*Jimmy Bobber the Bullied Buoy*

I decided to create a "bullied buoy" for my neighbors in my cove, that honk a blow horn anytime a boat makes a wake between them and the buoys.  These buoys are worn from the abuse of the waves. 

Art link

http://getinspired.wacom.com/en/art-and-illustration/Get-Inspired.aspx
This site shows you new ways to play with technology to create art.  Great for "iKids"!!!

Three Artists that Inspire Moi

For this blog, I wanted to note the artist who are similar to the art I have been creating, inspiring to create and those are just plain amazing.  In the sense that this art happens to be controversial, as to if it is really an art or just silly messes and/or abuse. Disagreeing with rules is one thing I love about these artists.  Just like the great avant-garde artists of the past, these artists continue creating regardless of the common man's perception of art.  And I love it! 
I can't figure out how to attach their images off the internet, so I'll just explain them

Stinkfish
    Stinkfish is known for his street art that captures the essence of children in street art.  Each image I've seen of his is full of vibrant colors swooshing and exploding in front of a child's face that is outlined in black.  They are all strong images. I enjoy viewing them, and they are similar to the work I've done focused on children and innocence.

Nele Azevedo
   I am interested in creating ice figures for my next experimental art piece, so this artist work created to highlight global warming by making 1,000 melting ice figures on the steps of a building was amazing to me.  I showed it to my mom, who was once an art teacher, and she didn't get it.  I think her not understanding putting in so much effort to have nothing left of it but photographs seemed like a waste of time, but to me it made the idea so much stronger for the concept the artist was trying to get across.  That being, if we do not work to stop global warming or at least slow it down, we too will "melt away"  At least that is what I see in his work.

The third is a mystery I have been trying to solve
   This artist impressed me the moment I laid my eyes on his works.  When traveling throughout Europe over the summer, there was something about a set of buoys in the Barcelona bay area.  These buoys were all white, made of a round half sphere shape that upon it stood a male figure feet apart, hands held behind his back holding a different colored star per buoy, while the figure looked towards the sky.  These were so beautiful to me.  When I got home, I searched online for the artist, but failed. The buoys can be found if you Google "Barcelona Buoey."  These are now the inspiration for my current piece in my Experimental media studio class, where I am building a buoey that I will install into the cove outside my house on the lake of the ozarks.

Visual Metaphor, and the artists that inspire

I'll begin by showing off my visual metaphor...by showing off, this doesn't mean proud.  After seeing everyone else' truly artistic works mine looks like a sad crafty poster.  But I do like my idea behind the crafty poster.  I began by thinking about what do I feel like I, as a teacher, will be in a students life.  Will they like me?  This idea transcended into the "Do they love me? Do they not..." title of the poster.  But after contemplating on this, I had to realize, I am not the one who is important in the classroom.  That would be each of the students.  So I then, thought about everything that each student is going through, their pasts their presents, their dreams, and socio-economic backgrounds.  This all unraveled in my mind and ended up on my...poster.  I realize that the student is his or her own stem.  That part of them is what holds its self up everyday, to make the move to be in the classroom in the first place, but they are also asking themselves the same questions I have made in life...and possibly others I can't imagine. I realize that as much as I love art and wanting my students to love art as much as I do; the students personal lives will play a huge part of what will be discovered in and played upon when they create their art or just while being in my classroom.

Reflections

After reading Speak, I can say that I can relate to the feeling the protagonist had about high school.  My freshman year, my older brother was a senior.  Yes this did have its perks, like the ride to school and knowing a few familiar faces in the hallways.  I mean, that is other than the teachers I had grown up around. Back in the days of running around the halls playing hide-and-seek and emptying lockers at the end of the year searching for "jackpots," but those days were all over by then.  Freshman year went by fine, then sophomore year I met a boy I dated for two years, he broke up with me once he got to college. Yep one of those stories. Then Senior came!  The best year of my high school years, because I was active, single, and finally had some great friends that I could count on.  But, just like in the book Speak, how the goofy art teacher gave a safe space for creativity...that is the same way I felt, throughout high school.  Every hour i got to spend in the art room, I was able to get away.  It didn't matter if I felt alone walking in, by the time I was in there and had my work out, I was content, and the days I felt on top of the world...it would still be my way of expression and focus.
     I do wish that my teachers were more creative in their lesson plannings and tied the work to "Big Ideas" which I feel are vital, now that I am at this stage in my courses. At the time, I was just happy to have the opportunity to create. 

This I believe...

Ever since I can remember, I have known what it is like to be in an art classroom. There were the times I got to visit my mom's classroom, then in elementary school, I not only took classes at school, but also took my mom's art classes after school.  I remember the closet set in to the right side of the room, right past the metal pencil sharpener (that never seemed to work).  It was packed full of magnificent materials that I only wished that ONE DAY I could get to play with them, but with my mom she always loved introducing new medias to me, that once I got to high school, I was able to bypass Art 1 class and go straight into Drawing and Painting class and quickly fell into my niche. From then on I knew that whatever I did in the future would have to include art.
   Now that I have only a semester left of my undergrad, before beginning my student teaching, the reality of becoming an art teacher is almost here!  I know that no matter where I end up that I want to help kids with creating art. You could say that I'm following in my mom's shoes, and even though I've always fought being a follower, I don't see following in her shoes as a bad thing.

This is my new blog!

HEY ART Ed peeps!