Make Art That Hurts

I've been reading about the German Expressionist painters recently since I'm teaching my Eighth grade class about it. To see a slideshow visit http://dogart.wikispaces.com/8TH-++EXPRESSIONISM

Ernst Kirchner in particular interested me. Much of his early work looks like Matisse's. But Matisse believed that every painting needs to be joyful and comfortable for viewers. After Kirchner suffered a breakdown as a soldier wounded in WWI, his works came to reflect his deep suffering. Kirchner wasn't necessarily fishing for sympathy, but his paintings certainly invoke emotions and provoke reaction.

Norwegian master Edvard Munch is know for deliberately making his viewers part of his paintings like audience participants standing in a stage play. His viewers are usually discovering intimate scenes that in real life they'd probably not be intended to see. This strategy of Munch's doesn't merely express his feelings, it effectively shares experiences.

Notifying friends of a trauma may solicit sympathy, but sharing an artwork you created or a poem you wrote in response to your trauma can in very real ways shae or replicate your experience thereby eliciting empathy.

Art (not just painting, drawing or sculpting, but writing too) is not only therapeutic for the one creating it, but can be cathartic for the viewer too. In that way it builds connections between people and helps students develop empathy.

The Artist's Statement Project; Part 2

This kind of Artist statement represents a collection of artworks, rather than just one. Seniors and Independent-Study Art students should do this if they are preparing a portfolio to submit to art colleges or university Art departments.

People who like an artist’s work generally want to know more about the artist. Artist statements are effective marketing tools. It helps make a connection between the artist and their audience. In putting your art into words you might also find that some of your ideas which didn’t entirely make sense to you become more concrete. Your writing might even open new paths in your thinking and take you in new artistic directions.

This definitely worked for me.

Artist’s Statement for a Body of Work

CIVICS; Faces in History

INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW

When I began teaching 8th grade Civics in 2011, I wanted to decorate my classroom in a way that would be patriotic and engaging. I also wanted to reassure students that it was okay that an Art teacher was teaching a Social Studies class (I have a double-major in K-12 Art and 7-12 Social Studies). Over the last two decades of teaching, I’ve frequently drawn on presidents and other historic figures for drawings and paintings. I simply gathered them up and hung them up. That first year I even had students try to name as many of the people featured in the paintings on a worksheet for extra credit!

THEME & CONCEPT

Benjamin Franklin has an amazing line in the Broadway musical 1776. John Adams, fighting to keep a statement opposing slavery from being removed from a draft of the Declaration of Independence warns Franklin that if they don’t address issue of slavery from the onset, posterity will never forgive them. In an effort to get Adams to compromise with delegates from the South, Franklin tells him, “That's probably true, but we won't hear a thing, we'll be long gone. Besides, what would posterity think we were? Demi-gods? We're men, no more no less, trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed.”

A basic premise of democracy is that leaders are servants of the people who elect them. The promise of America has always been that any kid could grow up to be President. What fascinates me about great men as a Civics teacher, as an artist, and as a citizen, is that they’re just men. Perhaps of great ability, power and experience, but never the less just men. Full of faults, imperfections, vulnerabilities and personalities. My hope is always to portray the faces of Presidents and protest leaders as human faces. Faces that could be your cousin or uncle or neighbor or friend. I hope whether its Truman or Gandhi or Lincoln, that viewers can see that there is a real person behind the face.

HIGHLIGHTS & PROMINENT PIECES

The Two Cowboys Two paintings which I tend to hang next to each other are an 8”x 8” oil on panel of Arizona Republican Senator Barry Goldwater and a 14”x18” gouache on canvas of Texas Democrat, President Lyndon Johnson. The paintings contrast each other not only in size and format but also in mood and style. Goldwater is more detailed and has more angles. He’s also more comfortable and confident. Whereas Johnson has more swooping curves and seems almost unfinished. Meanwhile his face seems more weary and jaded. These two paintings in many ways reflect many of the differences and tensions in our country.

BULLY! One of my all time favorite works is a 9”x12” tempera on matte board, monochromatic, orange,  impressionistic interpretation of Progressive/Republican President Teddy Roosevelt. This was painted quickly based on a photograph of the president laughing heartily. I think it captures the exuberant personality that Roosevelt was known for. Since we share a first name, I’ve always had a special affinity to him and with this painting.

KING This acrylic on paper in teals and black started a long relationship for me with Martin Luther King. I’ve always been an admirer of the activist and have tried several times over the years to paint him. Two or three oil pastel paintings haven’t made me as happy as this earlier work. A couple of years ago, I managed a larger, more detailed and developed piece which I gave as a wedding present to a friend who lives in Washington D.C. This early painting is more close-up, more intimate and probably better reveals the worry, sacrifice, deep intelligence and seriousness of his cause. Like the Teddy Roosevelt painting, this is one that has become an old friend. I think I’d like to have it hanging in whatever office, studio or classroom I occupy as long as I’m teaching, writing or painting.

STYLE & AESTHETICS

I never realized that I even had a style of my own until I hung several of my paintings together on the wall of my Art classroom this Fall. Looking at nineteen years of paintings I’d done with classes or as examples for classes, it finally manifest itself to me. It may may just be my own Attention Deficit Disorder, messiness or stubbornness- but my work seems to be very passionate, expressive and maybe just a little rough-hewn. I’d like to think that  I’m a shaggy lummox like a bison or a bear. Unkempt yet majestic. Simultaneously humble yet proud. Inglorious with dignity. In other words, quintessentially American.

INFLUENCES

Art History students and aficionados can probably recognize the influence of the neoexpressionism of the 1970’s and 80’s. I’m not sure if this is because that was the era in which I grew up or if its because of the strong German expressionist influence on my professors at Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska.

If I had to name my favorite painters, I’d probably rattle off names of pop artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Jasper Johns; the venerable regionalist Grant Wood, and Native American master John Nieto. But my work doesn’t really seem to look like any of theirs. Frankly I think my paintings remind me more of Jules Feiffer, Johnny Hart and Bill Mauldin. That’s probably because from ages 12-38 it was my dream to someday make it as a professional cartoonist.

Years ago a student told me that I teach History classes like their Art classes and my Art classes like they were Social Studies. So maybe I get my wired crossed a lot because I can definitely see how my cartoons are influenced by Grant Wood and Wayne Thiebaud and my paintings are more like Bill Mauldin or maybe even Charles Schultz or Matt Groening.

PROCESS TECHNIQUE & RATIONALE

Students who watch me painting often say something like “how do you DO that?!!”

Inevitably the teacher in me wants to either painstakingly explain to them the process of observing, analyzing, comparing and contrasting visual-spatial placement and proportions and then recording those observations and analysis. But I  know it would bore them to death.

That same teacher in me also wants to point out every single flaw in my painting, hypercritically explaining how their awe is misplaced because of how weak my technique is or how inaccurate the features are compared to the photograph I’m using. But I hate to devalue their experience, even if I don’t think I deserve whatever admiration they’ve just given me.

So I encourage them by offering that “you can do it too, you just have to keep practicing and listen to what I try to teach you,” yet not bother revealing all of my magician’s secrets.

Ultimately it is a sort of alchemy. Certainly there’s the trained artist’s way of perceiving and translating those perceptions into visual language, but there’s also a great deal of responding to and expressing about the subject matter. What they mean to me and how I feel about them. What I admire or disdain.

Too be sure, its not just about the artist and the subject. The painting itself makes its own decisions too, just like our children do. Or in this case maybe a better analogy would be to say that sometimes politicians break party-ranks and vote their own conscience (something I admire about Teddy Roosevelt).

Finally, you the viewer, bring your own experience to every painting too. Eighth graders who have no idea who Goldwater, Johnson or Roosevelt were often have vastly different reactions to my paintings than adults.

So there are four of us collaborating on each painting; artist, subject, painting, and viewer- each lobbying for our own interests. Hopefully we all make compromise and meet somewhere other than where our preconceptions would’ve taken us alone. That’s in the nature of democracy too, isn’t it? Together, whether in tension or harmony, we’re something very different than any of us would be left to our own devices. E Pluribus Unum, from many- one. Long may it be so.

The Artist's Statement Project; Part 1

I see that it's been almost 6 months since I've posted something on this blog. Unfortunately I've been too busy living and teaching to have time to write. Meanwhile I've taken to using Instagram and Twitter to "micro" blog and photo journal. But I've recently done a bit of writing for one of my classes.

Every class at Boyer Valley is required to have at least one formal writing assignment. In the past, rather than a research paper, I've had students conduct a critical analysis of a famous artwork. This proved to still be a little heavy on the rigor and light on the relevance for most high school Art students. So this year, I decided I'd experiment with having my Painting class write their own Artist Statements.

An Artist’s Statement is a short document which provides insight into an artist’s thinking on about a single piece, or about an entire body of work. Artist statements describe the artist’s creative process, philosophy, vision, and style. Artists use these documents to communicate to potential buyers, exhibition curators, critics, fellow artists, and casual viewers. Unbeknownst to them they still have to critically analyze an artwork, its just that they're analyzing their own artwork. Much to my surprise and my relief, so far they're all pretty excited about it.

Writing a couple of examples for them about my own work has been a good exercise for me too. I don't think I've ever thought about my own painting this much ever.

 What follows is the first demonstration-model, about one of my own paintings. The next entry will be what I wrote about a whole group of painting.

Artist’s Statement for Individual Artwork

“Orange Lady,”  8” x 10 “, acrylic on canvas, 2013. NFS

SUBJECT & ELEMENTS

This is a picture of my Aunt Rene’. Growing up in the 1970’s I remember my aunt wearing many of the latest fashions. Oranges, yellows, and teals and turquoise featured prominently. Interestingly, these colors have been popular this year. I used only yellow and black. There’s not a lot of detail, and only a minimum of shading.

DESIGN & COMPOSITION

8x10 is a common ratio for portrait photography. Using a vertical 8x10 was a perfect fit since I was enlarging a portrait from a 1 inch x 1 and a half inch newspaper photograph. I think that cutting off the top of the head and having the subject’s eyes looking up and to the viewer’s right, creating an implied diagonal make it a strong composition. I used the rule-of-thirds. Her left eye (partially hidden by her bangs) are on a “hot-spot,” an intersection of the right vertical third and the top horizontal third.

MEANING & CONTENT

The stark contrast and bright yellow are upbeat and positive, although the greys and imperfection may be like hearing an otherwise happy song played in minor keys or at a slow tempo. This color scheme and the hair and make-up styles effectively evoke the aesthetic of the early and mid sixties. TV shows like ‘Mad Men’ have made that aesthetic popular as “retro” lately.

My Aunt Renee’ was an Irish redhead. Her hairstyles (and occasionally wigs) were a lot like those of TV comedians Carol Burnette and Vicki Lawrence. Burnette is famous for mixing her comedy with a certain amount of tragedy or at least reality, so that people could relate to her show easily. For me personally, this painting reminds me of the constant balance of heartache and joy that every family share.

PROCESS TECHNIQUE & RATIONALE

Our assignment was to create a painting in the Pop Art style of the 1950’s and 60’s.I wanted to make a painting that would have a bold graphic look like Andy Warhol’s portraits of celebrities, but have a worn, industrial look, with thick paint like something Jasper Johns did. Enlarging a newspaper picture is also a lot like what Roy Lichtenstein did with comic book panels.

I used my aunt’s engagement photo from a newspaper clipping from the 1960’s. First, I covered the canvas with straight yellow acrylic paint.I tried making two or three sketches in my sketchbook before drawing the picture on my canvas. I tried to apply some of the concepts I’ve been teaching this year. In Painting, we learned about finding facets that share color or value. In Drawing we’ve worked on perceiving positive and negative spaces, fitting your subject matter into a format and we learned that if you turn an image upside down, it becomes easier to draw shapes correctly.

I made some mistakes with the black, so I made corrections with the same yellow I’d used for the background. This added some dimension and more of a variety of shades, making it less of a stark, 2-color image and more “monochromatic.” These changes made it seem warmer and more personal, it also made it more imperfect like a Jasper Johns and not so precise and mechanical like a Warhol.

I wasn’t completely decided that it was entirely finished, but several students really liked it. I posted it on Instagram and Facebook and got more positive feedback. My cousin loved it and promised to show her mother. Another friend left a comment about how he liked the “orange lady.” I decided to use his name for it as the title.

Here are a couple of acrylic paintings I did today. 

This is of Dada/Surrealist photographer and artist Man Ray. The Spongebob animators liked him so much they made him one of Mermaid Man's arch villains. I think it turned out to be kind of a mixture of Raymond Burr, José David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rod Serling.

Everyone easily recognizes Psychology pioneer Sigmund Freud. Naturally, a student gave me a hard time about including a cigar, since just the day before I'd disallowed him from drawing a cigarette on his final self portrait. One cool thing about this painting is that I think it looks a little like it's in the style of his grandson, English painter, Lucian Freud.

Ode to Jasper Johns

Here's a new watercolor painting with a touch of 9/11 in it. I worked it over with a lot of surface techniques so as much as I want it to be like a Jasper Johns, it has plenty of Jackson Pollack in it too.

Purple Blues

Day Three

It will be interesting to see where this painting takes me tomorrow. I know that it's not where it needs to be just yet. I know his eyes need to be darker. At least I'm getting some serious layers, range, contrast, and density- these are what a monochromatic painting should demonstrate. Check in tomorrow afternoon to see what happens.

Presidential Painting

Here are the first two days' progress on a new watercolor painting I'm doing. The assignment I gave my students is to create a monochromatic portrait, and include a value scale along the side.

I tried to find a fairly serious photo of the President. I wanted to avoid cheesy, overly exuberant, or angry. I think the one I found was pretty somber- although I suspect that my own disappointment in yesterday's mid-terms may  be intruding because he looks particularly melancholy. I was looking at the photo upside down, trying to render it as clinically and visually analytically a manor as I could. It will be interesting to see how this one progresses through the week.

Thinking

Poking around my classroom today, I uncovered this old painting I did in tempera on matte board back in the 1990's. I don't remember if it was a self portrait (obviously no goatee) or based on someone else (maybe John Bulushi). Anyway, I really like it.

"Beauty is not caused. It is." ~Emily Dickinson

Here is a monochromatic caricature I did of poet Emily Dickinson in oil pastel during my Painting class.

Jade Zen

One of the best things about being a high school Art teacher is that once in a blue moon, I actually get to paint. I know that English teachers force themselves to read, but I don't know how many find time to write. This acrylic on canvas has been very therapeutic and relaxing to work on- especially with all the grades and paperwork to get done since it's the last week for our Seniors. 

Has anybody seen my good friend Bobby?

Once again, I'm teaching middle school students about color, using oil pastels. This portrait of Robert Kennedy was made with only orange and blue (complementary colors) and black and white.

March Maddness

Still working in watercolor, and this time ventured a little into gouache for this imitation of a Gustave Courbet self portrait. Thought this would actually be a good way to ease Painting students into Edvard Munch because it is so expressive.

Viktor Frankl

 

Here is an image taken from my own painting, but adjusted some in Photoshop, to create something perhaps a little cubust and a little surrealist. I tried to be as subtle as I could, so that it's not rediculously obvious that I monkeyed with it in Photoshop too much.

Here is a detail frm the original painting, revealing some of the brush work and layers of transparent color.

And here is the original watercolor painting of 20th century existentialist psychologist (he might say "logotherapist"), author, and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl. No, I didn't mean to make him look like the Hulk or an alien- I was simply using analogous colors (colors next to each other ont he color wheel), in this case, blue and green. Believe it or not, I used very little black, but tried to build up blacks from all the layers of blue and green.

Purple Dog

I think I've finished up. It may or may not seem a little "cartoony," but that's okay, after all it's a school mascot costume for cripe's sake! If anything, I think it really has a Wayne Thiebaud Pop-Art feel to it, which is what I was going for. Thiebaud is one of my favorite painters and I've always wanted to do something like he would. Thiebaud was born in Arizona, like me, only 50 years before me. Unlike Roy Lichtenstein, Thiebaud actually started out as a cartoonist, working for Disney for a while.

The Pop-Art thing is perfect because it should be upbeat and fun, and the decorating style of the recipient is pretty clean and contemporary. My only hope is that a bright purple painting doesn't clash too much with whatever neutrals and eath tones he picked for his home. But then again it's a gift, he can hang it in his john or in his basement where no one else will see it if he wants to. I am seriously considering the poster thing. If not for a fundraiser, at least so that I can give the same image as a gift to a few other people- not to mention being able to keep a copy for myself- maybe in my classroom. NOW the only problem is waiting for it to dry, since it's oil.

Bow wow in the AM

 

When I came in this morning the sun was behind this painting on it's little easel on my counter and it illuminated the under painting through the canvas (I painted over a flower that I never really finished). It really gave the whole thing a drastically different look- more red-violet than blue-violet. I'm not sure I'm ready to completely switch directions on the original, but I had to grab my camera and capture it. Amazing what a difference lighting makes.

Bow wow wow

Today I started a painting of our school mascot. Somebody asked me where I would end up hanging it when it's finished. Actually, I was thinking of giving it as a housewarming gift to a friend and former student. But it is turning out pretty well, so I may think about poster-size prints. How much would people pay?

Christmas Cactus

I should really paint in watercolor more often. I just introduced my Painting class to the media today. I'm not all that great at it, but boy it's pleasantly therapeutic.

Abstract Expressionism

Oil Pastel in Analogous Colors