Farewells

I don't have the patience to figure out a lot of things. One is how to transfer feeds and content, in spite of Samurai's helpful advice. Hopefully I don't lose too many people along the way. It will be some metaphorical house-cleaning. Pretty please re-subscribe HERE.

Goodbye Blogger.

Moving Time!

Looking at new Real Estate. Come check it out.

Extreme Makeover: School Edition

I teach in two school buildings and people will ask:

"Which is the most ideal of the two spaces?" My answer is: both and neither. Truthfully if I wanted the ideal working space it would be on the floor. Throw away the desks, and give me washable wide open floors with carpet squares, drawing boards, and huge windows for gallons of natural light.

I ordered clipboards my first year teaching for drawing outside. The kids sprawl on their bellies and CHILL. Not fall asleep I'm tired chill, but become centered, focused and peaceful, chill. In the winter the clipboards reside in a class Art station. When students finish projects early they can draw in their sketchbooks on the floor. Soon they are asking to do regular projects down there too.

I discovered The Ordrup School in Denmark on Imagine School Design. The website is dedicated to featuring innovative school design from around the world. The Ordrup School was designed by Bosch and Fjord Architectural Firm, with a lot of collaboration from teachers and students. The architects focused on 3 learning concepts when designing the spaces: "Peace and Absorption," "Discussion and Cooperation," "Security and Presence."





Question for the class:

Why is it that a typical Public Elementary Classroom almost hits the target:


But apparently once they hit puberty they learn best with... ?

The Creative Bug

Hugh McLeod. GapingVoid.com

"Counter-culture and Urban Art is where it's at," says Tom to me on the phone one day back in November.

He's 28, lives with his dad, no job... just makes tedious, hyper-detailed pointillist art in moleskin sketchbooks hoping for a break. Once he got offered a scholarship to a prestigious Art school, and was rejected when they found out he had spent time in jail for tagging buildings with graffiti as a teen.

I imagine he's bitter at a world that consistently kicks him down for not playing by the rules. His sister is a doctor with a 5 bedroom house upstate, yet he continues to create in his Wisconsin bedroom, 10, 12, sometimes 14 hours a day. He says "he has to do it," in the simple way one tells you they are hungry and must have dinner. I think even if MOMA called him tomorrow he's feel like a sellout and give them a moleskin to shove up their...

"It's on the streets where no commercial influences can hack the work before it reaches the public. Kids on the streets aren't doing it for money, they're doing it for the love, and that's pure man."

True words my unemployed, hippie friend. Never-the-less, Paris Hilton and The Jonas Brothers are still getting the media spots and big money contracts. This post is dedicated to refreshingly non-mainstream, urban, visual artists shifting cultural conversation and redefining the artistic landscape. You know- the little guys.

To be fair they're not that "little" or I wouldn't have heard of them. Really- they're the "littler" guys, but people outside of the art world have likely never heard of them. Some are successful at the originality thing, some not as much. All links were selected on the specific criteria: I like them. Oh, and this is not your Thomas Kinkade country fucking kitchen.

Is ingenuity possible anymore? All further judgment is up to you.

The Wooster Collective
New York Art Collective dedicated to showcasing up and coming Urban/Street Artists. I love everything they post. Literally.

Reverse Graffiti
Alexandre Orion from South America creates a mural on the side of a freeway in Brazil, and makes an environmental statement in the process in this powerful short video.

David Shrigley
Random, fun, and also kind of demented. I spend more time than I care to mention looking at his photograph section.

Luke Chueh Anime
Teaching children to draw Anime has been one of the most rewarding units as an Elementary School Teacher. The quote on his home page from a child's letter, compelled me to see more.

Art of Burning Man
Hippies in the desert of Nevada are not very "urban." But these installations are wickedly cutting edge, massive in scale, and genuinely thought provoking.

Gaping Void
While the Art of Hugh McLeod is probably no longer "refreshingly non-mainstream" since his book deal and recent acclaim, he is an authority on retaining Artistic Integrity in this insanely competitive world. He's witty, he's from Scotland, and is my current "Art Crush."

Ghost in the Machine
Art made with vintage cassette tapes. Nuff said.

Street Art by Joshua Allen Harris
Garbage Bags on Street Vents? Sounds boring... right?

Taylor McKimens Installation
I don't get it... and yet I get it. This installation makes powerful statements while leaving me vaguely confused. Fabulous.

Exactitudes
A project that studies fashion, appearance, and the similarities that bind us.

Wesley Burt Drawings
It's hard to find a really impressive drawer anymore. Click above to be impressed.

A Beautiful Revolution
So simple and intriguing, why didn't you think of it?

Animated Graffiti
South American Artist creates a video that animates his work on a city wall. I don't know how he did it, but I was spellbound.

It Takes a Village

A Child's Bath. Mary Cassatt. 1891.

Several years ago a psychologist named Laurie Miller Brotman studied preschool-age siblings of older children who were already acquainted with the criminal-justice system. These children were from low income, inner city, and often minority families.

Brotman's team tested levels of cortisol, a hormone that spikes when human beings are under stress. When these children were exposed to stressful situations, instead of observing a spike, their cortisol levels remained flattened.

Parents that were raised in homes where yelling, multiple verbal and physical threats were imposed, are going to repeat the same behaviors raising their own children. We learn what we live. When children are subjected to repeated verbal and physical threats from their caregivers, over time these stimuli no longer create escalated stress/cortisol levels. Children learn to adapt to their environment.

Brotman and a team of Family Pyschologists divided the children and parents into Control and Test Groups. The provided the Test Group with Family Interventions and Counseling. They modeled forms of consistent discipline, rewards for good behavior, even things as simple as getting down on the floor to play. And the children's cortisol levels returned to normal. By the time these children were 11, they had significantly lower levels of aggression and obesity than their peers in the Control Group.

"Parenting is a much more separate, solitary activity than it used to be," says Harold S. Koplewicz, the director of the NYU Child Study Center. And he's right... for the most part. There are still places in the world (decreasing rapidly) where child-rearing is not the pursuit of mothers and fathers alone. Indigenous tribes in areas of Africa, New Guinea, and other Pacific Islands still participate in the age old mantra: "It takes a Village."

These tribes know something that we seem to have lost in our modern world. Women and men in their teens and twenties are still in many ways, children themselves, however their bodies are young and strong to handle the rigor of child birth. In these tribes, young people are "child-bearers," but the elders are the "child-rearers." Children are not taken away from their biological parents, but they are not left with them to fend for themselves either. Children in these situations, grow up viewing dozens of people as intimately as their mother and father.

Brotman brings up a good point in her study: Parents in the modern world are sitting at home reading parenting books and wondering "Why is this so hard for me?" Isn't raising children supposed to be glorious, magical and above all... shouldn't I just "get this?"

This is a huge misconception, although you're probably guilty of it even if you agree with everything I'm saying here. Imagine you're standing in the checkout line and you see a mother struggling to put groceries on the conveyor belt. Her 5 year old asks for a candy bar and she says "no." The child begins to shriek: "I want a candy bar!" The Mother tries to stand firm at first, but as the child's screams draw more attention the Mother begins to plead: "Mommy will give you a snack at home if you are quiet." Bystanders are awkwardly trying not to stare, and she grabs a Snickers and throws it in with the rest of her items. Screaming ceases instantly. I've seen this, and inwardly wanted to scream: "Helloooo, this isn't rocket science lady!"

But I'm not a parent. And assuming that I would handle my children any better is part of another bigger problem: separatism and lack of compassion in modern society. I was the result of an amazing upbringing. My mother was an Early Childhood Education major that went to Seminary to become a Minister. She was the daughter of two teachers herself. Even my insanely prepared mother who I love immensely has shared with me, huge regrets from my years as a child. If SHE can struggle, we must show compassion to those who were not as fortunate in life. When we read stories about mothers who dump their babies off in a park, or shake them until it results in brain damage we must stop saying things like:

"I just don't understand that woman."

Brotman is saying: "We should understand it." If you want to read about her Parent Corps program that she started in New York City Preschools, Click HERE. This has fascinating implications for Education.

I Love Onions

Why are all the good journalists disguised as humorists?

http://www.theonion.com
/content/news/6_year_old_stares_down_bottomless

Dots

The Starry Night. Vincent Van Gogh. 1889.

Once upon a time there were fireflies, a bike, and drinking alcohol. Oh, and a children's picture book. While not necessarily in that order- like all good stories, seemingly unrelated things appear in the present as a quagmire of moments- and connect in later chapters. At least that's the idea. Steve Jobs said to Stanford's 2005 Graduating class:

"you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

This post is about my recent dots. I'm not sure if it will make a speck of sense. But here's to being advantageous.

Dot 1
There are two places in the world that fireflies glow in synchronicity... one is in East Asia... the other is East Tennessee. My aunt suggested we go see them a few weeks ago when my sister and I visited her in Knoxville. We ended up shopping and eating Veggie Burgers downtown instead. I would like to say that rare moments of natural beauty would trump consumerist decadence... but alas we fell victim to trendy free trade jewelry shops, live music, and people watching. As I surfed Facebook at her house that night a friend had posted: "It sure seems like there aren't as many fireflies anymore."

In fact she's not imagining it. There are fewer fireflies... and scientists have been investigating why. You can read about it HERE if you feel inspired. I stumbled upon the site a few weeks back... 3 firefly signs in 3 weeks. For real though... how "new-age-hippie" is it to start pondering the meaning of this. So I didn't. Just a coincidence.

Dot 2
Last week I posted a story I read to graduating Fourth Graders about signs... life road signs that point the way if you look for them. In order to resist the temptation to appear tormented and depressive in the last six months, I've kept most personal dilemmas off these pages. However this blog- this creative outlet- is because I'm very much like the little boy in the story who followed signs others told him to take. I have found myself in a swamp. I will probably look back and remember 2009 as the year the universe forced me into action... but right now 2009 has been a fucking struggle. Forgive me.

Dot 3
After a night drinking with teachers fresh out of college... at college bars... until last call... I woke up feeling BLEH. Still in the swamp eh Brazen? You big loser. I needed to do something lest I end up in pajamas at 7 pm... watching movies and surfing the internet. Most people think of Yosemite, or the Everglades when they hear of National Parks... not Akron, Ohio. But indeed I live 15 minutes from the beautiful Cuyahoga National Park. The heart of the park is Szalay's Corn Farm and Market. Kids schlup soft serve, old men rock in wooden chairs, and white-bred types feel authentic and hip as they peruse organic produce. Truly, I can make fun of them- I am one.

Dot 4
I stretched out in the sun. After fruitfulish snacks I snapped into my pedals and forced the cement truck in my brain to shove off... 20 miles melted away... the sun was dappling, the flowers were exhuming, and I even got to see a snapping turtle angrily protecting the bike lane.
When I arrived back to the car my brain was quiet. As I took the front wheel off my bike and lifted it to the rack on my car I thought that perhaps... "being in the moment" was the only "place to be" anyway. As I slid the fork into the latch I saw a firefly crawling up the blue aluminum of the bike.

"Aw, hi buddy," I squealed with delight. As he flew upwards off of my bike I raised my head to watch him, and caught eyes with a very amused man exiting his car... who had witnessed my one-sided conversation with the firefly. He he.

The Connect
This is a benefit of being artsy fartsy. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people think my line of reasoning is insane. It's a firefly dear. Not a universal sign sent just for you to re-grip the entire meaning of life. And I suppose that I'm ending with this disclaimer because "I don't care." These are my dots, and I'll connect them how I want. Do you have any dots?