CONCEPTUALLY DIXFIELD

“MICROSCOPIC” By C.D. (Mass of red blood cells, 4′x4′)

The current batch of eighth graders that I teach are a cut above. I have taught many of them since second grade which has been a treat, for me anyway. I describe them as a fun group, the kind of class that I find myself getting off track in the beginning of class with conversation winding in amazing and often ridiculous directions. But it is conversation between two genuinely engaged parties: students and teacher.

This eighth grade, I often tell them, will be treated like high school kids in terms of the projects they do.  It is amazing the power in treating kids like they are respected and that you trust that they are capable of doing advanced work.

Here is an example of a project I did with them:

They were to choose a word that is non-physical; a concept or idea (such as time, love, or pain) and using any media they create a piece of art expressing that word without actually showing the word in the art.  The first challenge was getting their concrete adolescent minds to think conceptually and not in the physical sense.  We made mind maps which I related  to as a mass regurgitation of ideas about their concept to give them direction in their project.

Once they chose their medium and their concept they had to design their piece and build/create it.  There was an abundance of dumpster diving for materials as well as consistent pillaging of the cardboard recycle bin.  One student even brought in a truckload of junk from his grandfather’s junk yard for people to use.  Included in that bounty was an old street sign,  truck tire, headlight,  stump,  part of a front end of a delivery truck, and some chains.

For five classes the kids painted, carved, pounded, scraped, drew, blended, shot photos, searched for images, hot glued, twisted, pried and for one project, torched.  The goal was to get them to think conceptually and to use media that was completely their choice.  If you hate to draw, then don’t draw.  Choose something that you actually want to use.

Here are some selected finished products:

“REVOLT” By: K.H.  My personal favorite.

“QUIET” By K.B.

“CONDESCENDING” By C.B.

“LIGHT” By D.L.

“REFLECTION” by M.E.

“DEATH” By S.L.

BACK TO COLLEGE: Round Two & Paintbrush in Hand

Well, I thought as I wandered into Merrill Hall on the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington , I am once again a college boy. Heading down the stairs into the musty basement where the painting classes congregate it was a weird feeling. I did a mental rewind to ten years earlier waiting outside my first art class back at University of Southern Maine probably wondering how many projects the professor would allow me to include Jerry Garcia.  Thinking globally, I know.

Professor Tom Higgins and I had a great chat about my direction this semester in my independent study. We shared our respective recent work and discussed different media and surfaces and solvents and all the various things that people who paint discuss.

The plan for the semester is to paint three large scale (4′x4′) paintings–one for each credit. The first is underway; a mixture of a large flower photograph I took this summer and a landscape. I just received some paint in the mail which will prepare me to kick off the second painting, which will be a triptych of a vast landscape with most of the canvas devoted to the atmospheric part of the landscape (a.k.a. the sky). The third painting I want to create a large combination of unassociated objects with many vanishing points that one can look far into the distance.

All three will feature space and distance as a theme. At least that is what I am writing here before much of the paint has fallen.

Very much in progress, this is the first large scale painting of the semester. It is a floral landscape, which naturally can be shortened to simply a “flandscape”

I have a feeling that this round of college will be quicker, more graceful, and definitely more healthy than the previous round of schooling. Needless to say there will be loud music and late nights–only now the nights will be filled with painting and productivity.
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