Metaphorical Self-portrait
Artist statement
A good education can open doors in a child's life providing a brighter future with more choice and more chance for success. Art Education can provide the tools needed to open these doors to new learning and new understanding. A quality k-12 curriculum must include a strong art program beginning in the earliest grades. Through the arts students can make visual connections between what they can imagine and create with their hands in art class, and what is learned in math, science, and language arts. Developing creative thinking through the arts helps to make complex concepts make sense on a new level, thus making academic success achievable to a wider range of students.
An art teacher provides the key to the door. He or she facilitates an environment that allows creative thinking skills to flourish. By offering the tools, demonstrating the concepts, making the connections, sharing the history, and allowing the students to experience the materials, the art teacher hands over the keys to unlock the doors of the future.
Brainstorming
Sketches
Posts
It was once thought that we could mold young minds however we wanted to. But through research, it has come to light that students are capable of constructing their own understanding of knowledge. I think as an art educator it is our responsibility to provide students with these opportunities through the art experience as well.
ReplyDeleteThe images you choose of a plastic baby and slides reminds me of how there can a technical disconnect with students we teach and the aptitudes and capabilities they have as they have access to a lot of technologies that we did not. I hope that we are able to progress at light speed to catch up with our students in this regard and to make a connection to the visual culture they live in.
The idea of unlocking doors and passing the key to other generations is so inspiring to me. Although it may be the present it is so important to keep in mind the future and the impact you make on students and future students of those students. This is true for all teachers and in some small way for every person. As Meredith said students are able to construct their own knowledge and understanding. And as teachers or just simply people we are given the chance to encourage, and foster creative development without imposing our own beliefs and understandings. Within your image you have chosen a plastic baby doll and I am wondering if the attributes associated with this object have an almost negative connotation. I may be wrong but I read that baby doll as the students or human. If that is so, the child reads as a figure that is fake, and molded from plastic. This image is very provoking and I am just one interpretation of many.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see the doll's hand actually on the door knob to complete the thought of intake to action. This not only represents visually what happens in art education but what happens in society. Being bombarded with images constantly, which ones stick in our brain, which ones do we forget, which ones are we subliminally affected by and which ones do we act upon? The doll not touching the door knob does create tension, making me think the student has the choice to take what you've taught and do something or nothing. Having the information be relevant encourages them to reach for the door and move forward.
ReplyDeleteK-12 art educator
I like the colors and how they contrast.
ReplyDeleteI like the blues and Browns of the picture. The art tools were good accents for the picture. I couldn't find the key in the picture, but I like how the baby doll's head is open, suggesting an open mind.
ReplyDeleteIt looks very interesting with the colage of pictures,and the baby doll facing the door knob but maybe it would be nice if the baby was opening the door or something like that.It looks really cool!!!
ReplyDeleteI like the proportion of the door knob to the child. As a child, the world can seem so big and scary. The doll actually looks a little startled. A teacher can help bring the world into a different perspective for a student. Good photo.
ReplyDeleteFriend
The first thing my eye was drawn to was the doll's open head. The doorknob, of course, is the dominant image, but the open head is the anomaly. The brain seeks that which is different; I couldn't help but look at it. From there, my eye was drawn clockwise to the images in the frames. The key in the background was not noticeable at first, but after reading the artist's statement and viewing the brainstorming, I went back and found it. Interesting, now that my brain sees the key, it has become the thing I focus on. As I reflect on this image, I think about how the tools and information (frames) we fill our children's open minds with provides the key to unlocking the doors of their future. A very thought-provoking image; relevant to teachers and parents alike.
ReplyDeleteElementary teacher/Family
I enjoy your idea of the door being the portal to learning. The job of the teacher is to help open this door and guide the student through it. Your technical presentation of this is successful. The viewer can read the door knob and the slides with art supplies. I read the baby as a symbol for your students and that you are providing them to help them make it through the door by constructing their own knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very unique piece that describes art education. It shows very clear massages that a student tries to go through a door. Over the door, there are goals or accomplishment waiting for, the student but he/she has to use knowledge to open the door. The knowledge is in the slides. Using the slides helps the students to open an opportunity. The falling slides have movements coming from to the bottom. That makes me think that the source of knowledge is not only one, but many keeps coming to the students. However, I have a concern. The background is very plain and uses dull colors. That makes a little sadness and a slight void.
ReplyDeleteI like the crystal doorknob as a metaphor for art education because the doll's head is looking into it with a sort of awe and wonder. I saw the doorknob as a speaker sending out music in the face of the doll. I like the idea that the student can learn to appriciate art just by paying attention and keeping an open mind to what the teacher presents them, not necessarily that they have to unlock the door and enter the world of art themselves. The metaphor of a key unlocking a door seems like too much of a simple cliche' for what I see going on in this image.
ReplyDelete-Family member
When I first look at this self portrait, I feel confused but in a good way. This portrait can take so many different roads and cover so many different metaphors. I first think of what’s behind the door; it can be the end of an educational journey or an obstacle in the way along the journey. Secondly, I wonder what it takes to open the door; a teacher can only led a student to the many different doors in life, the student chooses which to walk through. Well laid out, my eyes get caught all around the portrait. Good job!
ReplyDelete