I was unfortunately very sick this week and wasn't able to make it into Perpich. I am way over on hours for the course so it will be nice to have a break, and I won't have to make up these two days.
Last week when I was at Perpich I talked to Pat about my lesson - we both didn't realize how fast it is coming up! We decided on my last two days I utilized the time to brainstorm and problem solve my lesson plan that I will be teaching on Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th.
In my own work I utilize atmospheric qualities very often and think that these techniques can be very useful for artists to learn about, especially young artists. I find that young artists can find themselves focusing on "perfection" in painting, trying to make everything clean and crisp… using tiny brushes… punching themselves in the head if the artwork doesn't look exactly like the photograph. I want the students to focus on the edges in their paintings, and try to communicate to them that incorporating different mark-making techniques and complex edge relationships can activate negative space, and make even the most "boring" paintings very interesting.
I think this will be an extremely valuable lesson for these students to hear! I am only going to have five students in the classroom on the 16th and 17th because the seniors at Perpich are released from classes to work on a senior retrospective show. Its okay though! The smaller group of students will give me good one on one time with each of them and will make critique a bit more comfortable for some of them I'm sure.
Only two more weeks and I'm done with my placements! I'm getting excited!