Hello Art Teacher friends! I've enjoyed sharing what I've been doing with remote learning during this crazy time! If you missed the remote learning posts feel free to head back to the home page after reading to see what I sent out for remote learning.
As some of us wind down for summer break I wanted to reflect and share more about the Studio Tours I made for my students (and anyone else's art students). This was a very fun project for me to work on and hopefully a resource I can use for many years to come. I posted these videos at the end of each Remote Learning Choice Board post but I wanted to give them their own post because I think they deserve it!
The Studio Tours started as a way for me to share my artwork with my students. At the beginning of my district's shut down, we delayed remote learning for a couple weeks while we got our bearings and decided on a district course of action. During that time we were told that they wanted us to steer away from live lessons as students in the same household may be sharing a device or only have access to a device during certain times of the day or week. Therefore our lessons would be prerecorded and students could work on them at their household's convenience. Knowing many of my students in my Title One school wouldn't have access to art materials and some not even paper and pencil, I wanted to be sure my art lessons had a variety of ways to interact with art. Therefore I kept my lessons/activities very open in how students could respond. So I didn't want to record myself making any art projects because I didn't want students to feel that the way I was making something had to be the way they would make something. BUT I wanted them to still be able to hear my voice and see me, so I decided to make Read Aloud videos with the books I brought home from school and to make Studio Tours. I wasn't sure what the Studio Tours would turn into but it started as a way for students to hear me and see me as well as learn about the artwork I make. I was also working a lot more on my artwork at the beginning of our lock down while the district worked on a plan and I wanted to share that with my students.
The Studio Tours are a series of videos exploring topics related to my artwork (as well as others artwork). The videos explore material/media, process and concept as well as what an art studio is. Each video has a different theme. Below you will find a brief description of each Studio Tour in addition to each video. At the bottom of the post is a link to the playlist on YouTube if you want to save any videos/links for future sharing purposes.
1. Installation: I wanted to start with installation because my students know what paintings and sculptures are but not what an installation is. I needed to define installation for them so when introducing my artwork they would understand more about how my work fits into the history of installation art as well as contemporary installation art. In this video I discuss what installation art is, its history, some contemporary installation artists, types of installation art and then introduce my work.
2. Studio: Since everyone is stuck in their homes and I work on my art in my home, I wanted to share my space with my students. But in addition to sharing my space I thought it was important to share what an artist studio is and what happens there. I know students often get discouraged by art not coming naturally to them or things not being perfect and as art teachers we struggle with helping them understand that art is something you work at just like any other skill one is learning. I wanted to reinforce that artists WORK on their art in their studios, its not a place where magic happens. In this video I discuss the history of the artist studio, various studio models, contemporary artists studios, art studios being a place for work, art studios that have been turned into museums and attractions and the multiple places I've called a studio during my career.
3. Armatures: This video is the first that explores how I create my sculptures that go into my installations. I wanted to start here with process because figuring out HOW the artwork is made starts with HOW some of the pieces are standing even though they are made of paper. That is a very common question I get from both young people (my students) and adults. In this video I discuss what an armature is and what materials it can be made with, various art forms where an armature is used, contemporary artists that use armatures and how, for which pieces and what I use to create my armatures.
4. Geometry: Another question I get frequently is, "How do I make the sculptures look so real?" and the answer is with precise measurements and math!! Lots of math. So I wanted to explore this aspect of the process with my students. I teach geometry very often in my classes as well as how to use various tools of measurement. I wanted to show my students that I use those same tools and I math the majority of the time when creating my artwork. This video discusses how other artists use geometry in their work as well as types of geometrical concepts in my work for large and small pieces.
5. Paper: Exploring exactly how paper is used in the work is important, the geometry video started to touch on paper but paper wasn't explicitly discussed and recognized. Paper is a very important component to the work and needed its own video. In this video I discuss the history of paper production as well as cardboard, material attributes to paper like weight and tooth, contemporary artists who use paper as their primary medium and specifically how I manipulate paper in my work.
6. Process: I have been creating time-lapse videos while I work since the beginning of remote learning (and a little before). Clips from many of these videos were used in the Studio Tours above but I wanted to show start to finish how pieces were made without interruption. I also didn't want to narrate this one, I wanted the viewer to be able to just watch after learning so much about the process of making from the videos above. So in this video I don't discuss anything, the viewer just gets to see start to finish (in time-lapse) how a variety of pieces were made.
7. Exhibiting: I am fortunate enough to have an exhibition still planned for the Fall of 2020 despite other exhibitions being cancelled earlier on during COVID-19. Since I am busy preparing for a show, I wanted my students to be aware of what exhibiting is like for an installation artist. Making individual sculptures is just PART of my studio practice as an installation artist, the other component is showing the work. I don't just send off the artwork for the gallery/museum to exhibit, I am there to put the artwork together. Therefore being in the space and adapting to the space is an equally important facet to being an installation artist. In this video I discuss how artists land exhibitions, how I start preparations for a show and finally how I install a show (with time-lapse clips from installing a show).
8. Concept: Thus far I had only defined installation and the artist studio as well as gone into the process, material and technique of making and installing the work. I had not yet explored what the artwork communicates to the viewer. When planning this video I initially thought I'd be the one talking during the whole thing like all the rest of the Studio Tours, but then I had the thought that it would be more meaningful for me and for viewers to hear from other people. I decided the video would walk through the steps of art criticism (reading an artwork). So I decided to do Google Meet interviews with my students. I think its important to outline the process of making this video to you all since you may be interested in doing something similar, so.... I reached out to my Art Club student's parents (as well as my niece who is an elementary student in another state). I explained the project idea and asked for permission to record a Google Meet interview with their student, of course if their student also agreed and was interested in participating. I had 6 students/parents agree to move forward including my niece. Next I scheduled interviews with them and started compiling a list of questions to ask to guide the interview through the art criticism steps of Describe, Analyze, Interpret and Evaluate. I was floored, speechless, blown away, impressed and quite emotional from their responses. I learned early on to give them the space to ramble, not everyone (even adults) have profound thoughts immediately, we need space to think and talk without interruption and judgement. I learned to take notes as they spoke so I could circle back to expand on a salient point that they may have not even noticed they said and I listened, just listened. After all the interviews were complete I took the audio from these interviews and worked on the final video for this remote learning period. The editing was NOT easy! I had HOURS of audio footage to sift through, I listened to each interview multiple times, taking even more detailed notes and placing their words into the various art criticism categories. I then organized the audio clips in iMovie based on the art criticism category and THEN transcribed the clips in each category so I could weave it together like one would with a large important paper. As I organized their thoughts to transition from one idea or concept to the next I started to add in images to the video. Finally I added in descriptions of each of the art criticism steps. So in this video MY STUDENTS discuss their thoughts of my artwork using the steps of art criticism. This one is by far my favorite. I will be thinking all summer of how I can do something like this again.
Thank you all so much for your time in reading and hopefully watching the videos I posted here. Here is the link to all the videos on this post in case you would like to use them in your classroom whether virtual or in person, this school, next school year or whenever!
Also if you are interested in learning more about my work or exhibitions, feel free to hop on over to my website or Instagram page or Facebook page.
As some of us wind down for summer break I wanted to reflect and share more about the Studio Tours I made for my students (and anyone else's art students). This was a very fun project for me to work on and hopefully a resource I can use for many years to come. I posted these videos at the end of each Remote Learning Choice Board post but I wanted to give them their own post because I think they deserve it!
The Studio Tours started as a way for me to share my artwork with my students. At the beginning of my district's shut down, we delayed remote learning for a couple weeks while we got our bearings and decided on a district course of action. During that time we were told that they wanted us to steer away from live lessons as students in the same household may be sharing a device or only have access to a device during certain times of the day or week. Therefore our lessons would be prerecorded and students could work on them at their household's convenience. Knowing many of my students in my Title One school wouldn't have access to art materials and some not even paper and pencil, I wanted to be sure my art lessons had a variety of ways to interact with art. Therefore I kept my lessons/activities very open in how students could respond. So I didn't want to record myself making any art projects because I didn't want students to feel that the way I was making something had to be the way they would make something. BUT I wanted them to still be able to hear my voice and see me, so I decided to make Read Aloud videos with the books I brought home from school and to make Studio Tours. I wasn't sure what the Studio Tours would turn into but it started as a way for students to hear me and see me as well as learn about the artwork I make. I was also working a lot more on my artwork at the beginning of our lock down while the district worked on a plan and I wanted to share that with my students.
The Studio Tours are a series of videos exploring topics related to my artwork (as well as others artwork). The videos explore material/media, process and concept as well as what an art studio is. Each video has a different theme. Below you will find a brief description of each Studio Tour in addition to each video. At the bottom of the post is a link to the playlist on YouTube if you want to save any videos/links for future sharing purposes.
1. Installation: I wanted to start with installation because my students know what paintings and sculptures are but not what an installation is. I needed to define installation for them so when introducing my artwork they would understand more about how my work fits into the history of installation art as well as contemporary installation art. In this video I discuss what installation art is, its history, some contemporary installation artists, types of installation art and then introduce my work.
Also if you are interested in learning more about my work or exhibitions, feel free to hop on over to my website or Instagram page or Facebook page.
As always, I would love to hear from you if you have questions, comments, suggestions etc. Drop a line in the comments below!
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