Gude Writings

 Value One:  "Engaging mess over keeping things neat"
Gude has a point here.  I agree that mess, or playful attempts, are important.  In my studio I always feel restricted near the end of a painting.  Any slip of the brush could be a terrible mistake.  I enjoy playing at the beginning of a painting.  No stroke can't be fixed, or even be wrong.  I have made some messes in my time, but I learn from them.  Isn't that the point of playful art making?  I am terribly obsessive at the end of paintings.  Everything has to be perfect and neat.  Why can't I finish an entire painting that is a mess?  I have never been able to come up with any that didn't fail miserably.
Messes are definitely necessary when first learning to create art.  I wish I had started out with making messes.  I think I would be a better artist now if I wasn't initially such a perfectionist.  I'm still a perfectionist when it comes to artmaking.  I think that inhibits my growth and evolution as an artist.

Value Two:  "Authentic artistic processes, over mimicking styles"
We are humans.  We learn by modeling or mimicking others.  What's wrong with initially mimicking a style in order to learn.  It isn't asking students to "feel fraud", but rather to attempt to create something that may help them learn to create their own.  There is an extent to how far a student should go with that.  They shouldn't playact "meaning making for the sake of the teacher".  But what if that is the only way to please the teacher.  Then there is a problem.  Teachers may expect meaning to come from a student that is not capable.  Or maybe they are capable, but the meaning isn't acceptable to the teacher.  What is the student to do then?  I am writing from experience here.  Teachers can be full of shit.  High school and college level.

Hetland Chapters 8 & 11

I find all the writings this week to be too idealized.  Not everything can have meaning.  Maybe it should, but it doesn't.  Sometimes exercises are necessary to teach the students certain techniques.  "Cool looking" art is sometimes a good thing.  A student that was never interested in art may see something she thinks is cool and want to make something like it.  That may be the beginning of a career.  All meaning isn't necessarily apparent to everyone.  Different compositional decisions may be made to give meaning, but what if a student doesn't understand or care to understand that art should be looked at beyond face value.  When a student moves past 12th grade and decides to become a fashion designer she can't be worried about meaning in everything she makes.  What art career out there really requires meaning in the end product?  Few if any.
Young artists should look at art as a way to express themselves, but not be entirely strapped to that belief.  Some art is just meant to be pretty.  And if you try to sell your work you will come under that realization.  I sell my work at a store and I know that what I sell is meant to decorate.  To be cheery, bright, aesthetically appealing, and void of meaning.
Is there something wrong with that?  Certainly not if you try to sell and certainly not if you're prepared to be a professional artist.  Should we allow our students to figure that out?

Orchid Painting

Second and Third of Proposed Group of Paintings

Developing Craft Assignment Proposal

I am proposing to work on something I have never done before, that being non-representational or abstract paintings.  The painting I did for the uni-task assignment is the first of many paintings.  I want to work on paintings in a new way, a previously unexplored way.  This body of work is a long time coming.  I will follow where the brush takes me, curvilinear most likely, with organic, uncontemplated compositions.  I will attempt anything and everything all at once.  Nothing is off limits.  I have already started another painting for this body of work, and the action of painting seems to be compulsive.  I start painting and stop only when I need to let a layer dry.  This compulsion to paint is new to me even though I have painted for over a decade.  Stay tuned, this is going to be interesting.

Uni-Task Painting

I attempted uni-tasking the other day.  I painted and did nothing else for an entire hour.  I found it not too different than when I usually paint.  But when I usually paint it is one of many tasks being done at the same time.  It seems that my painting ability isn't at all affected by the number of tasks I am completing simultaneously.  Normally paintings take as many as 20-50 hours to complete when painting something representational, so I decided to paint something non-representational.  Here it is after approximately 3 hours of work.  I don't think the fact that I uni-tasked made any difference in the outcome.  I don't think I will resort to uni-tasking in the future when painting because I don't think it made any difference at all.

Artmaking Personal Preferences

When I start working on something it is unlikely that I know where it is going.  I generally have a vague idea where the work is headed, but I don't always get there.  That is why I no longer plan what I am doing, but rather I just start at some random place in the painting and work out from there.  I have a very messy workspace that tends to spark my creativity in the strangest of ways.  I don't mind a messy workspace because I tend to be more efficient with it the way it is rather that keeping it spotless.  When it comes to the task itself I am definitely a multi-tasker.  I have difficulty focusing on painting when there is no "white noise" to drown out my thoughts.  You would think that thoughts are good, but they are a distraction for sure.  If I am thinking about a book I might stop to read it.  If I am thinking about a photo I am working on I will stop and attend to that.  Of course that is only when I am stuck at a point in a painting and I am having difficulty working through it.  I perpetually have the television or radio on in the background and I always have something beside me to drink, most often coffee or tea.  The time of day I work depends on my mood, but only time I am still working in the morning is when I have not stopped working from the night before.  I live by myself so there is no one to walk in and bother me.  I do enjoy distractions even though I do work late at night.  I like to check my email or facebook for messages from my sisters and maybe stop for a snack.  I attempted working for 30 minutes straight without anything else on.  Only the lights illuminating the canvas, oil paint and odorless mineral spirits beside me, and not a thing to listen to.  I did enjoy it for the limited amount of time I spent, but I don't think I could work for 5 hours straight without anything to listen to.  And when I do work, it is for 5 to 10 hours straight so I don't think the uni-tasking will work for me one bit.  Next time I try uni-tasking it will be for an entire hour to see if I am more efficient at completing an artwork.  I am sure I will have more of an insight when it comes to uni-tasking after spending an hour with a painting.    

Tulip digital collage

3 Tulips digital collage

Ganesh digital collage

Concrete Wall with Hands

Girl with Orchids

photograph of girl by Laura McMillion whose work can be found on www.flickr.com/lauramcmillion
photograph of orchids and background by Kristen McMillion

Photoshopped Church in Frame

Portrait of Girl

This is text on top of a photograph on top of a painting.  It includes the first line of my favorite Emily Dickinson poem:  "Tell all the truth but tell it slant"

Self Portrait

iBrains

How has technology impacted our brains?  What are the implications of this for an educational setting?

Technology has impacted our brains in both positive and negative ways.  It seems that video games, television, and trolling the internet in excess have some negative effects on children.  In Small's writing, there is a suggested correlation between multitasking and decreased reading for pleasure.  What if our students entirely lose the ability to concentrate on one task?  Would it be impossible to teach any subjects traditionally?  In these new educational settings, would we have to dramatically change our teaching style? Is this a possible reason for the increase in children with ADHD?

In what ways does learning in and through the arts impact our cognition(and vice versa)?

Jensen's article "Visual Art" suggests and statistically shows the impact of art on our ability to learn.  I am astounded by the conclusions to some of the studies written about in this chapter.  Jensen quotes:  "When art is integrated in to the curriculum, the competency scores in other subjects have increased".  A study in the chapter about how the Arts Affect Achievement, a group of children in an art enrichment program have increased math concepts and problem solving skills when compared to a control group.  

How can we as educators use the brain-based information presented in both texts to impact instruction and/or promote arts advocacy?

With the information in the texts, art instruction definitely needs to be promoted.  The arts are subjective, giving no right or wrong answer.  This makes people believe that it is not necessary.  But the studies in Jensen's writings show that the arts are crucial in creating a well-rounded student.  He also mentions that there is no down side to teaching the arts.  So why not?

Mind Map

Olioboard

I found using the olioboard website to be very enjoyable.  I added many items, and created an olioboard solely out of wallpaper.  Much of my current work includes floral designs.  Some of the inspiration for the floral prints came from looking at wallpaper and tapestry.  This website will definitely aid in my ability to organize the wallpaper designs.  It is easier to look at one olioboard as opposed to flipping through a book going back at forth from the same pages.  http://olioboard.com/users/kristenm

Delicious Bookmarking Site

I found it to be fairly easy to set up an account on delicious.  I haven't spent much time on it, but I'm sure I will bookmark numerous sites within in the next few days.  I would definitely recommend this site to friends.  http://delicious.com/kristenmcmillion

Review of Image Search Engines/Sites

Flickr happens to be my favorite, mostly because I already am a member and familiar with the site.  Something I like about Flickr which I did not find on other sites is the lack of advertisements.  It also happens to be easy to navigate and easy to search by people/subject/genre/etc.  
My next favorite site is myartspace.com.  I actually ran a couple searches and decided to become a member and post my own artwork.  I like that there is a place on the site to find contests, but there aren't many and they are all old.
As for photography, Fotki is the way to go.  There are a number of contests available to enter.  The one thing I didn't like about Fotki is the fact that there are numerous advertisements on every page.

Visual Literacy in a Media Driven Climate

What is the role of art education/ art educators in teaching students to be media literate digital citizens?
I feel that art theory would be an important part of art education if it was brought to light the capabilities it gives to children to view critically anything and everything.  That being said, I have to comment on the documentary Killing Us Softly by saying that perception is everything.  Sex sells, but why?  Isn't it important to view the fact that sex sells mainly because it is an animal urge?  What does this say about the complete lack of sophistication in this media climate?  Does this disconnect between education/ intellect and this animal urge disturb anyone else?  What does this tell the youth of today?
In the documentary Consuming Kids, they speak of the "commercialization of childhood".  How must the youth of today navigate the confounding world of advertising and knowledge?  In an art education class our students must be continually asked to decipher what they see.  This question has no right answer, but allows the critical thinking required to review everything in life.  I doubt most children have been asked to evaluate what advertisements and articles say to them.  I have never taught an art class in my life, so I may be naive is saying all of this, but I think it would be worthwhile to ask the students of today what they see in a piece of artwork.  I took many art classes in high school, but was never asked to decipher a work of art.  What can something as seemingly simple as that teach a student about critical thinking?