Reflection 2 - Visual Art

Visual art creates emotion. Looking at someone's work, or creating your own stimulates the mind.  There are aspects the intrigue the eye like: rhythm, balance, proportion, variety, emphasis and unity.  All have specific meaning to a visual object (some aspects more or less than others).  The picture that stuck out to me the most today was the canyon painting.  I love vivid colors, but the balance, emphasis and unity emulating from the rock faces with the light breaking through was truly captivating.  Grand landscape paintings are my favorite.  The bridge was also an interesting photograph.  The cables added emphasis and a focal point, yet the street lamp created balance.  As was stated in class, with out the lamp the picture would be meaningless.  It's funny how a simple part can make or break a picture.

I can use these concepts in my own art creations.  Sometimes its nice to create something and take a break from school work.  I have already applied some art principles when I created some decorations for my room! It was very fun.  I made two pictures with synthetic flowers and created a polka-dot background.  Both frames actually exhibit all the art principles we learned in class today.  It was a fun project!  It is also fun to view others visual art.  I have many pictures displayed within my own apartment. Now I will be able to pick out certain aspects of the paintings or photographs were art principles were used.

In my future teaching, I will hang art (classic, modern, and simple aesthetic pieces) around my classroom, to introduce students to visual art.  By looking at examples of different art principles students can be inspired and create their own styles.  They can also learn to appreciate many different styles.  I like what we did today in class where we discussed illustrators and designed our own versions of their art.  It is good to use inspiration sometimes.  I want to use this activity with my students and provide opportunities for them to learn the principals of art because those who like art or think they may like to try, will want to know these concepts.  I'll encourage them, because everyone has their own style and not all of the principles will manifest the same in every students artwork.  It will be a fun learning experience for everyone to see the development of an understanding of these concepts in their own artwork. 

The illustrator project was a fun way to learn about different styles.  Many illustrators display favorite art principles.  It is easy to see in a painting or even photograph which principles are prominent. My group chose to talk about David Wiesner.  Everyone worked really well together.  Some members of the group knew quite a bit about the illustrator already so they already had the books.  Everyone contributed fairly and worked very well together. I enjoyed working with the girls in my group! Since everyone contributed, it wasn't a big stress for anyone. That was one thing I learned from participating in this group - when everyone does their part, the load is lightened.  Your trust is strengthened in your group members, and they trust you when everyone does their part! I also learned that I like David Wiesner's style!  Texture makes a big difference in a picture! I painted a little fish picture and it turned out better with the idea of texture in mind! This was a fun, class building and creative project!

Reflection 1 - The Arts and Me

The arts have played the biggest role in my education over any other method or subject area.  I love the arts!  It is truly where my passion is.  In my personal life, music with voice and instruments, as well as dancing, drawing, painting, crafts, even some theater, have all been my prominent interests since I could first walk.  When I was in school, it was always easier for me to remember things when we put concepts to music.  It also helped to do art projects.  I remember when my fifth grade teacher had each student design a cartouche with our name on it for our study of ancient Egypt.  I took a class on ancient Egypt just this last summer, in college, and that art project from fifth grade helped me remember information I needed on that college test.  Art helps the process of remembering and applying, over a long period of time.  I love doing art, music, or theater projects.  It never felt like busy work for me and I really learned from it.  As the text book states, incorporating art into the curriculum is a way of applying what is being learned.

As a future teacher I want to make the arts a big part of my class.  I realize that not all of my students are going to love the arts as much as I do, but I believe it will help them make connections.  We discussed in class some visual cues that can help bridge the connection between the left and right brain of a child. We also discussed how art application, in general, can be an aid to a student's greater comprehension of a topic.  I will use art in subjects like math and science.  I will try to do both analytical and artistic activities, to appeal to different learning styles.  I hope by doing this that my students will learn to open their minds to different ways of viewing things.

Now I will use artistic study methods to practice for what I hope to teach my future students.  You can't teach what you're not practicing, so I'm going to implement my classroom and text findings into my own personal study.  I will also practice implementation of the arts while teaching in my field experience.  Since I'm already partial to using the arts in my study approach, I hope to find it successful in my teaching approach. I'm excited to try it out!