November 22, 2013 Dallas

Dallas Anatole Hilton Hotel

With this post I wanted to mark the historic anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination here in Dallas. Most of us who grew up with the televised memories would find it interesting to be living in the metropolitan area where it happened 50 years later. The event marked the beginning of the end of a wonderful childhood naivete, and a belief that beauty and fairness could win out over treachery.

Local reflective memorials have been positive, with countless arts organizations marking the anniversary with fascinating exhibits and concerts. An overall theme seems to be how much Dallas has changed, and one thread is how much more ethnically diverse it has become.

I experienced the rich diversity from my perspective at an art education conference that week-end at the Anatole Hilton Hotel in Dallas. It houses an amazing collection of Asian Art, and is a favorite place for celebrations of eastern immigrants, from the Mid-East to India to Japan.  On the evening of  Nov. 22,  in one ballroom there was an awards ceremony and dance concert for Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians, with hundreds in attendance.  In a second ballroom there was an Indian wedding, with women in beautiful traditional dress, dancing in a similar style. The waiter at the sushi bar where I was eating  said the Anatole is a favorite venue for Indian weddings, and the massive regal elephant sculptures gracing the lobby seemed to reflect that.

 Sculptural Sphere, by Fahad Aljebreen

 It struck me that one of the most interesting parts of my education in North Texas has been the cultural diversity I have experienced.  I have presented with a colleague from Saudi Arabia, Fahad Aljebreen, on Place-based art. His  perspective is when you live in a desert, sand is the logical creative medium of choice! His sand, paper and glue spherical sculptures are beautiful and poetic. His dissertation research is about  the  American concepts about the veil and the freedom to wear the veil or not. He is pictured with his wife below.

Fahad and Alya Aljebreen

I also have met some amazing students.  Aysheh is a wonderful young American who is studying elementary education at the University of North Texas. Her defiant looking self-portrait I believe represents her pride and self-empowering stance as a young Muslim woman.  Her paternal grandfather was a farmer in Palestine, until his land was re-distributed under Israeli orders. She is the most globally informed college student I have met. I got to know her well when she volunteered for a semester to work with  Earl and I at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Denton in an Integrated Arts Club (See Oct. 9 post).

Self-Portrait -Aysheh Kadar

 The rich mix of people in Dallas and Denton, Texas  have much to share and offer an amazing opportunity to  understand today's culturally diverse world.  By taking part as an art educator I am able to see its richness, and I invite your comments and suggestions on ways you connect across cultures where ever you are.

Jesus Moroles: A North Texas/Nebraska Connection

Jesus Moroles, Internationally Recognized Sculptor and 

Graduate of  University of North Texas, College of Visual Art

Omaha Riverscape, Jesus Moroles  *

Moroles is the focus of current research I am doing for  NTIEVA ( North Texas Institute in Education for the Visual Arts). While updating the NTIEVA website and editing a lesson about Moroles, developed by Nancy Walkup over ten years ago, I am bringing the lesson into the digital age. I am  taking out references to antiquities like overhead projectors and transparencies, and searching for web connected resources. That's where I found the image above and the video below.

Moroles's Omaha Riverscape installation uses Dakota granite, which connects it geographically to the Great Plains region.  Being from eastern Nebraska, stone is not a naturally occurring material in the local environment, so to me it seems quite exotic. Maybe that explains my fascination with ceramics, because we can make our own stone-like structures in fired clay. In this work he makes me aware that regionally I am connected to places with millions of years of exposed history, the granite hills of South Dakota in this case.  As I viewed the video below, produced by the Dallas Museum of Art, I learned more about how his connection to the earth and the environment profoundly influences his work.

In my doctoral research I am looking at how place connects us, and superficially divides us. Why is it that rivers are so often seen as dividers instead of connectors: Nebraska/Iowa, Texas/Oklahoma, US/Mexico? Like Morole's choice of Dakota granite, which relates to the  regional geography of the area,  the local/regional sourcing of our art is valuable as well. Art experiences that connect us to the local make art accessible. Becoming involved in deep conversations with and through art can help.

For teaching lesson plans developed by Joslyn Art Museum based on this installation follow the link: 
Joslyn Art Museum Lesson Plan

For a comprehensive unit on Moroles that looks at his sculpture Granite Weaving and compares it to traditional Navajo waving, stayed tuned for the updated NTIEVA  website.

*IMAGE:  Jesus Moroles (American, born 1950), The Omaha Riverscape, 2008–09, granite and water installation with academy black granite reflecting pool; three column fountains of Mountain Red, Carnelian, and Dakota Mahogany granite; and Dakota Mahogany Granite water wall, Museum purchase with funds from Patron Circle for Contemporary Art and Helen & Ted Kolderie, Photos courtesy of HDR Architecture, Inc; ©Tom Kessler Photography.

Visiting North Texas Art Rooms: Diversity Has a Chance

As a student teacher supervisor, I am simply in awe of the difference I see between art rooms in North Texas as I visit my student teachers. Perhaps because as art educators we have more leeway than other disciplines, I see a wide range of  methods. In Texas there are specific standards for every grade level, and there are tests that cover many of them, but because most districts don't have art tests, the stakes are not as high for the art teacher to cover specific content. I believe that is why there are more diverse methods and ideas in art rooms.

I  have been in 36 different schools in 9 different school districts.  The most radically different classrooms are those that embrace key parts of the 21^st Century learning curriculum which aim to develop independent thinkers and therefore require self-directed learning in their classroom.

This week I observed one of my student teacher's lessons for an  introductory course at an IB (International Baccalaureate) High School.  The class was diverse in age and ethnicity, yet they were all motivated to create their own artwork to answer self-defined visual problems. One junior told me that she joined the class because she wants to learn to be a conceptual artist.  Really? Most people do not even know what a conceptual artist does.  Although she had just completed her first small drawings, she has the important notion that in  art, the concept is most important. I had another student teacher who was lucky enough to student teach in a choice-based elementary art room.  The teacher had set-up her classroom so students could choose  the medium to work with and the subject of their artwork. This classroom seems like it should feed into a IB high school, but it is in a different school district all together. Art teachers are an independent lot and students benefit from multiple experiences with different kinds of instruction. Hopefully all students get a chance to create with a teacher that enables them to solve visual problems on their own.

I tell my student teachers that they are fortunate to be starting their careers  in North Texas because in this  amazing growth area there are new schools and jobs popping up all the time. Texas requires fine art in all student's schedules  from kindergarten through at least one year of high school and I get to see what's happening in places far and wide.

My student teacher seminar group meets to share ideas

Connecting Art to Math

Art and Math

Click on the orange Art and Math Animoto Video link above. It is  produced from the work of my Essentials of Art class at Texas Women's University and demonstrates how students can use the constraints of design and geometry to create fun and beautiful work. My elementary education majors are exploring how Art relates to other subjects that are part of the curriculum they will be teaching.

Oh, yes the Blue Willow tile table at the end is mine, and was inspired by the story on the plates, the beautiful cobalt blue tiles and Tangrams!

For more about arts integration you might want to view this http://ning.it/1grYeBC

Denton through the Backdoor Story

Earl Bates, my spouse, doing his St. Patrick's Day gig on Denton's Courthouse  Square

Denton through the Backdoor Story
Click on the title to see the Animoto Video that links to my view of Denton's past and present.

The Other Side of Texas

Since so many of my old friends from Nebraska and other parts of the planet have never been here to visit, and since there will be a lot of focus on Dallas over the next week as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination this month,  I am posting about the place that we have called home for the past several years, Denton, just north of Dallas.

The images of Texas conjured up by team names such as Rangers, Cowboys and the Mavericks belie the fact that Texans also started  such enterprises as the  Susan J. Komen Foundation, and the National Cowgirl Museum. And, whereas, Alaska can claim the originator of the "maverick" misnomer, Sarah Palin, Fort Worth is represented in the state legislator by Wendy Davis who has stood up to say no to the overwhelmingly male dominated legislature, in regarding women's reproductive health.

So my posts will include images of the other Texas, the one I have experienced locally.
Here is where we live, on the northwest tip of Lake Lewisville just outside Denton.
Welcome to my neighborhood!

Home Sweet Home

Boat House across the road, with Landlady, Dana Binnion

Side view Boathouse

Lake in front of boathouse

 

Huge ammonite fossil in our chimney, spiral symbol of creativity sole us on this place.

 

My room  sans my office.
 

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STAY TUNED FOR  MORE POSTS THIS MONTH

Engaging Homelessness

Students in Therapeutic Arts class at Texas Christian University embraced the challenges of homelessness in various ways. These journal pages reflect the Brown Bag Challenge, asking them to carry their essential belongings in a brown bag for a week-end. 

 

We visited the Day Resource Center on East Lancaster St.in Fort Worth and learned about the services they offer to their homeless clients that make their existence more comfortable, with the end goal of helping them to find affordable housing.  We learned about a normalizing musical event held monthly at the center called Cyber St. Café. Students then engaged some of the clients in a mosaic-making project at a nearby facility called Feed By Grace.

 

 

 

Students are planning a return visit to complete the  mosaic sign with some of their new friends at the center. Upon completion it will mark the center's stage for their monthly free concerts.

Special Thanks to Diane McClure for her photography.

Recognizing the Visual Culture of Our Students' Places

Seeking Refuge

I made these sculptures after spending 10 years in secondary education with the politics of No Child Left Behind.  I grew frustrated with the effects of over-crowded classes, standards and assessment and witnessing money going to administering a never ending series of tests instead of ways that could positively effect students. I built these sculptures to reflect  frustrations of trying to  reach students using  standard curriculum when my students came from such diverse places.

This series of sculptures were constructed at the end of those years with discarded  clay structures my high school students had built and other greenware objects I had made or found. I glazed the objects, applied decals  and constructed each sculpture with a particular student group in mind.

Shotgun

Only through the Backdoor

Dreamer

Safe House

Denton through the Backdoor Story

Denton through the Backdoor Story

an Animoto Video

A lot of people who live outside Texas have never even heard of Denton. These images are part of the 6 mile bike ride that takes me to TWU. This VIDEO  is done  with a free educator account from Animoto. Created to show some of the  visual culture of Denton including  Quakertown Park and the historic courthouse in Downtown Denton. Quakertown Park has a past that has only recently been recognized.  To find out more  you can check out this link  https://dentonwiki.org/quakertown

Shhhh, It's a Secret............Therapeutic Arts Class at TCU

Inspired by Frank Warren's Book Secrets, my students in Therapeutic Arts Class created these works of art. It is  an open enrollment course for undergrads and grads at TCU that explores the therapeutic qualities of art and how art therapy is used to heal, in different institutional and community settings.

These are some of the secrets my students chose to share with the  class and now you.