Reflection 1: What is your learning foundation?

Influences

There are a number of factors I considered when deciding to pursue a degree and ultimately a career in art education.  Most notably there are three influences that weighed heavily on my decision to interrupt my trajectory with a return to school to further explore and expand my relationship to art and education.

My artistic interests and sensibilities began taking root at young age: I spent many of my earliest summers exploring my own potential and that of various media with Kathleen Frye, an artist and art educator.  Kathleen taught art classes out of her home and I remember being so taken by the possibilities that lay within her studio/classroom.  These classes offered an escape from the real world that ultimately shaped my relationship to it.  I've known Kathleen nearly my entire life though the nature of our relationship has changed:  After graduating from college, I was invited by Kathleen to spend a semester in Bali, Indonesia at an international K-8 school where she was the principal.  It was under Kathleen in Bali that I had the opportunity to work with middle school students teaching art.  This classroom experience, but also my evolving relationship with Kathleen, was an important juncture on my path to pursuing art education.

As a student in Providence, RI I had the opportunity to work as an artist mentor at New Urban Arts, a community-based art organization that works with urban high school students.  Teaching a photography workshop I had the opportunity to think about my own practice and values outside of the academic context that I primarily existed within.  But it has been the consideration of this experience and New Urban Arts after the fact (with more perspective) that has been really interesting and revealing.  Their model of engagement, activism and empowerment is one that I admire and am eager to explore in other contexts.

I spent some time working at Denver Art Museum, an institution that as I was growing up certainly informed my interest in art.  When I reengaged my relationship to the museum upon my return to Denver from the east coast, I was delighted by the family programs and activities I found offered by the museum.  These programs and activities make more accessible art and ideas that otherwise may have initially seemed alienating.  The work that this entailed is definitely of interest to me and in line with some of the contexts I see myself working in in the future.


Texts

Robert Adams - (images) This link shows selected work from photographer Robert Adams.  His formally simple and beautiful images explore the American West through impact of humans on the land.  I am drawn to his work because of its restrained but poignant commentary on our relationship to the natural world.  His work embodies important questions and critiques that are presented visually as opposed to verbally, something particularly important when considering art as a force in society and education.

Taryn Simon - (video) Photographer Taryn Simon talks about her two of her projects and I'm interested in particular in the second one she addresses, The Innocents.  This body of work consists of images of individuals who were convicted of crimes they did not commit and explores the role of photography in their respective convictions.  Her work examines the blurred lines of fact and fantasy in photography and photography's relationship to memory.  I am drawn to Simon's use of photography to explore and question such issues.

Adam Brock - (video) Permaculturist Adam Brock is a co-founder of the GrowHaus, an organization in Denver, CO that collaborates with its community to provide food production, distribution and education.  In this talk, Adam outlines his vision for bio-regional agriculture that is embodied in the work done at GrowHaus.  The talk provides just a brief summary of the work done and advocated by GrowHaus, work which I find exciting in its mission engaging of its immediate, under-privileged community with sustainable and accessible food options.