Teaching, teaching, teaching

Yesterday was the first day of crits for a Variable Topics in Drawing Project--a 300 level drawing class I teach at least once a year.  My students have worked on these mid to large sized collages for over a month at least, and they've done a wonderful job translating the still-life they set up into various interpretations of reality.  I asked them to think about how one might present multiple views of any given view of reality, and they embraced the challenge with gusto!

From the top: work by Marilyn Barr, Elizabeth Weiland, Sara Phillips, Scottie Bottenus, Ashley Jones and Ivana Beck.

Oh, I should say that these are all about 4'x5' in dimension.

The Best of It, Kay Ryan

However carved up
or pared down we get,
we keep on making 
the best of it as though
it doesn't matter that 
our acre's down to a square foot.  As 
though our garden 
could be one bean
and we'd rejoice if 
it flourishes, as
though one bean 
could nourish us. 

So many people I know are running a million miles an hour right about now--which I why this is the poem I am handing out to my Variable Topics in Drawing students for our period of writing today.  I already know how resilient we (individually and collectively) might be, but sometimes I wonder if constant displays of that resilience/adaptation as a means of getting through a frenetic moment/day/life is really an evolved and positive human characteristic.

Abstraction, a compendium of definitions and thoughts surrounding the term

my thoughts:
1. that which has no name but which is nonetheless real
2. wordless
3. specific but unknowable
4. beyond the self
5. or so deep in the self so as to not be perceived
6. never seen but somehow known
7. what is wished for
8. what is longed for
9. reason for being is internally derived
10. a world in itself (possessing own gravity...physics and perhaps even biology)
11. to give new form
12. what might be
13. perceiver has no preconceived mode of approach, approach is gleaned from the thing itself
14. the thing itself
15. manifest of potential
16. beyond reach
17. could be

my students' thoughts:
1. simplification, reducing space to core elements (Karen L.)
2. nature, unpredictable (Adam V.)
3. taking something from nature and putting a twist on it (Brenda V.)
4. exaggeration of something (Lauren Pl.)
5. relative, very different, not portrayed as something seen in real life (Lauren Po.)
6. portion or part or belief that exists outside the boundaries set by what we consider the whole of things (Michael M.)
7. artist looking within (Adam V.)
8. harder to understand quickly (Lauren Po.)
9. not literal, all have different opinion (Adam H.)
10. random in such as way as to be coherent (Justin R.)
11. own point of view (Janie S.)
12. risky (Berklee B.)
13. pushing the limit, process that allows you to enter your own world, as well as others (Cassidy W.)

They're blowing my mind today...

Last week I wrote a bit about my students--feeling inspired by their intrepid determination in tackling what I hand them with gusto, ie. barreling into a 4'x6' drawing in a mid-level drawing class with not much worry.

On Tuesday we critique the drawings they've been working on for over a month now--large scale self-portraits made of collaged drawings. These images have very much been about constructing a face and allowing the image/piece itself guide them in terms of the next step--as opposed to privileging mimetic representation.
We begin by drawing a lot--making a zillion varying contour line drawings from a mirror. After amassing a fair-sized pile of visual information (the raw material) they begin to build their faces. Some incline right away toward a more abstracted rendering, falling quickly in love with layering shape and value and mark (that would be Karen, her remarkable collage not included above) and others stay closer to the mirror (see Michael's version, above right). At some point though, the sheer massiveness of what they must make sets them loose and I can almost see them begin to INVENT--this is when our conversations (my favorite part of teaching) get really good. Misty (above left) broke into her stash of lace and thread, Cassidy posited the notion of a body slapped together in jagged, raw fragments--nearly seeming to emerge from the paper itself, and Craig imaged himself a hundred times over--his face and body receding into a roiling, Ensor-like crowd.

If charged with making yourself from scratch (or a ton of dirty pieces of gritty paper and some glue) what would you make?

What is your idea of mastery?

Another question from Twyla Tharp's "Creative Autobiography" list given to my Variable Topics in Drawing students today...so in 10 minutes:
1. getting to the place where you know risk-taking is essential, though still not easy
2. knowing the direction and committing to going there
3. getting to a point in your work where you understand your basic questions and, regardless of how the work changes and evolves, being able to amplify those questions--delve deeper
4. being on a long-term trajectory and sticking to it--again, regardless of how the work evolves and changes
5. being able to recognize moments of grace in the studio, having moments of grace?
6. surety without complacence or stasis
7. being able to somehow rest in the magnitude of the pursuit without being overwhelmed or deterred
8. deep, deep delight in making--deep, visceral delight in making coupled with the uncanny feeling at times of the material moving of its own accord--of you just being the vehicle (see #5 again)

Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you?

A bit of background: I'm literally in the midst of teaching an intermediate drawing class--Variable Topics in Drawing. I've opted to teach the class with a Writing Intensive marker--something our students need at this university--and so we begin each class with 10 minutes of informal writing. We write about our work, other people's work, issues pertinent to collage (our drawing topic), and here and there I've also been giving them questions from Twyla Tharp's Your Creative Autobiography list. Today's Twyla Tharp question: Does anyone regularly inspire you?

I've got five more minutes.

Absolutely.

My students in this class for one--they are currently wrapping up a 4'x6' collage self-portrait--some approaching representation, some totally giving way to abstraction and fragmentation. For many this work is the most ambitious image they've ever made, and they do not balk. I am inspired by their willingness to dive off the cliff, so to speak. They may not know how big of a cliff it is--and I envy this in some ways--a blithe readiness to rupture comfort zones--with glee and gusto. Why do I feel so haggard in comparison?

This will have to be "Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you?" part one--as I'm thinking too much and have now used up the remainder of the 10 minutes. Now I've got to get back to teaching/talking/looking.