Some Pig- Making Art like a Child Would

mixed media by william hessian

For a few months of each year I am Mr. Billy. Currently I am Mr. Billy in Jamestown, North Dakota on my 7th artist-in-residency here. I teach art to Kindergarten through 6th grade in all 6 elementary schools. I also teach the arts after school program for kids in 3rd through 5th grade (i also teach adult classes and an elderly mural painting class, but that is slightly off topic). My blog post today is about the kids.

When I am standing in front of a room full of students eager to learn about art there is the teacher side of me and the artist side of me. The teacher side of me is trying to be informative, positive, a good communicator, and entertaining. My goal as a teacher is to present the students with a brand new skill or a brand new idea about what art can mean to them in their lives. The artist side of me is digging for gold, because young children have this brilliant freedom that comes from inexperience and bravery. The younger the student the smaller the skill set, but amazingly it seems to be creativity that is the necessity to solve even a very basic drawing or project. The looseness of the lines and the simplicity of the communication...."this is a pig, because a pig is pink and has a nose like this". I have classroom moments where I want to stop the class and take a students drawing and dissect it line by line to understand all the great things that are happening. I want to ask the student 50 questions about why they made certain decisions and give them a stack of new paper to see if the student can replicate such brilliance. But the classroom is still a classroom, I cannot shine a light on one student and ignore the rest, and there is not time for such sidetracks in my 55 minute lessons.

Thankfully for me, the result of this influence of children's art each week day motivates me to put down some of these images and ideas onto paper myself. I try to attack the paper with the same reckless abandon and fearless excitement that the grade school students have. While, I have a lot of work to do to fully let go, I do enjoy the energy and the raw quality of the work. The two drawings on display here are my attempt to be a child on paper again.

Insert overused but relevant Picasso quote here:

"Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
Pablo Picasso

mixed media by william hessian

Artist to Artist Workshop

The above drawing was inspired by a great poem we read in our poetry session.

Last week I went to Fargo to take part in an Artist to Artist workshop designed to help teaching artists become better teachers. I found the experience inspiring, energizing and extremely helpful. When I graduated college in 2004 I had not taken one education class (in fact I avoided them like the plague). I figured I would be creating art, not teaching it. Six years later I find my resume is equally full of teaching experience and visual art experience. I found myself enjoying teaching art and realized I have a knack for it as well. However, having zero education background I found trial and error to be my best method of teaching skills. I would often say to myself, "I'm not sure why but things work better when I do this," or "Ahhh, it works way better when I do things this way." Getting a chance to learn and talk with other teaching artists was exactly what I needed.

Linda Ehreth from the North Dakota Council on the Arts and Barbara Cox from the Perpich Center for Arts Education were the two leading the workshop. The 8 hour workshop started with dance and movement. We then had an acting lesson, which was equal parts team building skills which was a lot of fun. I wrote Six Nails in our poetry lesson in the afternoon. Each session had a time for reflection and by the end of the day I felt like I was back in college for a day. I realized how much I missed critical thinking and being in a room full of peers who want to learn.

I wanted to post my evaluation (guidelines provided by artist to artist) of the workshop:

I came expecting:

to learn new teaching methods
meet new people in my field
to explore what it means to be an educator

I got:

new tools to help teach
inspiration
a new outlook on what and how I teach art
confidence
an energized spirit

I wish:

I could attend this workshop 4 times a year

Now I need:

to implement what i learned
transfer the energy into results
to remember what i learned

Three things I value from this workshop include:

constructive assessment with peers
working together with talented people to enrich the lives of students
a collaborative passion for the arts

Next I will:

explore more challenging instructing opportunities
challenge myself to find new and better ways to teach art
use my critical friends (contacts) to soar to new levels of art education

Jamestown's Blizzard of Art

I have returned to Jamestown, North Dakota as I was once again selected as the artist in residence at the Jamestown Art Center. Part of my responsibilities includes teaching art to elementary and middle school students. On my very first day teaching in 2009, school was cancelled due to a blizzard, thus I had a snow day (which still gives me goosebumps, since most of my minnesotan childhood was spent trying to will 'snow days'). For those few who live in warmer climates 'snow days' are the glorious events in which the weather is too cold, the ground is too dangerous to drive on, or the snow has accumulated beyond the ability to function beyond your household. It is rare, and quite awesome. 'Snow days' transform early schoolwork, to sleeping in, snowmen and sledding (watch the simpson's:snow day for a perfect example).



I am still making the Jamestown adjustment. Some people question what adjustment is there from freezing -20 degree Minneapolis, for only slightly colder -25 degree Jamestown and weather aside, I tell them there is a BIG difference. Minneapolis is constantly moving, even at 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning, stores are open, bikers in scarves are peddling down busy and icy streets and I live less than a block from the Wedge, Minneapolis' famed health food store (the best one I've ever seen, and I've been to Portland). Jamestown features early store closing times, random plowing schedules, and only one legitimately decent grocer (unless you count walmart- which most residents do). Jamestown finds a way, no matter how prepared I am, to surprise me: the pacing is so different. Lucky for me, my girlfriend, Kelsey is with me; which makes the transition 1000 times more pleasant. The fact that we brought our box turtle, cat, and 2 birds with us is even more comforting. Yet, I still find myself up at all hours trying to work on art projects, writing blogs or doing my taxes. My 6th visit to Jamestown and I am still adjusting. The reverse effect happens when I return to Minneapolis, I struggle to keep up with the fast pace and it takes me days to get back on track.

I figured I would stop mulling over my thoughts about this adjusting phenomenon and instead give some insight into the next 5 months of my life. I return to teach 5 months of art to a crowd of familiar faces. My first project is creating a 3-d snowman, which the kids really love. I am also teaching in the middle school for the first time, which allows me to get to continue teaching a couple of my all-time favorite art students. I spend my time there creating art games, codes, comic art, and watercolor illustration. While my car hates the -20 degree temperatures, I happen to enjoy the stinging breeze on my way in and out of all the elementary schools. I love mounds of pure white snow, and seeing huge bursts of my breath filling the air in front of me. My only real issue is the three holes in my boots, caused mostly from the sledding art battle on January 3rd.

During this most recent move I have also been once again confronted with the pack rat inside of me. I have lifted boxes and boxes of old drawings, papers, half used art materials, and random supplies up and down too many steps to count. As I get older I am seeming to have more things than I do space, and I need to start getting rid of things. I am trying to convince people to buy some of my piles of art, which I am selling on my etsy account. Although, as I take pictures to upload, I shiver at the thought of packing and sending all of the work to buyers, especially at discount prices. I am thinking about making boxes of a dozen original works and selling them like artist grab bags.

As the thought of original art grab bags lingers, I buckle down to work on a number of projects that are more concrete. The most recent concept includes my "Canvas Killer Live" concept, in which I will be creating a new work of art live on webcam in five consecutive saturdays, and give each painting a 35 day period to sell. If the painting does not sell to anyone, I will reappear on web cam to 'kill' that orphan painting. I plan to start this project in late February. The promo video and project description should be out in the next few weeks. The web cam viewing will be free on my website. Tell your friends.

After such an exciting 2008, I cannot wait to experience 2009 from Jamestown and conjure my future from here. I hope you can come along for the ride.