Monday, January 29, 2007

Congress' War Powers

A lot of people have been talking about Congress' role in ending the war in Iraq. With a President bent on escalation, ignoring the advice of his own generals, brushing aside the recommendations of the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group and unwilling to listen to the majority of the American people, it is now up to the Congress to try and reign in the President and bring an end to this ever more deadly conflict.

But can they do it? Does Congress have the authority? Is their historical precedent? Well the New York Times weighs in with an editorial, and it seems that they can and there is.

The Constitution’s provision that the president is the commander in chief clearly puts him at the top of the military chain of command. Congress would be overstepping if, for example, it passed a law requiring generals in the field to report directly to the speaker of the House.

But the Constitution also gives Congress an array of war powers, including the power to “declare war,” “raise and support armies” and “make rules concerning captures on land and water.” By “declare war,” the Constitution’s framers did not mean merely firing off a starting gun. In the 18th century, war declarations were often limited in scope — European powers might fight a naval battle in the Americas, for example, but not battle on their own continent. In giving Congress the power to declare war, the Constitution gives it authority to make decisions about a war’s scope and duration.

The Founders, including James Madison, who is often called “the father of the Constitution,” fully expected Congress to use these powers to rein in the commander in chief. “The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it,” Madison cautioned. “It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.”

The whole thing is worth a read, even if it may have you cracking open an old history book or, in this day and age, a wikipedia page, to brush up on your constitutional law.

More Rothko

I'm not certain, but I think that both of these above are by Ryan Schaben, Freshman. The kid id a painting MACHINE!

These two above are my examples for the current Junior High project where they have to make a face either as a mosaic, or better yet a mosaic made up of swatches cut out of magazines.

I found this beat up old black and white that I took for the yearbook at LA Lutheran. We had a darkroom and obviously I didn't use enough fixer because it seemed to continue to develop before begining to fade. Anyway, I scanned it and had some fun in PhotoShop. It still has that aged, artifact look, but I redeemed some of the contrast and detail and obviously added Lutheran High school colors.

Re: ***Boyer Valley Community Schools Website

You can also go to http://www.boyer-valley.k12.ia.us inside or outside
of school to access the Boyer Valley Website.

On Jan 27, 2007, at 3:12 PM, Ted Mallory wrote:

> This is one of those "spams" where I encourage you all to visit the
> school website because there have been so many articles added to it:
>
> http://boyer-valley.fesdev.org
>
> In case you didn't know it, Coach McNutt has contributed write-ups
> about all of the Boy's Basketball games. Those, along with the track
> schedules are in the Sports section.
>
> The Dow City/Arion Alumni Assoc has important information about their
> 100th alumni banquet there.
>
> I've just finished putting all of the February newsletter articles on
> the website. You can sign up for the weather notification there, and
> you can download an order form for the 2006-07 yearbook there too.
>
> Bookmark it as a favorite and please pass the web address along
> (http://boyer-valley.fesdev.org) to any students, parents, or alumni
> in your email address book.
>
> If you are an alumni, or even if you are a student and a class officer
> or a leader of a student club/organization or team, and you would like
> to have something posted just email me, I'm the webmaster:
> ted.mallory@gmail address. Mind you, it is subject to approval by the
> administration. If you'd like to put something in the monthly
> newsletter, please try to get it to me by the 15th of the previous
> month.
>
> Thanks,
> Ted
>
> _______________________________
> http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html
> http://tmal.multiply.com
>
> "The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the
> comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Sunday, January 28, 2007

NPR.org - Watergate Figure E. Howard Hunt Dies at 88

Ted thought you would be interested in this story: NPR : Watergate Figure E. Howard Hunt Dies at 88
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6969249&sc=emaf

This message was included:

This is excellent for either Journalism students or History students- let alone for anyone who has forgotten how corrupt Republicans can be (not that Democrats are never corruptible). Fascinating.

*Listen to this story*
Please click on the headline to the story using a RealAudio or WindowsMedia player.
For players or technical support, please visit NPR's Audio Help page.
http://www.npr.org/help/index.html?showdiv=100.

*Order a text transcript of this story*
http://www.npr.org/transcripts/

NPR.org - E. Howard Hunt and the Watergate Break-In

Ted thought you would be interested in this story: NPR : E. Howard Hunt and the Watergate Break-In
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7054530&sc=emaf

This message was included:

This is a excellent analysis of Howard Hunts role in Watergate. How much less effort must the bush Administration need to keep track of their enemies.

*Listen to this story*
Please click on the headline to the story using a RealAudio or WindowsMedia player.
For players or technical support, please visit NPR's Audio Help page.
http://www.npr.org/help/index.html?showdiv=100.

*Order a text transcript of this story*
http://www.npr.org/transcripts/

NPR.org - A Time When Partisanship Didnt Mean Enmity

Ted thought you would be interested in this story: NPR : A Time When Partisanship Didnt Mean Enmity
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7025454&sc=emaf

This message was included:

This was a very striking story about just ow polarized weve become in the last 12 years or so.

*Listen to this story*
Please click on the headline to the story using a RealAudio or WindowsMedia player.
For players or technical support, please visit NPR's Audio Help page.
http://www.npr.org/help/index.html?showdiv=100.

*Order a text transcript of this story*
http://www.npr.org/transcripts/

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Boyer Valley Community Schools Website

This is one of those "spams" where I encourage you all to visit the school website because there have been so many articles added to it:

http://boyer-valley.fesdev.org

In case you didn't know it, Coach McNutt has contributed write-ups about all of the Boy's Basketball games. Those, along with the track schedules are in the Sports section.

The Dow City/Arion Alumni Assoc has important information about their 100th alumni banquet there.

I've just finished putting all of the February newsletter articles on the website. You can sign up for the weather notification there, and you can download an order form for the 2006-07 yearbook there too.

Bookmark it as a favorite and please pass the web address along (http://boyer-valley.fesdev.org) to any students, parents, or alumni in your email address book.

If you are an alumni, or even if you are a student and a class officer or a leader of a student club/organization or team, and you would like to have something posted just email me, I'm the webmaster: ted.mallory@gmail address. Mind you, it is subject to approval by the administration. If you'd like to put something in the monthly newsletter, please try to get it to me by the 15th of the previous month.

Thanks,
Ted

_______________________________
http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Friday, January 26, 2007

YOUR artwork on the web?

Howdy,

Just thought you might want to know that I stuck pictures by you in my student art gallery. If you want to see them, here is the address:

http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/33


If you're ever the least bit interested in what my art classes are doing now, check out
http://malloryart.blogspot.com

If you look in the January archive you will find a post on Jackson Pollack- scroll down enough and there is a really cool online game where you can make your own "drip-painting."

This last summer, I started drawing political cartoons for the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and not just writing humor columns. I know its terrible when I just send out these mass emails that are basically spam, but I really just have this COMPULSION to get as many people as I can to look at my cartoons as I can!!! So here is that address too:
http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

If you have anybodies email addresses who are/were in Drawing or Painting or ever IM them, feel free to pass these websites along.

If you're a former student, cheerleader or yearbook staffer from long ago or far away, send me a note and I promise to actually write you back instead of just sending dumb spam.

Happy February,
Mallory

--
_______________________________
http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Rothko and his multiforms

This past week we've studied Mark Rothko (1903-1970). He painted what he called "multiforms." He would have hated being lumped in with abstract artists like deKooning and Pollack. He wanted to break away from art that needed either figures or symbols, yet he wanted to impact his viewers emotionally and saw tragedy as the most noble subject. He described his new method as "unknown adventures in an unknown space," free from "direct association with any particular, and the passion of organism."

First, here are my students works. these are a about 24x36, tempra on paper:
I feel like Linze, a Senior, totally "gets" how calming and at the same time absorbing Mark Rothko's paintings were meant to be. This photo probably shows her painting too light. In person it is as deep and tranquil as any actual Rothko.

Ryan, a Freshman, also really got the concept of Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko's "multi-form" paintings. I feel like this has the feeling of being a window or a doorway onto a sunset.

Now for a couple of samples from Rothko himself so you can compare:


Here are some potent quotes:
"I am not an abstract painter. I am not interested in the relationship between form and colour. The only thing I care about is the expression of man's basic emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, destiny."

"The role of the artist, of course, has always been that of image-maker. Different times require different images. Today when our aspirations have been reduced to a desperate attempt to escape from evil, and times are out of joint, our obsessive, subterranean and pictographic images are the expression of the neurosis which is our reality. To my mind certain so-called abstraction is not abstraction at all. On the contrary, it is the realism of our time. "

"Pictures must be miraculous."

"Since my pictures are large, colorful and unframed, and since museum walls are usually immense and formidable, there is the danger that the pictures relate themselves as decorative areas to the walls. This would be a distortion of their meaning, since the pictures are intimate and intense, and are the opposite of what is decorative."

"The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point."

In the June 7, 1943 edition of the New York Times, Rothko, together with Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman, published the following brief manifesto:

"1. To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks.

"2. This world of imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense.

"3. It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.

"4. We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.

"5. It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism.

"There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing.

"We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art.


Tragically, I have a trivial connection to Rothko. I'm not sure if he just believed his own philosophy about tragedy too much or if he suffered from depression or some other kind of mental illness, but he took his own live on the very day that I was born. February 25, 1970.

Charcoal Skull

Got it done, January 26, 2007

Megan's skull

I gave Megan a little bit of a hard time for this because I thought the style was so "feminine," because it is so smooth and clean and has great modelling (using the values to make it look 3D). She's been one of my cheerleaders and likes to think of herself as anti-girlie (I know, "a cheerleader, then?") She rides skateboard and plays guitar, listens to thrasher music, and just got her lip pierced. I think she is a great artist and (imagine this) a pretty decent poet too.

quote

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Why she's not viable

Hate to say it, but this is her biggest problem and why so many Dems are more interested in Obama and Richardson, and Edwards, and Fienstein, etc. etc.

The irony is that she is probably the most conservative of any Democrat in the running. She and former President Bill are charter members of the "Blue Dogs," the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of major middle-of the road moderates who are pro-business and all about fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, reduced deficits, etc. Everything that the Republican party USED to be about. But because there was an element with such vicious and viceral hatred for her and her husband, she has been demonized as some sort of dangerous liberal-extremist icon.

So, ironically, she's divicive even though she and Bill have always practiced bi-particanship. She is imensely compitent and qualified, but she's exactly who the Republicans want because they know thay can beat her because they've already successfully defined her in the public's preceptions.

Plus, I don't know that we want to be volleying between family dynasties anyway. It makes us look like a cheap bannaba-republic. Nixon used to be paranoid about the Kennedys and successfully destroyed Teddy's presidential aspirations. Remeber, that's where Woodward & Bernstien started their investigation- when someone tipped them off that former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt, working in Nixon's Special Council (Chuck Colson's) office was investigating Kennedy... but I digress

poverty and learning


One nation; three cultures
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, January 25, 2007 – Page 3

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard former teachers or teachers nearing retirement lament about how “kids just aren’t like they were when I first started teaching.”

High school teachers especially get frustrated because they feel like its next to impossible to teach their subject matter because kids these days “just don’t listen anymore... don’t have any respect for adults anymore... you have to teach all of these other things... they don’t have as long of attention spans...” etc. etc.

I believe these well meaning educators aren’t merely “burnt-out.” I believe they’re correct in their observations, but this doesn’t have to be a reason to be discouraged or to give up, it’s just a fact that has to be accounted for and adapted to. I believe the problem is poverty.
As part of our professional development, my school district instituted a number of workshops based on the research of Dr. Ruby K. Payne called “A framework for understanding generational poverty.”

Many of us face situational poverty in our lifetimes, that’s where times are really tight or a illness or job loss has put the crunch on our family. “Generational poverty refers to when a family has remained under the poverty line for two generations or more. Generational poverty creates a completely different culture that what most of us are used to, a culture that impedes not only student learning in school, but survival and success in school and at work in general.
Many of us complain that poverty shouldn’t be an excuse. “We were poor but my parents still demanded that I respect my teachers and worked hard in school,” we’ll say, but perhaps we weren’t as poor as we thought.

There are eight resources that Dr. Payne considers vital to any learner’s success: Obviously one needs financial resources. Having emotional resources means being able to choose how you respond to difficult situations. Mental resources refers to intellectual skills needed for every day life. Spiritual resources are one’s beliefs in God’s purpose and guidance. Physical resources are your health and mobility.

The last three resources are often what makes or breaks someone’s ability to succeed at work and school: Having a support system of friends or family to fall back on when your other resources fall through. Role models who not only demonstrate healthy choices but also are accessible as mentors are becoming fewer and farther between these days.
Finally, Payne believes that each socio-economic class has it’s own set of unspoken (or hidden) rules. If you aren’t familiar with these rules, you’re bound to make cultural mistakes that could cost you.

For example; in poverty, you laugh when you’re reprimanded as a way to save face. It’s a reaction that you’ve been raised with and you’re used to, so you don’t even think about it. Needless to say, this is a middle-class taboo. If you laugh when the principal gives you a detention, you may just get a suspension. Laugh at your boss and you may go from having to stay late to being unemployed.

These are the core values for each group: Those in generational poverty are driven by survival, relationships and entertainment. Relationships are so important that people are practically considered possessions.

In the Middle Class we tend to value achievement. We talk about our work-ethic and we prove that we’ve achieved something by working with the material things we can buy. The truly wealth value their connections, their social, financial and political networks and their status within those networks.
Logically then, the wealthy concentrate on the past, their traditions and legacies. In the middle class we look toward the future, being the first kid to go off to college and doing better than the generation before you. Whereas without many of those previously mentioned 8 resources, those in poverty can see only the here and now.

That kind of thinking translates into speaking and thinking too. Middle class kids can see cause and effect, this leads to that, the plot thickens, reaches a peak and has a resolution.
Poor kids don’t have the same kind of linear, logical, sequential thinking skills. They exist in the moment. They’re stories may consist of unconnected anecdotes. Instead of being plot-driven, communication is character-driven or joke-driven.

One way to help students overcome this is to use analogies and graphic organizers. These give them something to hang new learning on- the infrastructure that they’ve missed.

Parents of all incomes need to make the time to read to their children, especially pre-schoolers. That lays the framework they’ll need for abstract thinking as the get older.

Anyone interested in learning more can read Dr. Payne’s articles at http://www.ahaprocess.com/files/PovSeriesPartsI-IV.pdf

____________________________________________________
Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Mallory's Milieu - Student Work

Click here to see Mallory's Milieu - "Gallery of Student Artwork"
Here is a gallery of student artworks from the classes that I teach. As of Jan 24, I am just uploading images, I will try to give explanations of what classes they're from and what the assignment directions were as soon as I can. The worst thing is that so many are so good, they probably better than my own work. I apologize ahead of time to the artists that I don't have names to attribute to all of these. This gallery will develop and evolve over time, so please return to read more explanations and to see new works get added. Also apologies to those students who don't have examples of your work here. Chelsey and Angie are both awesome photographers, Linzie has every bit as good as her sister Cheri, Justin is the ultimate photographer... Kenny and Moe have done some incredible stuff now that they're in college, and there just isn't anything here from LA Lutheran... In some ways this is an educator's professional portfolio of assignments, in other ways a way to showcase work by students at Boyer Valley MS/HS. In someways maybe it can become a time capsule for former students.

Skull Drudgery

High school Drawing II students working on their charcoal drawings of the skull. After this we'll go back to portrait drawing from models, then we'll draw the whole skeleton and springboard from that into both gesture sketches and figure drawings from models. Don't worry, no nude models in public high schools- I promise. Below you can witness the progression of my skull drawing:
Tuesday, Jan 23
Wednesday, Jan 24

Student Works

I had promised to exhibit student work on this blog, but then I didn't deliver, here now are some examples with explanations.Here is an exercise by a 7th grader. The assignment was to take a photograph and first draw it as realistically as possible, then in two more steps, draw it abstracting the basic geometric shape until in the third drawing what is left is nearly non-objective.
This is another 7th grade example. We were studying shape and discussed how sometimes in analytical cubism, artists like Braques and Picasso employed multiple perspectives. Students then were asked to draw two or three simplified portraits from different points of view, only on the same page, so that each new drawing was superimposed over the previous one. Then they were asked to find the new shapes created by the overlaps and color them in so that no two neighboring shapes are the same color. This can prove to be a pretty challenging puzzle.

Here is one by a pair of the high school painting students after studying Williem de Kooning's abstract expressionism. This was done in tempra on paper entirely with pallette knives. Jessica and Ryan tell me that it represents one person- the green is the facade they show the rest of the world and the black is the inner-self. Pretty cool that Freshmen can come up with that kind of Freudian construct of id/ego/super-ego without ever having studied psychology!

Wish I'd gotten this a couple of days earlier

George W. Bush 2007 State of the Union Drinking Game
Raging Moderate, by Will Durst

What you need to play:

·Four taxpayers: One rich white guy wearing a suit. Cufflinks are nice. Two people wearing jeans, one in a blue work shirt, the other in a white shirt and one person wearing clothes rejected by the Salvation Army. Belt and shoelaces removed.

·One shot glass per person. Everybody brings their own from home and places it on table. Suit gets first pick for use during game. White shirt picks next, then Blue shirt. Suit takes last shot glass as well, and Rags has to beg a glass from other players when necessary or drink out of own cupped hands.

·20-buck ante for everybody except Suit who throws in a quarter.

·1 pot of Texas chili and 1 bowl of guacamole in middle of coffee table with tortilla chips nearby. Rags has to prepare and serve the chili and guacamole.

·A large stash of beer. Rags gets the cheapest stuff available. Suit gets whatever import he likes. Jeans get any domestic brand as long as it's no more expensive than Bud, but must pay for all the beer, the bourbon, the chips and the ingredients for the chili and guacamole.

Rules of the Game:

1. Whenever George W uses the phrases, "defending liberty," "enormous progress" or "challenges ahead," last person to knock wood has to drink 2 shots of beer. If he actually says, "There are those who envy our freedoms and seek to destroy us," everybody drinks a whole beer.

2. The first time George W mentions the tragic events of 9/11, the last person to eat one dollop of chili off a tortilla chip must drink three shots of beer. The second time George W mentions the tragic events of 9/11, the last person to eat one dollop of guacamole off a tortilla chip must drink three shots of beer. Continue to alternate. If you mis-chip, drink two extra shots of beer.

3. If George W mispronounces Iraqi President Al-Maliki's name, drink two shots of beer. If he even attempts to pronounce the name of Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad, first person to stop laughing is exempt from drinking three shots of beer.

4. If George W makes up a word like "9/11ers or "deterrencism," last person to yell out "Strategerie!" drinks two shots of beer.

5. Every time Senators Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama are shown in the audience, Suit drinks one shot of beer.

6. The first time George W talks about immigration, last person to finish three chips of guacamole has to drink threeshots of beer.

7. If either the vice President, secretary of state or first lady are caught napping, last person to make snoring noises drinks two shots of beer. If Senator Robert Byrd is shown awake, Blue and White drink two shots of beer.

8. Everybody drinks two shots of beer if President Bush mentions Scooter Libby. Three shots of beer if he mentions Jack Abramoff. Four shots of beer if he mentions Osama bin Laden.

9. Whenever George W quotes the Bible, last person to sing the first eight bars of "Amazing Grace" has to drink two shots of beer.

10. If George W smirks during a standing ovation, take turns throwing chips of chili and guacamole at TV. First person to hit Bush's head exempt from drinking three shots of beer.

11. If George W tells a folksy Texas tale with a deeper meaning about not leaving before the job is done, Suit has to drink out of beer-filled hands of Rags, who gets to dry his hands on Suit's jacket.

12. Predict the number of applause breaks. After the speech, drink number of shots of beer equal to the difference between your estimate and the real number.

EXTRAS:

·Anybody who can identify person giving the Democratic response doesn't have to watch it.

·If George W uses a heartfelt story of one of our brave troops, white guy gets to kick everybody once. Twice if the brave troop is a woman. Rags gets to kick the suit if Bush reveals the subject of the anecdote is in the audience. Twice if the brave troop is sitting next to an astronaut.

·Suit takes home the $60.25.

·Leftover beer, chili and guacamole go home with Rags after he/ she is finished washing the dishes.

Political Comic Will Durst is going to try and sneak into the event disguised as an astronaut.



_______________________________
http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

School Fight Song.

Tonight our small, but mighty pep-band played an awesome version of the Boyer Valley fight song.
Unfortunately, the cheer squad was late getting back from offering hospitality to the Logan cheerleaders- it wasn't their fault and I wasn't angry with them about it. But something did happened that was just striking, I mean it amazed me so I wanted to tell as many students as I could about it.

On our side of the stands every single adult, 20's thru 80's were all standing up. 3/4 of the stands, it was moving. They were proud and they were clapping to the beat. It was incredible.

The other 1/4 of the stands? Not a single student stood. None. It was weird, like an episode of the Twilight zone. Now, I'm not angry about it or blaming anyone. I genuinely think that all our kids are simply clueless. But I don't think they had any idea how rude and sad and strange it was that they were all just sitting there talking or texting on their phones as if nothing were happening.

As the cheerleading coach, I feel like I've failed you. You guys, this may seem like no big deal, but it is a big deal. You don't talk while someone else is praying, you don't leave your hat on at a funeral, you stand up during the National Anthem, and you know what? You stand up when YOU school fight song or alma mater is played. If you don't know the words, fine- who really sings along to the National Anthem either, but at least, at the VERY least, you stand up. Its just what you do. It's like not talking with your mouth full or not farting at the opera. It shows that you care about yourself and take pride in yourself. It shows respect for tradition and for the community. Maybe you think it's a "one-horse town" and you can't wait to get outta here, but while you're here, show some class, show some pride in yourselves. Show visiting schools that you are glad your Bulldogs.

Mrs. Staley prints the words in the programs of every basketball game. So you don't HAVE to really learn them. But come on, if these are really the best years of your lives, and your classmates are your best friends, if you have any school spirit or self-respect at all, please rise when our own personal mini-national anthem is played. Our tiny little band can REALLY belt it out.

Just in case you want to print them out, write them down, copy and paste them to your MySpace & FaceBook pages or actually LEARN the lyrics, here they are:

Onward Bulldogs, Onward Bulldogs
Fight on for your fame.
Run the ball right down the court
And a victory's sure this game.
Rah, Rah, Rah!
Onward Bulldogs, Onward Bulldogs
Fight on for your fame.
Fight bulldogs, Fight and you will win this game!


And if you think that school pride is important, teach your friends or even forward on this email.

Be true to your school,
Coach Mallory

This one seemed to be provacative

Cartoonist Daryl Cagle has been catching flack for being "racist" on this one, but I don't know- I think it seems to pretty much sum up what we're facing there, and why we just as well get out and bring our troops home.

January Road

I just thought that this was such a beautiful scene on my drive home last night that I had to take a shot of it.

Generational Poverty

Here is a follow-up to the column above. It is a review I wrote for my Multiply site that I sent to the other teachers at my school and put on our school's website. It contains links to some of Dr. Payne's articles.


As teachers, we don't always get the best from all of our staff developments. Sometimes that's because of weak presenters, sometimes it's our own attitudes or preconceptions. More often than not it's simply because we just don't have the time, support, or resources to implement what we've learned in meaningful ways. My hope is that this article review will help supplement one of our professional development areas for you.

I was first captivated by the Aha Process company's work on generational poverty when my wife, an elementary guidance counselor in another district, told me about a workshop she had attended. Our administrators echoed her enthusiasm at Leadership team meetings, after they had attended similar seminars.

Because I taught at a parochial school in Los Angeles before coming to Iowa, many people ask me about the cultural differences. Actually, neither going from Church school to public school or from West coast to Midwest was as traumatic as going from a private school of mostly (not entirely) middle-class to a public school with part middle-class and a large proportion of severely poor students. It was a greater difference than going from a multi-cultural/multi-lingual school to a mostly homogeneous one. At L.A. Lutheran, even the poorest, and the most dysfunctional families (not synonymous) still had to scrape up their monthly tuition- that could, on occasion, have leverage when it came to behavior and learning.

Ruby K. Payne Ph.D. has written a series of four articles for teachers and educators to help them get a grasp of her framework for understanding generational poverty. I read them and listened to recorded readings of them and found them very helpful. In any school district with a reported free-and-reduced lunch rate in the forty percentile like ours, any strategies we can muster will be valuable.

The first article reviews the 8 assets needed to escape poverty and the "secret rules" of surviving in poverty, the middle-class, and wealth.

The second article focuses on the 5 registers of communications and how children of generational poverty need "mediation," or language plot-structures as an infrastructure for helping them move from concrete thinking to the abstract reasoning that is necessary for academic success.

The third article is a tremendous help in understanding what to expect from students of generational poverty and strategies for classroom management and discipline. This article includes the 3 voices; child, parent, and adult. I think that much of what she writes about fits well with the principles of "Love & Logic" espoused by other experts like Jim and Charles Fay.

Finally the fourth article suggests school-wide strategies including the use of lots of graphic organizers. I think this is where our emphasis on literacy and vocabulary can integrate well across the curriculum and in every discipline.

Download pod-casts of each of Payne's four articles for listening to on your computer or your MP3 player. Free from Payne's website.

First Article

Second Article

Third Article

Fourth Article

Download a PDF of all four articles to read for yourself free from Payne's website.

Visit Payne's website to explore other resources, including an opportunity to purchase her book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty.

I haven't read it yet myself, but I'm thinking seriously about it. Trends may come and go, God willing NCLB will at least evolve, even if we can't get rid of it, but poverty will always be with us. All our students suffer, so long as there are two tiers of learners. I believe we have to do whatever we can to help kids be able to succeed in the middle class morass that is school and work. Dr. Payne's articles will at least be a powerful start.

_______________________________
http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Monday, January 22, 2007

Coffee Collage

I don't know how well this fits in with the modernist painters I've been teaching about- This is a great new use for Adobe PhotoShop. We used to cut up our unfinished or disapointing watercolor paintings and use them as bookmarks or postcards. Now we can just scan them and layer them with other images, maybe play with the colors some and wiola! Digital collage. All the fun of a Rosenquist or a Rauchenburg without having to use any glue! Plus I used my favorite brand's favorite colors (catch the whole homage to Maxwell House?) . Everyone should try this- it's too fun.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Borowitz Report .com

The Borowitz Report .com

God Denies Talking to Pat Robertson
Supreme Being Calls Televangelist ‘Delusional’
By Andy Borowitz, humor columnist

Just days after the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed on his “700 Club” program that God warned him of “mass killings” in the U.S. late in 2007, God held a rare press conference today to deny having spoken to the controversial televangelist.

For the usually publicity-shy King of the Universe, the press conference held at the Chicago Airport Marriott signaled a sharp break with tradition.

But appearing before the press in His trademark flowing robes and white beard, and carrying what appeared to be a lightning bolt, God said that He decided to convene the extraordinary press briefing because “I had to set the record straight about this.”

“I want to make it clear that at no time at the end of the year did I have any conversation with the Rev. Pat Robertson,” the Supreme Being said. “Personally, I think the guy is delusional.”

God then distributed His personal phone logs for the month of December to prove that He had in fact no contact with the Rev. Robertson.

“I don’t make a habit of talking to TV personalities,” God emphasized. “Although on New Year’s Eve I did have a brief chat with Ryan Seacrest to wish him good luck.”

Answering a reporter’s question, God acknowledged that with war raging around the globe, 2006 had been a “difficult year” for the forces of goodness, but He remained upbeat, pointing to some of His accomplishments in the year just past.

“At least I got Judith Regan fired,” He said.

Elsewhere, Britney Spears checked into a rehab center after being driven there by her one-year-old son, Sean Preston.

Barack finally announces



Just thought I'd pass along the good word and do my part to boost the campaign.

'sno fun

Just in case readers were worried that I couldn't ever get my snow blower started. Notice the Arizona ball cap. Phoenix natives never really get used to Iowa winters.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Sketchbook skull

Meanwhile... in preparation for having to do portraits of live models, each other, and themselves- I had my Drawing II students study the skull. This one is from my sketchbook. Later, before working on gestures and figures, we'll study the full skeleton.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Frank Zappa

The Tao of Frank Zappa, Rock/Jazz Composer
“I believe that people have a right to decide their own destiny; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only as long as) individual citizens give it a "temporary license to exist" - in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy you own the government - it doesn't own you. Along with this comes a responsibility to ensure that individual actions, in the pursuit of a personal destiny, do not threaten the well-being of others while the "pursuit" is in progress.”

“It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralize the long-range effects of our national stupidity”

“The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced”

“One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds.”

“The most important thing in art is the frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively - because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a "box" around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?”

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”

Willem de Kooning Quote

"The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves."
~Williem de Kooning

Painting

I'm really excited about my painting class this semester. I'll introduce kids to a painter- then have them do that kind of painting. We decided to start with recent and move backward instead of starting with the Renaissance and moving forward. Hopefully it captures their interest more and certainly it's easier on their skills since everybody looks at a minimalist or an abstract-expressionist and says "Hey, I could do THAT!"

Anyway, I'm posting some of what I learn as I'm teaching, and I thought that since you're all artists yourselves, maybe you might think some of it was interesting. I hope so anyway. Today we looked at pictures of naked ladies. That always makes an art class interesting. See what I mean by going to:

http://malloryart.blogspot.com/

 
_______________________________
http://ted.mallory.googlepages.com/home.html
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Williem DeKooning's Women

We're not quite done with Abstract Expressionsim. Today I introduced the class to Williem De Kooning (1904-1997). Many critics have accused DeKooning of being a misogynist, because he's famous for these very angular, rough, unflattering paintings of women with exageratedly large chests. I for one suspect that actually, DeKooning may have been downright feminist. I think that he was using symbolism in his paintings to satirize society's iconic ideal of beauty that had developed in the mid 20th century. Rather than expressing something Freudian about violence and desire like some people have suggested, I believe that DeKooning was both poking fun at how absurdly abstract our standards had become and trying to help push our aesthetic away from those standards. Ironic that he did it with abstract expressionist "Action" painting that was so cutting edge and "in" at the time. Besides the fact that the public viewed action painting as so absurd and overly abstract.

See what I mean? First look at one of DeKooning's "Woman" paintings, than look again and see if you can't find the symbol for death and the great American "sex-symbol."


eyes, nose, and teeth...

colors, eye-lashes, hair, and bust- of course



Another example of this kind of pro-women/anti-media social criticism is this work below. It's by my goddaughter (a former student) Victoria Shupe. Shupe is a painter in the L.A. area. This is actually a series of 14 paintings called "Living Dead Girls." Basically what you have here are Victoria's Secret models as corpses or zombies. She observed young models and aspiring actresses lured into the "sex trade" of pornography and exploitation and painted about it. I suppose how you interpret it is up to the individual viewer, is death their eventual plight due to eating disorders, drug use or sexually transmitted diseases? Is death or disapointment all they hold for the men who desire them? Are they spiritually and intellectually dead, since their value is only in the temporary and fleeting qualities of their physical beauty? Is the artist so jealous of their looks that she wishes they were dead? Is it just funny, shocking or ironic to juxtapose the erotic with the morbid or frightening? Any way you slice it , it's provocative! I'm not hanging one over my couch, and don't tell my wife I think the're cool, but I am proud of Victoria.


Now, not all of DeKooning's work is so edgy. But all of it is what you might call "painterly." By that I mean, you know you're looking at a PAINTING, not a drawing or photo or print. Here's an example of hw he does that. It all has to do with his thick, buttery impasto. So... while last time we worked with thin paint that we could drip like Jackson Pollack, tomorrow we will mix white glue in with our tempra paint, which ahould work like acrylic medium or aquapasto to thicken our paint into goo and we will paint with the pallette knives! Notice how he makes this one feel young and modern by limiting the colors to the primaries (red, yellow, & blue) and black and white?

He does that same thing with this last one, Red, yellow, blue- lots of white and a touch of black. I like how this one is quieter, just line and space, not as concerned with the surface. It reaminds me of a Matisse or a Picasso. One student interpreted the black shape as a closed eye on a sleeping girl's face. Another thought it looked more like running mascara, as though the girl had been crying. Either way it's just pretty. Which is more than we can say for most of DeKooning's women!

Missouri wit and a side of cigar

Missouri wit and a side of cigar
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, January 18, 2007 – Page 3

Correction: In my January 4 column, I stated that Former President Gerald Ford had served as “Minority Whip.” This was incorrect. Ford was the “Minority Leader” in the House of Representatives. The “Whip” is a position in the Senate.


Last week among all the buzz about the new Congress, the President’s new direction for Iraq, and all the new presidential candidates, I was feeling overwhelmed as a pundit, so I called up one of the pioneers in the field, hoping to glean some words of wisdom. What follows is my interview with the one and only Mark Twain.

TM: So Mark, how do YOU feel about our little war in Iraq?

MT: “A wanton waste of projectiles.”

TM: So, you think we should just bring our troops home and let the Shias and Sunnis sort it out for themselves?

MT: “An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war”

TM: But what about those people who say that not supporting the President is “unpatriotic?”

MT: “A patriot is the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.”

TM: But he IS the President, after all-

MT: “History has tried hard to teach us that we can’t have good government under politicians. Now, to go and stick one at the very head of the government couldn’t be wise.”

TM: There are those people who continue to support him because they think he’s a good man. “Born-again” and on the God’s side when it comes to moral issues and all that.

MT: “No matter how healthy a man’s morals may be when he enters the White House, he comes out again with a pock-marked soul.

In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth less than a penny.

I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”

TM: Yikes! So, you’re not convinced that God is on the side of one political party or another?

MT: “A man can be a Christian or a patriot, but he can’t legally be a Christian and a patriot--except in the usual way: one of the two with the mouth, the other with the heart. The spirit of Christianity proclaims the brotherhood of the race and the meaning of that strong word has not been left to guesswork, but made tremendously definite- the Christian must forgive his brother man all crimes he can imagine and commit, and all insults he can conceive and utter- forgive these injuries how many times?--seventy times seven--another way of saying there shall be no limit to this forgiveness. That is the spirit and the law of Christianity.
There has been only ONE Christian. They caught Him and crucified him--early.”

TM: Let’s switch gears for a minute. I won’t ask you if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, but do you think it was healthy that with Republicans in the White house and on the Court, Congress recently went to the Democrats?

MT: “To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.”

TM: Are we in for a fall? Are we headed the way of ancient Rome?

MT: “Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and millionaires make into a king. The people invent their oppressors, and the oppressors serve the function for which they are invented.”

TM: How would you go about finally bringing peace?

MT: “This problem of universal peace used to be one of the uppermost things in my mind. I used to study over it. No, I will not say that I really studied; I thought about it--how to get universal peace. It bothered me, but I kept growing nearer and nearer to a solution, and at last I came to it.

But the very day I thought I had solved it I was summoned to the presence of an emperor. The first thing he asked me was what I was doing nowadays. I told him I had been working out a problem--the problem of universal peace--and that I had solved it, that I had found the only way--there was no other.

Then he wanted to know how I was going to bring it about, and I told him: ‘I am going to get a chemist--a real genius--and get him to extract all the oxygen out of the atmosphere for eight minutes. Then we will have universal peace, and it will be permanent.’”


‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. Ted doesn’t really speak to dead people, but all of Mark Twain’s responses are his actual quotes- just not about current issues. Visit http://www.twainquotes.com, if you don't believe me. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Writing

Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers.
- Jimmy Breslin

Monday, January 15, 2007

The Duck-tators


THis is one of the All time greatest works of political satire EVER. Where are the Looney Toons today? Corporate slaves, that's where. Enjoy this little slice of anti-fascism from the WWII era. It's about 8 minutes.

Happy MLK Day

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Dear God

Mike Royko's Column; Chicago Sun-Times, May 5, 1981

To: God

Address: Somewhere in the Universe

Dear God:

I know how busy you must be with a whole universe to worry about.
That's why it occurred to me that you don't have time to read our papers and your TV reception might not be good. So I thought I'd drop you a note about how things are going here.

Well, things couldn't be going any better, at least as far as your
imagination is concerned. You wouldn't believe how well loved you are on this
planet today, and how much is being done in your name.

I hardly know where to start, there's so much going on. So I might as well
start in Northern Ireland where you've always been very big. Ah, what
religious fervor can be found there.

The Irish Protestants are so devoted to you that they do everything possible
to make life miserable for the Irish Catholics, because they don't think the
Irish Catholics have the right approach toward worshipping you.

And the Irish Catholics do what they can to make life miserable for the Irish
Protestants for essentially the same reasons.

In their great love for you, they shoot at one another, bomb one another, set
one another afire, kill little children, bystanders, cops, soldiers, old
ladies, and some are now committing suicide by starvation.

Then each side buries its dead, goes to church, and gives fervent thanks to
you for being on its side. It is very touching.

And one thing about these people: Their devotion to you is unshakable.
They've been doing this for about 400 years. So it's a good thing that you
have an entire universe at your disposal, because I don't know where else you
could find room to accommodate the souls of all the people who have died
there in your name.

You're also highly regarded in a country called Lebanon, where just about
everyone believes in you, although they don't agree on what you should be
called.

In that country, there are Moslems and Christians, and they've created
different sets of rules for worshipping you. Naturally, they say you have
sent the rules down to them. I don't know if that's true or not, but if I may
make a suggestion: if it's true that you gave them the word, it would really
simplify things if there were only one set of rules. It would cause less hard
feelings.

But such details aside, they are expressing their devotion to you by killing
each other by the hundreds. I guess they figure that if one side can wipe the
other side out, it will prove that their way of worshipping you is correct,
and you'll be pleased with them.

So every day, they lob shells at one another and blow up the usual men,
women, children, bystanders, old ladies, and stray dogs. And every day, they
take a few moments out to thank you for your support and to promise that
they'll continue their efforts in your behalf.

Now, not far from there are countries called Iraq and Iran. The Moslems in
those countries basically agree on what to call you, but they disagree on
some details concerning how best to worship you. So they're killing one
another, too.

It's more than a little confusing, though, because in Iran there are people
who call themselves Baha'i, and they, too, have their own way of showing
their respect for you. Unfortunately for the Baha'i, their way doesn't
include killing others who don't share their point of view. So that makes
them patsies, and the Moslems in Iran, in their love for you, have been
kicking the Baha'i around pretty good.

Just a short missile ride away, there's a lot of religious action going on
between a country called Israel and just about everyone else in that
neighborhood.

The people in Israel also have their own set of rules for worshipping you,
which they say you passed on to them. And they claim that you look more
favorably upon them than anyone else. This has always caused a lot of hard
feelings because a lot of other groups figure that they're your favorites.
(It must be hard being a father figure.) Israel's claim that they're Number
One has also made some people wonder this: If the Jews, after all they've
been through over the centuries, are really your chosen people, what do you
do to somebody you don't like?

Anyway the Jews and their Moslem neighbors--both of whom claim your complete
support--have been going at it for about 30 years. But I don't think they'll
ever equal Ireland's record because they'll all eventually have nuclear
bombs. Boy, when they start throwing those around, will you have a crowd
showing up.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention this final item. Somebody just shot the
pope. As you know, he's the leader of one of your largest group of followers
here. A very peaceful, non-violent man, by the way, although his followers
have been known to shed a few million gallons of blood when their tempers are
up.

Anyway, the man who shot him apparently did it because of his devotion to
you. It's not completely clear, but this fellow seems to think the pope was
in some way responsible for somebody invading the sacred holy mosque of his
religion in a place called Mecca. That, of course, was an insult to you, so
he got even in your behalf by shooting the pope.

Well, I know you're busy, so that's all for now.

P.S. I never believed any of those stories going around a few years ago that
``God is dead.'' How could you be? We don't have one weapon that can shoot
that far.

Copyright Chicago Tribune (c) 1997

Thursday, January 11, 2007

SNOW business

No business like SNOW business

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig Leader, Thursday, January 11, 2007 Page 3

NOTE: I SO believe that global warming is a genuine threat, should be taken seriously, and that Bush W. was sorely mistaken to pull us out of the
Kyoto protocol- but I couldn't pass up a good joke. Especially considering what this column is about. As a cartoonist, I REALLY have
to work on my Gore caricature though, but cut me some slack, I only do this once a week and have only REALLY been doing it for about six months.

Around New Years, when the storm blew through, all I could think about was staying inside with a hot beverage and read or sleep. My kids desperately needed to be out in the gale. I thought it was sandy, cold and wet. They thought it was pretty, fun and white.

We were visiting their grandparents’ farm when the snow came. I was worried about how to get our van up the hill and home across country roads. They were worried about where the sleds were and how quick they could put them to use.

I wanted nothing more than to be inside, warm and dry. They had no qualms about lying down and making snow-angels, this means actually lying down… in cold, wet, snow. Did I mention that?

As hard as it is for me to enjoy the frozen precipitation, it does make for some great memories. Last year, I relayed a story from their Grandpa Mallory. My Dad grew up in Petoski, Michigan. Seems he’d fill a bowl with fresh fallen snow and drizzle on some maple syrup. Grace, 7 and Ellie, 5 were thrilled with this idea. Once the sledding was over, Grace grabbed some bowls out of the cupboard and served up the snow. Naturally there was hot chocolate too.

Last summer we picked up a used snow blower. Arizona natives like me don’t have anymore experience with these devises than we do with snow shovels. Come to find out they’re even harder to start than push mowers, plus you have to start them in the cold. After doing more to pull my shoulder out of its socket than get the thing started, I sought the aid of the brother-in-law. Admitting you need help is a huge step for any man. Seems that while suburban high school students in Young Democrats of America take drafting classes but rural students in Future Farmers of America take small engines class. After fiddling a little here and babying the thing there and striking just the right balance of choke and throttle, he had me going.

Suddenly, I was one of those people I’d only seen in pictures of places like Buffalo or Minneapolis. Snow blower lesson number one; if it’s “self-propelled,” let it propel itself. If you try pushing it, you may as well be pushing a shovel, and oh yeah, you’ll clog it. Also, if you wait until too late in the afternoon, the snow will get too damp and too packed, this will tend to clog it too.

I may not be a native, but I am over 30 so I did have good sense enough to turn it completely off and disengage everything before unclogging it. But go figure, I couldn’t get it started up again. Cold and tired, I put it away, hoped the sun would do the rest of the job and got in the van to head over to my brother-in-law’s New Year’s lunch. On the two block drive, virtually EVERY homeowner between our houses was shoveling or snow-blowing their drives. When I pulled up to their house, both brother-in-law and nephew were shoveling their walk. I couldn’t take it. I went back home, determined to finish the job the old way. Fifteen minutes and a few coughs later, I decided to give the blower another try. Bingo! Thank God it started on the second try. This time I let it propel itself and sure enough it didn’t clog. Be that as it may, lesson two is that you still need boots. My shoes and sock weren’t frozen, but inside the soaked stuff, my feet felt like they were.

I was beginning to see why my dad decided to leave Michigan for the Valley of the Sun and why so many Iowa “Snowbirds” do so almost every winter too.

I changed into dry shoes and socks and finally sowed up for lunch. The kids? Knee deep in their cousins’ yard working on snowmen.


Wednesday, January 10, 2007

NPR : Prayer: Once a Last Resort, Now a Habit

NPR : Prayer: Once a Last Resort, Now a Habit
Storyteller Kevin Kling has often used prayer to try to get himself out of the dumb trouble he finds himself in. But after a life-changing motorcycle accident in 2001, Kling's prayers have changed.

Mark Twain on "Conservative-Christians"

"A man can be a Christian or a patriot, but he can't legally be a Christian and a patriot--except in the usual way: one of the two with the mouth, the other with the heart. The spirit of Christianity proclaims the brotherhood of the race and the meaning of that strong word has not been left to guesswork, but made tremendously definite- the Christian must forgive his brother man all crimes he can imagine and commit, and all insults he can conceive and utter- forgive these injuries how many times?--seventy times seven--another way of saying there shall be no limit to this forgiveness. That is the spirit and the law of Christianity.

Well--Patriotism has its laws. And it also is a perfectly definite one, there are not vaguenesses about it. It commands that the brother over the border shall be sharply watched and brought to book every time he does us a hurt or offends us with an insult. Word it as softly as you please, the spirit of patriotism is the spirit of the dog and wolf. The moment there is a misunderstanding about a boundary line or a hamper of fish or some other squalid matter, see patriotism rise, and hear him split the universe with is war-whoop. The spirit of patriotism being in its nature jealous and selfish, is just in man's line, it comes natural to him- he can live up to all its requirements to the letter; but the spirit of Christianity is not in its entirety possible to him.

The prayers concealed in what I have been saying is, not that patriotism should cease and not that the talk about universal brotherhood should cease, but that the incongruous firm be dissolved and each limb of it be required to transact business by itself, for the future."
- Mark Twain's Notebook

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Abstract Expressionism

Here's my own take on Jackson-Pollock-style painting. It's about 3' x3' oil on canvas, "Camelback Mountain after the storm" was done way back in say 1992 and we gave it to friends as a housewarming gift. Scroll down to learn more about Pollack, AND to click on a great link that will let you have a lot of non-objective fun online.

Domestic Phone Tapping


CLICK HERE For a great animation from the Chicago Tribune's political cartoonist on Bush's domestic spying thing with our personal phones.
I'm excited to be teaching a class on painting this semester. Hopefully visitors will see some NEW work now, as well as some of my students' work and- as is the case today, a few posts about some of the greatest paintiters throughout history.


Jackson Pollock was born in Wyoming, grew up in Arizona, and went to an Arts high school in L.A. Three of his biggest influences were Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siquerios ( sometimes known as an expressionist, sometimes a surrealist) and Thomas Hart Benton, a regionalist from Kansas who was one of Pollock's professors in New York. You can see how Benton's rolling and dynamic compositions influenced Pollock, but Benton was much more conservative, he hated the direction his student took. He thought it was too abstract, too avante guard, too wierd, and trying too hard to compete with European artists.

Pollock is the most famous "Abstract Expressionsit." Some called what he did "Action-Painting" because it was really more a record of his physical actions than anything else. Most of his work is "non-objective," meaning it isn't supposed to look like any actual "thing," but it is supposed to express and hopefully evoke feelings. If nothing else, his work provokes discussion and debate about "what is Art?"

You may feel like you could do what Pollock did or that it doesn't show much skill or that "art should look like something," but if you let your self appreciate it for what it is- just a kinesthetic/motor activity, even as primative and childish as that may seem, there's a certain freedom and even fun to it. Like a cardio workout, a fight, or a dance, action-painting can be very theraputic. As a matter of fact, it may have been therapy for Pollock, who suffered from depression and struggled with depression. He became facinated with Psychologist Carl Jung's theory of archtypes and supposedly let it influence his work. (Not as mindless or meaningless as it looks!) Sadly, he was killed in a alchohol-related auto accident at the height of his popularity. He was only 44.
"Painting" from 1951
Jack the Dripper
Here is a detail from one of his more important works, "Full Phathom Five."


"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an
easy give and take, and the painting comes out well." ~Jackson Pollock 1912-1956


LEARN MORE ABOUT POLLOCK

PLAY AN ACTION PAINTING GAME

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas, original design by Stamen, press any key to s

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas, original design by Stamen, press any key to start

This is SO COOL. I don't know who programmed this and if it is javascript or what, but if you visit this website, you can basically just "Channel your inner Jackson Pollock."

Click Here

Monday, January 08, 2007

Someone else's

Natuarally as a "Lefty," I'm excited about the change and Tom Delay had made some outrageous strides toward letting lobbyist basically write laws, but let's face it, the proof of the pudding will be under the crust. Democarats will need to walk the walk, not just talk. Bennett of the Christian Science Monitor is just an insanely great cartoonist in genneral.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Drawing Students; Before and After



Aren't these amazing? I am so proud of my Introduction to Drawing students from First Semester. For about 12 years now, I've been basing what I teach on the Fantastic book by UC Long Beach Art Professor Betty Edwards "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."
Anyone can learn to draw, and thise exercises in this book are the best way. By building and improving basic perceptual skills, students learn to use their whole brain to first see differently and then to be able to record their perceptions. If I sound like a sales pitch, its because I'm one Art teacher who is sold. Look at these results!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Hair of the dog.

I think I've got the shakes from withdrawl. Today, the Area Education Association's internet filter, in it's infinite artificial intelligence (program not person) has determined that multiply is just as bad as stupid MySpace and FaceBook and has blocked it. Shoot-a-mile! Guess I'll have to spend my lunch hour, planning period, and after school before games doing things like grading and lesson planning, or updating the school's website. Hmmm, there's some ideas.

Hey, at least I'm not instant-messenging a boyfriend/girlfriend all the time like you hear about on those TV expose's all the time.

Free the web!

No, I don't mean that, I'm SO glad that those stupid assed MySpace and FaceBook are blocked so kids can't use them at school, they cause enough damage at their homes. Today some kid told me how she and her friends pretended to be her ex-boyfriend and left nasty messages on another kid's MySpace page because kid#2 had left flirty messages on kid #1's ex-boyfriend's MySpace page. GAWD how freaking sick! Maybe the First amendment should only apply to people over 30.

I just want to self-publish my pictures, comics and writing (and not get paid for it, I know Kenny, quit reminding me, maybe I should spend my free time mailing columns and cartoons to magazines, publishers, or syndicates. Hmmm, there's an idea).