Week 15: Apr 27-May 3

Week Fifteen: Apr 27-May 3: Roads to Junction: Making Art, Teaching Art: Read: Chapters 4 and 5.

Starting next week, so hold onto project dress information, I will post a Final Sidebar for final projects. We will do this over the course of two weeks, so there is plenty of time to work on your project. Please don't post final projects just yet--or they will be everywhere--and I want them to appear all in the same week. That's for my sanity. I will post that next week with directions as to how our final two weeks which is also finals week with due dates, etc. will occur. 

Also, you should have received an email from the Provost's office about evaluating this course. Could you make sure you respond and do an eval? Thank you. 
This is our last week of readings. Next two weeks begin finals and posting our projects. I just need a couple of volunteers to go the first week, and a few to go the second week--or we can do them all in the second week if you need more time. That would give you a research week. 

Feel free to continue to post any catch-up posts. I have utterly enjoyed our conversations and posts. To be quite honest with you, I am never quite sure how people will receive the Roads to Junction book. I believe in it and helped put it together. You should know that Future and I had to heavily edit it for publication. AT times I fought for things to stay included, such as Laara's making of guns--that was initially to be discarded. One critique was that it didn't fit in or that she didn't have a large enough portfolio of art to warrant its inclusion. I noticed David commented on that particular piece. But more to my point, Roads to Junction is more about letting go of the rules that many universities and professors cling to with their lives--the very rules that almost did me in when I was in college (and I have three different degrees)--the rules that rarely helped me. The book focuses on stories and testimonies of teacher artists. People who are rarely heard from these days. Year after year, I would say to Future and my art ed. colleagues, the research of MAEs is astounding. We need to publish it. But there is so much more that didn't getting printed.

Liz Reyes in Chapter Two (last essay in the chapter) came up to me at a TAEA conference a few years ago stating she was going to quit the program because she could not see a connection between running and art and/or teaching. In San Antonio recently, Liz ran for a police officer who was murdered in his car. There was a Facebook entry last semester:  Woman runs for fallen police officer in San Antonio. I had to read it because it had to be Liz.  It was Helen Klebesadel who introduced Liz to the book FLOW. I had Liz talk to people in Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences at Texas State University that I knew for advice. Something took...because she graduated and created her story of running as artful.

It's in The Citizen Artist book where people wrote about schools and hospitals should have artists in residence. As every city in the country should. Staci Powers eventually found a job, but notice how we introduced her? After so many interviews... She was told over and over again that administrations felt she would not do well in a hearing world. She finally found one and is flourishing. Since we have moved from Junction, we try to make Lubbock and Fredericksburg or where ever we are a Junction. But Junction was a special place--almost off the map.

A few comments from  last week. Marc posted about how he could not go back and finish the MFA after Junction. His bliss was gone. And we will correct your name when the book goes to paper print later this summer. Thanks for letting Future know. Marc also posted about Marco and how his writing didn't seem to match up with his art. I think we all tend to struggle in areas, whether making is art or writing. But writing can be really harrowing: what do I write? How much? How little? What do I disclose or tell? What do I not tell? What can I never tell? What is people actually read this? Etc. In visual art, abstractions, metaphors, etc. are used for whatever reasons. They are in writing as well. But writing...What do I say? How do I say it? In what person or voice do I speak? What can I tell? What must stay hidden? It's a lot.

I know this from my own visual art and professional writing. I have been censored so many times in so many different ways. Editors will comment, should you say that? Do you have permission? Or, my writing gets edited and dumbed-down where it doesn't even make sense--or worse yet, gets reduced to some simple lesson or plan. 

Please again remember--your project does not have to be completed. Just begin one... Post some photos and text. It doesn't have to be a completed journal. Maybe a pic or two posted and the history and need behind even wanting to make one--that's what will impact us as makers. Why are you making what you are making and how are you going about planning it? Those ideas becomes ideas and possible lessons for us as well. Do something you are interested in--even if it is poetry and writing and reflection. It all counts. This is the foundations of good research: important and interesting ideas to ourselves that we share in the various methods and writing styles and contexts and histories. 

Week 14: Apr 20-26

Week Fourteen: Apr 20-26: Roads to Junction: Making Art, Teaching Art: Read: The second three essays in Chapter 2 AND Chapter 3.

About last week's posts. There was some question to  a portion of writing...in Rebecca Riley's comment about Parker Palmer (google him). She was referring to Junction as a space where communities of truth are practiced. That's in line with Palmer's positions on the possibilities of learning and teaching. Riley also noticed that Junction was a place people could begin to produce art...again. Take a look at/google the enter for Renewal and Courage: www.couragerenewal.org  You can get into Palmer's philosophies quickly about pedagogy and learning. Go specifically to: http://www.couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/good-teaching/  It is here that some of the unclearness referred to in the blog about Rebecca Riley's comment in the article Good Teaching is explored. Sylvia posted about art as public service. Henry Giroux wrote about artists as cultural workers. Also, take a look at the online book now, The Citizen Artist, a book I love. It can be viewed at: https://apionline.org/the-citizen-artist/  Scroll to the bottom of the page to connect with book. One essay talks about the resident artist of a town. The town artist (in England.) Yes Sylvia, feel free to send me a pdf to peruse. Niloofar posted about continuing on her portraits for a project, Sylvia posted about her book project, and David posted about being divided between an ecofix and social justice/PTSD interview. All of your ideas are sound and interesting. I can't wait for all of us to begin looking at them.

Remember, Roads to Junction is a compilation of MAE essays we have witnessed throughout the past 10-15 years. These are artist/teachers struggling to connect back with art and themselves--and continue to reflect about their classroom pedagogies (ways they teach or think about teaching).

Lastly, about projects, I will be posting a side bar to post your projects or an address to where you are housing it sometime in the first week in May. All three of these books have elicited very personal comments by all of us. I am hoping that we will all honor the confidence of this class--what's said here, stays here--especially with projects unless the artist/author says it's ok to share. And remember, that this is a private blog. You will have until May 19th to post project if you need extra time. Just let me know. 

Week 13: Apr 13-19

Week Thirteen: Apr 13-19: Roads to Junction: Making Art, Teaching Art: Read: Foreword, Intro, Preface AND Chapter 1, AND the first three essays in Chapter 2.

Wow, we are nearing the end. Normally I ended the semester by asking people to read a few MAE exhibition, project and thesis papers from former MAE students. In 2016, my colleague Future and I worked on putting together a compilation of some of the work done in Junction and the MAE during our tenures at TTU in the form of an eBook. It is okay if you need to choose certain essays to read over others because of time constraints, but let me say this: all of these papers and all of these students are where some of you are currently--trying to figure out what is important and what they want to do and what is doable. These essays read quickly and most have references of people who influenced them. I hope you enjoy their work.

Raha posted about only in dreams...one could do a lifetime of work exploring that. Sylvia, sometimes it can be the platform you are using, chrome, safari, etc. But, adding at the end is fine. 

Projects: In the past, students have done projects on all sorts of issues--one student posted she will probably document her desert cleanup project--just begin the documentation. Don't go overboard thinking everything is due--it's not. Begin it and hopefully continue doing it. That would be a fine project. Another posted about thinking of making art concerning divorce, low self-esteem and self-worth. Also keep in mind that keeping or creating a Visual Diary, like Nan Golden did works as well. Or a combo, physical art work and some text. Take pics with your phone and upload. Remember on Blogger you are limited to images that are 300K or smaller. 

Last semester highlights-- one student posted of her memory of an attic story was revealing. I usually ended up in our basement. Another posted about how our culture seems "so unforgiving." I'm wondering, could it be that very few of us were ever taught some of the basic things we need in life: how to cope, how to manage stress, how to raise children, how to stay sane, how to be. I'm just wondering at this point. some posted about how we are not taught how to cope. A former student once posted about one strategy may be changing diets. That reminds me of the movie Super Size Me (2004) where Paul Stitt from Manitowoc Natural Ovens was documented in the movie about how he worked with an Appleton, WI high school that was low performing and had lots of issues: truancy, tardiness, low scores, etc. That school, according to the film, got rid of soda vending and only had water, and replaced highly processed vending machines with fruits and better foods and replaced the cafeteria foods with actually good vegetables and a balance of protein, fat, and carb. The entire school rebounded quickly in many ways. I for one, note that when I eat fast food, it rarely fills me, makes me gassy and often nauseous. I often have to plan drinks and foods to eat on longer trips. 

Please remember to post comments for weeks you missed in current week. Email me and I can tell you what weeks you missed. If you posted in a past week, you must email me and tell me. Otherwise, I just go by what is in the current week.

Just a short introduction to our last book. Read what essays interest you if you have to choose based on time. But, many of the essays read very quickly and are all accessible. This is a book of MAE research and art--as much as we could get in. In hindsight, we could have published a book every 4-5 years of student work: art and writing. I look at is as paying forward to all of the wonderful teachers I have met over the years here. The foreword, preface and introduction were written by friends who had been to Junction and knew our work and valued it. Rebecca Riley writes about the program in the Foreword. Future and I write about how we prepared each year for the three week seminar in Junction, and Helen Klebesadel writes about what she saw when she visited Junction years ago as a visiting artist. These edited papers (edited to fit our publishers space restrictions) are their final MAE papers. I hope you  find a sense of personhood, the teacher, the artist and the citizen teachers who care about so many things that it was always difficult to focus only on their art to finish their degrees.

One small NOTE: I will post a sidebar in two weeks where we will leave comments for each other about our semester projects. That way we will all be in one place. You will be able to post your blog or site address and we will return to that sidebar to comment. I just want all of the comments to be in one place. So, don't post anything yet. 

Also, you project is just the beginning of something...don't worry if it has no end. 

One last note. In our book, I recall how Future and I struggled to say what we wanted to say--how to tell our truths--and what truths to tell--and not tell. Always a balancing act in academe--mostly about self-censoring the good stuff out. 

Week 12: Apr 6-12

Week Twelve: Apr 6-12: Live Through This: Pages163-224

A few comments about your posts from last week. Notice what I will term/name as intersectional issues that we are looking at in this second book: race, gender, social class, geography--all the ways they intersect. Those are theoretical lenses to look at something. Addictions, poverty, resiliences, recoveries, healings--lots to take in--and then think about our own lives as many of us are incorporating in our posts. Testimonies and witnessing are powerful ways to write and teach and research. Sobering, thoughtful and courageous. Sylvia posted  about just being there--the simple act...and how "young peoples' experiences are overlooked or dismissed." I'm reading Christopher Emdin's For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y' All Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education, Boston: Beacon Press, 2016. Sylvia's sentiment of dismissal is the thesis of his book. Haha posted about Blackman complicating realities and fictions and about keeping secrets and talking-or when to talk. Your posts reflect the tough reads in this book. Many posted about Sprinkle and the complicated layers of reading/living/acting/being/qualifying. 

Sylvia posted about Blackman's self-dialogue--that can be a project--What/Who is/was your lesson--can be a project. Writing or thinking about issues not talked about. Secrets. Self-secrets. Self-fictions. Self-denials. Sylvia posted about excluding pain from life. Future and I went to Alpine, TX last weekend to retrieve some art. In our short 24 hour stay, I learned that the locals there take care of each other and the regulars that live there--eccentrics, the man in motorized wheel chair in the middle of a main street, and others. No one gets put away--but lives are valued. Interesting to see that play out. I met the mayor and talked with him for three hours at a local hotel. 

Marc posted that he is used to Wordpress--then use Wordpress. Use whatever platform you are using. I only suggested blogger for anyone who doesn't have a website or online presence. Blogger is free. You don't have to use blogger. Projects-Raga thinking about a soundtrack--love that idea. David possibly exploring a social justice drawing. 

It all sounds good so far. Keep in mind that you do not need to ask for permission to do anything. Or if something is suitable? Projects can be simple videos where you can talk about or record progress to date. You can post them on youtube. If it's just images, I am just asking that you provide us with some contextual information so we know what's going on. That could be done as a mini graphic narrative. Or a photo essay. That can be in words or texts. You will each create a Wordpress/blogger/website/online presence site where you can put everything. Does that make sense? It probably will be the beginning of something, with lots of open questions. Just documenting all of the introductory questions can be a project in and of itself. You do all realize that you are all brilliantly intelligent--you do, don't you? Because that is what I have been reading each week--beautifully constructed posts/responses to open-end questions. Your posts, comments, and questions have gone beyond any expectations I had. So thank you for helping me learn via your posts and comments about your connections between these artists and readings and your lives as teachers, artists, parents, partners, friends, etc. 

Keep in mind, poetry counts. It all does. A dance. A moonlight performance (filmed via an iPhone. Some thoughts/writings/a few poems--some photos of you--and you have a semester project. So much has already been disclosed by many of you. That in and of itself constitutes a semester project. 

Please keep in mind that schools, schooling and lives are always arenas of hope and struggle (William Ayers wrote that in On The Side of The Child). We struggle... Always great material for projects--all those doubts, struggles--and hope. We all get hurt and bruised as teachers and artists.It's real and it's not always friendly. Some quit. Some fade away. Some just stop caring or coming. As a few posted, it's exhausting. 

As we finish the last third of Live Through This, it occurs to me that as we read these last stories, it's really about writing our stories--what do we feel safe writing about? What is possible? Not possible? Doable? Not doable? In the essay, "Silent Body, Speaking Body," Anonymous beautifully describes her dilemma as a teacher--and maybe our dilemmas as people--what she can't say in words she hopes others will see or pick up in her work. So, as you comment on some of the readings, make sure you include yourself in your posts as much as you can. Always "I", not "we." This research class was/is really about beginning to think about what is of most interest to us? To me? What am I interested in? Do I have the words to begin to explain what that is? If not, what are some words? Or, what are some images? And that is where the books came in--I hope, they helped show what others have tried to do. In the end, it falls back into our laps--what do we do? What will I do? What do I want to do--in terms of research--which means art or writing or performing or....

What questions remain or are you forming? 

Week 11: Mar 30-Apr 5

Week Eleven: Mar 30-Apr 5: Live Through This: Pages 91-162

She's Lost Control Again by Nicole Blackman (pp. 91-104)

Double Trouble in the Love Art Lab by Stephens and Sprinkle (pp. 105-118)

Friends as Heroes by Silas Howard (pp. 119-128)

Rappin' My Wounds by Toni Blackman (pp. 129-140))

The Artful Art fo the Role of Art in the Ugly Art of Survival by DiMassa (pp. 141-148)

Weight Watcher by Stephanie Howell (pp. 149-162)

First off. Some images of recycled bottles in my yard. I forgot to post those last week. I try to recycle dish water (grey water-I water outside plants with it), and most of what used to go into my garbage. If I didn't mention this, TTU-Lubbock campus recycles cardboard, plastic, tin, and glass and last year created 31 $1,000 scholarships for students.

Your posts from last week reveal some of your connections to similar issues. Reading this book with all of the personal accounts really exemplifies what first person "I" language is and how it can be used. 

Our third book models examples of research that sometimes were midwived here. Those graduate students wove together their stories about their art, projects or theses--their personal and professional issues. 

Don't panic if you still have not figured out a project. If you are over-stressed and over-extended, you can catch-up on previous weeks if you need to. Do what you need to do to stay sane. Some of these readings are photo essays and comics. This book offers us a more open and honest way of listening to writers who write what is really important in their lives--note how one uses an alias. What does it mean in our lives that when we talk about what is most important, there are few venues to share? I know of no academic venues where writers really tell it all. Everything harrowing is edited out and i art education publications, for example, most everything is reduced to a lesson plan--usually a bad one.

In terms of projects, if you are stuck, write about being stuck for now. Hopefully this book will help you if you are stuck--widen what is possible in terms of topics. Like in the movie Julie and Julia (2009), you can start a blog, or start to journal ideas--that can be a beginning to a project--all I want is a beginning.

We are reading autobiographical research--self-stories written by authors. Auto ethnographic writing is more layered as an author will write something, then write about the writing, often analyzing or referring other material or data to it. Anything ethnographic applies to our teaching, our lives, our friends, our moods, our art, etc. A few of us have posted and reminded us that there is hope--and healing when broken. 

I have a few friends who have told me that when they die, I or others must go into their bedrooms and destroy their journals. And they are adamant about this. As I reread this book, I am reminded of the radical notion of listening--listening as a pedagogical strategy. A radical one. Just to listen. I learned that mainly from female friends throughout my life. I don't have to fix anything. Just be there and listen. 

In the past, people have said things about this book: a former MAE identified with emotions and sometimes not the methods. For many this is difficult to read. Many have noticed all of the different methods of making research/writing/poetry/art/etc. These books are powerfully frightening in many ways--stimulating. These autobiographical pieces can be useless or helpful. Focus on ones that stimulate you as some of you have as indicated in your posts.

If you are struggling with project ideas, you can create a private project that no one else sees AND that even I don't see. Yes, that is an option. If it's that private, I accommodate. You do not have to prove to me that you made something--I will trust that you did. 

Journaling is for oneself, so if yours is that private, that's fine with me. If you just want me to see something, that is fine also. Just keep in mind that these are beginnings to something--you do not have to finish. Begin to think about one thing and how you might do it. Your project may be just that--a blueprint for something you might do in the future. NOT NOW. A project could be a journal entry where you journal about being stuck--your fears--anxieties, etc. And that's it. Think simply. Yes, email and re-email me any questions about projects. 

A series of  posts and images just about thinking about what I learned and still do not know about my body. Two plein air trading card-size watercolors and text about what I never learned about my body--that's a project. Simple. Think of this as notes. A photo essay of me or my friends and what we all did not know about our bodies. Getting the idea--personal always works for me. And remember, sometimes that is not interesting to anyone else but me/us. Another example: a project where you make art with your sister or son or daughter--and the story behind that--that's a project. Think of this project as a snapshot of something. Think of background info--What draws it all together. A short story describing an event and maybe a digital image of some art made or their photos--that's a project. Look up Placenotes: Austin or Placentas: West Texas on Amazon. A project can be one photo or digital image and text on another page--or a backside. I was actually thinking of a former student Kim and a recipe card. The recipe is have major surgeries; reconnect with a sibling; make art; have conversations; bond and love each other. It's; that simple. 

Please email me if you are struggling. No need to struggle. Breathe. 

I'm also thinking how closely this second book mirrors some of our realities as art educators: students with issues, adults with issues, low budgets, no respect, etc., being a grad student. This is book that galvanizes many ideas that impact us as teachers, parents, students, siblings, friends, citizens, etc.

A few notes from last week. David posted about how we are rarely told we deserve pleasure-and if I might add knowing about our bodies. Niloofar posted and others about no sex educations. Google "The Education of Shelby Knox." That's a Lubbock documentary that you might find interesting. So many of these writers and people I know are survivors of so much. David commented about people he knew who are survivors of genocides. Nillofar posted about her connection between our current book and her artistic practice. And, it's all research-based. Niloofar also posted about two project ideas: self portraits and video with sound. Both are great ideas. Think about what theme/s you will have in your portraits.