Banksy

Have you heard of Banksy before reading these materials for class? If so, what do you think of his work. If not, would you like to know more about him?

Yes I have! For some reason I always pictures Banksy as a woman...maybe it's because I associate their work with the image of the girl with the heart balloon that he's known for. I really like his work and I think he's really interesting artist too. 

What do you think of the "Balloon Girl / Love is in the Bin" "incident"  at Sotheby's?

I believe this just happened recently, because I just this article not too long ago? I think it's really kind of wonderful. It's sort of an "eff you" to the art community and wealth in general. It's pretty gutsy of Banksy and I like it. 

What are your thoughts on the references/memes based on this work?

Some of them are silly, like the image of potatoes being shredded into fries or the fringe top with the girl with the balloon on them. However, some of them are pretty politically charged such as the image of the constitution being shredded. It's all very interesting, because I feel like Banksy did this as a push back against society, when in reality the shredded art is probably worth double now...

How would/could you use Banksy's artworks in your art classroom?

Banksy is just a good example of contemporary art. I feel like his work can be really relevant for kids today, especially kids that think they "don't like art" because it's hard to not like Banksy. 

VCAE Website Review

• In your own words, what does Visual Culture mean to you, how would you define it?

Visual Culture is pop culture images and other trending visuals. It incorporates the "now" or the "it" things in culture.

June K McFee video (from 1995, wow!)):

• What are the most important things discussed that are still relevant today in regards to Art Education and Visual Culture?

I don't feel like this video talks about visual culture very much? Most of the video is about her personal life.. so I'm not sure if I'm watching the right video? I guess she talks about the importance of the student as an individual and especially in today's world I feel like visual culture can be different to each student as an individual. If you're trying to connect with a class you need to connect with each kid to truly understand what their visual culture is. She talks about letting students come to their own ideas and not influencing them with her own ideas and that is important as well. 

In the "Zinester: Art of Individualism" video:

• Have you heard of "Zines" before? 

No, never...

• What do you think about the Zine Library?

I think that it's a little strange that they keep up this library that pulls no income? I feel like they need to figure something out to actually make a profit at this. Otherwise I think the library is fun. 

• What do you think of the concept of consumers/producers?

Well in this instance I feel like the consumers and producers are completely mixed together... anyone can make a Zine and anyone can buy a Zine.

• Would you find the creation of a Zine an appropriate topic/project to explore in your classroom?

I think the concept could be really great for a school project HOWEVER I think that if the students were to look into Zines more it could cause problems. A lot of the Zines they took the time to talk about in the video where very inappropriate for school. So I think I would have to take the concept of creating freely and making mistakes and do something else.

In the "Beginning a Lesson" Video:

• What information from this video is of interest to you for your classroom?

I found the statistics rather interesting, although dated at this point. I think its important we remember to be flexible in today's world. 

• Do you find the "Arguments 1-4" valid concepts to explore Visual Culture in the classroom?

Generally, yes. I think any of the arguments could be researched and then recreated by a student to "prove" the arguments. 

• How might you use these in your classroom?

I especially think that argument 2 could be fun to work with. We could look up examples of parody's and then make our own by taking a piece of visual culture from history and making it relevant to today.

Observation Discussion Part 1

• What types of observations did my peers make that were similar to mine? How and why are they similar?

I wondered if it was strange that I hadn't experienced a ton of technology being used during my observation hours or if it was just because I was in an elementary school, but it sounds like a lot of the other students didn't see a ton a technology being used either. 

• What types of observations did my peers make that were different to mine?  How and why are they different?

Some of the other schools my peers observed had very different programs than what are available through the district I am at. I heard mention of a fashion and textile class, and a new media arts class. The district that I am observing offers regular art, creative crafts, and photography. 

• Did you find the discussion with your peers of your observation experience helpful to you as a future art educator?

I don't know that the discussion will impact me much as an art educator, but it was certainly interesting. Perhaps the most useful part of the discussion was when we talked about students on one project, but having all different ability levels. I may use that the idea some day in my own classroom. The example was if you give the students a still life and they are all required to draw a glass bottle from the still life, let the students that have stronger abilities move forward with the rest of the still life, but for the students that struggle a little more, let them focus on the glass bottle. 

• In your next observation hours to complete (for this class or others), will you view things differently? If no, why? If yes, why?

I'm not sure if my view will have changed, but I want to ask more about the special education program at my school. I'm also looking forward to observing a high school level class to see how and if technology is used or controlled. 

The Art of Failure

• What are the similarities between the artists interviewed in this article? What are the differences?

The artists interviewed all come from completely different areas of art; from literature, to music, to an entrepreneur, to a dance critic. While some seem to fear failure more than the others in the beginning, the major similarity is that they all grow to recognize that failure is just apart of being an artist and you must overcome it.  

• Is there anything discussed in this article that you can relate to?

The piece about Janai Brugger hit home for me. Growing up dancing and performing, I understand that feeling of not having something completely figured out but having to get on stage still and work it out in front of an audience. It's like she says at the end of the article though... the failures are experiences.

• Do you believe that taking risks and pushing boundaries is important to the creative process? Why or why not?

It absolutely is! How do you know what you are capable of if you do not push yourself to the edge? The world would be so stale and stagnant if no one ever pushed boundaries. It's good to be uncomfortable sometimes... The strongest piece of art are the ones that make a person think, and that doesn't happen from work that is safe and comfortable. 

• Do you experience fear of failure? When? How do you think it has impacted you positively or negatively?

Of course I do! Doesn't everyone? For me fear usually drives me to keep trying, but it has certainly had negatively impacts on me as well. Perhaps it made me not try something or do something because I was afraid I'd fail. I try to learn from those moments though because the fear made me miss out on what might have otherwise been a great opportunity. 

• How do you think you can support your students as their teacher when they encounter the "fear of failure"?

I think it's important as a teacher to just be present. Listen and be there if someone needs to fall back on you. 

Newsletter

1. Do you think creating a classroom newsletter is an effective way to communicate with your audience? Why or Why Not?
I do feel that it can be effective, but a lot of things can change in a month and the information may not always be up to date. For this reason I feel that they create extra work because you could easily post the same information on a website and keep it up to date in real time. 
 
2. What did you think about the process of creating a newsletter using Adobe Creative Suite Tools?
I actually didn't hate this. I make a monthly newsletter for the church that I work at in Publisher and I found it fairly similar. It did make some things easier than Publisher, such has creating paragraph styles which saved me formatting time. 
 
3. How did this project strengthen your digtial /new media skills?
This project made me feel a lot more comfortable with InDesign. It's starting to feel less overwhelming and I am able to navigate through the programs more confidently. 

Week #6 Classroom Newsletter Project Videos

Part 1

My audience is going to be parents and students for my newsletter.

My newsletter is going to be a "Here's What Happening..." for the boys and girls club that I work at. I can introduce myself as the new(ish) Art Coordinator and show some stuff that the kids have been doing in the art room. Then I will also lay out upcoming activities and fundraisers.

Part 2

Building a newsletter

Holding the option button as you place text fills in the text that fits in a given area and then saves the remainder of the text to fit into the next frame area.

Wrap text around images and graphics

Go to "Typography" and then "Text Wrap"... from here you can make text fit in a square, overlap, underlay, weave through text, etc.

Create a layout with text and graphics

Have we already watched this video? I remember the graphic... The video mostly just talks about basics, like making a frame and cropping and placing pictures. The thing I think is helpful to remember is that "W" is the command to see the preview mode.

Part 3

Multipage Document (Navigating Pages)

I haven't worked with multiple pages yet so I wanted a crash course on multiple pages. I learned that if you pull down the Windows tab you can select "Pages". From this window you can add new pages (Which do not need to all be the same size) and move pages around. Also the number of pages in the document is in the bottom left corner similar to a word document. This will just be helpful so I don't get lost in the pages.

Master Pages

I also watched the video on Master Pages on this same page. I had no idea what Master Pages were so I figured I should watch it. The Master Page is a page where you can add things that you want to appear on every page, such as a header or footer. I could definitely use this to put a footer and page numbers on my pages.

Get Around in InDesign

I just thought this would be a good refresher before getting back into InDesign. This video is mostly just an overview of the program. I must be starting to get slightly more comfortable with InDesign because there wasn't much new information here for me. It's good to refresh the basic's anyways, All panels can be arranged on the screen if you would like extra ones and then to reset to the default you just click "reset Essentials" in the top right corner. Hopefully this just makes me more comfortable and I can set up the editing tools that I use most in a convenient way.