ArtPrize

With ArtPrize officially starting yesterday, I thought I might post a few of my thoughts about this popular Grand Rapids art competition.  Here at Grand Valley, you hear a lot of different views about ArtPrize; some argue that it takes artists and their work lightly, allowing anything to pass as an entry, while others are encouraged by the publicity it gives to art and artists.

For me, I find myself somewhere in between.  While I know that ArtPrize does not always represent art in the best light, mixing serious artists with the arts and crafts world, I also think that it is allowing for much more discussion about the arts in Grand Rapids than there ever was before.  I think that sometimes you have to dig for the really creative work, the pieces that challenge you and reveal something new to you, but that digging can help you learn the difference between great and not-so-great works of art.  I think any future art educator can benefit from that.

When I make it downtown to look around at the pieces this year, I fully intend to look at each piece critically, with a teacher's eye.  If I am able to critique all the different pieces you find at ArtPrize, it can give me a little insight into how to approach the critique of a student's work.  I am sure that I will see a wide variety of art forms in my classroom someday, so being able to look at a work of art critically at an event like ArtPrize can prepare me a little for what I might face as a teacher.

Introductions and Ceramics and My Painting Problems and Some Other Things

As I start this, my first real post on my first ever blog, I feel the need to introduce myself.  You know, to my many readers ; )

I am a senior here at Grand Valley State University, finishing up my classes so that next year I can teacher assist and student teach through the College of Ed.  My major is Art Education for the K-12 schools, and my minor is Writing.  I also work as a lifeguard and swimming lessons teacher for the Grandville Public Schools, which has helped me in so many ways to build the patience and confidence (and other characteristics) needed for a classroom. 

Here's a little insight into my life right now: currently, the studio art classes I am taking are Intro to Ceramics and Advanced Painting I.  The three other classes I am taking are Design History, Writing and Sports, and Teaching the Nontraditional Canon (the cause for this very blog!)

I joined the Clay Club here at Grand Valley this week, which I am very excited about.  While I am currently taking Intro to Ceramics, I will not learn how to throw on the wheel, and so I have a promise from a friend that she will teach me wheel-throwing, which is a class I don't have room in my schedule to take.  I look forward to learning this tool to expand the things that I may someday teach in my own classroom!

Painting is my emphasis, and I've found that everything I learn in my other studio classes has helped my focus in painting.  I have really started to enjoy challenging myself in a specific area of art.  However, I have my first critique for this semester on Monday, and I really am struggling with forming words that explain what I want my paintings to express.  As a Writing minor, I usually am not short of words, nor do I usually have trouble expanding on ideas, but for some reason finding a way to talk about my conceptual focus has been hard as of late.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can read this and be happy I have found my way out of this rut : )

As I finish up this introductory blog post, I've been faced with the question: What am I going to write about every week?  I could treat this as a diary, but that seems a little too personal.  I've thought about treating it as an assignment, but that seems a little too formal.  Therefore, I had the idea that I would treat this as an online sketchbook, a journal of sorts that can help me work through ideas for my classroom or my own artwork, in which I can post random things of inspiration - images, links, articles, etc.  This seems the perfect way to use this blog as tool for me today and for my future classroom.

Til next time!

Just to Start