I am so thrilled to be teaching at the Middle School level in the district where I did my student teaching! Of course we are starting off the year with the basic art elements and design principals as a refresher and will soon embark in some explorations to deepen that knowledge.
Anonymous Returns
Anonymous 2 has been installed in March 2018 in the CoAd courtyard at Lawrence Technological Institute in Southfield Michigan. It will remain there for two years. The sculpture operates the same as the ArtPrize installation however it is different in design.
Perhaps nothing has evolved more in recent years as the modes of communication. With rapid change comes confusion and fear, anger and manipulation. Social media and the smart phone are both loved and loathed by their users for good reason, and the way we engage in dialogue with each other has forever changed.
“Anonymous” is both a sculpture and a social experiment. Created by Hamtramck artists Nina Caruso and Christopher Schneider, these 480 feet of steel pipes act as a communication device. Groups of people are encouraged to talk and listen into the ends. Due to the multitude of bends, it will not be clear who is on the other end.
What will you say when you are not sure who is listening?
What Are They Building in There?
Anonymous: Part interactive sculpture and part social experiment. Anonymous can be custom built to be site specific for indoor or outside spaces.
Uploaded by Michael Charteris on 2017-09-21.
Hatch Art Hamtramck, Mi
This past school year has been an incredible ride. I have observed how persistent work in building vulnerable trust with colleagues, families, and students has contributed immensely to fostering our student-centered culture. I am extremely grateful for these collaborative opportunities. Although this school year is coming to a close, the work doesn't end. I look forward to extending my constructive creative forces out into the greater community.
This summer I will be collaborating with Chris Schneider to build "Anonymous", a public interactive sculpture; part sculpture, part social experiment that will be installed at Vandenburg Center, in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids during ArtPrize Nine. “We wanted to find a way to communicate with people so that you could be somewhat anonymous but also present, the person you’re talking to is there,” said Schneider. “Ultimately we’re looking at what ArtPrize does successfully -- making it accessible to the public, inviting everyone to come in and participate -- and building on that.”
It is an honor to be selected as the Pitch Night Detroit winners and to represent Detroit at ArtPrize. On behalf of Chris Schneider and myself, I would like to thank you all for your support. Thank you to the Pitch Night organization, and to it's generous sponsors; 21c Museum Hotels and Delta Air Lines, and underwritten by Experience Grand Rapids, with support from the Knight Foundation. Thank you to the jurors; Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Executive Director of MOCAD; Omari Rush, External Relations Director at Ann Arbor Arts Center; Marc Schwartz, art collector; and chair/co-chair of Ponyride, Art Detroit Now, DLECTRICITY & DIA Collections Committee; Gina Reichert, Detroit-based artist and winner of the ArtPrize 2012 Juried Grand Prize through her work with Design 99; and Cezanne Charles, director of creative industries at Creative Many Michigan. We would also like to thank MOCAD for hosting this fabulous event!
Please visit Pitch Night Detroit Winner to Cover Outdoor Plaza with Twisted Pipe Installation at ArtPrize Nine, Hamtramck artists win $5,000, prime spot for ArtPrize Nine, Pitch Night Detroit winner to cover outdoor plaza with twisted pipe installation designed to foster visitor communication and Detroit artists win $5,000 and place at Grand Rapids ArtPrize at Pitch Night to learn more about our ArtPrize endeavor!
Stop by and see us at ArtPrize Nine, we look forward to hearing what you have to say!
Rochester Community School District
I am honored to announce that this 2016/2017 school year I joined the Rochester Community School District as a K-5 Art Educator. I am teaching primarily at McGregor Elementary, I also have two sections at Meadow Brook Elementary school where five other fabulous art educators collaborate regularly to bring a cohesive curriculum to the art program.
Collaborative Painting Presentation MAEA Fall Conference 2015
As I was researching ideas for collaborative art I came across Tunisian Collaborative Painting. I was so moved by the idea and potential of this practice that I arranged to present the topic at the Michigan Art Education Association 2015 Conference.
Attendants were invited to work in small groups together in creating an acrylic 30” x 40” canvas incorporating the Tunisian Collaborative Painting technique. This technique requires groups of artists to apply a set of democratic rules that result in a cohesive painting with the appearance of a sole artistic presence. They will decide how they will approach the work in regards to design, technique, process and operations.
The painters work in silence for an allotted period, and there is no preconceived subject. The concept behind Tunisian Collaborative Painting is simple, yet profound. It celebrates the oneness of all human beings and the wonder of the creative process.
Tunisian artist Hechmi Ghachem created Tunisian Collaborative Painting in 1988 during the rule of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Ghachem set out to reclaim freedom of expression for Tunisian artists through collaborative paintings.
Tunisian Collaborative Painting adheres to the following rules:
- There is no preconceived subject
- One artist starts the painting
- Anyone can paint at any time and anyone can paint over anyone else’s work
- One of the artists is appointed arbiter to settle any disputes
- If an artist thinks the painting is finished he raises his hand and the arbiter takes a vote; only a majority of the artists can declare a painting finished
- A painting can take a maximum of three hours
- The painting is created in silence
Visit PRI's The World to hear the audio clip on Collaborative Painting
A New School Year
This new school year I began teaching elementary art for Young Fives through Fifth grade. To kick off the year I decided to introduce collaborative painting to second through fifth grade. We limited the imagery to shape (circles), line, and color. As artists we set a theme to the images within the overall design. The circles symbolize our many circles of friends and the line represents the connections that we have and continue to make to the existing circles. Color was added to express the unique differences of the individuals within these circles. The lower grades work focused on a similar theme however, they created individual works.
Collaborative Paintings Grades 2-5
Young Five, Kindergarten, and First grade Circle Painting below
Sixth graders proudly displaying their mask creations. See the metal tooling mask making project lesson overview below.
Art Class for Year-Round Middle School
In addition to a traditional school calendar, Lapeer Community Schools offers a voluntary year-round program for the middle school level. The idea is to give the students a shorter summer with more frequent breaks throughout the year in order to alleviate the “summer slide”. This summer I had the privilege to teach art to students within this program.
Our session met for two periods each day, which made for some very productive work and lively art engagement. We explored both contemporary and historical art genres and artists, created some incredible work, and had multiple opportunities to strengthen our visual literacy skills through classroom discussions, critiques and writing responses. Some of art making consisted of metamorphosis, tessellations, metal tooling, and line designs.
Providing a year-round program not only benefits a student academically but also offers social and emotional advantages. Year-round students have a special connection to their school community and remain on a consistent schedule, which makes for smoother transitions when the traditional calendar begins. Additionally students are able to exercise their creative faculties through artistic experiences gaining powerful skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and social and cultural awareness.
I feel that this program is also valuable for teachers for the very same reasons that it benefits the students. I enjoyed my summer placement and wish the students well as they phase into the new school year and are joined by their traditional calendar year peers.
Year Round Sixth Grade
Mask Making
Visible Thinking
In this lesson students broke up into groups of 5-8 to create lists of masks. They considered masks that they know of, have seen, and have worn. Next the whole class joined together to create categories of masks and determined what category their masks would be placed in. Lastly, they decided that some categories could belong within others. For example the Halloween category was placed into the Celebrations category. Some of the final categories included Protection, Ceremony, Health, and Sports. After the masks were completed, students created wall tags for their mask, which included the category of the mask, and it’s use.
Art Production
· Students brainstormed and drew out at least four different mask ideas before they decided upon a final design.
· The final design was edited and made actual size and then taped onto colored metal tooling. The lines of the design were traced and then the paper was removed so that the foil could be pushed in or out on either side in order to create the interest of texture.
· Next students chose areas of the mask to highlight with color using permanent markers.
· Finally students decided on what embellishments they wanted to add to complete their mask.
Yoga Teacher Training: teacher as student
This summer I took the opportunity to embark on a journey into yoga. I have practiced yoga for some years now, and decided that I was ready to deepen my practice by completing a summer intensive 200 RYT Yoga Teacher Training. As a teacher it is quite humbling to be placed in the role of a student, especially a student in uncharted waters.
The training consisted of yoga history, philosophy, methods, techniques, yoga flows, and an introduction to the Sanskrit language (the language which many of the poses are named with). There were seven of us in the program and we grew quite close as we supported each other along the process. Coming from very different backgrounds, each of us embarked on the training in order to share yoga with others. The training presented extreme challenges for all and as a result great accomplishments!
Since I earned my certification to teach yoga I have had the opportunity to substitute teach. I am also continuing to train under mentors of specific yoga programs in order to be better prepared to teach in the future. I hope to bring yoga as an after school option to the school community in which I am placed. I would like to offer family yoga, yoga for children, and yoga for the staff and faculty. I have gained so much through this training that I am looking forward to sharing with others.
Although learning something new can be challenging, it is a wonderful feeling to continue to grow, especially when there are others accompanying you along the journey! My recent journey in deepening my yoga practice has been both humbling and fulfilling! I am grateful for those that guided and accompanied me along the way.
Namaste!
Lively Art
"Art can only be fully experienced when the barrier between the viewer and artist are removed so that each may become a contributing factor. A festival like Solid Sound provides a happening environment for such experiences."
Selfie with Totally Totem sculpture installation by Marko Remec at MASS MoCA
This summer I had the opportunity to attend the Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts. The band Wilco puts on this festival. Solid Sound is a three-day art and music festival that takes place every other year at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). Wilco, being both host and headliner invites an array of musicians and artists to perform on the MASS MoCA campus. This summers line up included:
Spirit of Akasha: The Autumn Defense and Windy Hills play a tribute to Morning of the Earth, Bill Frisell, Charles Lloyd Quartet, Cibo Matto, Expandable Brass Band, The Felice Brothers, Jeff Davis, Glenn Kotche + Jeffrey Zeigler, Jessica Pratt, Jessica Williams, John Hodgman's Big Time Comedy Thing, King Sunny Adé & His African Beats, Luluc, Mac Demarco, Mikael Jorgensen, Stained Radiance: Nels Cline & Norton Wisdom, NRBQ, Parquet Courts, Paul F Tompkins, Quindar, Real Estate, Richard Thompson, Ryley Walker, Shabazz Palaces, Speedy Ortiz, Tig Notaro, William Tyler, Tweedy, and Wilco.
MASS MoCA is one of the largest contemporary performing and visual arts centers in the U.S. It is a sixteen acre campus which exhibits both indoor and outdoor art installations. The campus is also a performing art center and host to artist residencies.
The MASS MoCA mission statement: If conventional museums are boxes, MASS MoCA strives instead to be an open platform - a welcoming environment that encourages free exchange between the making of art and its display, between the visual and performing arts, and between our extraordinary historic factory campus and the patrons, workers and tenants who again inhabit it. That is, we strive to make the whole cloth of art-making, presentation, and public participation a seamless continuum.
Visiting this museum during the Solid Sound Festival provided me as an artist and educator great inspiration and support for open-ended ideas of what art can be. Art can only be fully experienced when the barrier between the viewer and artist are removed so that each may become a contributing factor. A festival like Solid Sound provides a happening environment for such experiences.
For me, the highlight of the festival was Stained Radiance: the merging of the audio and visual narrative, a collaborative and improvisational performance by painter Norton Wisdom and guitarist Nels Cline.
Wisdom is a painter and collaborative artist in creating interpretive paintings. Wisdom’s collaborative ventures include Jazz, World Music, Rock, New Music, Classical, poetry and dance. He performed at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. His interpretive works are not fixed paintings to be added to his gallery; instead they provide a live visual journey of morphing images corresponding along side a music performance. Music and painting, each one informs the other. For more on Norton Wisdom visit http://www.nortonwisdom.com/
Norton Wisdom (center)
Long-term Elementary Placement
Since earning my K-12 Art Education degree in April, I have been fulfilling a long-term K-5 elementary art position in a local public school. The past six weeks have been an incredible journey, which I am sincerely grateful for. I am sad that it is coming to a close. Not only have I had a wonderful experience in the art room with the students, I also was welcomed to be an active team member within the school community. I had many opportunities to work with parents, teachers and staff.
Together the students and I have grown to know one another. I have learned their interests and abilities in the world of visual arts and beyond. I helped them to discover how to critique their own work in order to gain some independence with knowing when they are done and when there may be room for improvement.
We have looked at both historical and contemporary artist within our local community and also globally. The students were most taken by realism and interactive art. Our projects have allowed us to contemplate the art principles and methods, while refining skill and knowledge of art mediums. The students created individual pieces of work and also had the chance to experience collaborative endeavors.
At our recent Open House Ice Cream Social families had the opportunity to see lesson descriptions for each grade. Families were also encouraged to take part in art making. We worked on a collaborative painting, made bubble prints, created cut flowers and did yarn bombing onto branches. We also watched 3D chalk drawing of interactive art, which coincided with the 5th grade interactive drawing lesson.
Welcome to the First Grade’s version of the Lascaux Caves.
The original Lascaux caves are in France. Four young men and their dog-named Robot discovered them in 1940. Robot happened to be chasing after a rabbit and jumped right into the cave. The Paleolithic drawings of animals, symbols and human figures within the cave are thought to be about 16,000 years old!
We went on a virtual tour of the Lascaux caves. Using information from the tours and class discussions along with simple animal imagery the students created their own cave paintings.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)
VTS is a method practiced by a teacher facilitated/student conversation while viewing art images as well as a variety of other art forms that supports a leaner centered environment.
VTS allows a student to practice a problem solving process that satisfies the "critical thinking skills" components of the Common Core Standards. The experience then translates into a systematic observational practice. This ability transfers to all subject matter across the curriculum. Why not try it out in your classroom?
How to use VTS in the classroom
Ask students to:
· Look carefully at works of art
· Talk about what they observe
· Back up their ideas with evidence
· Listen to and consider the views of others
· Discuss many possible interpretations
Ask open-ended questions:
· What’s going in this picture?
· What makes you say that?
· What more can we find?
Facilitate:
· Paraphrase comments neutrally
· Point at the area being discussed
· Frame and link student comments
To view my Prezi on VTS please visit https://prezi.com/co6phvs1u2dw/visual-thinking-strategies/
To learn more about VTS visit http://www.vtshome.org/
Information cited from the Visual Thinking Strategies Webpage
Happy New Year!
This New Year brings a new role for me. Since January I have been student teaching at a nearby middle school under a wonderful cooperating teacher. I will spend the second part of my semester at an elementary school with yet another fabulous teacher. It is wonderful to finally be at this step in my education where I am crossing the threshold of student to teacher.
Lesson planning is only one component of teaching. Having the opportunity to implement lessons as a student teacher provides immediate response from students in the classroom and helpful feedback from the cooperating teacher who is observing.
I am very fortunate to have an outstanding cooperating teacher as a mentor. I strive to model my methods after hers and look forward to the day that this modeling transfers into who I am as a mentor, teacher, and coworker.
My fellow cohorts and I share weekly reflections of our experiences. This has been quite beneficial for us all as we continue our journey together as students learning to be teachers. I am hopeful that as we enter into our careers we are still able to share our ongoing experiences as teachers.
To read more about my ongoing journey as a teacher please see this blog written by Weam Namou of Cultural glimpse.
http://culturalglimpse.com/2014/12/20/working-towards-your-passions/
Oakland University Studio Art Senior Thesis Exhibition
Oakland University Art Gallery is hosting the Fall 2014 Studio Art Senior Thesis Art Exhibition Friday, December 5th through December 14th. The opening reception will be held Friday, December 5th from 5:00-7:00 pm. The exhibition displays the work of twelve graphic designers and seven studio artists graduating from Oakland University.
So, bring a friend along to the gallery and enjoy evening an evening out filled with art, conversation and fun.
Nina Caruso Senior Thesis work
December 2014 Encaustic and mixed media
Oakland University Studio Art Award Fall 2014
Primal Repression
Visual tension between the esthetics of both horror and delight facilitate an environment filled with invented biomorphic organisms signaling body to the viewer, evoking an affect of the abject; disturbing identity, system, and order. The resulting reorientation of the distinction between self and the other fosters a parallel status affording empathy for both.
The GRAM
Last fall, the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) was awarded the Michigan Art Education Association Distinguished Service Award, celebrating GRAM’s role in fostering the advancement of visual arts in schools across Michigan.
The GRAM holds fabulous educator workshops. I attended one last Wednesday evening and had the privilege to hear 2012 Art Prize winner Adonna Khare speak of her art process and teaching methods. Afterwards I went down into the GRAM Studio to play with mark making coinciding with the theme of the current exhibition Marks of Genius, 100 Extraordinary Drawings from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Also on view at the GRAM:
Intersections by Anila Quayuum Agha
Elephant Whirlpool by Adonna Khare
Drawings from GRAM’s Collection
Jessica Joy London: A State of Wonder
Treat yourself to a visit soon and “live artfully”!
For more information: http://www.artmuseumgr.org/