7 Principles Photos

By Mitch Kern

By Amir Lyles

Art:21 Artist

Art:21 Series artist:

Yinka Shonibare was focused on the theme featured in Transformation.

He grew up in Nigeria and studied art in London. He is known for his costume dioramas that explore current issues of race, and culture identity. He is physically disabled after being paralyzed form a spinal virus he caught as a child. His art employs paintings, sculpture, photography and film.

I can help students connect the idea of transformation to their lives by helping them understand the theme. This artist based his art from the world around him and how he fit within the world. He is disabled and didn’t really grow up in a place where race was an issue. He expressed the transformation of his disability and his culture in his art. I will show the students how Yinka used his art and the culture and history of a place to express his art. We can also look at how he used a story line in his film work, just like they use in Literature.

We can look at the idea of Transformation and compare and contrast this enduring idea to other artists. Art: 21 has a list of other artist under this idea topic. We can view or read about that new artist and relook at Yinka’s artwork. We can also look at different artist backgrounds and history to compare with the theme of Transformation. This way we could research the individual artist’s definitions of the theme of Transformation.

I like the idea of presenting a theme to a whole class and having them base an artwork from that theme. Most of the time we come up with a theme together and discuss the possibilities of where that theme can take us. After viewing and researching a theme, I would be interested to know where my students would go with it. I would prompt them with questions about transformation. We would look at their personal feeling of transformation and how they would express that through artwork. I think if we make it personal a student would become more invested in their work and would explore the theme on their own as well.

Week #3

Week 3:

 I gave the Pre VTS assessment to my Foundations of Art class. All of my students were present

 during this class. It is a mix grade level group; consisting mostly of freshman and sophomores 

with one Senior and a few juniors. They are all in this basic class with very little prior knowledge of

 art at all. After reviewing the results of the assessment, a lot of the students came up with a common 

story line. Some students revealed more evidence then some of the others. A lot of the students 

created a story with predictions on what they were viewing. This class has about half of the student 

population that requires accommodations due to a Learning Profile, aka IEP.  I was surprised on 

how well they did with telling me what they saw in writing. But I was also very disappointed in 

some students writing skills.

 

I believe that the students fall within Housen’s description of Stage one:

Accountive viewers are storytellers. Using their senses, memories, and personal associations, they 

make concrete observations about a work of art that are woven into a narrative. Here, judgments 

are based on what is known and what is liked. Emotions color viewers' comments, as they seem to 

enter the work of art and become part of its unfolding narrative.

 

They all had a narrative and told me a story about the painting. They all had some predictions. I am 

looking forward to when the students can write and vividly describe what they see. One of my 

schools common goals is writing skills. I think lessons like this will help improve writing. I also think 

that the students will like these writing lessons because there is no right or wrong answer. They are 

simply telling a story about what they are viewing and providing evidence to back up their story.

 

I am very excited about using this more in my class!

Week #2

I guess I never posted this last week! Sorry for the delay!

Week 2:

I was unfortunately only able to collect one coworker to perform the VTS with. Due to this week 

being Catholic Schools Week, we have been on a special schedule every day, all week. We were 

cut down on our plan periods and when we have one, we are very limited on time to get things 

done. So you can say its been crazy around here and not a lot of people were willing to give up 

all their time this week.

 

But needless to say… I worked with what I had. I presented the Winslow Homer work, “Dad’s

 Coming”. She was able to quickly find things within the picture and support what she was saying 

with evidence.  She liked the higher order thinking skills that were required for this task. She did 

not come up with a story line that followed the title. After she asked for the title of the work, she 

was surprised with the answer. She created a story of a “day at the beach”. She thought that this 

was a great way to enhance your viewing experience and make you think about the meanings 

behind a work.

 

She was impressed with the teaching methods and the steps in VTS. She asked multiple questions 

about the VTS process and how she would be able to use it in her classroom. She stated that she 

would like to come back when I perform this strategy in the classroom setting. I told her that I 

would welcome her to come when we do this. I am not sure if she will be able to because we 

have the same plan and teaching times. We will see. 

Seven Principles

Paul Duncum article about the "new" Seven Principles of Visual Culture Education.

I liked some of the new principles that are presented in this article. Most all the principles, I feel that they overlap and relied too much on the others. For example, I really like the idea at looking at the visual objects in a culture that relate to the Principle of Representation. But Representation needs to include the principles of Ideology, Sedution and Gaze. A viewer is going to view something differently depending on their personal background and relationship to the object being viewed. All of these principles intertwine within the others. The traditional Principles of art education intertwine within each other too. We wouldn't have balance or space, without line or value. Right? I guess I am trying to say that I am at a neutral opinion when it came to this article. Nothing really jumped out to catch my attention and on the other hand, nothing upset me as much as the Kamhi article.

Reflection

Kamhi reflection:
Last night I was reading this article in bed. I was laying down reading it and jotting down a few notes, when the theme of this article hit me and I out loud said, “What!?”. I highlighted, “Visual Culture Studies has no place in art education.” I continued reading waiting for the explanations and the reasoning behind why Kamhi wrote this. I found that it is believed that what Kamhi believes to be “true art” gives both the artist and the viewer reach the same feeling and conclusion of emotions and understanding without any explanation needed. Craft, abstract and others are bogus or failed art. I am nowhere near close to this understanding that Kamhi has. I believe that the viewer and the artist should question and find their own meaning in a work of art. I felt that Kamhi is in a world of his own, reaching these conclusions. The question and answers at the end of the article sealed the deal for me to know that I believe that Visual Culture has a place in art education.
Gude reflection:
On the other hand, “New School Art Styles the Projects of Art Education” by Gude was more in my teaching style.  I read this article at the end of last week. Although the article is not fresh in my mind like the Kamhi’s article, I do like the general theme. This article made me as an art educator questions some of the practices I do in my own teaching. I always ask myself when creating a project and a lesson, what will my students get out of this. I let them choose subjects that have meaning to them and let them create to find meaning in their art. But am I doing enough? The Values that were brought to my attention both solidified my questions about my own practice, but it also formed more questions of, Am I doing enough for the self exploration of my students own understanding and creativity. I believe that I am, but as a teacher I think that I will always have this question in my mind. 

BLOG TOPIC #1: Intro

This semester, I will be practicing my VTS instruction on my introduction class, Foundation of Art. I teach in a private High School with about 400 students. This school is located in the north county of St. Louis. We are a very diverse school with our student population being almost half African American and half Caucasian. I am the only Art Teacher in the school, so I see almost all of these students due to the fulfillment of the required 1 credit in Fine Arts to graduate. All the classes offered in my Visual Art Program are a semester long. We just started a new semester, so all of the classes just started new after Christmas break. The Foundation of Art class is the entry-level class into the Visual Art program at my school. The class consists of 26 new students ranging from freshman to juniors. I have two sections of this class this semester and I will be practicing the VTS on both in order to keep the students at the same level of learning and understanding of art. Some of these student have never had an art class before, so this is their first exposer to art. We start at a very basic level of instruction and practice due to the range of knowledge of the class. Because of the new introduction to art and the student’s first exposure to me, as their teacher, I think they will be a perfect class for VTS.

I expect these students to be a little reserved to the practice of VTS. I think they will be reserved to VTS because of the unknown expectations that I will be asking them to do. I anticipate that the students will hold back at the beginning. On the other hand, I think that with my examples and teaching strategies they will ketch on to the practice and participate fully.