The analysis and reflection on the individual’s journey is the core of this unit. Students must look at the journey of the artists’ we are viewing. All of the artist’s we look at have a message that addresses an important issue. The students will explore the artists’ techniques to convey their messages. Finding the hope or transformative aspect of the artist’s work is vital to this process. After exploring the works of others, students will need to reflect on their own experience. This reflection will lead to the heart of their artwork. Finally, their artwork will be shared with the school community in a magazine of all the student work. This will be an opportunity to spread their messages of hope with a broader audience.
The artists listed above will be specifically highlighted in the unit. Students will also have the opportunity for choice. They will peruse a variety of artists and artwork and select one artist to do a deep dive. We will look at the lives, art, and craft of each artist as a class and then the students will have the opportunity to do the same with their own artist of choice. We will read articles, watch Youtube videos, create playlists, respond to guiding questions, create questions and just spend time sitting with the artwork in order to appreciate it. Analysis of the choices the artists make is integral to this process. It will both enhance the reading of the art, but inform how the students will create their own pieces.
In some cases the topic of the artwork may be elusive to the viewer. Although the hope and healing of the art is the art itself, the conversations that come out of the art can be that as well. All of the art can bring joy and inspiration. There may be difficult conversations to have that the art brings to the surface, but the result should always be the love for the artwork and the solutions they imbue. That is what I want the focus to be.
Because this unit is being used with seniors, most of them will have written college essays or a personal statement. The kind of self reflection required for such writing will be a nice jumping off point for their thoughts on the topic of their own artwork. The sculpture, quilting, painting, photography, etc. that we will view over the course of the unit will provide them with options for their own creations. They can choose any medium they want to create a work of art. The art must come from their own journey and address something they feel needs to be healed. There must be a message of hope in either the art itself or the artist’s statement that they write.
After an in class art walk, we will compile all of the artwork and statements into a publication. The students will be able to distribute the final product to the community.