Teaching Art in Alabama

A Conversation Starter for High School Art #2: Who Decides What Is Art?

2011-09-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

Photograph: Sander Roscoe Wolff. Used with permission.
Visit the artist, view his art, and read his writing at his website, Sanderis.com.

Our school is an IB school. Each of our units has a unit question, what some people may know as a guiding question. This is a question to which you cannot 'google' the answer. It is also great for class discussions. The last question I posted (Who owns art?) resulted in a good discussion in my AP Art History class, one we will revisit in a couple of weeks when we begin learning about Greek art. One of the students was quick to point out that the Ishtar Gate might not have been kept safe had it been in Iraq.

Sometimes I get lucky. I ran across the two articles for my next 'big question' within a few days of each other. The first was this article, about how an artist was detained for taking photographs. Sander Roscoe Wolff was detained by police on June 30 of this year for taking pictures of a refinery. One of the pictures he shot that day is at the top of this post. I think it's really cool - my husband and I have bought similar prints (albeit postcard-sized - we have a limited art budget) from artists in the past. But apparently police can detain people who are taking photographs of things deemed to have 'no aesthetic value.' Who decides if the artist's subject is worthy? The police officer. Apparently, they watch for individuals not taking typically 'touristy' pictures.

One one hand, this kind of makes my blood run cold. It also reminds me of artists in Nazi Germany whose work was labeled 'degenerate.' They lost jobs, teaching positions, and some were forbidden to create art. On the other hand, I don't want it to be easy for terrorists to come in and take surveillance photos of the local nuclear power plant in order to plan an attack. These are two viewpoints that we will discuss in class. And before we get too sidetracked from our main discussion, I plan to bring out the next article.

Bird in Space, Constantin Brancusi,
photograph by Dennis Irrgang
Creative Commons License

In the mid-1920's, photographer and art collector Edward Steichen purchased one of Constantin Brancusi's bird sculptures, similar to the one seen here. Brancusi shipped his sculpture to Steichen, but in October of 1926 it got held up in customs. Instead of the duty-free admission that works of art received, it was detained as industrial material and taxed. Officials claimed that Steichen owed a tax of $229.35, over a third of Steichen's purchase price, and a big chunk of change for 1926. It took a court case and over two years before Steichen could get the tax dropped. The article I found is from Time Magazine, online here. After reading it I found a great article with some entertaining quotes from the trial online here.

I can't wait to see how my kids respond to the discussion.

Links:
Original article I found about Mr. Wolff

Another article with more details

Another photographer who was detained by 8 policemen

Time Magazine article about the Steichen / Brancusi import tax

Article about Brancusi's work on trial for not being art

A Conversation Starter for High School Art #1: Who Owns Art?

2011-08-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

My AP Art History class is studying Art of the Ancient Near East. I left them with this question: If Babylon was located where present-day Iraq is now, why is the Ishtar Gate in the Pergamom Museum in Berlin, Germany? I already know that one student is on the right track, and another is on the wrong track, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the conversation afterward. I plan to show them this article from May, 2002. It details how the Ishtar Gate was removed, and Iraq's attempts to have the gate returned to Iraq. At this point, I expect many of my students will agree, but then I plan to point out that this article was written less than a year before the US invasion of Iraq. They have already seen images of artwork labeled 'recovered' that were damaged between the looting of Iraq's National Museum and their recovery. Worse, some artwork is labeled 'missing' in the presentations I show my students.

I plan to close with this article, about the Iraq National Museum's reopening a couple of years ago.

I hope to discuss some of the following: Who owns art? Does it belong to the country in whose soil it is found? What if the sites are being looted by citizens of that country? Should it belong to the country that finances the archaeologists? What if it's art from the 'cradle of civilization' - shouldn't it belong to all of humanity, if we all have roots there? What if that country can't protect (or is in danger of losing) these antiquities? Should antiquities always remain in the country where they are found, or should they be spread throughout the world so that more people may view them?

We will revisit this conversation when we get to Greek Art. This time we will be discussing the Parthenon Marbles and Greece's attempts to have them returned from the British Museum. The website linked here encourages classrooms to have a discussion about where the marbles, which were removed from the Parthenon, and to send in their results, which are then posted to the site.

Little Victories

2011-08-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

This year, I am trying to break away from my normal method of teaching. Even though I try to integrate technology into the classroom and do fun projects with my students, I still rely on books, study guides, PowerPoint presentations with notes and class discussion, and videos.

Pros: I cover the material. The students (for the most part) learn the material.

Cons: It is not as engaging as it should be. Some students can't read at the level of others, some copy other's answers without ever looking at the material. The students like looking at the images and discussing them, but they don't like taking notes. And it's almost impossible to keep the entire class awake during videos (not that they are boring, but when you get up in the morning and see some of your students posting to Facebook at 3 am, you know how your cards are dealt).

This year, (4th block B day) one of my classes is ALL students who have had me before. One of them asked if we were going to take a lot of notes this year. I told them (as I tell all of my classes) that if they learned the material, I didn't care HOW we did it. They asked for no notes, I told them I'd try to think of a solution.

That evening, I decided I would offer all of my Art Appreciation II classes the option of blogging the important material and then viewing and discussing the PowerPoint and videos or taking notes during the PowerPoint and videos.

The next morning, I had my step-by-step instructions for using edublogs.org all written out. I explained the options to my 2nd block A day Art Appreciation II class. Blogs? No way. Just give us the PowerPoint and notes. I was floored. I discussed it with the other art teacher at lunch. "Maybe they're too lazy to do it - maybe they will be afraid it's more work." I didn't know. I told them that if they decided they wanted to try it in the future, I would be happy to do it with them.

Disappointed, I offered the same options to my 4th block A day students. Blogs? We get to get on the internet and make a webpage? They were all over it. I printed out a list of information that their blogs needed to have and showed them how to make a student blog. They were so excited! Once their blogs were published and they saw their 'webpage,' they were so proud! I encouraged them to write down the url so they could go home and paste it on Facebook or show it to their family.

The next day, I had the original class that asked for no notes, 4th block B day. I gave them the option, and their reaction was the same as 4th block A. They were so pleased. One student had to finish his at home because he couldn't find the perfect picture of Stonehenge! Afterward, we viewed my PowerPoint and a couple of videos of cave paintings, etc. Then came the most surprising thing - after watching and discussing this video of a man using Neolithic methods to build a concrete henge in his back yard, the students asked if they could build a scale model of Stonehenge! I was floored. And excited. Today my husband has been in his shop building a 24"x24" tray that's about 4" deep to hold our dirt and sod. And the students didn't just ask - they were excited about it! A couple of the students wanted to do it, and as soon as it was mentioned, the other students agreed.

I have to get with the math department - this is going to be a great interdisciplinary lesson.

QR Codes (or, what is that funny little box?)

2011-08-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

I put this on my syllabus for AP Art History. If you scan it with a barcode scanning app on your cell phone, it gives you a link to my webpage (not this blog, but my art webpage, The Bachuss Art Room Blog). I have a small class, and some of the students knew what it was, but my most outspoken student was quick to say, "what is that? I see those everywhere and don't know what they're for!" I pulled out my cell phone to demonstrate, and they thought it was very cool.

Currently, students are not allowed to have cell phones during class at my school. Luckily, this AP class will require study sessions and other things outside of class. I plan on adding QR codes to art posters, handouts, and art games and flashcards. They will be able to use them during study sessions, art movie nights in my classroom, and while doing homework. In a way, it's like a gimmick, but if it gets them to visit the website and read about the artwork, I'm all for it!

One of the middle schools in our district is testing a program where kids are allowed to have cell phones during class. I think it will probably come down to the attitude of the teacher. If the teachers make no effort to use them as educational tools, they may only be distractions. I have high hopes for this pilot program - I am very curious to see how it works out.

Check out this link for more on QR codes: "The best reources of using QRcode in the classroom"

A couple of us are planning to invade the chat room over at edupln.ning.com this Thursday, 8/18/11, at 6 pm EST / 5 pm CST to talk about using QR codes and other ways to use technology in the classroom. If you are reading this you are welcome to join us - the more people, the more ideas to share!

Linoit - Online Stickies for Teachers

2011-08-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

Actually, Linoit is online stickies for anyone. But they are particularly useful for me, as a teacher. I have a hard time keeping up with things I need to do. I used to have to-do lists everywhere. One at school - heaven forbid if I took work home and forgot the to-do list - and one at home. The at home one was usually divided up between things I wanted or needed to do in my artwork, and mundane stuff like paying bills or making a dentist appointment. I find these old to-do lists everywhere. I used to lose them all the time. But no more.

Above you see my Linoit desktop for my school stuff. I also have one for 'home' and 'art.' I color code my school stuff by subject. Things I need to do for Art Appreciation II are yellow, Art II is green, Ceramics and Crafts is blue, AP Art History is pink, and other is white or purple, depending on the type of item.

When I find out there is something I need to do, or if I have an idea I would like to try or research, I just stick it on a sticky note on my desktop. When I get an email requesting something, I cut the relevant stuff and put it on a sticky until I have a chance to do it. Nothing gets lost, and it's stored on the internet, so I can get to it from home, work, or my cell phone.

This has helped me become more organized and helped me to save the time I would otherwise be using hunting for my list! I hope it helps you as well.

Best of all, Linoit is FREE! Get your account at www.linoit.com.

Teaching Creativity

2011-08-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have seen the TED talk from 2006 where Ken Robinson discusses how schools kill creativity. A recent study seems to support his assertion. I have seen several articles this week about a 2010 study of 300,000 creativity tests (dating as far back as the 1970's) and the troubling results found by Kyung Hee Kim, a reasearcher at the College of William and Mary. Basically, since 1990, children have become less creative: less able to come up with unusual ideas, less imaginative, less humorous, and less able to elaborate on ideas.

Many people believe that this is a result of the high-stakes testing atmosphere prevalent in today's schools. Because of No Child Left Behind, educators are teaching to the test. And the test doesn't give you bonus points for a creative answer. The answers are right if you say what is expected, and wrong otherwise. There is no room for creativity.

I am fortunate enough to teach in a school system that values creativity. Creativity and curiosity are two of the core attitudes we try to build in our students. I teach at a high school that requires students to take some sort of fine art in both ninth and tenth grade. I know how lucky I am - many schools no longer have arts classes in this age of proration and funding cuts. But creativity should not be relegated to the arts curriculum. I believe that teachers in every subject should be teaching creativity. But how?

Use of digital media - the creativity study showed that one of the few areas where children were becoming more creative is in the use of digital media. We live in a digital world, that is only becoming more so, and the sooner educators embrace technology, the better able we will be to reach our students and prepare them for the future.

Teach deep, not shallow - yes, you have to cover all of that information for state testing. But in at least a few topics, go deep. Have the students understand all of the aspects of a problem. Have them brainstorm for solutions. Give them the opportunity to be creative problem solvers.

Use some self-fulfilling prophesy - humans are innately creative. Let your students know that they are creative beings. Reward creative solutions, even when it's not the solution you were looking for. Or ask for creative solutions in addition to the 'correct' answer.

Give some creative freedom - offer the kids freedom to design their own assignments or projects - if the sky is the limit, how far will they reach?

LiveScience article on the creativity study

Back to School

2011-08-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

School starts tomorrow. I am swimming in new ideas and ideas I want to revisit. Whole Brain Teaching, the flipped classroom, using social media to teach, and more. I have new classes this year, including an AP Art History class, for which the textbooks have not arrived.

I have decided to spend the year doing whatever it takes to get my ducks in a row for the future. Recording videos, making powerpoints, organizing my room - if I have to stay until 6 pm everyday for a year, eventually it will be worth it.

I plan to make more use of google docs, linoit, delicious, teacher tube, and the google art project. If I would use these tools consistently, they would make my life easier!

In advocacy: a webpage is counting the cost of cut arts funding to the economy in Great Britian. Check it out at Lost Arts.

As part of all of these big plans, I also want to blog regularly. Other goals include making a video to submit for next year's Google Teacher Academy and finding out how to become a STAR Discovery Educator when our system no longer pays for an account with Discovery Education. Pfft.

Dali and Titian at the High

2010-11-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

My daughter and I went to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta to see the Salvador Dali exhibit and the two Titians that are visiting the US. The Titians, two massive paintings, were incredible, but what I expected. It was still great to see them, though.

What was not expected was what I learned at the Dali exhibit. Dali is one of those artists that captures the attention of the young. I had known about him since I was little, but as I learned more about art history, he didn't stand out. He was an accomplished Surrealist, but nothing more. I expected to see some of his work, get to understand where he was coming from a little bit better, but that was all.

I was surprised to find that many of the conflicts I think about in my every day life are the same as the conflicts addressed by Dali in his works. I'm not going to get into the personal stuff, but suffice it to say that one of my big private questions about life, the universe, and everything was also a big issue for Dali.

I loved seeing his personality. He couldn't stand Mondrian. One paper shows a chart he made rating famous artists on things such as draftsmanship, creativity, color, originality, etc. - about 10 or so attributes. Vermeer got all or mostly all 10s in each category. Other famous artists scored similarly high. Except Mondrian. He had a row of zeros, with the last number, a 3, erased and a '1' penciled in. He further mocks Mondrian for an entire video short.

One of the things I enjoyed seeing was how much Dali was influenced by scientific discoveries. He was interested in and kept up with what was happening in science, and incorporated it into his work.

If you get a chance to see either of these exhibits, either at the High, or (the Titians) elsewhere in the US, I would highly recommend going.

AAEA Conference

2010-11-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

I went to the Alabama Art Education Association Conference this weekend, and had a great time. Went to several hands-on and a couple of lecture workshops, and got to go to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and see Annie Leibovitz' Women exhibit and an exhibit of Maxfield Parrish's prints. There was also an Italian exhibit of marble sculpture by Giovanni Balderi. After viewing it, I wonder if he has issues with women. Overall, I loved the traveling exhibits and the workshops. The permanent collection had some works by Henri, Cassatt, Rothko, and O'Keeffe, but they were not stellar works (especially the Rothko and O'Keeffe). The museum is worth a visit if you are in the area.

The workshops were great - I learned a new printing method, tried some clay techniques that I had read about but not tried, and got to socialize with other art teachers. The food was wonderful. The conference was definitely worth the price. I just hope next year it is at a hotel that doesn't charge $20 for a breakfast buffet!

Links:
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Alabama Art Education Association

The Creativity Crisis

2010-10-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

A must-read for anyone teaching art. While our funding is being cut and there is more focus on high-stakes testing, we are producing students who are less equipped to compete in the 21st century job market. How many of you have heard the phrase that the most of the jobs our students will be doing haven't been invented yet? I wonder who will be inventing them?

The more creative a student is, the more likely they are to be "entrepreneurs, inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats, and software developers." Another quote: "The correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ."

IBM agrees. When asked what the most important competency for leadership in the future will be, an IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs ranked creativity at #1.

How are we preparing our children for the future?

Full story: The Creativity Crisis.

Discovery Education Conference

2010-10-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

I went to a great conference this weekend - a Discovery Educators conference. I found a lot of useful (and not-so-useful-but-fun) tools:

Wordle and Tagxedo - create interesting tag clouds. Tagxedo lets you control the shape. Here is an example:

I also like LinoIt, a sticky note / productivity tool. You can have different workspaces for school, home, work, and others. This might be a good system for the "Get r done" bunch.

I will post more links as I run across more from my notes!

eLearning

2010-10-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

I am taking four online professional development classes. It's not that I need the hours - I always have plenty - but I am hoping to use more Web 2.0 tools in my classroom. Here are the four courses I am taking:

1. WebQuests, Treasure Hunts, and HotLists for Beginners
2. Designing a Virtual Field Trip (I can't find one I like, so I'm going to make my own)
3. Wikis and Blogs and Podcasts and Skype (I've never used Skype, and hopefully I will find more info I can use on the other three)
4. Becoming an Online Course Facilitator

I chose that last one because I have begun using Moodle to deliver information and tests to my students. Imagine an art teacher forced to shrink great works of art into tiny pictures and photocopy them in black and white to show students on their tests. That was me, only last year. Now, with Moodle, I can show my students large, full-color images of artworks for their tests. It is wonderful! I can even let them guess at an answer a second time for partial credit if they miss it the first time. I have uploaded projects and rubrics to Moodle, as well. And it grades the tests for you! Very nice and handy. I love it! And, best of all, it is free. Your school system just uploads it to their server and you can use it!

I think I will like the online classes. I just have to make time to do them!

Wild Work

2010-09-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I've mentioned, but the high school at which I teach is an International Baccalaureate school. It's a good system, but requires way more than is 'normal' for preparation, interdisciplinary stuff, and all steps in the teaching process.

Grades 9 and 10 are the last two years of the "Middle Years Programme," or MYP. All students participate through grade 10. Then, students may choose the challenging DP "Diploma Programme" for 11th and 12th grade.

Basically, anyone who teaches 9th and 10th has a lot of extra hoops through which to jump (boy, that sentence doesn't sound right!). All my classes are 9th and/or 10th so I have been busy!

This is a great program and all the work will be very much worth the effort, but still! Busy, busy busy!

Back to School

2010-08-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

We had a great inservice. A juggler spoke to us about 'staying unbalanced.' It was a lot of fun - you know, one of those beginning of year pep talks. But this one was amazing to watch. Picture a guy on a six foot unicycle juggling a machete, meat cleaver, and hatchet. Lots of fun.

I am going to try the WBT again this year. I fell off doing it last year. It is hard to build as a habit, but it really works while you use it. But once I slack off I find it hard to start back.

We are on the block schedule this year for the first time since I've been teaching. Looks like there will be some challenges. We have four 95 minute blocks each day. Day one we have 4 classes, day 2 we have 4 different classes, and it alternates. Both days I have 1st block planning, 2nd & 4th block Art Appreciation, and 3rd block Art II.

So far, so good. I have lots of names and faces to learn!!

End of Summer

2010-08-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my last post was in January - where has the year gone?

The end of the summer greeted me with good news and bad news - the Theory of Knowledge class that I was going to be teaching is not going to be taught by me. Bad news, because I was looking forward to it, but good news in that not teaching it will free up a lot of my time to do some other things I want to do this year, like prepare an AP Art History class and start a local National Art Honor Society Chapter.

WBT and Other Things

2010-01-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

I am a few weeks into the Whole Brain Teaching, and it's going pretty well. I am not using the scoreboard / Mighty Groan / Mighty Oh Yeah like I need to. The class is pretty responsive in the Ok, Teach area, though. I have a few that only teach their neighbor when I walk by, but most of them are having fun with it.

I am getting ready to teach AP Art History, hopefully this fall. It is an incredible amount of work. Just getting the syllabus ready was very time consuming.

I also have set up a new website for my students. I am trying to collect good links on the art of various world cultures. If you know of any, please drop me a comment! The page is here.

Whole Brain Teaching, Day 2

2010-01-11T15:32:00.000-08:00

After being off for basically four days (snow, in Alabama!) the kids were very slow with the Class!/Yes! - but they jumped on board after I gave myself a point on the scoreboard. I still need to do better with the Mighty Oh Yeah! / Mighty Groan! bit.

I can see I will need to separate the independents sometime soon. Many were reluctant to participate - I had a few in my 4th period that would not play along at all. My fifth period started out worse, but by the end of class most were at least half-heartedly teaching their neighbor.

Today's lesson was on reasons artists create (personal, social, spiritual, physical, and educational). The students learned signs for each. Tomorrow is 'where do artists get ideas?' There will be seven elements to remember instead of just five, plus some extra definitions. I am not sure how to handle that. Probably just do signs for the seven items and let them write the definitions for the terms (landscape, portrait, etc.).

I am still trying to decide how to pair the students in a seating chart. Once I rank them by GPA, should I pair the lowest to the highest and meet in the middle? So A's sit with F's, and so forth? Or should I divide them into the 'high' and 'low' groups and pair the top from the first group to the top of the second group? So A's sit with high C's, B's with D's, and low C's with F's? I am waiting on some info on accommodations for some students, so I probably have a few days before I am ready to implement a seating plan.

Whole Brain Teaching, Day 1

2010-01-06T17:49:00.001-08:00

Well, it went better than I anticipated. Many of the kids were hesitant to participate, but some were obviously having fun. Some of them were suggesting scoreboard rewards before class was over. And I had several students say, "Bye, Mrs. Bachuss!" as they left - a first, especially before I even get to know them. Today we discussed the syllabus, procedures, lockdown/tornado/fire drills, and how we learn (auditory/visual/kinesthetic). Tomorrow is the first art content, so I am curious how well it will work. My goal for tomorrow is to keep the energy levels high, encourage participation, and work on the Mighty Oh Yeah! / Mighty Groan when scoreboard points are awarded.

Oh, my PBS focus group is about to start, so I have to go. I will post how everything goes the rest of the week if we don't get closed for snow!

Wish Me Luck!

2010-01-06T05:06:00.000-08:00

I start teaching new Art Appreciation classes today. I will be using the Whole Brain Teaching method for high school for the first time today. I am also going to step up my use at the elementary level. Wish me luck!

An Interview with James Rosenquist

2009-12-24T19:03:00.000-08:00

Bent Objects

2009-12-19T08:11:00.001-08:00

I'm going to be teaching sculpture to my Art II students next semester, and may give them the option of working with wire. This gentleman has done some true wire sculptures, and some with other items mixed in. Take a look!

2009-12-14T16:36:00.001-08:00

I am definitely doing the Whole Brain Teaching thing next semester. http://bit.ly/UmQcs

Wishlist Contest!

2009-12-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

For those of you who like to create, there is a chance to win prizes at Milliande's website. Here is the link (click the picture):

I entered my wishlist - maybe my wish will come true - enter before December 19th and yours might, too!

9 More Days!

2009-11-30T18:56:00.000-08:00

Ack! Nine more days in this semester before exams. We are flying through the elements and principles of art, with a small booklet project thrown in. I am almost finished with a new powerpoint for the elements of art. There seems to be little good information by way of videos or websites, so I am making it up. There's The Artist's Toolkit, but it doesn't cover everything, and it is geared more to younger students.

While looking, I rediscovered A Lifetime of Color. There are lesson plans for K-8, but what is really neat are the activities, especially the technique demos. There are some that we use with high school, especially the ones about facial proportions.

Epiphany

2009-11-24T18:52:00.001-08:00

When I first started creating art, I wanted to change the world. Later, I realized I was changing the world. . . mine.

Zentangles in Action

2009-11-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

I Zentangled Lorelei's drumsticks:

Google Wave Invites (Invitations) Available

2009-11-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have two Google Wave invitations available. I would prefer they go to high school art teachers, but would consider other requests. Anyone want one? Leave a comment below telling me why you need one or how you would use Google Wave. I'll decide in a couple of days.

Zentangles

2009-11-22T17:40:00.001-08:00

Very cool - meditation & drawing all in one - anyone can do it: Zentangle.

Google Wave for Art Teachers

2009-11-20T20:08:00.000-08:00

I am looking for other art teachers who want to use Google Wave to collaborate on ideas, teaching methods, and lesson plans. If you are interested, let me know!

Tim Burton's Drawings

2009-11-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

For my Art II students:
Tim Burton's Drawings on Display with a cool animated trailer - check it out!

Moving Things Around

2009-11-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to start blogging again for a while. Blogger is now much faster than it used to be (or at least faster than I remember it), and I am finding all kinds of cool stuff both online and in the real world that I would like to share. Plus, I miss typing really long sentences like that last one.

So, I have pulled a few relevant posts from older blogs, and started this one. I also have a knitting blog that I update occasionally - link in my profile.

I have also been using Twitter - I am @Astabeth there.

2009-09-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick video of the rain barrel I painted for the Huntsville Art League's fundraiser:

This Summer

2009-08-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

This summer went by entirely too fast! We spent a week at the beach and Miss Priss loved it - she is very much a beach bum. She had a pirate party for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. If anyone is taking kids to Panama City Beach, the Pirate Cruise was the best money we spent all week. We can't find enough good things to say about it.

During July I participated in Ravelry's WIP Wrestlemania. For those who don't knit, a WIP is a work in progress. I have way too many, and I got about 12 of them completed during the month. I played on Team Tardis.

I also painted a butterfly for Decatur's public art project, Arts Aflutter:

I am also painting a rain barrel for a similar project in Huntsville.

That's all I have for now - I have been putting most blogg-ish stuff on Facebook, so my blog has been neglected!

Plexiglass Drypoint

2009-05-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

I am planning on spending 6 weeks with my Art II class on printmaking next year. I wanted to create an intaglio lesson plan - we have a small, seldom used press. I had heard of using plexiglass for engraving, but didn't know if it would work well with water-based ink. I did a little playing around to try it, and it will be fine for high schoolers.

I've never done anything but collagraphs and relief printing, so this was new to me. I did a little doodle & some scribbles to see how it would work.

I added waterbased printing ink:

and scraped it into the cracks with a piece of plastic (an old driver's license):

Then I wiped off all the excess ink with old phone book pages:

My brand new press didn't work right, but I managed to get a semi-decent print - the only bad part is it's very light. Once I get my press fixed (or replaced) I will experiment a little more and see if I can get it darker. Maybe if I don't soak the paper. See how light it is?

It only bled in a couple of places, though. I should be able to tweak it to use in class.

Motivation

2008-07-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Plurk has motivated me to update my blog. I have finished another room, the second-worst in the house. I present to you the sewing room:

It's not really a room, but a section of the downstairs that is blocked off by my storage shelves and cubbies:

On the other side of the blue shelf and white cubbies (my cheap acrylic storage, decent yarn is on the other side and really good yarn is upstairs) is the TV area. Working around the room, you can see the rest of the shelving on that side (and the 'door') and my fabric storage (unspun fiber is on the other side).

I am very happy with how it has turned out. I still have to organize my fabric and yarn, but it will do for now - the goal is for me not to be ashamed for someone else to see it, and here it is on my blog, so I need to work on other areas of the house next.

My sunroom is next. It is where I do my painting, jewelry making, and all other artwork except for knitting and ceramics. I will have to move some things around in the closets in my sewing room (if I haven't used what's in them in the past year, I probably can get rid of it) so I can move some things I don't use so much down from upstairs. Then I will have space to get things done. Right now I don't have space to move up there!

The Swing of Things

2008-07-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well, school is finally over for the summer and I have a week before I start teaching again (as long as everything goes as expected). I have spent all of my free time organizing, trying to make my house something that I'm not ashamed for other people to see. I started with the laundry room, which is also my closet. One of the perks of living in a 100+ year old house is very little closet space. Instead of ankle-deep in laundry (or deeper), like it used to be, it now looks like this:

That is all of my dresses, suits, skirts, pants, and SCA clothes. No more dirty clothes on the floor! The washer and dryer are here:

That is 'line dry' stuff on the small wheeled rack (I love it!), and everything else - tops, coats, sweaters, purses, shawls - is in the two closets and the small drawers below them.

Spare linens are in the top cubbies.

I have been able to keep the laundry room like this for about a month, so I hope it is permanent. What I am really excited about is this:

It used to be the computer room (but now we use laptops and don't need the big desk, CD's, etc. I have been calling it the weaving room or weaving studio. Joe calls it (insert drumroll and in a deep voice, announce) "The Loom Room of Doom" - dum dum duuuuum.

He built the shelves for me:

and I have spent three days working on it and my sewing room (hopefully pics to come on that soon). I hope to post more later!

Well, It's Official

2007-08-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

...I'm a teacher. After over a week of training and working on my room, I had students Thursday and Friday. I was a little nervous, but I had a great time both days. And I'll be more comfortable once I learn all the students' names.

I'm going to like this so much better than my year at the laboratory school, where I was thrown in to teaching K-6 with no curriculum, no mentor, no training, no anything.

Everyone at the school where I work is really nice. We had Monday to work on our rooms, and I had everyone from janitors to assistant principals coming by to introduce themselves and welcome me.

I am only part time, which is good because I'm working on my Masters. I have two classes of Art Awareness (that's art appreciation) and one Art I.

And all the new teachers got $100 at the local teacher supply store to get stuff for their rooms. I'm going today to get a stapler, tape, dry erase markers... all kinds of stuff.

Not much knitting done lately, but I am working on a pair of Magic Stripes Socks. The mystery shawl has fallen by the wayside. Maybe once I get my lesson plans ready I can work on it for a little while every day before I have kids.

2007-03-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

Alabama Mothers Deserve Midwives

My latest project (non-knitting).

2007-01-16T00:19:00.000-08:00

Lorelei's Babies

Something we did just fooling around over the break - warning: it's long and repetitive! I need to edit some.

I'M DONE!!!

2006-12-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

I am FINISHED for the semester! I am going to SIT ON MY BUTT and KNIT ALL DAY! ...as soon as I clean up the kitchen and living room and do some laundry.

The firing of the wood kiln went very well, the salt worked and glazed the pieces. All in all, I was very happy. I also made pictures.

My honey (the one in charge of the wood):

Our friend Mike (the one in charge of the fire) raking out the embers:

We covered the chimney when we salted:

The fire is really looking for oxygen in this one:

Opening up (for anyone into ceramics, that's cones 8, 9, and 10 FLAT on the top shelf!):

What I turned in:

Now this blog can resume knitting content!

Salt Kiln

2006-11-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

We are now in the process of rebuilding the kiln at a different location so we can salt fire!

2005-10-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

Nov. 5th is the next wood firing. Here are pictures from the one this spring:

Loaded and ready to go:

Some of the wood:

The firing begins:

Here we were losing too much heat out of the chimney, but it looked really cool:

The lintel above the stoke hole stuck out a bit, making it impossible to completely cover the stoke hole:

The view from above (note the glowing through the lid (it is TWO high temperature silicone carbide kiln shelves thick!):

We only had about five pieces blow up, but they were big ones (all greenware):

The best looking of the survivors (some were greenware):

My first wood firing

2005-03-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

I got to see (part of) my first wood firing at Gulf Wars. Anyeta built a Roman bottle-type kiln. I helped a little with the construction and took lots of pictures. Here we go:

The kiln was in the Early Period Life area of the site. I hate I got the car in the background.

A view of the shelves and support:

Fully loaded (this was all there was to fire):

View of the cones and draw rings through the peephole:

The taller it got, the scarier it got:

View from a distance. You can see the Viking longhall in the background:

The firing begins. The chimney says "Cone 06 or Bust Gulf Wars XIV." I think it eventually hit 2000 degrees Fahrenheit - around cone 04!

With a flash:

No flash, you can see the firebox area and the flames coming out of the chimney (that's Mistress Anyeta standing and watching):

My favorite picture:

I didn't make it back for the unloading, but it looked like only a couple of pieces broke. That's good, considering most of them were made during the week and some were only a little past leather hard. I don't know how the cones melted (07. 05, and 03), but I hope to talk to Anyeta soon and find out.