Vision and Revision

Many students enter their full year visual art course burdened
with misconceptions.  Most of these have occurred
because of an uneven arts education have left them with a primary school level
outlook towards the arts.  Among these
ideas that they hold, a common one it that everything
is art. That’s not true.  It never
was true.

Many things could be art. 
It is possible that anything
could be art.  Personally, I connect with
that school of thought, anything could be art (provided it has certain qualities).  Foremost among these qualities is that art
must have an idea.  A work of art is
evidence of thinking. The technical qualities are used to transmit the
idea.  Exercising advanced expertise with
media and material without concept becomes an academic exercise. 

It would totally acceptable for the VPA to focus completely
on academic exercises.  Many schools do
and are considered model programs.  There
are two main reasons we do not pursue that path at Carondelet.   The
first on is our ISOs.  The second is our
master schedule. 

We want our students to be whole brain thinkers and we want
them to strive for excellence.  We also align
creativity with ingenuity and problem solving. 
This creates assignments that require more of the students than simply
following instructions.  For some, this
is a new way of making. Previously, they may have been guided step-by-step
through their projects. 

If you walk onto many of our neighboring public schools and
you will have a chance of seeing a lot of student work that is technically far
superior to anything on display in our school. 
You may also notice that much of that work falls into that academic
exercise category.  These schools have
the opportunity to teach multiple years of art. 
In that system, foundational work is taught first and is followed by
conceptual work as the students gain more control of their tools and technique.
Our schedule has not had the space to allow students to spend years
investigating their art making.  Making
the most of the situation, we shift emphasis earlier to the conceptual.

This idea may sound great in a blog, or a roundtable
discussion but it presents challenges in the classroom.  To many, art is technique.  That’s all there is to it.  One just needs to bend it or glue it or stack
it and suddenly it will be something exceptional.  Asking them to think first, to be aware of an
idea, to visualize within their art class is blasphemous and unfair. Art should
be easy, and it doesn’t matter anyway because “everything is art.” It is typical that students jump in and use
material without a real idea of where they are going.  This is seldom a successful strategy.

By start of the fourth quarter, one way or another, many
students accept the Art is Idea mindset to some level.  Together, we have somewhat overcome their
interior challenges but there are still exteriors challenges to manage.  Finishing all or most of the curriculum, the pace
of the school year, the brief length of typical classes, and a few other issues
also make it a challenge for the students to dig into an idea also.  We are always moving on!

To allow them explore their ideas a little deeper than usual,
this year I tried a new project.  We just
completed it, our first Revision Project! 
The idea is straightforward, they were to take any one of their previous
seven projects and either significantly modify it or begin a new version
completely. (Easy prep for me!) They selected which one to do.  Some chose the one that was their lowest
grade, others chose the one that was the most enjoyable.  They had to follow the original instructions and
it would be assessed by the same rubric. They were warned the rubric would be a
bit more strictly applied this time. 
Before access to tools and materials, they needed to submit a short
written proposal identifying any issues with the previous and precisely how
they were going to make improvements.  A
few sketches needed to also be presented.

Superficial proposals were rejected.  A few students offered vague promises that
they would simply “try harder”.  Those
girls were challenged to reassess their concept or to redesign it.  Everyone was notified that there would a
little less time allowed since the materials were no longer brand new to them. Armed
with the experiences of the previous three quarters and given a few performance
incentives, they really dove in to their work. 
The class fell into the most glorious vision of chaos as various
students worked with hand tools, power tools or simply their hands.  Some shaped wood, others bent wire. Various
volumes were created in paper mache, plaster, sandstone, soapstone, cardboard,
and sheet metal. My room was destroyed daily. 
An unexpected benefit was the diversity of projects led to more
individualized problem solving; no longer could a student mimic her neighbor’s
solution.

The original stand on the left took hours of building from cardboard and clay. The revision on the right was much simpler.  The second try had a better scale, was more elegant and communicated more clearly.

The results were very strong, grades were raised,
self-confidence crept up. The clarity of idea and the quality of the work made my
grading much easier. A few students realized that a little more time spent in
conceptualizing and designing led to a stronger and more easily reached
conclusion. Hopefully, as we begin our final project, The Catholic Super Hero
figurine, the work will build upon stronger concepts.