For your first assignment is to read Chapter 1 in the text Emphasis Art.
Please comment on Journal #1 due Wednesday September 9.
Journal #1
Journal #1
What is your definition of art? What is Wachowiak and Clements' definition of art?
How does your past experience with art compare to the qualitative art program that the authors advocate in your text?
Please use complete sentences and check your spelling in all of your postings. I am looking for a minimum of 2 full paragraphs and maximum of a one page word document. (You are not writing a dissertation in art education.)
Please use complete sentences and check your spelling in all of your postings. I am looking for a minimum of 2 full paragraphs and maximum of a one page word document. (You are not writing a dissertation in art education.)
Spell check in a word document and paste your post into the comment area.
Please post your first and last name to each journal entry.
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ReplyDeleteKellen Munneke made it to the first day of class!
ReplyDeleteI would define art as group or individual expression and communication of self, something that challenges the mind in a creative, unique way, and an idea that means something to its creator.
ReplyDeleteWachowaik and Clements’ define art in several contexts. First they define art as an international language. They note it “communicates meaning without words.” The authors insist culture is communicated to the world through art. The authors then connect the dots by explaining that appreciating art helps our nation communicate sufficiently as well as appreciate diversity. They define art at an individual and personal level, such as sketching a newborn baby, something we can relate to and use to individually express ourselves. The authors suggest art is something that promotes higher thought processes and an appreciation of our natural surroundings. With that said, the authors see art as a must in education to help students learn, grasp a concept, and grow as well-rounded individuals.
The qualitative art program reminded me of my fifth grade teacher. For subjects such as history, she would incorporate many time-consuming art projects. For the most part, we were free to be creative as long as we followed her guidelines. As it turns out, I can still explain the significance of many of these projects, what I learned, and their place in history. My art experience alone go hand in hand with the qualitative art program the authors adoringly advocate.
Megan Marvel
The definition of art in my mind is the visual creation of feelings and emotions. On the other hand Wachowiak and Clements’ definition of “art is more akin to poetry, which, like all fine arts, distills the essence of an experience through expressive and discriminative choices” (Emphasis Art). In my past art experiences there has always been a time restriction on art time or art projects. There was always a strict time schedule that didn’t allow for art other than scheduled time. The other major difference was when I was in elementary school there was one project that they whole class did, and the teacher gave us certain instructions on how to construct and finish our project. There was never a chance for us to be creative and put expression of feeling into our art projects. Those are the main differences I see between my past art experiences and the qualitative art program in the text book.
ReplyDeleteNicole Osterman
Wow, to define art… Wachowiak and Clements define art as a language, a language that can be used to communicate cross-culturally, and to communicate and explore one’s own ideas and emotions. Art, to me, is more than the finished product. To me, art is an experience, through which one learns, explores, and shares their ideas.
ReplyDeleteI had the same art teacher throughout middle school and high school. Her way of teaching was quite different than the one described in the book. She cared about her students, and inspired me to choose my career path. She had some great ideas for projects, but she didn’t drive her students. She didn’t ask them to analyze their choices or designs. She merely let the students be creative; she didn’t instill in them the principles or elements of art or design or ask them to visually work through aesthetic problems. Creating a good work of art wasn’t really a goal; she just wanted the students to create anything.
Tiffany Straley
Before I even began to read chapter 1, I wanted to know what exactly IS the definition of art, this is what I found: : the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects. To me art is the using of your imagination to take us places we have never been and show how we ourselves view things through color, sculptures, and so on.
ReplyDeleteFrank Wachowiak defined art as "more than an akin to poetry, which, like all fine arts, distills, the essense of an experience through expressive and discriminative choices." He made helping children make beautiful art almost a religious quest. (pg. 8)
Growing up in a small town we did not have much of an art program, we were only required to take one art class from grades 7-12. I was never exposed to much art, so I guess I would say was not able to grow an appreciation or greater understanding of an artist and what art can really do for a person. The one art class i was required to take, i will be honset I did not like, the teacher was an elder lady who made perfection her passion. Everything had to be perfect, color, shading, straight lines and so on. I wanted to make the pieces my own and generate new ideas myself but was not able to because that "was not the assignment." However, I did take away skills that I still use today when trying to create my own art.
Amanda Lacher
Wachowiak and Clements' definition of art is “[something] that will do more to promote a love of learning than an hour of academic drill;” “art is not something special done by special people…children who express their ideas, responses, and reactions with honesty, sensitivity, and perceptiveness from within a framework of compositional principals and design actually create art…” and my definition of art is very similar (Clements & Wachowiak pgs. xxiii, 7-9). I agree that art is something that must express the creativity of the artist, and I also believe that art does not need to be just one media form. Art is not only paintings; it is song lyrics, poetry, pottery, and much more. It is what we use to express ourselves and how we “see” the world around us. It is what we have done, what we are doing, and what we want to do as well as showing where we have been and where we are going. Art is limitless in both media and form. It is both beautiful and ugly. Art is what we perceive to be as art and it is different for every person.
ReplyDeleteI have had many experiences with art, but very little experience with the qualitative art program that the authors advocate. For instance, I have created and entered art in art shows for school, and I have visited art galleries including the Louvre in Paris. In elementary school, art played a subordinate role to all other subjects or it was applied to the upcoming holiday. Time for projects was limited, and students were rarely allowed more than one night to take them home to work on them. In middle school and high school, we had an actual art class, but again students were limited on what they were able to do: usually having to draw a realistic tree, animal, or person after our art teacher was reprimanded for allowing a student to fulfill their creativity by writing a song and using the song paper to be smeared with paint and used in their artwork, even though there were no bad words or connotations in either the lyrics or painting.
My very first (and one of my only) experience with a qualitative method of art was my freshman year of high school when my history teacher asked our class to create Kachina dolls for any aspect of life we wanted using any media we preferred as long as it was a doll that could stand or sit on its own and was school appropriate. We were given a whole week to work on it. We were all so excited! I used a glass tube filled with dirt and sand as well as Sculpty clay to make an Earth Kachina, while others used feathers, pop bottles, wood, beads and much more to create many other types of Kachina dolls. No two were the same; we all got to creatively express ourselves, and it helped us pay more attention to the lesson because we wanted to know more about what we had made. Therefore, I believe that more schools should use the qualitative method of art and I plan to use it in my classroom as well.
Alyssa Kaye Anderson
I define art as one's way of expressing themself. Art gives each individual a chance to be unique and creative in their own way. It is a way of expression and freedom. According to Clements and Wachowiak, "art addresses issues in the real world context, such as hunger, global warming, reading, and technology"(Emphasis Art). They also describe art as a welcoming way of learning.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up I had a few differnt art teachers. One that really has stuck in my mind was my middle school art teacher. She reminds me a lot of the qualatative method for teaching art. She invested a lot of time into the teaching process and always encouraged and praised us for our work. Usually we were given a week to work on larger art projects, which in return had better results. I believe when students are give ample amount of time to work on a project, the outcome will be much more pleasing to the teacher and the student. This teacher made art enjoyable and the class really improved a lot on our artistic abilities. Sometimes all it takes is a positive and encouraging teacher to create good work. I definetely like the qualitative method for teaching art and if more art teachers could follow this method, students would be able to grasp the idea of art better.
Kristin Rathbun
What is art? When I think of art, I think of it as a way to express yourself and communicate through others without saying or writing a word. There are a couple different ways Wachowiak and Clements view the meaning of art. For instance, it is an international language. It is universally accessible and can be viewed without a background of the subject matter. A piece of art says so much without words at all. Looking at it from a different perspective, it is like a cultural reflection. It identifies a specific culture and what is happening at a specific time, place, or event.
ReplyDeleteMy past experiences with art didn’t really take place at school. I remember in elementary doing “art projects” but they were very guided and had a strict time limit. In the end everyone’s art looked just as the teachers example did. There were very few times that I remember being able to express ourselves in our art projects. I love being creative and working on art but my school didn’t have an art class for junior high or high school. I was active in our 4-H club, which is where most of my art experiences took place. My mother guided me through a lot of the projects that I did when I was young but as I got older I began to express myself through my art work. I love picking up a paint brush and painting with emotion.
Breanne Neiger
Art is a substance of human creatively. Art appeals to someone’s senses and emotion. Art can be in the form of music, dance, paintings, drawings and many more. You do not have to be an artist, or even very good at art to produce artistic pieces.
ReplyDeleteFrank Wachowiak’s method of teaching art was to stress that children learn to see more, sense more and recall more when children are enriched and stimulated in art classes by a teacher’s varied and challenging motivations.
I don’t have much experience with art except for the art projects assigned throughout school. I like to draw sometimes but I don’t know if I would call that art. Also, I feel that the book uses art in more educational purposes than any of my teacher’s ever did.
Amanda Arendsee
The definition of art for me is many different expressions shown different through different elements. Wachowiak and Clements' definition of art is how it relates to the time, place, and circumstances of the beginning of the piece. They have three approaches to the art form. The first is contextualist approach were it focuses on the context and subject matter for the element. The second is the media approach were this focuses on the new experiences for the students to learn with art. The final is formalist approach which focuses on elements and designs that produce beautiful pieces of art.
ReplyDeleteArt for me in my past classes was always been a strict class that had to do what the teacher told us to reproduce. In my free time I learned how express myself my own way not just going on what my teachers did. In my own classroom in the future I will let my students express themselves on the art projects and not give them the directions I had in my art classes.
Rachel Schuldt
I would define art as the world we live in and everything around us that makes us unique and different. Art is music and dance, painting and architecture, and even stretching to nature and fashion. It's the ability for someone to display there own creativity and abilities through anyway of self style, motivation, and perception.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Clements and Wachowiak, "Art addresses issues in the real world in context, such as hunger, global warming, reading, and technology." They use methods of teaching art that stresses children to learn and see more. They ask children to sense more and recall what they learn. They also describe art as a welcoming way of learning.
My past experiences with art are slim, but I would like to think I am creative and artistic with everything that I do. I have a great appreciation for people who can take simple things and turn them to art. I don't know if I would necessarily say that my drawings (doodling) are considered art but many things I do, are art. My personal experiences in art span from singing and dancing (choreographing musicals and show choirs) to my personal style that I represent through clothing.
Jordan M. Kjellsen
Art is the act of creating and expressing one's feelings and thoughts about the world around them through different methods and mediums including painting, writing, and singing. There is no right or wrong way to express yourself through art--it relies solely on what matters to the individual; there are no boundaries. Wachowiak and Clements have multiple theories and ideas of what art really is. They believe that art "helps students understand that there is a connection between an artwork's content and the culture and time in which it was created." They believe art helps students interpret their feelings by creating pieces about their environment or culture. Wachowiak believes students become "more aware of their changing and expanding environment." They believe art "has unquestioned merit as a unique avenue to cognitive, social, and individual growth."
ReplyDeleteI would say that the qualitative art program the authors discuss was unlike any of the art programs I had in school. Throughout elementary school each teacher did not promote expressing yourself freely, and projects were done so each student did their assignment exactly the same. We never developed work that related to different cultures and never were evaluated or asked to expand on our thoughts and feelings. Because we only devoted one 30 to 45-minute period to art, I never felt that our projects were quality work. Despite all of these obstacles, I developed a love for art, particularly painting and drawing, very early on. At one point in sixth grade I was finding art projects for my fellow classmates to create because the teacher disliked art. In high school, however, art classes were more developed and focused on thoughts and the different mediums. There were boundaries, but I always tried to overstep them by going above and beyond. Today I still have a passion for art, and find myself very drawn and focused when completing a piece. I would paint every day if I had the time.
Holly Beck
I define art as something that is expressed. There are many different ways to express art. Art can be in the form of music, dance and art is in pretty much everything we do each day. Many people get up and go to jobs that may require you to have some graphic arts skills, but then there are some people that simply bake each morning and they also consider that art. Art really can be defined by saying everything we do and see each day has a definition of art behind it. Clements and Wachowiak basically stress that in all artwork that children do there is so sort of cultural relation behind it. They also stress that children tend to learn more if they see the material/artwork; by looking at the artwork children get a feel of what the artist is trying to express.
ReplyDeleteI really have no past art experience. I did have to take art classes in junior high and high school, but only because it was required. I am not very talented at drawing. I like to think at some things I am creative; for instance I like to scrapbook and when I am done scrapbooking I like to go back and look at all the different ways I went about designing each page. I do have "artistic history" in my family. I have an aunt that is a well-known artist in Wyoming, but other than that I really have no artistic background.
Whitney Daly
Wachowiak and Clements define art as a language, a language that can be used to communicate cross-culturally, and to communicate and explore one’s own ideas and emotions. That sounds like a book definition to me. I like to think of art as something someone created that they think is beautiful. Art is something that many artists use to describe themselves, their feelings, and the different life experiences they have had. That is what art is to me.
ReplyDeleteMy past experiences with art seemed to be much different than the qualitative method for teaching art. The qualitative method for me seems to be a much more open and free method for which kids to learn. This method seems to focus on the students understanding that “art is not something special done by special people.” (text pg 8.) This should make students understand that anybody can draw, paint, mold clay, ect. This method seems to be different from what I had gone through in my past days of being in art. I remember being in grade school and every student had to draw or color the exact same thing. I think that the book is right in that students should be able to have the freedom of expression and make their own art. That would have been a better way to learn and to become a better artist of I would have had the same opportunity that this book is trying to provide.
Max Foth
My definition of art would be a person’s specific way of looking at the world around them and how they wish to share that with others. Not everyone views the world the same way; art is something that allows an individual to share with others their view on the world. The authors of the book view art as a language, across many cultures, ages, and ways of communicating. They feel there are many aspects to art.
ReplyDeleteArt during elementary school was nothing what the authors presented. In elementary school, each child did the exact same project, with each coming out to look the exact same, depending on the amount of effort the child put in. A child could not distinguish his project from another’s except by the name on the top or back. The projects were a step by step process and did not involve any creative thinking from the student. However getting to High School we were able to get an actual Art teacher who actually graduated from Northern. She was able to teach many of the things the authors are talking about in the Qualitative Art Program.
Kellen Munneke
It’s not so easy for me to define art because it is personally a way that I define myself. In that perspective, I guess I could say that it includes my methods and means for self-expression. Art is recognized as personal and creative but always reflective. It is an experience of communication, whether cognitive or not. Some of the simplest designs or patterns can end up revealing a lot and can be used to convey some idea or emotion. Like Wachowiak and Clements note, art can be used in many ways as a part of culture. It can be used as a method of learning and become a documentation or accent to every day life. The magic of art is really in how it opens doors to the imagination and increases creativity and, as Wachowiak and Clements say, “heightens a student’s awareness of the aesthetic qualities in nature, art, and life.”
ReplyDeleteI can recall my experiences within each approach to art. I used art mostly contextually in elementary school to fit in with other lessons in class. We were usually assigned fun projects to add art into another subject. Middle school was distinctly a media approach through ‘art exploration’ class. Those were the years I was introduced to different ideas and possibilities as well as allowed to experiment with various techniques. I spent more time in the studios in high school than anything so the number of art classes I took covered an overall range of it all. I would say that my personal experience was qualitative. Some of my classes were more about the media but as I leveled up they became formalist in trying to build skills. My favorite curriculum was in my advanced art class that was almost a hands-on introduction to art education. I think my exposure to the philosophies, history and methods along with being allowed expressive freedom all inspired me to want to pass on art in the same qualitative way!
Lisa Bowman
If I were to define art I would say that it is a way of expressing oneself. Art is something that everyone can do that there is no right or wrong way to do. Wachowiak and Clements feel that there are many aspects to art. They say that art is a language that can be communicated throughout cultures. They also say that art is a way of expressing one’s emotions and ideas.
ReplyDeleteIn elementary school my art experiences were much different than the qualitative art program talked about in the book. In our classes, art wasn’t really something that we did freely or get to express ourselves through. We all did the same project and worked with the same mediums. We followed the model that the teacher gave us trying to make ours look exactly like the teachers. I think the qualitative art method is a much better way of approaching art. Kids should be able to express themselves through their art and not be restricted by what they see or are told they have to do.
Katie Hansen