GROWTH

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”

~Anais Nin

I took these pictures at the Botanical Gardens in Washington DC, Summer 2010. PVB

One Thing Leads to Another

On my adventures, I like to ponder how one thing leads to another, for example: Baltimore>Food>Little Italy>Fell's Point>Art>Robert McClintock>Photography>Technology.

I am currently in Baltimore at the NAEA Conference and, for me, one of the challenges/highlights of traveling is finding good food that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Well, Baltimore's Little Italy provided us with a satisfying selection (we actually went back a second night to the same restaurants, which is against my out-of-town eating-out rules). But that is a whole different story which includes freezing weather and gale-force winds while on a water taxi (slight exaggeration)!

So after walking for miles (another exaggeration), we found Little Italy, and read numerous menus,  Amicci's for dinner and Voccaro's for dessert were the choices; we were not disappointed..

The mussels in garlic, butter, white wine sauce, antipasto, eggplant parmegiana and pane' rotunda were all more delicious than they look! This background is for the next part of the story...

Today's adventure included taking a water taxi to Fell's Point. As we walked around the pirate-themed area, we stumbled upon an art gallery which we were drawn to by the brightly colored pieces displayed in the windows (actually, all I have to do is see the word art and I am there). We discovered Robert McClintock's Studio & Gallery. He uses rich vibrant colors, his horizon line is a little "off" or diagonal and the multiple images of "dogs that I know" initially got my attention. After spending some time in the gallery, I found myself looking through his collection for images of places I have seen in my short visit over the few days I've been here. McClintock's "Baltimore Seen" collection has a "Little Italy" section. Of course I found images of Amicci's and Vocarro's! They were post card size and I did take numerous (an understatement) pictures, but these bright pictures were reasonable and I liked them!

As I purchased the images, I asked the young man how McClintock's images were created and he kindly let me take a look at the studio where the “Photo-Digital Illustrations”  are embellished and where McClintock paints and colors directly onto his photographs in Adobe Photoshop on a Macintosh using a Wacom Tablet. I found the massive color printers which are fed watercolor paper and canvases most impressive. McClintock also adds a personal touch to every image after the printing process. What a treat to see "backstage" where the artist creates!

 

Luba Lukova

I arrived early and still stood in the back of the dimly lit room (standing room only) as Luba Lukova prepared to share her images on a slideshow. I quickly realized it was an honor to be any place in the room as this woman began to speak. Initially, her beautiful Russian accent was attention-getting enough, but my attention quickly shifted to her message. Her words were inspiring and the images she shared were even more powerful. Although she acknowledged her work evoked strong emotions, controversy, and were politically charged, the explanations and descriptions of her thought process (as she shared each image) added so much to the meaning and conveyed the optomistic message she intended. This might be my favorite presentation of the conference!
http://www.graphic-design.com/Gallery/luba_lukova/index.html

The images above were pictures I took from her slideshow. To view the set of posters I purchased on social justice (which were also highlighted on the conference program) explore the following link:

http://www.graphic-design.com/Gallery/luba_lukova/index.html

What do you think?

Do any of the visual images at the site inspire, anger, motivate, disturb, or cause you to think?

Tulips

Carpet of Tulips in front of Union Station, Washington DC
What are the elements of art emphasized in this photograph?
What do you notice about these elements?

Picasso at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC

Picasso's Blue Period

Read about the "Metamorphosis of a Painting" The Tragedy (1903)  at the National Gallery of Art web site.

Take a look at NGA's Teacher's Guide exploring three of Picasso's paintings including Le Gourmet (The Greedy Child).

How would you answer the questions posed?

Art Education and Social Justice

What does the 2010 NAEA convention theme, "Art Education and Social Justice" mean and why was it selected?

Posts from the National Art Education Association Conference NEXT WEEK!

Photo taken by Paige V. Baggett , Easter 2010

10 Lessons the Arts Teach

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.The arts traffic in subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants reprint permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper acknowledgment of its source and NAEA.