Painting: Keeping Brush Strokes in Mind

My Power Point on Brush Strokes and Painting Techniques

This is the power point presentation that I gave before the participants were asked to paint utilizing their choice of brush strokes. The participants were exposed to several different art historical periods and painting techniques.

A Portrait of Miss Emily Talking Loud 

11"x17" 

Acrylic on Board

An Interpretation Of the Colors a Sky Can Be

13"x11"

Acrylic on Board

Green Textures

10"x11"

Acrylic on Board

My Daughter's Name in Dots
8.5"x11"
Acrylic on Board

Collaborative Dream Catcher

Collaborative Dream Catcher: Our Experiences with Domestic Violence

Dream Catcher College Video<<click here)

   At the Kansas City art institute we have several programs that help us as artists make connections with and help the community using our unique skill sets. Through this idea of artists being able to help the community in special ways I have become very involved in a program called Artplay. Artplay is a collective of artists that go to high-risk communities and offer learning opportunities, positive mentorship, a venue for expression, and sometimes just fun using art as the means to do this. A community that I have been working with is children of battered women at Rosebrook’s a local battered woman’s shelter.  We usually teach fun art or creative movement classes for an hour and one half each week. Sometimes we help the children beautify the premises by mural painting and making collaborative sculpture.  This past week we were privileged to be able to sit in on one of the children’s group therapy sessions and come up with an art therapeutic way to discuss the topic more.  Since the month of October is domestic violence awareness month we talked about our experiences with domestic violence.  As a class we came up with lists of ways that domestic violence could affect us, our families and, our communities. After that we utilized a large hula-hoop to make a web/dream catcher type structure.  The threads of the web came from everyone in a circle passing a yarn ball around. People that had similar experiences with domestic violence and abuse would pass the yarn to each other.  For example I would ask, “Has domestic violence affected your pets?” If three children were to answer yes to the question the yarn ball would be passed to each of those three and as they were winding the yarn around their section they could tell their story about there experience with domestic violence and pets. We went threw the list and made our webs pretty dense.  Then at the end of that class we talked about how we have shared experiences and how because as a group we understand what each other has been threw we have support and safety. It was a great class. We experienced group catharsis. We experienced togetherness. We learned about each other. We had fun!!!!

Video/New Media Workshop Lesson Plans (part two)

Capturing the Sound of Percussion for Video

Objective:

To learn about how sound for video is captured, to be exposed to sound equipment, to learn about composing rhythms, make connections between sound and mood, to be exposed to different cultures that utilize percussion instruments in music.

Materials:

Pots, pans, spoons, rice, beans, rhythm sticks, toilet paper roles, wax paper, rubber bands, string, ribbon, stapler, pie tins, nuts, bolts, plastic Easter eggs, sand, rocks, coins, micro phones and recording equipment, view sonic projector, final cut pro, video from previous week, Mac book pro, body sound recorder or a stethoscope, snare drum, bongo, mic. Drums.

Motivation/Inspiration:

What is my favorite type of sound (music, voices, air conditioner, air planes, motorcycles, animals, ect.)? Where do sounds come from? What do sounds look like? Do certain types of sound affect my moods or the way that I feel? How is sound used in the movies that I watch? If my character had a sound/theme/song or rhythm associated with him/her what would it be? What are some sounds I hear in a field? What are some sounds I hear in a neighborhood? What are some sounds I hear in the city? What sounds does my body make? What does sadness/ happiness/ anger/ excitement/peace/sound like? What is the fastest sound that you have herd? What is the slowest?

Warm up:

Room noise exercise: participants will close eyes for 30 seconds to one minute being silent in a silent room. The participants will be prompted to listen to silence.  After the time period is over participants will be asked to comment on what was heard in a silent room. No instruments needed exercise: Talk about sounds that can be created with ones body (clapping, stomping, teeth chattering, mouth noises, ect.) We’ve got rhythm exercise: participants are asked to follow a series of rhythms created by the instructor.

Activity:

Participants will view the exquisite corps video from previous week. With the video and their character in mind the participants will create or obtain a few percussion instruments of they’re choosing. These instruments will be created with everyday household items. After the procreation of instruments the class will compose a series of rhythms. Participants will practice the rhythms and then perform the composed rhythms for a recording devise. After class the sound that is recorded will be applied to the exquisite corps video by the instructor. The final video will be screened during the next class.

 Follow up:

Personal art experience journaling exercise: Participant should write one to ten lines about their experience in class. Sample questions to answer: What was my favorite thing about today’s class? What did I not enjoy about today’s class? What are 3 things I learned? What are 3 things I am proud of? How did I feel after today’s class? Is there any thing that I want to state about my art piece? Note: if the child is not developmentally capable of writing it is encouraged that the child draw a picture or verbalize what they would like to be written and it be transcribed by a volunteer.

Historical /Conceptual Notes:

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. The term usually applies to an object used in a rhythmic context or with musical intent.

Anthropologists and historians often speculate that percussion instruments were the first musical devices ever created. The human voice was probably the first musical instrument, but percussion instruments such as hands and feet, then sticks, rocks, and logs were almost certainly the next steps in the evolution of music.

Many caves in France, near Caberets and Grotte du Pech Merle, are believed to have been inhabited by early human communities. In those caves, anthropologists have observed red dots, which appear in most places where other carvings/paintings appear. It is believed that the dots/markings were formed by people who would tap or hammer those parts of the rock which have obvious acoustic significance; tapping those particular places causes tones which resonate throughout the cavern (like the echo of voices in a giant cathedral or drums in a large hall). This may be proof that humans were aware of the acoustic properties of percussion instruments and resonating chambers as early as 25,000 years ago; through much speculation suggests that humans likely used percussion instruments long before that.

As humans developed tools for hunting and eventually agriculture, their skill and technology enabled them to craft more complex instruments. For example, a simple log may have been carved to produce louder tones (a log drum) and instruments may have been combined to produce multiple tones (as in a 'set' of log drums).

Percussion instruments play not only rhythm, but also melody and harmony.

Percussion is commonly referred to as "the backbone" or "the heartbeat" of a musical ensemble, often working in close collaboration with bass instruments, when present. In jazz and other popular music ensembles, the bassist and the drummer are often referred to as the rhythm section. Most classical pieces written for full orchestra since the time of Haydn and Mozart are orchestrated to place emphasis on the strings, woodwinds, and brass. However, often at least one pair of timpani is included, though they rarely play continuously. Rather, they serve to provide additional accents when needed. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, other percussion instruments (like the triangle or cymbals) have been used, again relatively sparingly in general. The use of percussion instruments became more frequent in the twentieth century classical music.

In almost every style of music, percussion plays a pivotal role. In military marching bands and pipes and drums, it is the beat of the bass drum that keeps the soldiers in step and at a regular speed, and it is the snare that provides that crisp, decisive air to the tune of a regiment. In classic jazz, one almost immediately thinks of the distinctive rhythm of the hi-hats or the ride cymbal when the word "swing" is spoken. In more recent popular music culture, it is almost impossible to name three or four rock, hip-hop, rap, funk or even soul charts or songs that do not have some sort of percussive beat keeping the tune in time.

Because of the diversity of percussive instruments, it is not uncommon to find large musical ensembles composed entirely of percussion. Rhythm, melody, and harmony are all represented in these ensembles.

Video/New Media Workshop Lesson Plans (part one)

Exquisite Corpse Video

Objective: 

To experience a non-traditional video/new media process utilizing the exquisite corps technique. Characters will be the subject matter. Participants will be exposed to some surrealist ideas and theories in the context of art history. Participants will be exposed to some video production equipment.

Materials:

Brown paper grocery bags, Journals, pens, 8.5” by 11” printer paper, Markers, Crayons, Colored Pencils, glue sticks, collage materials, costumes, theatrical props (hats, boots, masks, fabric, ect.) 2 flip cameras, two tripods, a backdrop, final cut pro, jitter, Mac book pro, light kit.

Motivation/Inspiration for Activity:

If I were any character who would I be? How would I act? Would I be a human? Would I be and animal? Would I be and object, like a house or a baseball or a chare? What special powers would I have? Would my body behave differently when I was sad/ happy/ excited/ angry/ confused/ nervous/ scared? How would the character differ form my actual self? Would my character have any talents? What types of people/ animals/ monsters/ or creatures would your character hang out with? What type of stories would your character be in? Where will your character live?

Warm up:

 Exquisite corps drawing exercise. Movement exercise: participants will portray movements based on emotions. The instructor will suggest an emotion and ask participants how that emotion could be portrayed through a movement or series of movements.  Participants should be prompted to concentrate on using their bodies instead of their faces.

Activity:

 Participants will create masks out of a brown paper grocery bag using crayons, markers, colored pencils glue sticks and collage materials. These masks will be based on a character of the participants choosing. After the mask has been created the participants will have a chance to collect and utilize props and costuming materials in order to fully portray their character.  Students will then perform their character in font of a camera. There will be an emphasis on body motions instead of facial expressions since our faces will be covered. After class time the instructor will take collected footage and divide the bodies of the character up into head to shoulders portion shoulders to hips portion and hips to feet portion.  These portions will be organized into a program created in jitter in order to make a video version of an exquisite corps. This video will be screened at the beginning of the next class.

Follow up Exercise:

Personal art experience journaling exercise: Participant should write one to ten lines about their experience in class. Sample questions to answer: What was my favorite thing about today’s class? What did I not enjoy about today’s class? What are 3 things I learned? What are 3 things I am proud of? How did I feel after today’s class? Is there any thing that I want to state about my art piece? Note: if the child is not developmentally capable of writing it is encouraged that the child draw a picture or verbalize what they would like to be written and it be transcribed by a volunteer.

Historical/Conceptual Notes:

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy and social theory.

Automatism has taken on many forms: the automatic writing and drawing initially (and still to this day) practiced by surrealists can be compared to similar, or perhaps parallel phenomena, such as the non-idiomatic improvisation of free jazz.

Surrealist automatism is different from mediumistic automatism, from which the term was inspired. Ghosts, spirits or the like are not purported to be the source of surrealist automatic messages. "Pure psychic automatism" was how André Breton defined surrealism, and while the definition has proved capable of significant expansion, automatism remains of prime importance in the movement.

Exquisite corpse (also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. "The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun") or by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed.

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals — for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus.

Vocabulary:

Exquisite corpse, collaboration, surrealism, automatism, character, tripod, costume, backdrop, camera.