Studio Reflections

EDCI407 Studio Reflections

5.5.2010- Studio Reflection: Installation Project
For my installation project, I decided to create a dress out of coffee filters and wear it around my house, post pictures of it on Facebook, and observe peoples’ general reactions to it. I was inspired after our “Recycled Runway” project and by a challenge on the television show Project Runway. I also used a photograph of a dress created by Jolis Paons out of phone book pages as my inspiration. Ever since I was little, I have loved designing clothes, but I decided during my junior year of highschool to go into art education rather than fashion design, because I feel that from what I have seen, the fashion industry can be a pretty soul-less place and I think for me, it would be difficult to reconcile being involved in that industry with my life goal: to be, to put it simply, a good person.
I really enjoyed creating the coffee filter dress. I used about 100 folded coffee filters, an old bra (the strap had broken a couple of months ago), and a hot glue gun to create the dress, which took about two and a half hours to complete. I am really happy with how it turned out and wish that I had made it more durable so I could have actually worn it in public. My friends and family seemed really impressed by the dress- I had told them about my idea, but I do not think they expected it to turn out looking like an actual dress!
The project also cost no money, I found the coffee filters in the kitchen at my house and the bra was used. In conclusion, I plan on keeping my coffee filter dress and hopefully showing it to my future art students to show them that it is not necessary to have expensive materials to create fun and innovative art projects.
5.3.2010- Studio Reflection Paragraphs (Wood and Wire, Plaster, and Recycled)

Play Wood and Wire: For my Wood and Wire sculpture, I created a small tree from wire, decorated it with hot-glue drip-ornaments, and hung a swing made from a small piece of wood and embroidery floss from one of the branches. I am very happy with how my sculpture turned out, I think that aside from being aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion!), the sculpture definitely gives off a certain aura of playfulness. I always like to include little details in my sculptures and artwork, and this one was no different. I had a lot of fun using hot glue as a decorative element instead of just a means-to-an-end (although I did burn my fingers several times!). As a child, I either liked to play with my brother or by myself. I have been very interested in nature since I was young, and I also am a bit of a closet-introvert (much to people’s surprise after they have gotten to know me) so I thought that making a splay area just for myself to imagine and sit and think seemed appropriate.

Plaster: The objective of our plaster project was to create a sculpture using plaster and vermiculite that could be felt and observed tactile-y by a blind student. The project really got me thinking, as awhile ago, a friend asked me the following question: “If you were forced to live without one of your five senses, which one would you give up?” My immediate response was the sense of sight. For as long as I can remember, visual art has been what I am most passionate about. I cannot imagine living my life without my eyesight because it is such an integral part of everything I do. I have studied art education for the past three years, but until my friend asked me that question, I had never considered what it would be like to experience the visual arts without my eyesight. I am sure that at some point throughout my teaching career, I will encounter at least one student with a visual impairment, and after my conversation with my friend, I began to think about how I could teach that student to “see.”
We learned in class that blind students feel more comfortable when sculptures are of recognizable objects, and as I was thinking of the other four senses, I thought it would be sort of humorous to create a nose from plaster. I am generally happy with the way my nose turned out, and I even added a pair of wire glasses for a humorous effect, although I decided to take them away because I feel that they could have made a blind student uncomfortable.
Recycled Runway: When I first heard about our Recycled Runway project, I was really excited because I really like fashion and have designed imaginary outfits in my head and doodled on paper since I was a little girl. I had a picture in my head of what I wanted to create: a newspaper strapless sweetheart-neckline bustier with coffee filter ruffles for a skirt. Like I try and make most of my artwork, it was going to be very feminine and elegant. I could not wait to get started. Then, I met with my group members, who wanted to make an Andy Warhol/ Op-Art style dress to be worn by a male model. This was not at all what i had had in mind, but we were put into groups for a reason, and sometimes, when collaborating with others, you need to let go of some of your own ideas for a great finished product. I worked mostly on the skirt, which was made from newspaper, electrical tape, and paint, and although it definitely was not something I would have designed on my own, I had to admit it was very funny.
On the day of the Fashion Show, Anjali was unable to come in because she was sick, and I asked Dan if he was okay with changing the music to “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls, which we thought would be funny. We ended up getting “Best in Show,” which I was really surprised by. The project was a lot of fun and I am glad that I had such funny and energetic group members.

Ecology Papier-mâché Studio Reflection

3.10.2010

I had a lot of fun with our ecology studio project and I am really happy with how it turned out. On the first day we experimented with papier-mâché, I made an A-frame and began to make a doll-like person sculpture. I was happy with the way my experimental structure had turned out, so I wanted to try and incorporate that into my studio project. I thought of a Native American doll I had when I was little, with a little papoose on her back with a baby in it, and then I thought about how in everything I have learned about Native Americans, one of the main things that has always stuck with me is that numerous Native American tribes believed that if you kill an animal, you have to use every last piece of that animal. I think that that is a really good way to look at our connection to the environment and to nature.

There is some disconnect between our modern society and the environment. We waste so much. I like to incorporate quotes into my artwork as often as I can, because I find words and literature so inspirational, so once I had the idea to make a Native American themed sculpture, I Google-d Native American quotes on the environment and nature. I found so many beautiful quotes, but ended up just choosing one to focus on: “We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” While our society does not value the environment we live in as much as we should, we do value our children greatly, and I can think of few people who do not want a bright future for our children. I decided, then, to make a North American woman with a baby on her back, holding a sunflower (one of my favorite flowers) to demonstrate her connection with the earth. I decided to write the quote on the woman’s face because it is the central message I am trying to convey and I wanted it to be in a prominent and significant spot.

Surprisingly, I did not have any trouble in the construction process of my project. I am very impatient and impulsive in my art making, which helps with creativity, but not always with neat construction of a piece. I had a lot of fun picking out the materials- burlap for the dress, yarn for hair, turquoise beads, tissue paper and wire for flowers, beans for the earth, and copper tape to cover the base. I pay special attention to the details in my artwork, and this sculpture was no different.

Papier-mache is definitely a medium I plan to use in my classroom. It shows children resourcefulness and that the seemingly impossible can be made possible with art and creativity- recycled newspaper, masking tape, and paste can be transformed into a sculpture. I plan on keeping my Native American ecology sculpture for a long time; it does not look like “fine art” or anything you would see in a museum, but I think it says a lot about the artist and the person I am.

Essay on Play: 3.8.2010

About a dozen different ideas came to mind when I thought about how fantasy, imagination, and the unconscious have been incorporated into art and literature, but the first thing I thought of was my favorite book: “Tuck Everlasting” by Natalie Babbitt. In my opinion, Babbitt brings fantasy to life better than any other author I have read a book by because the way she writes is so elegant but also so simple. She tells the story of a girl named Winnie who feels trapped and suffocated by social restrictions. Winnie meets and falls in love with the Tuck family, who mistakenly drank from a magical spring that makes you live forever. I think I have always loved “Tuck Everlasting” because it addresses so many philosophical questions in a way that children can understand. I thought about it today, though, and realized that perhaps children already have a better philosophical understanding than any adults, and that as we grow, we lose our ability to create and feel and imagine and play because of responsibilities and restrictions.

I believe that “intention” has a different role in creating an art object for every artist. I have friends who meticulously plan out their projects with sketches and blueprints, and their work is always beautiful with perfect craftsmanship. I, however, have never been one to “plan out” my artwork. To me, it is more important that how I am feeling at the time, what my thoughts and concerns are, where I am in my life, etc. while I am making an artwork is the most important part of the artwork, and I feel like if I planned everything out, I would not feel as inspired. For instance, last week, I had planned on painting a little café scene for my painting class. I was in a great mood when I came up with the idea and started to “sketch” the cartoon for the painting, but then I had a terrible weekend. I tried to resume my painting on Monday, but I was feeling really terrible and my heart just was not in it. I started crying and painting in angry, rash strokes over what I had already painted, and it ended up being a much better painting because of it.

I think that, as an artist, it is very important to interact with the art object and “play” with it by making changes depending on how you are feeling or what you want to accomplish with your piece at that specific moment. Art is supposed to be fun and cathartic, not meticulous and scientific and planned out to a point where what you are creating is static and unchangeable. I believe that play and imagination are two very important aspects of where my inspiration to create art comes from, and I think that by allowing my students to interpret project prompts in different ways without making strict rules as to what the finished product is supposed to look like, I will show them that art is just as much about the process as it is the finished product and can be fun.

Studio Reflection #1: 2.21.2010
The term “ecology” means the study of the interactions between living organisms and their environments. The term applies to the man-made environment as well as to the natural world, because as humans, we interact with both environments every day. Our environments are our habitats- they are where we live and eat and sleep and complete our everyday actions. In the past decade or so, there has been a great focus on our environment, as experts have cited that global warming is occurring and that we need to help stop it, or at least slow it down, by using less energy, recycling, and being more resourceful, to name just a few actions.
Of all of the human relationships to nature I have heard and learned about across world cultures, I think that I find the Native American viewpoint toward nature the most interesting. I am not familiar with all of the specific tribes’ viewpoints on nature, but I know that when the Native Americans killed an animal, they made sure that they used every last piece of that animal and did not waste any part of it. In today’s society, we waste so many of our resources. We have become accustomed to having so much, and I think it would be interesting to see how much more people would appreciate what they have and how much less people would waste if we were not given so much.
To me, artwork that in some way is related to the natural world is the most beautiful to me. It is interesting to me how no matter how beautiful what man can create can be, nothing will ever be as beautiful than some of the views I have seen from mountaintops and of a clear sky on a starry night. My favorite painting, “Christina’s World,” by Andrew Wyeth, is related very closely to the natural world in subject matter. Wyeth depicts a vast, open, dull-colored field with a woman sprawled out on it. In that painting, I think that Wyeth does a superb job of illustrating the woman’s interaction with her environment, as the woman looks like she is part of the landscape and the environment.
Artists can do their part in increasing the quality of our relationship with the environment by using recycled objects to create artwork. The website http://www.recycledart.com shows many examples of this. In a high school art class, we used old, cracked, pieces of china plates to make beautiful mosaics. It was a memorable and fun art project and we did not even have to use new materials or waste old ones.
In conclusion, from recycling old materials to making political artwork, to there are many things we can do as both artists and art teachers to help the environment.