printmaking

An argument can be made that it is important for a person’s mental and physical health that they are aware of their environments and feel that they have a voice to shape their world. Fine art is a healthy, intellectual modality to express emotions and explore issues through.

Art could also be a vehicle for change. This unit culminates a semester’s worth of inquiry into printmaking technique and social/personal themes. The purpose is for students to summarize knowledge and experience into a work of art that explores a theme surrounding a social issue (personal or global scale), virtues, causes, aspirations, or challenges. The unit allows technical license to use a mixed media (combine various methods of printmaking) approach to convey the message.

The unit exposes students to the intellectual and technical process of which many of the “pop” images in their culture and society were created. The concepts of choosing a message to convey, envisioning the outcomes, designing, refining, testing, and marketing are part of the art creation process as well as concepts used by businesses, churches and just about any type of program operation. From this experience, students can draw out the messages being conveyed to consumers and make a thoughtful decision on whether it impacts their world, and how they feel about it.

Resulting discussions will be encouraged to continue outside the classroom and through conversations with peers, family and friends. I personally choose printmaking as my undergraduate discipline of study because I was and am still attracted to the concept this unit explores – the ability to express or convey an idea, in multiple editions and series. Through this unit, an important benchmark will be the student analyzing common characteristics of works of art and artifacts across time periods and among cultural groups to identify influences.

Students will analyze relationships between themes explored in the visual arts and those explored in other content areas. This is followed by evaluating the function of artwork in different cultures, careers, and historical periods. Once their theme is chosen, students create original works of art using symbols, themes, and metaphors, through a variety of visual arts materials, techniques, and processes. Through formative and summative critique, students will demonstrate how the composition of a work of art is affected by the use of elements or principles of art and design, while being able to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of elements and principles of art and design in works of art.

The Hawaii Content and Performance Standards III Fine Art - grades 9-12 Standard 1.1 states that a student can understand and apply art materials, techniques, and processes in the creation of works of art and understand how the visual arts communicate a variety of ideas, feelings, and experiences. There fore, this unit is important because it allows students to experience how art can inspire or be incorporated into calling attention to a particular issue and/or an opinion on the issue.

When properly designed, visual art curriculum & pedagogy will typically incorporate all of the general learner outcomes (GLO). In the plan that follows, students practice being artists and Self-directed Learners by forming an opinion on a personal or global topic. They are asked to be a Community Contributor in exploring and taking a stance on a personal or societal issue. To have their work be effective, they are guided to be Complex Thinkers in exploring solutions to make the subject and idea interesting and aesthetically effective. In their products, they become Quality Producers in planning for then producing their final work of art. Leading up to the the critique and discussions, students practice being Effective Communicators in creating their concept map then crafting their artist statements.

The GLO that may not apply to all lessons is the "Effective and Ethical User of Technology" outcome. Modern artist are surrounded by technology however, it is important that they do not rely on technology. They must consider copyright infringement and ethical use of the internet for performing pictorial or textual research on computers and personal smart phones.

Student gallery of final works of art