Art and Stress

I love teaching art, but there can be a conflict in that there is no time for ME to make art! Ay carumba!! Now, if you love making art, you know that NOT making art can be super stressful. There's a need to release those creative ideas, but more importantly, during the art making process, your brain switches into a neutral zone and stress seems to vanish.

I teach in the Dallas Independent School District, and the last month has been very stressful. Our district was over budget last year and this millions and millions of dollars. The solution reached was to lay off hundreds of people in the school district - administration, teachers, counselors - the fickle finger of fate reaches into unexpected corners. We lost our new counselor this week, Mr. Villa, and though he was with us a short time, we are sorry he fell victim to the RIF.

With everything going on in the national financial scene, my own general anxiety level has been high AND I have felt like I've been living in parallel universes between national and local school district emergencies. Time to make some art. I decided to make the project that my AP Studio classes are doing - a design project using geometric shape to explore pattern and design. Oh, joy! It was fun and healing. I highly recommend it! Check out the link in the title of this post to find out more about do-it-yourself art therapy!

The Art Recovery Center

An interesting discussion was had at a recent dinner party about the meaning of modern and contemporary art. As a new art history educator, I felt compelled to defend modern art (which I like!) to one fellow who thought it was nonsense. I encourage my students to have an attitude of personal acceptance or rejection to any art object, with the caviat that the viewer needs to be able to articulate WHY they like or dislike a piece. This site, The Art Renewal Center, is an interesting one! They reject the modernist aesthetic and claim that the only path to meaningful art it through the masters (many of whom they claim have been left out of the "canon"), through realism, universal themes and skill. I have purposely linked to their mission statement (which is always a good place to start). This site has a ton 'o stuff to peruse. I see some interesting discussions in my future!