Collaborative Class Clay Collage

Today is class Amanda and I did our themed based lesson from our "Mark Making: Making a Mark" unit. The image above is the final collage that the entire class constructed together using action and clay.

To begin the lesson we created a "class definition" of mark making by having students come up and either write specific words or draw "marks" on the white board. This conversation was very useful in developing a starting point for what the class would understand mark as. Terms such as "leaving an impression" and "additive/subtractive" were mentioned. As the lesson went on I kept adding certain terms to the white board as well to further develop this class definition.

The demo was then led by Amanda who demonstrated techniques in replicating texture onto pieces of clay. We explained the process of making quick gestural studies (being sure to define what gesture was) and prompted the students to create four forms of their own based on the presented natural objects. Feedback about this part was that it was successful in terms of loosening students up who were generally perfectionists and it was good that we warned them not to get too attached to their forms.

Then we presented work by a few artists, creating a class conversation about key terms such as chance, action, mark making, composition, and positive/negative space. We examined art work by Shinohara, Anastasi, and Zemer Peled in order to do this. In conversation about Peled we talked about energy and certain releases that the physical aspect of throwing clay may have. Feedback that we received about this was that it was successful in that we asked further questions based on student comments and did not dismiss what anyone was saying. Something to consider though in this presentation was developing a bit more about each artist.

After the presentation we began our class collaborative clay collage. I had a blast. We started the students off by throwing one form each and were all experimenting together, figuring out techniques to get the clay to stick, ways to throw it. We stepped back after this first throw and had a conversation. What did we notice? How were the pieces of clay interacting? Did the texture make it interesting. We threw two more, we spoke again. We threw a final piece and had a final discussion about how this work had developed. The class spoke about how this process made them feel. They had fun, they let out some stress.

The process of making this was extremely exciting. I would be absolutely thrilled to do this with an actual class of high school students. They way that they interacted with each other through the the making of this was inspiring. I feel as though this could set up a great classroom dynamic early on in the school year. Of course with the proper trust and safety precautions. Overall I was happy with what happened today. It was definitely exciting to this lesson play out in such a great way.

Zemer Peled

The thing about a Google image search is that sometimes it does not turn out so well but sometimes you get lucky, find exactly what you need, and become inspired. Last night Amanda and I were working on coming up with a lesson to do with the class for our "Mark Making: Making a Mark" unit. We started out with the notion of thinking big. We wanted to do something that would excite the class. Originally we had come up with a lesson, which would in fact be a useful lesson for studio art high school students to explore, but after discussion with Aaron we thought that we may need to change our direction for what we are presenting to our class of students on the first day of the unit. Thinking about this, we decided that we wanted to open with something quite attention grabbing, breaking notions of your typical "mark" and what that means in the artistic process. We thought about ways we could consider action, chance, mark making and more typical elements such as composition all at the same time. Amanda brought up possibly doing something with clay. I thought what about throwing clay?
So- Google image search: "Throwing clay at wall" Result: Zemer Peled.
Zemer Peled is a contemporary ceramic artist who works with shards and globs of clay rather than what one would consider a traditional ceramic work. Even her "still lifes" consist of warped and droppy vessels. Her piece that popped up in the Google search, "Throwing clay on the wall (2012)" (pictured below), demonstrates contemporary themes of action and chance that we had been exploring with other artists along with truly testing what a "mark" is. Peled stands at a distance and throws globs of clay onto a white cement wall. The pieces stick where they may, in whatever shape they happen to form.
Amanda and I were very excited about this work. Not only would this be fun for potential high school students but we know that it will be for us. As students are exploring what it really means to make a mark or an impression, they can also be taking into consideration chance, action, and class collaboration. I hope this version of mark making will allow for students explore "mark" through some unique play.

Fieldwork: Conversation with Students

On my last day of fieldwork at the high school, I was able to see the graphic design students finishing up the lesson on color mixing and creating thumbnail paintings. As they had some interferences student testing and then the hurricane they weren't as far along on the project as my mentor teacher and I had wanted them to be at this point. Even so, I was able to have a small discussion with three students who had completed the painting and then was able to answer any questions for the rest of the class as they finished out their work. It was nice to be able to talk to the few students that were done in sort of an informal assessment of what they had trouble with in regards to creating their paintings, what they thought was successful about their work, and what was something that they would change about their piece if they were to go back into it. The students revealed that matching the colors exactly was much more difficult than they would have thought. Each specific color became it's own unique challenge. It was evident that these students had worked particularly hard on their compositions as the colors were very close, even if they weren't one hundred percent satisfied with them. In the small discussion we talked about each of their paintings, putting it up next to the original composition. One student was excited about the way his composition turned out. He said that it was interesting to see it as a painting and that he would have never thought to do something like this. The next student had created two paintings because he was not thrilled with how the first came out. I appreciated this effort and he did too as he concluded that his second one came out much better because of it. He did in fact have a real challenge in color matching as the focal point of his piece was an iris of an eye. (lots of colors in there!) The third student's work was well done and exceptionally detailed. It is clear that this student has a great deal of natural ability. She explained that she enjoyed working this way to get to do something a bit different from the graphics work. All of the students were though excited to scan these imaged into the computer and see what they could manipulate and do from there. This small conversation allowed me to get a sense of what some of the students really got out of the project, which was definitely rewarding.

Making a Mark

William Anastasi, Subway Drawing, 1993, Pencil on Paper

What do you see when you look at this image?

How do you think these marks may have been made?

These were the two opening questions that myself and my partner posed to the class when we introduced our theme of mark making. It was exciting discussing these questions with our classmates, having them take their best guess at what was behind the making of this piece. The artist who created this, William Anastasi, places himself on the subway, headphones in, paper on his lap, pencil in each hand. He allows the movement of the subway to guide the marks that are made on the paper. All he does is steady himself and allows chance to create the image you see above.

We presented Anastasi along with a piece by Marcel Duchamp, "Three Standard Stoppages," and Ushio Shinohara, "Boxing Painting," in discussion of mark making through chance. All of these artist develop a certain formula with their works that we discussed in order to provide for a chance experience in making their mark.

The question was posed at the end of our presentation: is "mark making" a process or a theme?

I believe it depends on how you look at it. For me, and for the way I will be developing it as a lesson and then a larger unit, it is a theme. As one explores mark making through various methods, including chance and motion, it becomes more dynamic than just a drawing process. Mark making becomes a way in which artists on making impressions. The artists that we are exploring develop ways in which they are using mark abstractly to explore further concepts and to make their impression on those who come into contact with their work and with their process. Developing mark making as "making a mark" will allow for students to understand ways in which they can develop unique processes in order to make their own impressions.