Archive for the ‘creativity’ Category

As the new year starts, it’s always a time of reflection for me. I have two times like this during the year – one in January as I look ahead to the next calendar year, and one in August when I look at the coming school year. One of the newslists I get is from Education Week, and there was a link today on Steve Jobs and creativity. This was his commencement address to Stanford in 2005. Some very interesting things – never knowing when something you have done in the past (like his taking a calligraphy class that eventually led to the fonts for the Macintosh) will be the key to what you will do next in the future.

Do what’s in your heart, never feel regretful, because everything you experience builds who you are. A lot of what bothers me about teaching these days is that I have all these experiences from the past, and I would like to be able to have these skills utilized. It gets me angry, but then I realize that I am bringing all this to the students, and I never know when something from the past will be the key to reach a student.

Those words really resonated with me today, as I need to hold to that to get through the remaining years that I am teaching. If I can maintain the momentum from this past week, I will be able to draw on the digital marbling as a creative outlet for the spring. I think what’s really working for me with Photoshop is that I can see definite progress in a piece, whereas when I am quilting, the progress is always much slower.

Speaking of skills I have developed, a few years ago when I was looking for another job, I interviewed with Drive Time to set up their business partnership program with local schools. The first thing the CEO of the company asked me was, since my resume was so full and so diverse, just how much of it was true. Well, I guess, once again, I am determined to be a Renaissance woman – everything is true, continues to be true, and I guess I keep adding in other directions.

Suzan and I have done a couple of really amazing pieces over the last few days. This one is based on the original piece in yesterday’s blog – but you would never know it! Dean wants to call it “Tapestry Secret,” which I like.

Every year I go through the same thing, and I thought perhaps this year if I put the problem in writing, that maybe I will gain some insights into a better way. With the holiday break, I seem to do lots of lists, want to be very productive, and try to get zillions of things done. I always end up starting the new semester depressed, on a roll with my art, and then nothing happens again till summer – if I’m lucky. There’s got to be a better way.

One thing I think will help is this blog. This is by far the first time I have been able to journal for a whole year, even as much as I like writing. Part is that I can do it on the computer – I hate long-hand. I have had a number of insights this year, and I have been productive. Looking back at the early entries, I can see how far I have come with Photoshop, even though I am still quite the novice. I need to keep writing, and probably I need to start a blog that will be strictly my education thoughts – so I can be the wonderfully sarcastic person that I am….or maybe not. Maybe I just write here and then delete, once I have my thoughts down.

Right now I am avoiding making a list of things I want to get accomplished this weekend. What I have done this fall on Sundays is just jot down the really critical stuff for Sunday and then again for Monday mornings. I feel freer to do my own work, yet I don’t have to worry about remembering all the things I still need to do for school. I seem to be torn by wanting to be productive, screwing myself up by putting too many things on the list, and then freeing my mind.

I think because of the blog and a couple of self-imposed deadlines for shows that I won’t lose momentum in art come January. That has always been the problem for the last couple of years. Now I have been leaving as much work as possible at school and freeing my nights for Photoshop. And – turning out some pretty good work, if I say so myself.

So what do I do for this weekend? I check on the iBook to see what happened to it, I do an artist statement for me and Suzan, I find the jurying information for Van Gogh’s Ear Gallery, and I marble. Should be plenty……

It has been a very nice, relaxing few days, even with being sick. Saw Charlie Wilson’s War, which was excellent, even though I dozed through some of it. A great historical “if only.” Today we saw National Treasure, Book of Secrets – lots of fun, though highly improbable. Been to Mt. Vernon, Mt. Rushmore – always fun to see a few of the places we have been.

Worked last night on a new piece, and again today. Both easily came with titles. The first – Lord of the Rings – the original is a great piece of Japanese silk, marbled in dark greens.

The second – Fossils – from a great stone pattern, marbled on linen. I am finding I like adding shapes to the pieces – need to see about developing my own library of shapes.

I had said to the kids in art class that they could put their work up for sale, which they thought was kinda cool. But today three of the girls sold pieces, and now it has become a craze among the students to – not so much sell a piece – as for students to buy art. Yay! We are creating a culture where students are interested in buying another piece of art – so they value it, and the art program is growing by leaps and bounds. We have already extended the show a week – and now I have to figure out a way to manage sales. I think I have a plan – but there are grades to do, and a room to clean, and plans to do for the new semester…plus a reward party for the kids tomorrow. Nothing like a busy last day!

Now I’ve been working with Photoshop for the last two hours, playing around with the camouflage piece, trying to see what I come up with. I have hit a roadblock with two of the pieces, and I’ve started on the third. What I am discovering is the need to add another whole dimension to the work, like a shape of another image – and not quite sure how to do it. But what I started doing is each time I have something I like, I save that and then continue. So I have about 7 off the same image, some of which are very cool – just don’t know what else they need. I could easily see printing them out all the same size and calling it “Cosmic Soup.” So Suzan, I need help!

School work is done for today – including getting reports on how my kids all did on the benchmark tests last week. Don’t get me started on those – nothing like having to teach to the test….rather than for genuine understanding, as Howard Gardner would call it.

But I digress. It’s time to play. I think I have another potential. Remember the camouflage from the last entry? Here it is with some blurring.

Then I looked at playing around with some lighting and a gradient – I have come to really love gradients.

The piece, at this point, looks very much like a primeval forest, so I wanted to add a shape, and decided on bear paws, my spirit animal (I collect fetishes of bears). Then I played around with the embossing, trying to maintain the original camouflage idea. I like the final result.

We marbled again on Saturday, and lately we have been trying something new…using leftover fabric and marbling on the bottom of the tray. We first tried this about eight years ago, when the bottom of the tray, as we were cleaning it, looked to have a really interesting pattern. We laid a piece of cotton to see what would print, and we got a great “geologic” design. Three weeks ago we tried the same thing on some left-over 16 mm silk and got two great pieces. In fact, one of the pieces became the basis of our first try at serious digital art.

This is the piece we tried a couple of weeks ago:

The colors are soft and muted, with just hints of some of the complex patterns and colors – the color comes from scraping the bottom of the tray as we start to bail the liquid and scrub the tray. Lately we have been trying silk, which gives a great feel to the finished product. I still want to try and quilt the finished design, but haven’t had any inspiration yet.

And this is it after some serious manipulation with Photoshop (flower by Dean)……

This is not what we submitted for the digital show, but it gives a good idea of what we are after. This is another piece from yesterday’s session, left-over camouflage colors, after working on a gift for our great-nephew.

Now on to lesson plans for the week before I can play again…..

One of the things I have noticed with my students and their digital doodles is how much they are willing to stay focused and try different things. Because it is so easy to delete or correct mistakes, I think the kids feel much freer to try out ideas with Photoshop. One of my Somali girls has spent close to an hour trying to get hearts and flowers just the right colors – she has never shown that amount of patience with any of her other projects.

One of my eighth grade boys made a really cool optical illusion today – such care – and showing him the transform tool was genius on my part – he was able to proceed at a more rapid rate, and his comment about bringing out what was exactly in his head was worth the time.

More of the kids want to try a digital doodle, and to me I need to make more of this available next semester in art. We are checking on the cost of a site license to add Photoshop to a few more laptops, so kids can work in pairs and have more opportunities to create. Makes me wonder just how many different ways I can use this program to teach basic art skills.

Since I started the Photoshop lessons, I have been having issues with understanding the idea of a mask. Now I think it is finally becoming clearer (no pun intended). Here’s the original I started with.

And here’s the new version, cropped, and half the background masked, with a filter, and the other half left, with a filter. I kind of like the effect. And I did enjoy using a couple of keyboard shortcuts to the painting. I was curious to see how the half background would work – it’s interesting to have the flowers “hanging” in space like that, although I do like the colored pencil effect on the flowers.

I had all sorts of ideas during the school day of things I wanted to post on the blog. Most of them have since gone away, but I do have some thoughts on art for next semester. When I start with line as the first visual art element, I will have Photoshop on so the kids can do examples and begin experimenting with the program. I should get some amazing digital work from the kids next semester – assuming that the school gets the Promethean board hooked up in the art room. Given the emphasis on technology in schools, it surprises me that we can’t get Photoshop put on other computers. I know there has to be a district site license for the program.

I’m also hoping to have the old scanner in the art room, so we can scan work right away. And I will look at using Photoshop to teach color as an element – we can use a lot for value, tints, and hues, so the kids can understand that better.

I will break out the paints next semester, as I want to expose the kids to that medium, assuming I am in the art room and not my classroom. We should start mounting and collecting pieces for the second semester art show. Now I have to get materials ready and visit the frame place for mat board.

I just finished some school work with preparing questions to prepare the kids for the benchmark tests (which I absolutely hate). But now I am free to try a few more things. I took a piece of fabric and worked directly with the colors and pattern. Here’s the original:

This next is with a normal blur, not the edge for the line drawing.

This next is an invert adjustment.

This is the same invert with the difference layer.

Then I tried a different light filter.

And I don’t know exactly what I did for this last one, but it’s pretty cool. It is very interesting to see how the various gradients and layers work together.

I tried to do some more tonight with a new piece, and I was moving in one direction and really need Suzan for input. I have a couple of interesting ideas, but nothing really clicking like the earlier piece. So I decided to save that and go down to the original piece of fabric and work from the pattern, rather than the line drawing. Here’s the first – interesting, but not a “wow” yet.

The next attempt looks like a satellite photo of growing cities – I used the ocean ripple and another effect to get this, which I think is interesting and has potential.

The last reminds me of looking from above at a reef of coral. I like the softness and movement in this, but still not a finished piece.

I think it’s bedtime…..

I cannot get over how exciting the last few days have been when it comes to art. I am so enjoying all of it – the highs, the creativity, the drive to create more. I am trying to analyze it, and maybe I shouldn’t, but I feel like I have stumbled on the perfect art form for me. It’s quicker than the quilting, with much more immediate gratification, and it’s a lot easier to get rid of “mistakes.”

So it will be interesting to see what happens with the quilt art as a result of this new direction. I’m sure I will feel like getting back to the sewing machine, but right now I am enjoying the glow of digital art.

So I survived the day, thinking that I couldn’t wait to get home and do some more on the computer…..even though I brought papers home. So I have a deal with myself – I will work until dinner, then do my school work (marking lots of papers) and then come back to the computer. In the meantime,I played around with the previous one, trying to add and subtract gradient layers to see the differences that show as the layers interact with each other. Too much fun!




I never did get to the cloud brushes….

Somebody needs to stop me – Suzan, we’ve got a monster on our hands – I can’t stop, I just want to keep fiddling, and it’s 10 PM and there’s school tomorrow, and I don’t want to go – I want to just make art…..

Here’s a variation on what came before.

I’m thinking the cloud brushes…..