Art Is Imagination Made Real
Art Updates!
So far in 2023, students have explored the Fibonacci sequence in faces, flowers, pine cones, radial symmetry and the galaxy. They have generated 100s Teaching Artistic Behavior/Studio Habits Choice projects alone and in collaboration. They have sharpened stubby pencils, radically reimagined color, turned toilet paper tubes, newspaper and tape into vacuum cleaners that vacuum up climate change and hate. They have imagined their future while drawing one point perspective, identifying community and personal virtues in the worlds they designed. Students cried, laughed, leaned on each other, pushed through difficult times and came together to share their creativity, leaving the room with messy hands and wonder. Check out the 2023 spring update slide deck to peruse the magic and expermenting that sparked in the Art Rocks @Bell studio.
In retrospect, Principal Miller said, "Thrive Night was one of celebration as students were able to showcase their talents across many arts activities as well as share their work with the entire Bell Community. After a very challenging year, it was a moment for pride in our accomplishments and gratitude for the support of others."
We gathered in community to honor our musical elder, Kathleen Pepin, an extraordinary music educator who launched many creatives including our prior student and now Bell music educator, Cleo Goldberg!
It is time to thrive together,
Fine Arts Night 2022-
Over the past few years, I have met many transformative teachers, colleagues and inspirators.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I created and grew with Dr. Kia Darling Hammond in a recent professional development hosted by Dr. Angel Acosta. Dr. Kia calls on inclusivity, slowing down and active engagement in responsive thriving. When I presented her Bridge to Thriving Framework with my parent Fine Arts Co-Creators, they too found their framework liberating and supportive of the Thriving and Critical Consciousness exploration we all can benefit from as we grow love and acceptance in our shared communities. See the short Video below that Dr. Kia made as a feature for our community night. As I shared with Kia, one parent pulled me aside and a said, "Shana, I feel MORE alive! Thank you."
Rest assured, from Circus Arts, Improv, A DJ, choir, Identity Equity work, Land Acknowledgement writing, Student Council Talking Circles, Student-led UPlift Community Art Activities, Qi Gong and more, we were all rejuvenated in community, which I feel is the best way!
8th grade elders leave their wisdom on their leaf contributions to the 2022 Legacy Project Wisdom Tree. They leave: Be Yourself, Love, Evolve, Breathe, Be Optimistic, Feminism, Rise Above and more! We will add a comprehensive Elder Wisdom word list here once it is compiled.
Tree Wisdom
Poet, Singer and Scholar, Jennifer Bloom dropped by to inspire the 2022 Legacy Crew with insights on the teachings trees and nature can give us to thrive. I originally met Jennifer while she helped facilitate a transformational gathering online with the Garrison Institute Fellowships' Nurturing Relationality and Sensemaking Series. Jennifer led the crew on a Tree Banquet Vision meditation. Students generated imaginative response images and important wisdom words for their annual civics mural. Every 8th grade elder will be able to hear Jennifer's Tree Banquet vision and return with a guiding word to leave for their younger peers to help provide them with hope in the coming years.
Student's hearts were touch while listening to Jennifer sing her song about Possibility and they asked to have it playing at our Thriving Fine Arts Night by their Huge, wisdom tree mural. Thanks Jennifer for stopping by and sharing your magic with us!
Bell Parent, Mr. LaPorta has already begun helping the crew with cutting our wood. He and I traced the tree outline and we can't wait to start painting. Students chose to represent a wisdom tree in the lunchroom to cheer up the students with hope and community, especially for students who may feel left out, in the margins, ignored, forgotten and/or misunderstood or not part of the mainstream group. The dream is to provide fellowship, belonging and eco-stewardship.
Why Land Acknowledgements?
I am excited to announce that one of the Chi-Nations founders, Fawn Pochel will be assisting Bell families to write an official Bell School Land Acknowledgement and tell origin stories of the native people from the land we now call Chicago at our Thriving through art, healing and play community Fine Arts night, June 7, 6-8 pm. Also, Fawn invited my Art Circle Council and Earth Guardians Crew to a field trip to their Chi-Nations garden. We will learn about native plants and help care for the land with Fawn on June 11th!
From my previous post: Having cousins who are from the Mic Mac nation, I grew up with a strong connection to Indigenous rights and practices by my mother. Now, I am married to an indigenous Tamazight man from Morocco, Africa. Discussions about land rights, colonization and uplifting the voice of BIPOC is a regular conversation in our home with our son.
Honoring the indigenous people of the land where you live and work is a courageous and respectful step we can all take to help make our time on the stolen land more reflective and equity based. My students watched the Chi-Nations Youth Council's Land Acknowledgement and discussed the importance of part of the land being granted back to the native people in Chicago by the Chicago administration as a first step. This year, I have had every art student create a land acknowledgement for the native people of the land of Bell School, the Kiikaapoi. You can find out more about that on https://native-land.ca/
Stay tuned for Student made Land Acknowledgements to the Kiikaapoi, the native people from the land where Bell School is located.
Thriving and Healing Centered in the art room @ Bell
I recently attended an uplifting healing centered education curriculum design intensive focused on play as a tool for thriving, restoration and justice with the Acosta Institute. One of the facilitators, Dr. Kia Darling-Hammond inspired me so much and reminded me of the Thriving work I did with my students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Kia's research is centered around thriving, equity and wholeness. My hope is to bring her in to speak to my graduating 8th graders this year. Her Bridge to Thriving Framework© is very uplifting and provides hope during a time when we are all shifting to find our way forward with grace, optimism and cultural responsiveness. Below is a growing archive of the deeply emotional and healing art my students made during the Pandemic Thriving Response Art series we explored for 2 years. Now that I know about Dr. Kia's 6 dimensions of thriving: Community, Selfhood, Abundance, Pleasure, Relief and when all 5 are present, the ability to just BE, I feel reassured by the work Bell artists made to adjust and feel their way through the recent, uncertain time and to help prepare them for how to have expressive tools in the future.
Back in 2007, I took a Field research study group based on Teaching Artistic Behavior taught by my dear friend, Julie Toole. At the time, Julie had transformed her art teaching at her elementary school at the time to TAB and encouraged me to do the same. I still remember her enthusiastic phone call when she returned from the NAEA conference, filled with a force of excitement. I considered various models, still attached to making sure my students created certain set of areas of artistic choice with other areas of guiding like content or material. I danced in this middle spectrum on the TAB range for over a decade. The thought of teaching choice based art to a new group of 150 students every 10 weeks seemed daunting. Right before COVID hit, I spent one of the best days of my life shadowing amazing Studio Habits Pioneer and dear friend, Kitty Conde @ Ravenswood. I was in heaven. I felt like her students felt, free...open...trusting and totally inspired by her art material packed room. Two birds of a feather, experiencing Kittie's world for a day showed me I already was doing so much TAB and intentional Studio Habit work, I just had not labeled it as that. The great teacher that Kitty is, she showed me important ways to flip my program..>Then...Pritzker shut the schools down to protect us from the virus. I thought I would be back to transform my teaching in a few weeks..>Two years later in 2022 and my art room is now a fully flipped TAB/Studio Habits room with very few expected skills ladder projects, collectively connecting us like shared murals and this year's global weaving project.
Some students get very nervous without clear guidelines and freedom. Some students instantly run with it. Check out this TAB/Studio Habits project that included collaboration, mixed media, a dream and an informative film made in the art room. Thank you Julie and Kitty! I love you both.
1st and 2nd grade Healing Machine paintings
A: "This heals what people need."
V: "This heals hate."
W: "This heals Love!"
E: "This heals shapes."
D: "This heals people."
K: "This heals trees."
J: "This heals people so they stop crying."
T:"This heals nature."
S: "This heals me!"
O: "This heals the world."
N: "This heals your house."
M: "This heals love."
J:"This heals friendship."
S:"This heals the Earth."
S:"This heals when you are bleeding."
B:"This heals hope."
Can Art Heal? Emery Blagdon thought so!
Healing Machines and "pretties"
Emery Blagdon, Self Taught Visionary artist with healing machines
Student tally...can art heal?
Collective fear, pain and trauma are buzz words now for a reason. Coming out of the pandemic, we are all tweaking our reality, moving forward with our day to day lives and a goal of mine in the art room is to provide imaginary, curious filled, cathartic and progress possibility openings to help my students feel their feelings in color, shape and line. I first learned about Emery Blagdon while as a candidate in the Intuit Teacher Fellowship at Intuit, Outsider Artists Museum. They currently have a timely exhibit entitled: Trauma and Loss, Reflection and Loss.
Several of Emery Blagdon's healing machines are in the show. You can see them here. After learning about Emery's healing machines, first and second graders debated whether they believed art can heal. We will update on this concept as we continue to work on the healing machines as 2nd and 6th grade continue to build their 3d sculptures and first grade explores the healing of shapes and colors.
What is next? The hope is to build a collective healing machine for the room. More to come!
RADICAL SHIFT! MISTAKES MAKE INCREDIBLE, UNPREDICTABLE ART!
SUBTEXT: PERfectION IS limiting AND makes artists feel fear which limits their creative FLOW!
Who knows where digging into the community OOPS art bin will take your heart and mind!
2nd graders in the "flow" of transforming OOPS art.
Students in the art room know well that what is trash to many is treasure to Ms. Pearlmutter and that I crave to see accidents and mistakes because they are benchmarks of artistic growth and learning. What accidents or mistakes have you made recently? How can you grow from them in a new and creative way?
More 2nd graders in the "flow" of transforming OOPS art.
Today, my 6th graders cleaned out their art folders to ready their end of quarter art portfolio to turn in and left class with man donations for the community OOPS art bin! Next period, I pulled out the torn scraps of the OOPS art and the 2nd graders jumped at the chance to work on art from other students and add their marks!
Even more 2nd graders in the "flow" of transforming OOPS art.
Students' ancestral weavers connect us to our history.
Where we are from informs where we are going!
Scottish Weaver
Harris Tweed is inspired by Scottish Nature
Kyrgyszstan weavers
Weaving silk in Kyrgyszstan
Being culturally responsive and focusing on student identity and voice is critical in my art room. Allowing students to feel represented and acknowledged in the curriculum drives my passions as a healing centered art educator. As we weave, we are continuing to explore student weaving connections to their heritage and ancestors. Today, inspired by Reeve, we are learning about the Scottish Harris tweed tradition as well as the cultural weaving traditions from Kyrgyzstan, for Ainazik. Classmates acknowledged that they were very unsure about where Kyrgyzstan is on the map. Students enjoyed the video Ainazik's mom sent for us to watch.
Comics help us tell our stories!
Ivan Brunetti
Bianca Xunise
Heather McAdams
Chicago is known for it's humor and comics! Students virtually visited the Comic arts show: Chicago Comics, 1960 to Now at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. We discovered how to create humorous comic stories with a beginning, middle and end. I shared a very embarrassing memory I have of having toilet paper stuck in my shoe and how some students teased me and some students came to my rescue! Students drew their humorous life experiences in panels and shared their stories with their classmates for chuckles and aha moments of empathy. Examples of Comics that came up in class...accidentally stepping on a container of apple sauce and the debacle that ensued after the mess appeared in the hallway, day dreaming of becoming an astronaut, the adventures of a magical and very shrewd hamster and more! Images to be uploaded soon to share.
Connecting to our Ancestral Weavers
Neolithic weaver using a weight loom
Mayan weaver using a backstrap loom
Kente Cloth weaver in Ghana, Africa
Humans have been weaving since the Neolithic age. In an effort to stay warm, if animal hides were scarce, they would collect natural fibers and weave them into yarn and string. In the art room, we have been learning about the weaving history of our ancestry. So far, we have learned about native weaving history from the Zapotec people in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Maya in Guatemala and the Asante in Ghana, Africa. We have so much to learn from our ancestors! Students have been asked to share their ancestry and email Ms. Pearlmutter informational weaving videos to represent their family heritage. We have more weaving history to explore in China, the Philippines, Ireland, United Kingdom, Native American, German, African American, Uzbekistan, Polish, Russia, Romania and more.
We have viewed and discussed many ancestral weaving origin stories. We will explore more as we progress in this process! I have added Abuela's Weave below.
Weaving shows us, life can be bumpy
Circle check-ins remind us we are not alone
Check out Deaf and Hard of Hearing Paraprofessional and Deaf educator extraordinaire, Sergio Guzman's Twitter post about our morning circle check-in.
As we explore the texture of weaving in art class with hearing and hearing impaired students, we have discussed the feelings and emotions related to the texture of the different yarn we are using. Life can be bumpy, life can be soft, life can be wavy, life can be filled with terrain we are unsure of, but with our talking circles and community building, we are gaining the courage to move ahead with focus and compassion. Check out the texture ASL words to the left! What are ways your life has had a new surface? A new feeling? How have you responded differently? The same?
"Drawing is the art of taking a line for a walk." Paul Klee
This year, we will focus on LINE. Such a simple art element however it is connected to all forms of communication. From dashed, zig zag to diagonal, artists have used lines to tell stories from our earliest cave drawings and carvings. We will cover sketching, rubbing/printing, mark making and translate this work into the layering of lines found in weaving. Students will be given the chance to weave on two sizes of looms during their art session, exploring texture, repetition and exploring the global history of their shared form of fiber arts ancestry. At the end of the quarter, students will be given the choice of whether to donate their woven creations which will be sewn into blankets for people without homes in Chicago inspired by Warm UP America, a non profit agency that donates volunteer made fiber arts to people without homes.
"What art will we make if we are not afraid of what others think?" I often ask my students this question. Often, as children get older, they stop allowing themselves to create from their heart fearlessly. My job as an artist and teacher is to continue to foster the belief in play, wonder and trust in failures and mistakes as they are the best signs of growth. I avoid using the word perfect in my room, as so much of the foibles and accidents that happen while creating-- often make the most expressive art!
WE ARE ALL WORKS IN PROGRESS
Welcome back Bell 2021 Artists! We have all lived through so much change, uncertainty and wonderings! Much of my professional development during the past 8 months has included Indigenous council circle training with Circle Ways and anti-racist and healing centered education working with Dr. Angel Acosta and Dr. Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz from the Teachers College from Columbia University. Through my work with these mentors and my colleagues in these courses, I have developed a strong belief in a restorative, healing classroom that is student centered and culturally responsive, focused on uplifting lesser known artistic voices to help balance the representation of who is a great artist and how representation of artists touches the hearts and minds of my students. I want all of my students to be represented in the artistic examples that I bring to the art conversation, especially those who are not a part of the majority population; racially, culturally, socially and neurologically.
I believe all voices, backgrounds, identities deserve equal access at the table and that art is the perfect place where we as an art community can come together to build awareness of our inner self and develop empath towards others. The spark of creativity is kept alive in my room through experimentation, trust, student voice and choice. I look forward to pushing the artistic boundaries with your children so that we continue to nurture and cultivate the unique, radiant artistic place that exists in all humans since the beginning of the first cave drawings 30,000 years ago.
“By its simple shape, circle includes everyone without distinction, welcomes and invites all to participate, and creates equality among those gathered.”
― Christina Baldwin, The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair
Below are posts from the 2020-2021 School year when Bell artists learned 1/2 of the year from home!
ASL reflect and connect.mp4Week 5 arrived too quickly!
Special first quarter report! Artists from grades Kindergarten to 7th grade discussed how artists reflect this quarter. We looked at the brain and how we store memories. We learned in ASL how to say reflect and connect. You can see Ms. Schmidt demonstrate this to the left! We saw how as artists, we are creative, engaged citizens of the world. I bid farewell to the wonderfully creative and expressive Bell artists who grew and learned with me in Bell Art Studio time! We developed strong Art Habits of Mind!
Good news! I am applying for a grant with Bell Parent and Lyriq Music School owner, Sarah Ma to hopefully bring an inter generational, community encompassing Equity/ WellnessArts Engagement project to Bell this year. Fingers crossed we get the grant! We are hoping to bring Nimo Patel, from Empty Hands Music in as our artist in residence. His music has inspired many of our art classes this year so far during doodle and art planning time. Check him out!
Here is the hallway outside of the Bell School art room. The carpet, walls and air are still filled with student artist's buzz of creativity.
Week 4 Collage Materials needs:
Magazines, any scrap paper, regular and/or pattern scissors, tape, glue stick, coloring materials such as watercolor, crayons, oil pastels, etc. Students are encouraged to use a piece of cardboard for their canvas. Paper will do fine if you do not have this or they can use a round paper plate!
ASL engage and persist.mp4Week 4 Update: Artists Engage & Persist!
One main 21st Century learning skill that we can all learn from is developing persistence. A lot has been written about lately regarding the term "grit." I believe, persistence with art is a different than the hardworking message of grit in that this artist habit focuses on touching inwardly to an artists passion for their idea, materials and savoring the art making process.
This week, we will explore what it means to push through challenges while working and revisiting one collage. See the suggested materials list to the left. Collage is an art practice of layering materials using an adhesive. Simply putting a stamp on an envelope is a form of a collage, but adding layers intentionally, with thought and play turns collage into an art practice. Over time, as the students engage and persist, the actual layers of their work begin to tell a story, their story related to what was flowing in their subconscious at the time, how they experienced their 5 senses and their responses to the materials they are adding to their work. We will explore collages throughout time and by the end of this week, by engaging and persisting with this process, create a collage that is unique and personal. Students will learn the American Sign Language word for "Engage & Persist." Pay close attention to the gestures of the words. ASL is remarkable in how meaningful and symbolic the words are. Beautiful metaphor for our Studio Habit this week! Thank you to one of our amazing ASL interpreters, Kathryn Schmidt for the video!
Week 3 Update: Artists Express!
Welcome to the digital art room! Although all of us would rather be in person, we have developed a strong, creative community in art class so far. Each week, Bell student artists are exploring art and thought based on the 8 Studio Habits of Mind. These are art habits that all artists employ and emulate to make their art. You can learn more about the habits here.
During the first two weeks we focused on Observation (how artists see, not just look at art) and Stretch and Explore, how artists challenge themselves to use materials in new ways. We drew with our nondominant hands and often drew with one eye closed. Understanding the Art World is featured in every class and many of the habits overlap. Each class begins with a doodle process to help free students creativity, wake up their hand eye coordination and release fear of creating. Drawing has direct connections to development in the brain. You can read about that here.
As far as grading goes, I want to be clear that I post every art assignment in Google Classroom daily, but each student is only responsible for posting 2 of the 5 asynchronous art assignments. They should choose the art projects they like the best. If you have any questions, let me know. If they upload more than 2, that is fine with me, I love seeing their work, but I will only enter 2 grades per week into Aspen for their art grade. There is an art portfolio Google Slideshow. Student's grade during the last week of class will be based on this art portfolio having 2 art projects for each week. Email me if you need more explanation. All assignments are in GoogleClassroom.
I look forward to sharing more art and making with your students. They are very enthusiastic and very creative!-Ms. Pearlmutter
ASL express.mp4Students learned how to say "Express" in American Sign Language. We paid close attention to how the hands are fists by the heart and then move outward...just as artists and musicians create from their heart to get their ideas "expressed" into the world. Thank you Kathryn Schmidt for this awesome video!