stay in touch

fecal face is a content-rich, comprehensive, multidisciplinary art and culture website. 

the best part about this website is the artist interviews and studio visits. i enojy being about to see in to the artists process. this site also includes blogs by prominent artists and personalities, an hourly updated news section and coverage of current art openings. this site also supports a forum board with over 2000 users, a comprehensive creative jobs database and an events calendar offering some of the more obscure attractions in san francisco, los angelos and New York. it has helped launch the careers of many a creative, and catalyzed a community of artists working in various mediums from around the globe. this is a really great resource for finding artist examples for lesson planning, and overall a great way to stay in touch with new contemporary practicing artists.

local opportunity

"Unison Arts Center is a non-profit arts (IN NEW PALTZ!)center offering performance and visual arts programming, personal growth workshops and recreational, arts and educational activities for children and families. Unison has become an important venue for artists, crafts people and educators, and presents more than 30 performances, 50 workshops and 8 gallery exhibitions each year." 

i always seem to discover these things so late.. school and work have dominated my time over the past 2 years of living out here (hudson valley area). I think that it is important as an artist (especially art educators) to investigate local arts. what is available in your community?  where can you show/see work? How can I get involved? i've started looking in to art events for the summer, because i will have more time to get involved when school is not is session.

Here are some helpful sources to find art happenings in my neck of the woods:

click to explore!

what's going on around you??

emphasize and advertise

the activity has been decided. to help 9th and 10th grade students better understand emphasis of design they will first view some examples of emphasis and go over simple techniques that create a focal point. they will look at example in both fine and commercial art and begin to look closer at WHAT is being emphasized. also, why?
an activity to get the students started will be to look at an ad from a magazine. they must determine what is being emphasized and how its being done. they must find at least one technique in creating emphasis that was mentioned in the introduction (contrast, isolation, convergence, the unusual, placement/location), but they mat also mention any other way they notice emphasis being used. shock value is one i've seen in both commercial and fine arts. when the activity is completed students will use the ad they have or find a new to re-create in a collage project. they will have to use some part of the original ad in their design. they must decide on a focal point that emphasized a product or idea. here are some examples of what i'd like the final product to look like:

making emphasis relevant

i've been asked to create a lesson plan that deals with emphasis as a principle of design. this is not the easiest thing to get 9th and 10th grade students excited about, but i think i've found a way to make it relevant. what is emphasized in our society? product, capital and ADVERTISEMENT! ads are everywhere. when you're out, they are around, on buses, buildings, in shopping malls, doctors offices, hair salons, grocery stores, etc. even when you head home you're surrounded by advertisement. the television is the number one source, but it's also on the things we use. our cleansing products and food packages are all carefully designed to make us want more. I believe that getting students to think critically about advertisement by breaking down its design will help them to understand what is being sold. is it really all that important to have? i want students to find emphasis in commercial art and compare it to fine art. both are selling something, or promoting something, but the difference is what they will have to determine.

main idea:

fine art uses the principle of design: emphasis, to draw attention to an idea

ex:

vs

commercial art uses the principle of design: emphasis, to sell a product

ex:

now what to do for an activity..

to be continued...

New Inspiration (to me)

I would like to start using this blog as a record of new and inspiring artist that i stumble upon. I too often lose thoughts and names that may one day be helpful in the classroom.

                  

Amy Singer is a  very powerful artist. She is an animal rights activist who creates very graphic and morbid looking work from taxidermic animals. She would be great to use for a lesson dealing with sculpture, appropriation, juxtaposition, etc. Her work is provocative and  ironic. she does not agree with the use of animals for any purpose other than to keep one company as a pet, though she uses taxidermy animals in almost all of her work. She contradicts herself, but regardless she is a talented and interesting artist.