Working Process 1 (Nov 28, 2018):
When I reflect back on my past 12 journal entries from this semester I have noticed that my visual representations have become increasingly more colorful with each entry. At the beginning entries I almost always used only black and white but towards the end of my entries I only used many bright colors. I also noticed that towards the end of the semester my entries became more meaningful instead of discussing vague ideas I began to make deep connections between my past and present learning. If I were to give my transformation from entry 1 to entry 12 a hashtag I would tag it #buildinglayers. I would use this hashtag because I see each of my experiences as a type of building block to add to the foundation of my prior knowledge. All these blocks create layers of knowledge that when they are viewed together demonstrate overall knowledge.
I believe that what caused me to for the most part, use the same type of medium throughout my entries was that watercolor/crayon/pencils are tools I have used throughout my entire lifetime as an artist. So utilizing these mediums for reflection helps me recall how I used to use those same mediums when I was a young art student.
For my final work of art I plan to reorganize all my thoughts into multiple layers that come together to form one big picture. I plan to use either layers of clear plastic or pieces of glass that I will draw individual pictures on and then when I am done I will align all the pieces so it forms one cohesive image. I am using glass/plastic because I believe that throughout my entire semester I have worked on “seeing through” my prior misconceptions about teaching. I plan to use markers and watercolors to paint the plastic/glass in order to continue the use of the materials I have used since I was a young art student.
Working Process Part 2 (December 3, 2018):
This week I have begun to begin my planning for this project, below are images of the composition I intend to use as well as how I will assemble my final product.
After I finished sketching out my composition plans I took some time to experiment with my materials. Below I tested out different mediums on a piece of glass to see how they would react.
Working Process Part 3 (December 4, 2018):
I have begun to work on painting each layer of glass, so far I have painted the first three layers.
Final Entry (December 11, 2018)
The title of my final artwork is, "Building a Foundation For Knowledge." My final artwork showcases learning from my past, current and future teaching experiences. Each element of this final piece represents a different aspect of my experiences.
Layer one- represents the "dreamer" mindset that I have had throughout both my past and current teaching experiences. I am constantly thinking about teaching and what I can offer to my students.
Layer two- represents my prior knowledge as well as the knowledge I continue to obtain as I move along on my path to becoming an educator. The home is meant to represent the "foundation" of knowledge.
Layer three- The clouds and ladders represent new knowledge being formed and new foundations being built.
Layer four- The blue water color (rain) on this layer represents growth. Throughout this semester I have grown exponentially from the experiences I have had.
Layer five- The orange and red of this layer is meant to represent fire. This is a symbol of the passion I have for teaching and my desire to become the best teacher I can possibly be.
As I have gained even more experience within the classroom my perspective has changed as a result of seeing what works within a classroom. For example one thing I learned was the idea that it is crucial for students to have time to experiment with new mediums was an idea I had as a result of giving my 1st grade students time to experiment before our projects. I noticed that the final artwork was much more developed when my students had time to experiment with what the medium could do before having to make final works of art. The idea of innovating from failure is a concept I observed in the high school class I assistant teach in. One of my students was throwing a pot when the entire top got caught on his tool and ripped the top half of the pot off. Instead of calling this moment a failure and scraping the remains of the pot, my student made the decision to turn the remaining bottom half of the pot into a small bowl. Watching my student make this artistic choice to turn his "failure" into a new work of art made me realize how crucial it is for artists to be adaptable and innovative in the face of "failure"
I chose to use layers of glass instead of just one piece of glass, to construct my final artwork because I wanted to emphasize the idea that knowledge is built in layers, each time you learn something new you build onto your pre-existing knowledge. During my working process the one change I did decide to make was to represent growth by abstractly painting rain instead of using flowers. When I was working I realized that rain would be a better representation of growth because water helps everything grow the same way that experiences and knowledge helps me grow.
The best part about creating my project was the moment I was able to stack all my layers together to see how they looked. I thought it was fun to see how changing up the order the glass panels could change the effects of my image. The hardest part of creating my final work of art was figuring out how to strategically place each element so that when they were lined up the images overlapped the way I wanted them to.
The most important understanding I have gained this semester is the idea that as a teacher I am going to be constantly learning alongside my students. Moving forward I intend to keep building onto my "foundation" of knowledge and expanding my understanding of how to provide the best art experiences for my students.
Above is a video of how I assembled my final work of art.
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