Articles

Article

Charcoal Cardboard Self-Portraits

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

These portraits are scaled so the subject is not a figure in negative space; instead, it’s a person—an in-your-face expression of personality jutting out at us. Students are asked to fill ...

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Article

Supporting Creativity at Home

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

I noticed that many art educators were attempting to develop resources and support for adults at home. The following is a compilation of what I found during my research in terms of help, support, and ...

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Article

Sharing Environmental Stories

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

As an art educator, I wanted my students to explore the negative effects of plastic on our environment. My purpose was to help them understand not only what is happening to our environment, but also w ...

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Article

Editor’s Letter: Environment

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Have you noticed changes in your natural environment over time? When I was a child, we lived in the middle of the woods in Louisiana, and my siblings and I spent most of our time outdoors there. I was ...

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Article

Art Education Is a Dark Horse

Monday, January 4, 2021

For five years, I taught fine and digital art to a specific population of grade-oriented, high-achieving, private high-school students. Most of these students were not planning on ever using a paintbr ...

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Article

Nonobjective Sculpture

Monday, January 4, 2021

Students’ creativity is so often stifled by insecurity in their artistic abilities. As with any subject, it’s important to allow our students a means for success. I wanted my students to e ...

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Article

Teaching Abstract Composition

Monday, January 4, 2021

Give students a sheet of 12 x 18" (30 x 46 cm) dark charcoal paper and some drawing supplies: vine, charcoal block, a charcoal pencil, and a tortillion—but no erasers. Ask them to draw some ...

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Article

Revisiting O'Keeffe

Monday, January 4, 2021

Standing with my dry-erase marker in front of fourthgraders, I start drawing that one flower...it has a circle in the center, five petals, a stem, two leaves, some grass, and a sun in the corner. I as ...

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Article

Editor's Letter: Realism/Abstraction

Monday, January 4, 2021

Up until last March, I was a docent at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. Our governor shut the state down quickly because of the coronavirus and, as a result, all of the museums were clos ...

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Article

Honoring Kindness

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted,” is one of my favorite quotes from Aesop. It’s from the fable The Lion and the Mouse, where the spared mouse later frees the ...

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Article

Planting Acorns

Wednesday, December 2, 2020 | Craig Hinshaw

Flint, Michigan, has seen better days. Loss of manufacturing coupled with the Flint water crisis has taken its toll. In 1913, General Motors attempted to build 1,000 houses in one year for the influx ...

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Article

Helping Hands

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Who doesn’t need a helping hand at some time in their lives? It could be the support of professionals, family, friends, or an organization. How do we increase awareness of those who are in need ...

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Article

Anti-Racist Art Educators

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Facebook has very active art education communities, some with more than 18,000 members. Numerous teachers wanted to use these groups to share and discuss anti-racist art education pedagogy and lessons ...

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Article

Editor's Letter: Compassion

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Has there ever been a time in your memory when compassion and kindness were more needed? What does it mean to have compassion? Compassion is active. To have compassion is to show kindness and empathy ...

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Article

Color Monsters

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

In the book The Color Monster (Sterling, 2012) by Anna Llenas, a child helps a monster sort out its feelings. No feeling is judged or suppressed— they are all identified and acknowledged. I desi ...

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Article

Altered Egos

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Growing up, I was always drawn to the make-believe world of editorial photography, specifically fashion and pop-culture imagery. As an adult, I understand how this imagery is selling a fantasy. Althou ...

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