• Think I know:

• ·       Not enough model making material for all students at the size of their projects and took too long to get liquefied.
• ·       Too much water in the plaster mix for the model part
• ·       Weal walls to hold in the plaster
• Possible reasons:
• ·       Plaster over model material may have caused the model material to constrict and warp
• ·       Let plaster stay in clay mold too long so that it never dried

·       Results:

• ·       Some plaster molds never dried and subsequently fell apart
• ·       The plaster backed rubber molds constricted and warped into some strange shape
• 
  
• Where to go from here: Possibilities
• ·       For constricted pieces that are salvageable clean out left over clay, surround in sand and pour the final casting into it.  Let dry and then combine on a board with other materials.
• ·       Maybe soak the plaster backed rubber molds to dissolve the plaster.
• ·       For molds that fell apart.  Carve into the wet plaster and make some new design.
• ·       Cast a block of plaster and carve it.

Assignment :

Write out a plan for what to do with your art from this point.

How did it go

I first had the class move their seats close to the board to discuss how and why artists go back to the drawing board with their artworks.  I also talked to them about how artists let the artwork tell them what it will be rather than the artists forcing something to immerge.  Going with the flow can lead to unexpected surprises and new creations.  The discussion went well even though I had to prod them along to come up with reasons why the plaster didn’t dry, cracked or fell apart or the rubber mold warped.  I used a student’s warped rubber mold and original clay model to further discuss how we as artists can listen to our artwork and let it lead the way to a final composition.  Basically, what can we do with it now that it looks like this?  Start over with a block of plaster and carve it?  Continue the original process and clean out the left over clay, cast it in plaster and see what we get and go from there?  We looked at the new shape that was made when the rubber mold shrank and warped.  It actually appeared to reinforce the shape of a bird face, which is what the student had originally designed but in relief.

Being Clear About Expectations of Students

Today I reviewed students' research portfolios with them before they processed their first roll of film for the year.  When the class was over I had learned more than I had expected.  By observing their interactions, processes and how they wrote I learned quite a bit about their academic,  intellectual, developmental and and social level and my own teaching.

 Today was 3 classes of photography; 2 intro and 1 Photo II / Honors combo with an independent study student working in the room as well.  So let me reflect on the positives of this learning day.

Photo II Hurray!! Their first roll of film for the year and they all came out well composed as well as exposed.  I guess they remembered how to get proper exposure, focus and how to process negatives from my instruction in last year's intro class.  No social drama! Students bonded at the processing counter as they helped each other keep time for various steps in the process, and they made good decisions on what images were best to enlarge.

We began the class by reviewing the photo portfolios they had each created form gathering images by subject from betterphoto.com.  prior to shooting their roll of film.  Students were to find a good and a bad photo from different categories and critique them.  By doing this they were encouraged to inquired about what equipment a photographer used and how they captured the shot.  They also had to make judgements about the quality of an image and what could make that image stronger.  At the end of their inquiry they were to write a final summary addressing what they learned and how it would help them with their own photography.  Well, lets just say their summaries were not very deep or reflective.  On most of the reflections I wrote comments that asked "like what?", "How?", "please explain", "What image are you referring to?" and "Why do you think that?".  I read many "I learned a lot form this assignment", but not so many that articulated what they learned.  Students could easily pick out information to answer specific seek and find questions, but when it comes to thinking about the images critically, as to be able to articulate what they could observe or learn from the images individually, or as a whole, was not a class wide strength.  I wonder why this is.

I have some theories on that.

Theory 1 - State SOLS training.  (Standards of Learning)

• The class is primarily seniors taking average courses with some in honors academic courses.  They have been brought up on taking state standards of learning tests in academic areas.  This means they were taught to seek and find facts and regurgitate what they read or were told by their teacher.  The've learned how to skim, but not so effectively that they know when to look further into something for better understanding.  They've been programmed to do things quickly as to be able to move onto something else.  The problem with this is that they don't allow themselves the time to absorb and think about the information that they have gathered.  That's one theory.  I still think it's more than that.  

Theory 2 - Laziness is another aspect of this picture.

• Some just don't want to put the time into what they are doing for what ever reason.  Students may think the assignment is just another "busy work" assignment that is delaying what they really want to do, which is to take pictures.  
• Then I wonder, did I not explain the importance of what they were doing?  Did I not explain why they were doing this activity?  This leads me to theory number three.

Theory 3 -Ineffective preparation by the teacher.

• I explained the project but not the purpose of the project.  It seems I wasn't to successful in communicating why they were looking at these cactagories of images and critiquing them.   The purpose what to investigate how other photographers had created images in different categories so that they could 1 get some ideas on things they could photograph, 2 try and figure out how the photographer shot the image so that they could learn through observation, and three articulate what they thought were characteristics of good and a bad photograph.  I expected them to be able to draw conclusions and synthesis what they researched into a clear expression of what they learned form the investigation.  MAybe I used the wrong terminology.  
• Maybe the directions should have said "From investigating these different photographs explain what you now think makes a good photograph.  What are some of the qualities in the "good" photographs that you can utilize when creating your own photographs. (Be specific)  What are some of the characteristics in the "bad" photographs that you found which you would not want to repeat in your own art?

I realized that many of my students did not get out of this assignment what I had hoped they would.  Yet, even with saying that, I also think that they may have gotten more than they are able to articulate at this time.  I had 3 out of 16 students "get it."  Their final summaries articulated what they learned and even reflected that their opinion of the assignment changed once they got into it.  One student wrote that at first they thought it was just some busy work, but then after more time looking they realized that there are some images that make you want to figure out how they did that and that it was hard to put in words why an image worked and why it didn't.

I told the students that it was interesting that some of them chose the same image to critique but one put the image with the "good" examples and one with the "bad" examples.  When I asked why I was answered with "because people have different perspectives."  Good answer.  After a bit more discussion I instructed students to look back through their portfolios and re-write their final critique.  Their grades improved after the re-write.

Next year when I do this project again I will give more specific instructions so that the students can reach the best outcome.

My next two classes moved slower for me but not my students.  The students didn't need my help much.  I guess that's a good thing.  It means I've taught them what they need to know in order to create what they want.  Now I must stand back and give them the time to create.  This can be, and was for me today, hard to do.   It was nice to have 2 classes back to back where students were focused on their work and enjoying it too.