Midterm Generative Topic Refined...

When I am finally in front of a classroom, my goal is to spread the therapeutic value of art to each student. I myself have practiced art therapy for years and know that connecting my body and energy with my work is productive not only for school but for my own individual development. So...I made the glass/wood piece to show how breathing through muscles can ease tension in the body. If I were to incorporate this as a generative topic in the classroom I would say: create a physical image of tension in your body. This could be translated as a self-portrait, and would work best with high school students, who are constantly struggling with self representation.

Generative Topic

Immersive Environments and Eheir Effects On Art:

Physical Space (comfort vs. discomfort)

Many aspects affect the way a piece of artwork is created. The background noise in the room, the mood of the artist, the weather, the light...they all have and influence on the outcome of each creation. The artist has control over some of these factors, but can only do so much with a one bedroom basement apartment. Imagine immersing yourself in a small, dark room using only candles as a light source while painting. Sounds uncomfortable to me! It is inevitable that this dismal studio space will present itself in the final artwork. People have been studying this idea of a comfortable space for years, creating an art out of the arrangement and design of rooms known as feng shui. Wray Herbert, a writer for the Scientific American explored this art form further in his article "Arranging for Serenity: How Physical Space and Emotion Intersect." Herbert mentions two Yale psychologists, Lawrence E. Williams and John A. Bargh who ran experiments dealing with a similar subject: they created an unconscious sensation of congestion and found that those people who were not exposed to the "crowded attitude" experienced a psychological freedom that the congested volunteers did not. (You can read further at : http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=arranging-for-serenity )

If I were to use this generative topic in a classroom, I would require the students to do experiment with their own boundaries of comfort in a studio setting. I would ask them to experience both confined and non-confined spaces while creating artwork and investigate each piece for any subtle or drastic difference. I would also ask them to write how they felt during each practice; emotionally, physically, mentally... For a more interesting discussion, the art should not be labeled, so students can guess which piece came from which setting. I think it would be an awesome lesson, and fun for students at a high school level.

Mid-semester project

Our country is obsessed with the quick fix. Medication is almost always the answer for anything from a common cold to a fatal disease. I feel like we no longer slow down, listen to our bodies and perhaps prevent the need for medication in the first place. Take headaches for example. A massuse once told me that most headaches are caused by tense muscles in the neck. I decided to investigate what factors might cause tension in my own body. Bending over to carve in the woodshop and lying on an uncomfortable couch were two obvious causes of the uncomfortable knots and tight muscles. I also found that listening to my body during times of stress (the night I quit my job for example, days run on lack of sleep for another) my shoulders would often shrug, straining muscles throughout my neck, upper back, and face.
So, what if people began to listen to their bodies more often. Step outside of his/her body for just a moment, breathe, connect with the breath and physical reaction to a stressful situation? Perhaps at the very least we would have fewer headaches...
For the focus of this project I plan to do dive a little deeper into the physical research to discover what strength I have to heal or prevent muscle/heade aches. I will focus the actual sculpture on the power of breath and the physical body, creating an abstract figural wood form and glass representation of breath flow to the shoulders where most of my tension is stored.