How to stay ahead of Time

Go deep into a cave. A bit of photoshop graffiti...

portrait of the faculty, by students

Michael's drawing class used color pencil and a blind grid pattern to draw the faculty making faces. I'm included looking a bit skeptical.
Must say I like how they came out a lot!

ONE way to use old paper lanterns (before going into the trash)

An assignment my students seemed to really enjoy was creating these warm value scales and then painting paper lanterns cast in light and shadow. We worked on black heavy paper. I hung clip lights from a chain of metal hangars that hung onto the drop ceiling frame to get some dramatic lighting...as dramatic as it would let me. Art teachers can never throw anything away. I've saved the paper lanterns in a tray deep in my closet. Here are some samples of student work.

And of course I get students who SEE differently! Isn't this really interesting? This artist was terribly focused and, initially, quite proud. When he saw it hanging next to the others he became puzzled but was truly unable to express what it was that troubled him. He really could not discern what he had done differently from the rest of the class.

Do we need more realism? Or is this way of seeing a gift? Is it a problem?
That goes to the heart of my teaching...

Woman with a purpose

I'm enjoying a dialogue with pieces of paintings. It is reminiscent of time spent with the paper dolls I used to play with, on the steps of my grandmother's farmhouse on rainy summer days.
The broom is a shredded Florida coastal map, the bandana is a map from the farm up north, and the paint splattered shoes were once Yvette Gellatly's. The work reminds me and is inspired by the Paris born Venezuelan artist Marisol, who works in New York and achieved fame in the 1960s. Her humor and insightful sensitivity continue to appeal to me...