A Matter of Excellence

Golden Sea

Makoto Fujimura

2012

Mineral Pigments and Gold on kumohada over canvas

80" x 64"

"It doesn't have an intensity that loudly calls people's attention but it has a beauty that resonates slowly and deeply. I think that this way to think about beauty is going to become more and more needed in our world today."

Norihiko Saito

Artist, Professor of Nihonga and Teacher to Makoto Fujimura

     The hope of every teacher is this- something is imparted to the student that was not there before. The teaching of art provides a plethora of opportunities for this hope to be realized (in spite of James Elkins position that art cannot be taught). This past week we discussed the notion of excellence in art as we watched a video about Makoto Fujimura, an artist whose work exudes excellence. In addition to being a painter, Makoto Fujimura is an international speaker and author. Regarding art, he says,

" It does not have to do with whether you can buy and sell the work, it has to do with who you are and what you're built to do and how honestly you can depict those things to point to the future, and when artists are not able to do that the entire culture suffers."

     One of the somethings I hope to impart to my students is a better understanding of excellence. Here are a few endeavors from this past week: 

Etchings

Collagraphs

Pinhole Photographs

And, here is the video:

                         

Announcing Ink Vein

"If we do not teach our children, and ourselves, that what we imagine, and how we design the world, can make a difference, the culture of cynicism will do that for us. If we do not take the initiative to love our neighbors by imagining better neighborhoods and cities, despair will take the imaginations of their children and turn them

into destructive forces."

Makoto Fujimura

Ink Vein

Trinity's Literary Journal

After weeks of preparation, Ink Vein- Trinity's Literary Journal, is available. This beautiful edition of student work is available through Blurb.com by clicking on the link at the top of the post (where you can see a preview as well).

The art room is a busy place these days, with students working in encaustic, serigraphy, pinhole photography, cyanotype prints, watercolor, graphite, digital photography, Photoshop, oil, acrylic, plastic, metal, wood... not a place for the faint of heart. My approach is a hybrid of classical atelier and Montessori methodology and now, after three quarters of a variety of media and art history lectures, students have the opportunity to explore materials that speak to them. The results are exciting. Megan Bennett and Aden Huffman have worked on our visual timeline, adding cave painting and the Egyptian age. Davis Martinec revived interest in the Cyanotype process, discovering a 'better paper' (thank you Davis!), Chris Shreve is working through a print concept, incorporating unsolved proofs in math (click here for the list), Greg Scott and Dillon Harward are taking photographs for a Blurb book, Spencer Phillips is painting in oil on canvas, Maddie Keller is painting an original watercolor of multi-colored Coca-Cola bottles (classic shape) while Alli Meyer is (ambitiously) producing a serigraphy (silkscreen) edition of Four Cans- a poster print of four different soft drink cans with each can in five to six colors (that is alot of 'pulls'). As I survey the room, Proverbs 14:4 comes to mind- "An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable." 

Timeline Additions

Megan Bennett and Aden Huffman

Cyanotype

Jacob Byrom

Cyanotype

Emma Carter

Backwards Logic

Cyanotype

Christopher Shreve

Digital Photograph

Dillon Harward

Icons

Serigraph

Kaela Frappier

Encaustic and Oil

Tori Barbee

Who Am I?

Mixed Media

Lee Blackwelder

Graphite

Austin Carpenter

For parents seeking creative venues for their children this Summer, I highly recommend Masterpiece Project.

My wife and I were blessed several years ago when we participated in a Timothy Botts calligraphy workshop. Mr. Botts is the Artistic Director for Masterpiece Ministries.

ArtCards, Prints and Masks

The ArtCards are Here

Just in time for Christmas, the First Edition Trinity ArtCards are available. See Grace in the office or email mcarter@trinityprep.com for an order form.




"Be it true or false, what is said about men has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do."
Victor Hugo
Les Miserables


Here is something from Arthur C. Clarke I have been contemplating-

Three Laws of Technology:


1. When a scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right.
When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.


2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.


3. Any sufficiently developed technology is indistinguishable from magic.

As I ponder the spiritual ramifications of Mr. Clarke's words, I see a correlation with the power of words as they are spoken over a student by a teacher. Whether the words are true or false, students tend to believe them, especially if the words confirm a secret suspicion the student has hidden in their heart.  My earliest memory of an art teacher was my Third Grade teacher. I looked forward to 'art-time'. One day the teacher stopped at my desk, picked up my drawing, and, in front of the class made demeaning comments loud enough for the class to hear. Decades would pass before I enjoyed drawing again. Numerous times my students have told me that their dislike of art stemmed from the critical words of a former art teacher. Last week a student repeated my story when he told me that the first time he was publicly humiliated was in a lower school art class. That student is one of my daily reminders that teaching is serious business; human beings are impacted by my language, they are filled with alacrity or apathy. I read James 3:1 and tremble. 

Click here for an encouraging word to artists by Makoto Fujimura.

Printmaking

Students in the printmaking classes finished their woodcuts Friday.
Here is a selection:

Sculpture

The sculpture classes finished masks friday.
Here are a few:

Mechal Harward

David Rogers

Sam Carter

Allie Meyer

Lindsay Frasciello

Will Levings


...smile of the day