Work & Play
The big idea for this project was work vs play. What kind of art could be created with different parameters set for the project idea? For the "work" sample, I made a social media post asking my friends to commission an art piece from me. I gave them no limits or parameters and got a lot of really fun ideas and requests. Out of all of the requests, I chose one that felt like it would be more of a "work" piece for me. Not that I did not like the idea or the subject but that I knew it would need to be done well and I would need to put a lot more detail and work into it. For the "play" piece, I chose whatever I wanted to do. Which is usually the fun part. As an artist, I'm sure we can all agree on the "usually" part.
Both of these are still a work in progress and I will post the finished results when I do finish them. The "work" piece, "Hawk and Heron", will be a painting for a family farm logo. I have the basic sketch done and have been nervous to begin painting. I have not shown the friend who requested the piece yet, I am waiting until it is finished to show her. This one took me a while to design. I wasn't sure if I should do something plain as a logo or something more detailed, as I ultimately chose, to give her something that she can hang and keep. I chose to do a more detailed piece as we could then design a logo from this idea but she can still have something that she will hopefully love as well.
The "play" piece is something that I have been thinking about creating for some time. I still have some painting to do on it but then I am planning on embroidering details. When I first found out that you could embroider through canvas, I was shocked I had never thought to try it before. I am excited to see how the process goes. I haven't quite decided what to do with the skin of the woman. I want the idea to be that it could be anyone. I might leave it as is and embroider over the top somehow. If any readers have any ideas, definitely leave me a comment and let me know what ideas you have for it!
Reflecting on the process, I would say that it is definitely easier to work on something I have deemed as "play". It makes me rethink some of my teaching strategies. How can I create activities and assignments that cover the information and skills needed but also might give the freedom of play to my students? How can I create an environment where my students are free to explore their creativity and their interests while simultaneously learning the things we need them to learn? I would be interested if my students might respond well to an assignment similar to this project. If I gave the idea and outline of what is supposed to be done and had them create a piece of work. Afterwards, give them free reign to create anything they wanted but using the same materials they used for the structured assignment. It would be interesting to see what they would create each time.
Going back to the rationale of the project - there was definitely a difference in creativity based upon the mind-set for each piece. When I was planning out and working on the piece for "work", I would get caught up on details and stalled due to my own ideas of perfectionism and wanting to do the art the "correct" way to make sure that the commissioned piece was "good enough". When I was working on the "play" piece, I didn't have those same concerns and was able to get a lot further on the art than I did for the "work" piece. I can definitely see how this mindset could and most likely does affect our students in a similar way. I am curious what other educators have done to mitigate this process?
#BigIdeas #ReflectivePractice
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