Zines & Surrealism
But first, relationships!
It’s a new semester with new students who need to feel comfortable in our shared space and support navigating art-making that is more open-ended than previous experiences.
First up: establishing positive relationships and making each student feel welcome in the studio. I do this through what I call “family time”, which has some similar elements to Restorative Practice Circles. For the first week of class, and every Friday after, we arranged our chairs in a circle around the room and I ask the group a check-in question, then we go around the circle and answer (students can always pass). Questions start with a getting to know you focus, then become open to more introspection. Examples are:
Share your name, grade, and favorite food.
What is one thing I don’t know about you?
Share something good or something you're struggling with.
Share a personal goal for art.
The more time I spend as a teacher, the more I know establishing relationships have to come first.
Next up: Themes, Media & Process
This semester I’m teaching a course I created, Student-Directed Studio, for the second time. I noticed last year that some students needed more support with the creative process, especially in the beginning, so I decided to introduce themes and media/processes on alternate weeks. I require students to make work that interprets the theme, which can be something small and quick or something that takes an extended time. The media/processes I introduce are optional. I'm finding that this gives both challenge and direction to those students who need support to find ideas, as well as provides lots of open space for those who don’t need support with ideas. This approach also welcomes a range of artistic styles, which might be a new experience for some students.
I started the course with zines, which addressed elements of media, process, and themes. Students learned about zines (some resources here were shared with me by the amazing High School TAB Facebook group), chose media, and developed a theme. We used this form to develop ideas and support establishing art-making processes. We also discussed planning, and students generated long lists of ways artists plan (hint, not just through sketching!)
A few weeks later I introduced the theme of surrealism. We did automatic drawings and discussed surrealist themes like the unconscious, dreams, and the uncanny with the goal of examining and collecting ideas for personal work. I asked students to interpret surrealism through a personal lens and to make decisions about what materials, techniques, and processes to use. This was a big challenge and took some deep thinking and revisions but resulted in creative and thoughtful work in a range of styles. Even better, students started to take artistic risks (see the collage below made with pad wrappers and the altered keyboard), which I see as a sign that they feel safe and know their ideas are welcome.
