Art 211

For my Pal 1, I went to Andy Slater's exhibition, Paintings & Sculptures. University Galleries held a workshop aimed at creating textured art using air dry clay. Andy Slater is a blind artist, his exhibition invited people to explore art beyond our eyes. Using several of tools I created a relief sculpture with no direction other than I wanted there to many different places you could feel . 

For my Pal two I had a table at the Fiber Art Fest at the Bloomington Public Library. We brought a bunch of yarn and popsicle sticks to make God's Eyes as an introduction to weaving. I had no idea how to make one, but we had an hour before the event started to set up, and Whitney showed me how. I was still pretty confused afterward. Once the event began, a few people stopped by our table, but many left quickly. Due to people feeling like it was too much work or they already had plenty of God's Eyes at home. I really appreciated the ones who stayed to learn, and a few even took yarn home to finish their projects. The Fiber Fest had a lot of tables, some selling yarn creations and others teaching people how to make different things. Even just listening to a woman explain the process to her son helped me understand it better. 

As a class, we did research on the kinds of installation art and artivism. We did several readings on it, and we were told to make our own installation art. I created a piece that reflected the climate clock that day. The climate clock is a tool that counts down the critical window left for global warming. The day I made this, there were only four years and one hundred and thirty-eight days left to reverse or slow climate change. 

We did an assignment creating Zines on our rituals and collections. Although I forgot to get a picture of my Zine, I have a picture of my mug collection. Recently, I have been moving around a lot, so it's hard for me to hold on to a lot at one time. What I always have ready to go is my coffee mugs. Every morning, I have a cup of coffee with cream and sugar. Every evening since I was a kid, I have tea, lemon, and honey.  Usually, I'll drink green tea or lavender chamomile. 

Finally, we did a teach-anything lesson. We were required to lead a 15–20-minute lesson to our peers. We could choose anything we wanted for this lesson. I taught a game of heads up, seven up. I used a video to scaffold and allowed a practice run and a real run of the game.  There were no pictures of me doing this, but I do have pictures of the paper frogs and fabric sewn fish I created from the lesson two of my classmates taught.

In my unit plan called Color & Brush: The Art of Painting. I’m asking students to practice their painting skills by mixing primary, secondary, and tertiary colors to complete a color wheel that shows hue, tint, and shade. The final result is using all that the students learned to create an emotional monster.  Students work with their team to manage materials, follow cleanup routines, and support each other to create good studio habits. I have run this lesson once already. I have been asked not to post pictures of student art online. 

All Rights Reserved © 2026 Alexandria H Ragans