Class #7

Tonight's class was very disorganized, though I had thought before tonight that it wasn't going to be. The problems were that I didn't have the right materials (i.e. pictures) to show what I wanted to about artists and artworks we were to cover. Also, when going over a handout on design elements I pretty much choked because it felt silly to try to talk about design without having concrete examples to point to. And once that thought entered my head, I lost it/couldn't think of a way to continue so ended up rambling.

It is too easy for me to get frustrated. I know I need to use this to learn something and grow and all these good things. But I HATE the idea that I am wasting their time (and mine) by holding a fluffy class. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have made some of the fluffier classes more information-based (with lecture, handouts, and esp. hands-on activity)

adelante: more constructive criticisms
-t-a-l-k s-l-o-w-e-r. i recorded my thoughts on tape tonight, and am amazed at how incredibly fast I talk (even though people often tell me this, and I really have been trying to fix it). daaamn it's worse than i ever thought. could have done this earlier. will probably do it again to monitor progress.
-make sure the last classes are very well organized, and informative (but not rushed).
-don’t get lost in frustration, but accept the f*-ups and move on by making changes.

on the upside-gave them nice art paper tonight, and expect to get something from almost all if not all of them for the zine.
-working on being able to give them drawing pencils, and have asked Ms. Perry if there is a slide projector to use for images.
-question: can i hold my two last classes, but add another session the following week (april 18) to give them copies of the zine and have a closing discussion? I feel I owe it to them.
-a bug was put in my ear about getting the guys certificates for participating in the class. want to do that

on agenda for next week:
1. essay on the book we read (pulling ideas together)
2. overviews of modernism and postmodernism? (need to find good readings on this, because I'm having trouble gleaning simple information on these huge concepts)
3. review/critique piecies for the zine
4. discuss article i gave out this week

Class #6

Tonight’s class was full of good discussion, that felt really great because it was the most personal and real discussion yet. There was structure--we were talking about the article I had them read for today--but several of the guys got into it and talked about their personal experiences and that made the class really great even when it wasn’t directly referring to the text.

The general topic was on education, because our author this week (Ben Shahn) wrote on “the education of an artist”. For him this is a liberally educated person who experiences as much as they can in life, connects these experiences to themselves, uses them to form opinions and then acts with integrity. There’s more to it, but some main points came out in talking…we talked about the idea of “integration” and being “integrated” (as in character, in life). The dictionary definition was interesting because it gives both the idea of unifying/making whole, and also of desegregation. So we connected the idea of intellectual integration of ideas/experiences into our lives and also of connection with other people, eliminating hate and fear of ‘the other’.

One guy said that he sees value in this class, even though it is art in prison (who studies art in prison after all?), because he can talk to different people about art using more language, more ideas, where before he might have turned the conversation to those things he considered art such as music, basketball, hip hop, etc. He talked about how he has always liked reading as a way to learn about things outside what we know, so that when we’re in a new situation we can better handle it. From the beginning he has questioned the class, and had definitely been asking me “what is the point of this class?” He obviously has it now, and it is awesome to see because it’s not something I could articulate well—something I think you just have to get. I could be wrong, but that’s how classes have worked for me as well. A sudden connection, spark.

The guys asked JP and I several questions about school and the university...what do we think is the difference between college-educated people and those who aren’t? (Is there a difference?) Must we all take gen ed classes? How is our relationship with professors; do we challenge them intellectually when we think they’re not right, or are missing something? Do we get shut down or are they actually receptive to criticism? One guy has been through GVSU for business, and seems to think differently of college now than he did when he was here (more an extension of high school). One guy was floored to find that the past experiences of two cohorts seemed the same as his, and talked about his high school experience as someone who failed school but aced bubble tests.

All of this discussion was so great, so it ended up taking almost the whole class. But this was fine, cuz it involved them making connections and voicing new ideas so was really exciting. They wanted to see some of my own artwork at the end of class, so before leaving I showed that and they seemed excited about it. We will have to talk next week about art and specific artists; I think I’ll use that time to build on tonight’s talk…

Week #5

Monday's class went really well. For the first time in a while, I was over-prepared for the class and we did not get to get to everything I had planned to talk about. We did the second half of our art-share, where the guys brought in stuff that is meaningful to them as art. It is great to see some of them getting so into the class lately; a couple of them are going deep into researching artists. A few of them worked together on an extra project that involves re-writing Shakespeare and a large collaged poster to go with it. I told them when I expect to end the class (April 11), and gave a reading assignment and typed-up questions for them to respond to.

[our author describes the best 'education of an artist', and prescribes a liberal education with the goal of being 'integrated' person.] questions were:

1. do you see the author's philosophy as useful?
2. what obstacles are there to achieving this vision of being 'integrated'?
3. what does being 'integrated' mean to you, as someone in prison?

I should really do more with the question of what we want to know from the students. I am genuinely interested in some of the things they bring in to discuss, but I want to make the class inspiring so that they take back a different way of looking at the world when they go back to their day to day in the facility. (For me, that's what art has done: changed my perception of everyday 'mundane' things. Could it help them in prison (and beyond) if I can foster this?)

I'm bringing the class into learning about formal aspects of art--how to understand it through elements of design and vocab (scale/unity/repetition/figure-ground/etc). I want to have them get this down while talking about art movements and art from different places. The idea is that they can benefit from knowing what to look for in art/imagery, how to talk about its meaning, and also can make thier own more affective because they'll have these elements in mind.

As a final project, I want to compile their work into a zine project, some kind of publication that can hold writing, drawing, photos, anything they want. This they can hopefully spend at least two class periods finishing, to be a venue (however small) for them to communicate to the outside. Back to that communication thing though; I think I have to open up more dialogue now about blunt questions, what they really think of in their day-to-day. That should be an assignment soon if we're to get into anything deeper.

One concern i am left with is that not all of them yet get the author's argument in the book we talk about. She critiques modern understanding of art, but doesn't lay out her assumptions clearly in the beginning. I take it for granted that how we commonly think of art (and everything else) is western, individualized, coming from within the liberal enlightenment tradition. We haven't gone there though, to discuss what "liberal enlightement tradition" means, and maybe they've, uh, never talked about that. I want to write my own essay or something to share with them, cuz clearly that is still a rock in some of their boots, giving us trouble.
that's "it"