Reflecting on the Year After the Artist Teacher Workshop

Back in May 2013, for professional development, the Leipzig International School sent me on a course called "Artist Teacher Workshop" at La Vigna Art Studios in Pisa, Italy.  The course was designed and run by Heather McReynolds, an IB Visual Arts Examiner.  The main focus of the workshop was to rejuvenate the artist within art teachers and help them realize the benefits of being an artist teacher who teaches by example in the classroom.  The course was wonderful.  Heather was so inspiring, encouraging, and generous with her knowledge.  It has changed how I see myself as a teacher but more importantly it has made me realize I need to rediscover myself as an artist.

After returning to LIS and starting the school year of 2013/14, I thought about ways of making good on the professional development and keeping the energy felt while on the workshop alive.  How could making art more regularly help my students?  My grade 11 IB Art class has been a great encouragement.  By meeting their deadlines for critiques and sketchbook entries I was able to grow artistically along with the group and lead by example.  Grade 9 IGCSE used my new work to practice written analysis and we traded linoleum prints.  I collaboratively worked with grade 10 and 12 students on their ideas and created work that demonstrated possible solutions.  I even attended drawing classes with a few grade 12 IB Art students.  Becoming an artist teacher has been very positive in the classroom.

The blog I started, Artist-Teacher-HERE.blogspot.com, allows me to record the steps taken to stay artistically productive and to share images of the art works when they are completed.  Producing my own art again has been vital to me feeling complete and has strengthened my teaching.  The highlights of the year have been working on a series of new paintings exhibited at a 24 hour group exhibition called Optimaler Schnitt in April and exhibiting  at Webervogel and Linguarama in June.  I can not thank LIS enough for supporting me as a teacher and valuing me as an artist.  This year, I have undergone a great transformation and I am looking forward to being an artist teacher next year, sharing all the benefits that may come in and outside the classroom.

 

Exhibition view at Webervogel, Leipzig.  Running June 5 - 25, 2014

Being a Visitor at Home

Allowing myself to enjoy being a visitor was one of the tasks I set myself after the artist teacher workshop.  I am proud to say that I took the time to sit and do some sketches and watercolours even while I was visiting my parents in New Jersey, USA over the summer.  This is something that I had never done before.  It was quite fun.

The first trip I made was down to Fortescue.  I sat on the edge of the road and sketched a house up on stilts while my son explored the beach with my old metal detector.  It was not easy.  I can not get over how difficult it is to get the placement of the house fixtures correct.  I gave up trying to fit in everything correctly after a while.  I knew my son would get bored sooner or later and I wanted to try to get some colour in the drawing.

On the 4th of July I was able to get away and drove, with my old Chevy pick-up, to Landis Ave. in Vineland.  I parked and sat across the street from a set of three buildings that were fixed up quite nicely.  The colours and moulding were attractive.  I struggled with the same issues as in Fortescue but it seemed to work out a bit better.  If only I did not have to get back in time for the fireworks, I could have finished the piece.  I think I will work on it again from the photos I took.

It was a great summer to ride around in my 1965 Chevy Pick-up Truck.  A highlight of the trip was putting it into an antique car show.  There were amazing cars and a bit of time to start a sketch!  I tried some conte crayons and pastels.  I was quite pleased with the result of this drawing of the back corner of my truck.

There were some hot days in August and my son loves to swim.  Looking into Parvin State Park was a pleasant surprise.  We had a really good time biking and swimming in the lake.  This building near the lake had recently been renovated and housed the snack shop.  As my son was swimming I was busy with pastels trying to capture the likeness of this building.

 

 The drawings are not great but the experience was wonderful.  Taking time to just sit and draw was so rewarding.  It didn't matter how accomplished they were because I was just happy to be doing them.  I need to get out and do sketches of Leipzig now.  The weather will soon be getting cold so I better hurry up!

Being a Visitor in Pisa

I will never forget how excited I was when I went out for the first walk down into the town.  The smell of jasmine was so strong.  It was a clear cool day but warm in the sun.  I found a gelato store and sat on a bench in the town square of Calci Provincia di Pisa to eat it.

Across from me was a sort of typical Italian looking apartment building which I started to draw after only dripping chocolate on me once.  I started just with the black fountain pen.  The proportions are all wrong and the forms are not accurate but it was the first time in about 20 years that I sat and drew.  I was there for quite some time and when people walked by it felt like I may have been the only person to have ever sat on a bench in that little town square.

It was a breezy day and the pages of my sketchbook often blew up.  I was also getting eager to walk around more.  I finished the sketch, took a few photos and then went to explore.  I knew I needed to be back by 7 for dinner.

Seeing this drawing along with the photo is depressing but I remember that once I began drawing the first window too large, I could not turn back without starting over.  So it was a nice exercise.

Perhaps I should try again from the photo.  It is nice that the bench I mentioned above is mirrored in a second that was placed opposite the one I sat on.

The Artist Teacher Workshop in Pisa with Heather McReynolds was so inspiring.

One of the most inspiring elements of the workshop was being encouraged to be a visitor and to allow oneself the time to enjoy being fresh in a new environment ready to sit and draw!  Back in 1992 and 1993 I first came to Europe and did two European Rail tours.  The people I travelled with were really patient and understanding with me taking time to do the drawings.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed making those sketches and then reviewing them at the end of the day.

In Pisa, I took time for myself and sketched.  This became part of my personal task.  I did pencil drawings, watercolour paintings, ink wash drawings.  It was challenging.  It had been a long time.  I was already looking forward to this because of reading about the personal task that would be set for the workshop.  While packing I think I took about two hours just sorting my pencil bag.  I can not remember how long I took cleaning out my precious Pelikan Fountain Pen.

I also had something that I did not have in the 90's; an iPad.  This was great for taking photos and then drawing from.  It was also great listening to Paul Simon in the morning when I was getting ready before breakfast.  The photos I have from there on the iPad play as a screen saver on the television when I play music through the Apple TV.  It is neat to see the captured moments scroll by.

What an entrance way upon arrival.  You can imagine the excitement.

This was the view outside my room.  What you can not see is the chicken coops below, so hence the mosquito net on the window.  Waking to the crow of the rooster was a delight.

This was a beautiful drive way that I just happened to pass on my way into town before dinner on the first evening.  There was the most lovely smell in the air and I was grateful my allergies did not kick in.

Video: ARTIST TEACHER WORKSHOP - La Vigna Art Studios 

This video was created from our session in late May, 2013.  The safe, rejuvenating, and creative atmosphere that Heather McReynolds arranges for the Artist Teacher Workshop is very apparent in this video.

Creating a place to record and to share

Back in May 2013, I was sent to do a course in Pisa called "Artist Teacher Workshop" by La Vigna Art Studios in order to rejuvenate the artist hidden within this increasingly heavy art teacher shell.  The course was wonderful.  Heather McReynolds was so inspiring, encouraging, and generous with her knowledge.  This experience shared with the three artist teachers who are working in Denmark has changed how I see myself as a teacher but more importantly how I want to rediscover myself as an artist.

I have been thinking about ways of how to keep the energy felt while on the workshop alive.  This blog is one way that I intend to record the steps I take to stay artistically productive and where I will share images of the art works when they are completed.  Producing my own art is vital to me feeling complete and strengthens my confidence in teaching.  I am an artist; always have been and always will be.  Passively allowing life, as wonderful as it has been, to keep me away from my own creativity is something that I am now determined to actively change.  Even the small steps are worth taking.