Eyes with Mare-Bear

Maren (my 3yr old daughter) has noticed my eye-sketches.  She also knows where I keep my pens and markers.  She got her paws on one of my sketch books and scribbled some circles (eyes) on each page.  So I went with it…. The collaboration was fun - she could do what she wanted and I did what I wanted to it.

This one was more difficult to decipher so it came out much more painful and grotesque.

More controlled and balanced.  I gave this one some Thundercats coloring.

Eye Ballz and such

Not sure what the deal is - but have been working some things out in my sketchbook - focusing on the human face.  Specifically, eyes. Working towards some larger paintings when I get the time.  Just getting the ideas on paper.  

And Now Registration is a Problem

It's so much easier to have a team of artists pulling prints than just one, in a garage, with 3 kids helping.  Been super busy with work and researching and writing my Capstone proposal. Oh well, happy to be producing work.  The latest…

Working with Power Colors

Black is tough to work with.  Un-eveness and what-not.  Here's some pics.

I need a better Press

Pretty sure I love printmaking - but I need a press upgrade.  I found a studio you can rent at pretty reasonable prices in Seattle - http://www.pratt.org/studio-rentals/printmaking-studios/

Printmaking Garage

All great things started in a garage, right?  Cold, mostly dirty spidery web-ury and surrounded by odd ball tools that no longer have a place in my life. Cardboard boxes.  Not comfortable. Perfect!  

FINAL Concept Map and New Findings

Questions:

What parts of SDL, STEM, PBL & LBD overlap?

How can they be integrated into one studio curriculum?

What is needed to implement these "best practices" in a school environment?

How does a distillation of these best practices yield a simple plan of action?

How do students own their learning?

Can cross-grade collaboration provide independence AND structure?

Process:

I really dove into all the web has to offer.  And started creating a massive list of books and bookmarks of anything related to the movements I am working around.  I have been spending time now vetting them.  Some have quality content.  Some are just a smooth website that is marketing the art education item as a product, but don’t have a lot of content to offer.  This is actually a large problem.  I think I will have to jump on in-person interviews or informal talks to point my towards more substantial resources not available on the web.

New Findings:

1.     Neuro-education wonderings…not sure how this will be applied, if at all.

2.     Establishing the goals/factors of Learning by Design (LBD) to be:

▪    Authenticity: tasks based on real-world applications

▪   Multiple contexts for design activities

▪   A balance of constrained, tiered challenges with open-ended design tasks

▪   Rich, varied feedback for designers

▪   Discussion and collaboration

▪   Experimentation and exploration

▪   Reflection

3.     Expeditionary Learning – just another iteration of the same goals?  Is my design – build studio idea just another iteration of the same ole core values?

4.     Really struggling to get past the “marketing” material and into the guts of what various art education models and movements actually do -  Everyone claims they are provoking a questioning environment, safe environments in which students are trusted with cognitive challenges, engages communities….

5.     Crossdisciplinary: Viewing one discipline from the perspective of another; for example, the physics of music and the history of math (Meeth 1978)

6.     Multidisciplinary: The juxtaposition of several disciplines focused on one problem with no direct attempt to integrate (Piaget 1972, Meeth 1978)

7.     Pluridisciplinary: The juxtaposition of disciplines assumed to be more or less related; e.g., math and physics, French and Latin (Piaget 1972)

8.     Transdisciplinary: Beyond the scope of the disciplines; that is, to start with a problem and bring to bear knowledge from the disciplines (Meeth 1978)

9.     Another nuance I’ve been noticing is the need to focus on the Process of the lesson vs. the Project.  Teach through the project, not teaching and then doing the project.