AP Art Summer Institute Portfolio

 One of the best experiences I have had, as an art teacher AND as an artist, was a week long summer course for teachers who want to teach Advanced Placement Studio Art.  The course requires students to investigate a topic and make art as part of their research. So the teachers in the training often create their own mini portfolio of work following the same instructions as the students. My work has grown and changed and reached new depths of meaning through this process and I am so happy to watch my students do the same.  

 I was thinking a lot about stress and trying to control things as a stress response.  That led to calendar pages, grids, and maps and examining the similarities that they share.  Suddenly the map looked a lot like a heart which was an excellent organic contrast to the rigidity of the structures that inspired it.  I'm not ready to say this piece is finished, but the ideas behind it still interest me.

This piece began with the idea of a hurricane as an unstoppable phenomenon.  I was experimenting with water based materials and letting the swirls that I drew move and flow as the water touched my marks.  I was actually really happy with the results and left it alone for the evening.  When I returned the water had caused most of the ink to VANISH!  I laughed as I remembered that I was investigating the push and pull between stress and control and this piece was about a HURRICANE!  So nature trumped my carefully laid plans and I went with the flow.  I left most of the image alone and only added a little color and the lyrics to "In the Eye of a Hurricane" from Hamilton.  

What I love about this investigation is that I can pick it up anytime I want to work on art.  The key subject that I am investigating is the same but I have new leads to track down and new ideas about where they might go.  The following summer, I attended the Legacy program at Arrowmont and decided to look at the effects of trying to control too much through the lens of a circus.  This Circus Bear is TIRED! But the circus bear sees the audience and knows that he has to perform.