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This months Teaching Artists' Journal is
supplied to us by Ruth Vaughan.
www.springwater-paperworks.info
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February 5, 2002
Some thoughts on the arts and education…
February 8, 2002
The Yin & Yang of Studio & Classroom
February 12, 2002
Thoughts on “Relativity”
February 15, 2002
Cabin Fever….
February 19, 2002
“The Papermaking Road Show”
February
22, 2002
“Timing
is Everything”
February 26, 2002
“Just the Right Recipe”
February 28, 2002
"Sign Posts"
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February 5, 2002
Some
thoughts on the arts and education…
“Art,”
said Robert Henri, “when really understood, is the
province of every human being.
It is simply a question of doing things, anything,
well. It is
not an outside, extra thing.”
I
used this quote from a speech Henri gave in the 1920s to
the Art Students League as the opening for a talk I gave
last October to a group of High School Seniors.
Henri had continued, “When the artist is alive
in any person, what ever his kind of work may be, he
becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing
creature. He
disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for
better understanding.
Where those who are not artists are trying to
close the book, he opens it, and shows there are still
more pages possible.”
I
asked the group of some 70 students, ‘In our
high-tech, data hungry, 21st century world,
why study the arts?
Now, really, why
bother with arts education?’
There was silence.
Because
studying and using the arts helps us to become more
independent, creative problem solvers.
Of what real good are the tools of math, science,
history and language if we can not use them in fresh and
creative ways to build the future?
It
seems obvious to me that learning about
the arts, and learning about any
subject through the arts will continue to be the
keys which open the doors of tomorrow.
Quotation from “The
Art Spirit” by Robert Henri, compiled by Margery
Ryerson, copyright 1923, J.B. Lippincott Company.
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February 8, 2002
The
Yin & Yang of Studio & Classroom
The
studio is relaxed and quiet this morning.
I have clients coming this afternoon to pick up a
piece that I just finished.
At 38” x 60” it will take two of us to move
the heavy, framed work to their van. Usually my work is handled entirely by my gallery after I
deliver it, unframed, from the studio.
But this piece was an exception - a commission
done and framed for some one I know personally outside
the gallery.
Becoming
a full time studio artist is something I had thought
about and worked toward for more than 10 years.
I’ve been full time now in my studio space
since February of ’94 and found it lacking in only
one thing -
social interaction.
While I wouldn’t trade it for anything, it’s
a solitary endeavor, my rural studio.
It’s that fact which makes working as a
visiting teaching artist such a wonderful fit. I’m sure it’s just coincidence that my studio is actually
located in a classroom
on the second floor of a 1929 school building; complete
with the slate black boards with the deep oak chalk
trays. I
guess the connection between studio
and classroom
was meant to be. For
me, the two worlds compliment each other perfectly.
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February
12, 2002
Thoughts
on “Relativity”
I
was thinking the other day about the relevance of learning
about the arts to the way we experience the world.
A lot has been written on the subject.
Dr. Betty Edwards, in her book Drawing
on the Right Side of the Brain, makes a clear case for
learning to draw through making cognitive shifts for
clearer perception of our visual experience. This
type of thinking helps free us from rather ingrained
responses to new challenges.
On
the related natures of art and science she quotes Russian
scientist Leonid Ponomarev from In
Quest of the Quantum, “It
has long been known that science is
only one of the methods of studying the world around us.
Another - complimentary - method is realized in
art….True science is akin to art, in the same way as
real art always includes elements of science.
They reflect different, complimentary aspects of
human experience and give us a complete idea of the world
only when taken together.”
He uses examples such as the mathematical accuracy
required in ballet and the necessity for inspiration found
in both poetry and geometry.
I
don’t believe we need to make a case for the relevance
of the Arts in our educational system….the question to
me would be, how could the system exist without them?
After all, I’ve asked my students, just
what is it we are studying about cultures around the world - past and
present? The
anthropologist is an art historian.
Humanity’s footprints were left by the creators
not by the bureaucrats.
In looking at history, we are looking at art.
To understand a culture we look at what they
created. As
an artist/educator, I try to highlight the connections
between art, history, science, language and all other
aspects of life for those who might not see it that way.
Life is a big picture.
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February
15, 2002
Cabin
Fever….
Recently,
I left my rural studio and made the 40 mile drive to
attend a Symposium put on by the Rochester Region’s
Association of Teaching Artists.
I was really pleased to find the event was so well
attended - with just about a standing room only crowd in
the Arts & Cultural Council’s main meeting room.
We had a wonderful 9 person panel assembled of
several veteran teaching artists, the heads of our major
Arts in Education Organizations, and a 4th
grade teacher who has worked closely with artists in her
classroom. These
individuals gave their time, and shared a wealth of
experience and personal observation with the audience.
They answered a wide range of questions about the
work, skills, and current situation of teaching artists.
The field is wide open.
The
energy and enthusiasm was palpable in that room. The professionalism and dedication shown by the panel and the
responsive interest from the audience of experienced
teaching artists and new comers alike was invigorating!
Many people (including myself) exchanged cards for
possible future projects. It is good to leave
the studio occasionally….
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February
19, 2002
“The Papermaking Road Show”
This month finds me with no teaching projects.
Commissions are waiting, it’s a studio month. Next month I have 2 workshops, one for adults and one for
youth, as well as 3 days with 5th graders in a
nearby school district.
I need fairly long stretches of uninterrupted time
to do my papermaking art work, so this kind of timing
works well for me.
What
I do as a teaching artist usually involves packing up
quite a “road show.”
Generally this means starting at least a day or so
ahead to pre mix and dye cotton fibers to make easy to use
pulp for students who will be creating large scale
paper-art projects in the class room.
If I’m doing a more introductory workshop, I
prepare some, but also let the kids prepare their own
paper pulp by recycling colorful scrap papers in the
blenders I bring to the class room.
Then there are the deckle (forming) boxes, tubs,
draining trays, sponges, hand towels, etc. for 10 work
stations. As
well as the slide projector, and the “show & tell”
library of books and materials related to paper making and
paper history from around the world.
Occasionally, as I lug the last of at least 6 large
boxes down the stairs from my studio and cram it in to my
car, I wonder is this really worth it?
Then
I think of the smiles and little gasps of delighted
surprise as the students pull their very first sheets of
handmade paper, and I get in the car and start the engine.
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February
22, 2002
“Timing is Everything”
I
do my best to design my workshops to fit within the time
constraints of the class schedules.
That’s been a very tricky thing for me to learn.
Introduce, explain, demonstrate, have the class
create, & cleanup all in 35 to 45 minutes.
Yes, I long
for more time with each class.
Often I see 6 or 7 classes in one day on this type
of schedule. Last
year, at one school, I saw 588 kids in 3 ½ days.
How do class room teachers do this on a regular
basis? It’s
exhausting.
Occasionally,
a teacher can manipulate the school’s complex schedule
to give each class a little more time with me, but often,
this is impossible. There’s
really too much material for me to present in such a brief
time, so I try to focus on what the class room teacher
sees as the most relevant and important aspects of my
presentation for her/his classes.
I
have found the best thing for my projects is to break my
presentations up into 2 visits if funding allows.
On one day, possibly in larger groups, I like to
introduce all the students to papermaking with an
interesting and quirky slide talk with hands on items to
explore the 2000 year history of the craft. I
try to give them some perspective on the subject as art,
as social stimulus, as science.
From paper wasps’ nests, to papyrus, to the
recycling of cotton rags in the 14th century,
to the ‘crime fighting’ watermarks in our newest U.S.
currency - I seek to make those brief moments in the
glorious, sloppy, sheet forming process more meaningful.
The next day, those kids are ready to get their
hands wet.
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February
26, 2002
“Just
the Right Recipe”
Over
the years, I’ve presented papermaking demonstrations and
workshops for 1st graders through high school
students as well as adults, artists and educators.
Each group has had its own unique challenges and
helped me look at my material and present it in the most
engaging and appropriate way for them.
I
spend very little time on slides and historical background
with the youngest groups.
They like learning how a “nasty stinging bug”
(the paper wasp) helped us discover that we can make paper
from trees. I
print up simple vocabulary sheets of words peculiar to
paper making, have the students put their names on these
and use them as their “felts” for drying the paper.
I concentrate on the sounds, feel, and steps of the
process, using the vocabulary words repeatedly to name the
tools and actions the children will perform.
They “buddy up” and help each other remember
what to do next. They
are a joy to watch. The
classroom teachers I’ve worked with have been invaluable
resources for developing effective techniques for
differing age groups.
The
middle grades are a lot of fun because they often have
studied Egypt, recycling, New York State Conservation and
Forestry principles, and some simple science and
technology. All
these subjects can be brought in through various
‘chapters’ in papermaking history and touched on in my
introductory slide talk.
Language arts are great here, too, as there are
words of French, German and Italian origin used in
papermaking. I
do my best to connect with and expand on the students’
current studies. I
try to keep the goals of the N.Y.S. Education standards in
mind for each group. Middle school kids love discovering the “high-tech
crime-fighting” watermarks in our new US currency and
learn that the Chinese invented the technique almost 2,000
years ago. They
can experiment more, do better sheet forming, and be
involved with large multi-class paper-art projects.
High
school age and beyond is fair game for presenting the
larger world picture of the impact of the development of
paper mills and the printing press on literacy and the
balance of social power.
A little lesson in chemistry about hydrogen bonding
and cellulose fibers helps explain to everyone why we can
recycle paper, why wet paper is so weak (the paper bag
with the wet bottom problem) and why drying the paper
makes it stronger again.
Handmade sculptural books are possible at this age,
with the theme rooted in the very ingredients the student
puts into the handmade papers which will make up the book.
If
it’s desired, I also talk about my work as an artist,
and what it’s like to be
a studio artist today working with galleries and
collectors. I
talk about art as a career choice, and show slides of me
working in my studio with a work in progress.
Learning
to create the right ‘mix and recipe’ for each audience
has been a great experience for me. I’ve
received a lot of help from both my teachers and their
students.
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February
28, 2002
"Sign Posts"
Being a teaching artist isn’t
always what I expect it to be. A couple of years ago
I had a bus load of second graders come to my studio on a
field trip to spend a morning learning about papermaking.
We met in the studio and did introductions, then each of
them received a cookie and a paper cup of juice and we
went to the room next door and sat on the floor to see
slides and ask questions.
Afterwards, we returned to the studio
for a couple of hours and made many colorful sheets of
paper with the help of the bus driver, their classroom
teacher, and myself. The kids were thoroughly
involved with their projects, even to the point of
whimpering a little when we had to stop to clean up so
they could get back on the bus to return to school.
A few days later, a large brown
envelope arrived at my door. It was full of
beautifully decorated, handwritten student thank you
notes! Well, of course I was thrilled, and with
grand notions of my creative and artistic influence on
these kids I sat down to read the letters. Almost
without fail, the first line in each letter read, “Dear
Mrs. Vaughan, thanks for the snack!”
As I reflect on the rather chaotic
nature of working with classrooms full of energetic
children, or the nerves I get before a public
presentation, I occasionally wonder why I ever choose to
leave the peaceful confines of my studio. My studio
work provides me with most all the income I need, and the
business of being a visual artist has plenty of challenges
all by itself. So, why do I bother with arts
education? Why am I a teaching artist?
Originally, it is because I was asked
to be. I was hesitant at first, but people showed me
there was a curiosity out there, a desire to know about
what I do. When I discovered that the love and
enthusiasm I have for my work could be infectious, I was
hooked. Every time I see the face of a student,
whether child or adult, light up in delight with the
simple act of creating something beautiful and tangible -
a small sheet of handmade paper - it reminds me of why I
became an artist in the first place.
I’d like to close this journal as I
opened it, with another quote from “The Art Spirit” -
There are moments in our lives, there
are moments in a day, when we see beyond the usual.
Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such
are the moments of our greatest wisdom. If one could
but recall this vision by some sort of sign. It was
in this hope that the arts were invented. Sign-posts on
the way to what may be. Sign-posts toward greater
knowledge.
-Robert Henri
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