Archive for the ‘teaching’ tag
Returning thought…
Something that came up in class today that has stayed with me:
It’s very tempting for artists to try to explain themselves. Especially after the experience of art school, where one is always asked for clarifications and reasons for things. But the temptation can be to explain through the work itself, to include pieces or statements in shows that serve to guide the viewer to certain conclusions about your work. The problem is that explanation can easily slide into justification, and justification can easily turn to apology.. We need to ask ourselves this question: am I providing access to the work, or trying to justify it?
The urge to explain is strong. No one wants to be thought obscure. But someone else’s explanation can take me out of my own experience of the work.
As a viewer, I don’t mind working. I don’t mind having to return to a work of art to find something else in it. And as an artist, I’d like to think that I could attract viewers that were up to that challenge. Works of art at their best provide their own justification, not by spelling everything out, but by providing us with the opportunity for joyous experience. Artists – don’t explain, practice making those experiences.
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When magnolias in Fort Greene bloom…
Out in the hallway my students are hard at work installing their thesis group show, for Friday’s opening. I may be broadcasting from a fool’s paradise, but there have been no major traumas yet. Work is going on to the walls at a steady clip, and the show seems to be surprisingly light on the tech this year.
Just finished my chicken and rice from the Biryani Cart, happy that the morning gloom has given way to sunshine. There’s something about the weather returning to manageability that brings my mood along with it. I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels for almost the past two months.
Also that I “haven’t kept up with the world” in that time. I feel only dimly aware of world events (we got healthcare somehow, that crazy pope is in trouble again, and we’re still in Afghanistan, right?) And even more out of touch with happenings on LJ. SO until I get caught up, I think I’m just going to shut up and post pictures.
Tags: daily photo, spring, teachingRelated posts
Are you rolling in the ears?
A member of the New York Correspondance School sent a package to the class here at Austin Peay. Inside we found twenty pairs of sequined bunny ears and the phrase “How to Bowl like a Bunny”. So of course we all donned them and proceeded to bowl for the evening while the jukebox played things like Root Down, and Joan Jett singing “now I wanna be your dog”. A great way for us to all get to know each other a bit better. Afterwards I had some ramen and slept like a rock for seven hours.
The weather has been a little schizo, snowing on and off. Clear and then cold, some hail. I feel calmer than yesterday, partly because of the sincere responses of the students. I’m easily frazzled in so much of my life, but in the classroom and in the studio, it’s hard for me to be unhappy.
Tags: bowling, daily photo, teachingRelated posts
This is the look that says: “Take me out, you lazy, lazy sod”…
It’s clear and warm in Brooklyn. I’m going to go out in it (again) in a little while. Got to soak up any autumnal pleasantness as I find it. For the first time in many days I’m not waking up with an immediate deadline or meeting hanging over my head. What lightness!
Last night I also got to see the fantastic work by a group of Alumni from ICP here. I was thrilled to see people going out in to the world and doing new things. There was so much pride flowing throughout the room, and I loved being able to add my little bit to the pile. So here’s another way I’m lucky: I read people complaining about the privileged, know nothing, whiny students they have to deal with, and I’ve got to say that that is not my case at all. People have varying degrees of commitment and success, it’s true, but overall, I have nothing but admiration for them. They set up an organization, sheetrocked the walls, and threw a New York art event. So very groovy.
It’s all about moving past fear, fear that nothing will happen for you, that you’ve got nothing to say, that other people control your destiny. Action puts the lie to those fears.
(as if to underline all of this, itunes just threw up Chic’s “Good Times”. Clams on the half shell, and roller skates, roller skates)
Tags: daily photo, lehigh, teaching, weatherRelated posts
Talk to the future…
This morning I spoke to a group of students from Duke University as part of a cultural program supervised by my friend Jeff. Every time I’ve done it I’ve been gratified to meet with enthusiasm and hunger that these people have for the chance to be out in the world making things and garnering experience.
It did mean that I was running a bit late for all the rest of the day heading from the Duke talk to a quick lunch to our crtitque class at ICP, where my students continue to bring out interesting ideas and ask either hard questions, back to the office in order to check some additional stuff to dinner eaten on the street, to desultory grocery shopping to ensure that I would have yogurt for tomorrow’s breakfast, until I find myself now here at home tuckered and without a post. No real energy to draw either. And an early meeting tomorrow as well. Sigh. Jobs is jobs, and I should be glad to have one.
Tags: daily photo, teaching, workRelated posts
After drag bingo…
So later, on further down Avenue A, I had a shake. I didn’t win anything at bingo, and I left before the best prizes were being given out, but I hope that my donation did some good – and a pal won some booze.
Clear and cool today: not as raw as the weekend, and the work in my class engendered some great discussion. People seem to be settling in and enjoying themselves more. I’m eating enough apples to keep a battalion of doctors away.
Tags: daily photo, teachingRelated posts
I told her it would be there…
Last night was the end of the year dinner for my students, out little in-house graduation before the official event at Bard on Saturday. A generous trustee hosts it at their house every year. The students got dolled up and we presented them with a certificate that I designed. It’s a lovely event and this year seemed especially emotional. I’m very grateful to have been able to spend the last couple of years with these people. I got a little teary during my short speech to them. Maybe it was the excellent red wine.
And now is the chance to get some of the built up pressures of the past couple of months dealt with. Through some talks with good friends I feel like I’ve developed a clearer picture of how I want the next year to go. The warm weather is helping with that as well; somehow walking out the door in just my shirtsleeves always fills me with a sense of possibilities.
Oh and the boot? A friend told me her husband has been following the blog, and so when she showed off the footwear, I told her I’d put it up here for his delectation.
Tags: daily photo, friends, gratitude, night, teachingRelated posts
Come see work…
Tonight is the opening for the ICP-Bard MFA exhibition at the ICP School: 1114 6th ave, at 43rd Street 6-9pm
Tags: art, daily photo, icp, teachingRelated posts
Ear good, mouth bad…
How can it be almost four pm already? It’s the time of the year when everything just comes on the heels of everything else. The people I work with are short tempered and stressed. I’m trying to cultivate my calm.
I’ve also taken on a few days of additional teaching as a favor to a friend these past couple of weeks and it’s been instructive to compare the cultures of various schools.
When teaching, I always wish that I could listen more and speak less. I feel like I do alright in that regard in my regular classes, but sometimes the temptation to clarify and restate is too great when I’m in new situations. I end up feeling abashed for all my mouthiness. The classroom is an interesting situation, given that what I’m trying to teach is critical thinking as much as it is creative practice. For me, those two things have always gone hand in hand. But the trick with teaching them is that you can’t dictate them, you have to create the condition where people find their way to them. Hence the struggle to say the right thing.
Nine times out of ten, if I’m not saying something, it’s because I’m trying to figure out what to say. The situation is worsened in a medium like email, where emotions can run high and escalate at a moment’s notice. Emails seem to carry with them the injunction to be answered point for point and tone for tone, for good or for ill. I see people ratcheting up each others’ stress levels and look for a way to moderate that. But then again some people do not wish to be moderated.
Listening and breathing continue to be excellent sugestions, as much as I am tempted to ignore them.
Tags: daily photo, stress, teaching, workRelated posts
Raisins and Dog Biscuits…
…are what I need to buy today on the way home. But really this post is about IMsL.
This was the first Leather Contest I’ve attended, and only the second title contest (in the late 90′s I was part of helping the Metro Bears put on a run/contest that had very little impact). On the whole I have stayed away from organized leather, but if there was going to be a first one, I’m happy that it was this one. The stakes, while high for the contestants, seemed low for the rest of the event. People were there for a whole array for reasons, only one of which were the contests.
It was very interesting to be at a women’s event; my Seventies feminist training kicked in and it combined with my shyness to make me quite reticent about approaching people. I was trying to mind my ps and qs, not wanting to be intrusive and to listen twice befreo speaking once. I wasn’t always successful, but on the whole it was more relaxing than it sounds.
My class fell victim to the vagaries of San Francisco’s climate. Since what I was teaching involved smoking, it had to place outdoors, on the patio outside of the hospitality suite. This was fine when the sun was shining directly on it, but once there was no sunshine, the classroom turned chill to such an extent that people were stepping inside to watch from beyond the glass patio doors. I had to cut things a little short, both on the demonstration end and in general, because it was just getting silly. Scheduling also meant that many folks could only attend part of the class, which meant that there was a constant trickle of people in and out of the session. That tends to rattle me, and I feel like I didn’t do as good a job as I might have. I did have a stalwart demo bottom, and good friends in the audience, two factors that made the whole thing much easier.
There were many great people there to connect with, and despite the above mentioned shyness, I did have some wonderful conversations and saw some hot action. My own experience was mixed. I had one encounter go wrong on me and was really rattled by it. Luckily my friends were there to help me process it all.
Maybe its because I was fairly close to the operating staff, but the event seemed exceptionally well run to me; things happened when they were supposed to with a minimum of fuss. When that happens, it means that everyone can relax and enjoy what’s happening. Problems don’t become crises.
On the whole I feel like the women’s community is a lot more vibrant and diverse than the men’s. And it’s really interesting to me the way that a younger generation is upending questions about gender style and play. There’s a kind of giddiness in the exploration and reconfiguration of rules that speaks to my heart (and other parts, since I find that kind of energy very hot).
I don’t think I’ll ever find a place in “Leather Tradition”, and I’m not really interested in doing so in any event. But I am glad to have been a small part of IMsL. And very grateful to folks who brought me there.
Tags: daily photo, imsl, kink, leather, teaching, travel