I know, I know... as an art teacher you are ALWAYS thinking about your students and what THEY will create. Do I have the materials they need? Have I prepped everything? Do I need to go over the lesson plan again, or have I taught this before? How long will my students need to clean up? What about assessments? And so on... am I right?

Well, what about YOU? Yes, you. Are you creating your own art, or are you too tired, too busy, too disorganized, too________? (fill in the blank and add more blanks if you need them!)

​Yeah, that was me.

I was too busy (with work, kids, etc), too tired (because of, ya know EVERYTHING), too disorganized (where are my paints/collage materials/colored pencils/etc) and too much of me wanting and needing to make everyone else happy.

Well, I'm here to say that I survived raising two terrific sons and taught for more years than I thought I ever would. And I need to keep on art teacher-ing for at least a few more years. 

AND that means... I am finally, FINALLY, FINALLY organizing my own studio space!!!

In that studio space, I am putting up some photos of artworks that inspire me. I love art that it TOTALLY out of the box.
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And by that, I mean, the box never ever even existed. 

One of my favorite art objects, named Object, was created by Surrealist Meret Oppenheim. The cup and spoon are supposed to be used in an everyday way, but the fur makes this object, well, just an object to be viewed, not used. Yuck. And while you are looking, you are probably asking yourself, "Why? Why, why, why?"

​I say, why not? 

I just discovered this interesting art object on the back of a Metropolitan Museum of Art bulletin from 2015. At first, I didn't even know what it was made of, but I liked it! After thumbing through the publication, I found that it was a taxidermied deer with artificial crystal glass. Yeah. I really like it!

Again, there is no box. Why do I love these types of works? 

They are imaginative. They are totally strange, weird and make us think, wait... that is art? 

I first saw Merz Picture With Rainbow a few years ago, after I started creating art with found objects. For some reason, I started collecting rusty things I would find in parking lots and roadsides. Yes, those were my found objects!

​When I saw this piece by Kurt Schwitters at the Yale Art Gallery, I was drawn in immediately. Schwitters "...coined the term Merz in 1919 to describe his assemblages of urban debris and everyday materials."

Amazing. Here I was, 90 years later, using junk I found on the ground in my art works. Schwitters was doing that all those years ago. I wonder how his Merz works were received? 

This art does not fit in a box, either. Who decides what is art, anyway?

​Let's discuss, below!

This blog was first posted on Education Closet
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Experimenting with different art materials allows artists to discover and create works that can express meaning. In the elementary art classroom, it is important to give students the time they need to play with and discover the unique properties of different mediums. How could they create with it until they have an understanding of what it is and what it does? You have to decide whether your objective is product or process.

​Like teaching, the process of art making can be messy.
As a teacher, I’m always concerned with the:

• objectives
• state standards
• elements of art
• student engagement and safety
• class climate
• and assessment.

I have always looked at my students’ art works as products, but in the last few years my students have taught me that they need time to explore and play with the materials. With all of the curricular demands on students, they need to be able to play and discover the world on their own. When I’m creating with a new material or medium, I need to play with it first, too! They forced me to ask myself the question “product or process?”
Educators need to reflect on how lessons are working for their students, and listen to what they need. Do they need time to mix colors to discover twenty ways to make brown? Does a fourth grader need time to pet a really fuzzy pipe cleaner? Do some students need to spread creamy slip all over their hands so they can understand the properties of clay? Today, I watched a third grade student color the back of her hand with marker. Later, when I asked her what happened to her hand, she said, “Oh, the marker slipped.” No, there was way too much marker on her hand for that! Perhaps she needed to experiment with how that might feel on her skin.

One particular student helped me realize this need for experimentation. Last year, during a 1st grade found-object printing lesson I decided to take some pictures of students with their creations.
All of the students loved the printing experience and one particular student actually said, “This is the best day of my life!”

What a great thing for me to hear!

I asked this child why today was the best day of his life, he explained, “Look at how cool my hands look! Now that is ART!”

And so I was reminded, by a 6 year old, that the process of learning and experimenting with different media can be more meaningful to students than any product.

What do you think? Are process and product equally important? Or is one more important than the other?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, please comment below!

Once they see this image of Hofman’s giant duck in Osaka, the conversation changes. Is this art? Why or why not? Woah. Students turn and talk again about this duck. Has their opinion changed? If the little duck isn’t art, is this big one art? (And vice versa) Many questions are raised as well: Who made it? Why is it so big? How was it made? Why?
Images like this can be humorous and thought provoking, they can engage students and get them thinking and speaking about what they see, what they know and what they want to know. Thought provoking images can be used as lesson and discussion starters in any classroom, in any subject. It is terrific fun to kick start a lesson with an engaging image and task like this, it is something which really gets your group thinking. I have used unusual images as an art making prompt, teachers could use an image to start creation of  visual art, music, movement, writing… the ideas are endless.
Here is another one of my favorite images I have shown to students, created by artist Mike Ross:

Cool, huh? It is SO interesting to watch student faces when they first see this image. Turning and talking can get very exciting, all the kids want to say something or ask something about this one!
It’s a truck, but wait… it is two trucks… and they are stuck together? And it stands up? Is it a sculpture? Can you go in it? How does it stand up? Will it fall over? Is this art?
And if this sounds like fun, it is, but looking at and analyzing images is important for students to practice. Scattered throughout the Common Core State Standards for reading informational text are references to illustrations, so students need to practice looking, talking about, thinking and describing what they see. Here are just a few, kindergarten to twelfth grade:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.7 With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.7 Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

What are your ideas for using thought provoking images in the classroom? I’d love to hear them!

This was first posted on Education Closet.