These five images represent five pieces of my own artwork that are significant to my process as an artist. The first iage is a painting I created from a photograph I took; if I appropriate images in my work I believe it is important to be from my own images so the work is completely my own.  The second painting is significant to me because I painted it in a much looser style with more prominent brush strokes than how I usually work.  The series of photograms was an experimental component of my film photography class.  For this project, I used a paintbrush to track and capture the movement of paint in a photogram, which was soemthign I had never done before.  The wooden box is an example of a 3D work, which I do not have much of but I really enjoy.  The last image of ceramic peppers can be considered less successful than the others as my orinigal idea did not work out the way I had planned, however I displayed the individual pieces together to make one whole piece.  I feel this group of work shows my range as an artist and represents what I can refer to for myself to plan ideas for my future pieces.  I do enjoy working with nature and I feel beauty can be found in the simplest of objects and ideas.

Readings for 8/25

The assigned group of articles discussed race and racism as seen in society as well as in art education. It is clear that if you are white, you are priveleged, whether you realize it or not.  Both the Desai and Hyland articles mentioned that the majority of teachers are white and female.  White teachers seem to consider themselves superior and consider their own race to be dominant in classrooms, even while believing that they are sucecssful teachers (Hyland, 2010).  I thought the Hylan article was particularly interesting as it described four different white teachers who thought of themselves as successful, however, upon analysis, were seen to be using methods that did not seem to be beneficial in teaching black students.  They all seemed to have low expectations of their students and therefore did not effectively challenge them or provide them with a stimulating learning enviornment.  All of the articles were geared toward discussing the way white teachers may ignore race or have a colorblind racism view without even directly meaning to.  Today's society is still racist because of social institutions, including education, politics and simple social norms.
The chapter in Teaching Meaning in Artmaking did not discuss race in the classroom, however the main idea could be related to the other articles.  The chapter discussed personalizing big ideas in artwork in the classroom and different areas of inspiration and examples of artists and their own meaning in their art (p. 20).  When describing Fred Wilson, the chapter mentions making a connection between one's personal life and their artwork.  This could be an effective way to deal with race in an art classroom; self expression could be encouraged as a way to allow students to move in their own direction.  After reading these articles and the chapter, I realize some things I would like to not do in my future art classroom.  I would hope I would never be blind to the social norms of race and to never expect less of my potential students because of it.  I would not want to have low expectations of my future students and I would especially not want to see myself as the superior, dominant being in the classroom.  I would not want anything, including race, to hinder me from relating to any potential students.

Contemporary Artist: Tara Donavan

I admire Tara Donavan because she is able to create a totally new environment for her viewers to experience out of everyday objects.  I have seen one of her pieces in the Chelsea Galleries in NYC and the way she utilizes the space is very interesting.