GRADUATE SCHOOL
M.A. in Art Education, University of Florida
SAMPLE UNIT CURRICULUM: HOW ARTISTS TAKE RISKS
A sample unit curriculum featuring three lessons on color theory-- all leading to an examination of the "big question" about how artists take risks to be creative.
GLOBALIZATION & ME
I believe that globalization in art is the mashup of traditions and cultures. There are few boundaries between what is--and what is not--art. It is very likely that an artist in one place in the world is producing great work that may look strikingly similar to the great work produced by another artist across the globe using similar mediums, tools, and techniques. Art is more about the boundaries of technique and style, and less about the boundaries of culture or geography.
As an illustration, I created a sculpture titled "Butterflies" using a mashup of traditional Japanese origami with a modern art spin. Origami butterflies are resting on a branch in a rainbow pattern.
COMMUNITY STUDY
Community Study of local arts organization Great River Arts in Little Falls, Minnesota.
FAMILY MIGRATION STUDY
Think of a young boy standing in an open field--the warm sun on the back of his neck, a gentle breeze on his face with the salty scent of the ocean in the distance. You hear the chickens cluck and the cows grazing in the pasture as you work beside your mother and father on your family farm. Everything you plant is either grown to eat or to sell in the village market.
This is how I imagine my heritage in the early 1800’s southwest of Dublin, Ireland. My maternal great-great-great grandparents, Patrick [1791-1861] and Mary Doran, were the last of my ancestors to live out their lives in Europe. Their son, Charles [1823-1889], would go on to immigrate to America and serve in the American Civil War. Charles, and all of my great-great grandparents, died near Mankato, Minnesota--a rural city [population 42,000] in the heart of Minnesota’s agricultural region where my family has now lived for five generations. From what I know of my heritage, my ancestors are roughly 50% Irish, 25% Norwegian, and 25% German. After five generations in the United States, I think of myself as “Minnesotan” about as much as I think of myself as “European”.
My heritage. My ancestors immigrated to America as part of the great wave of immigrants leaving Ireland and Scandinavia to escape the famines of the mid nineteenth century. They likely came to Minnesota with a background in agriculture. They were not wealthy individuals. They worked for what they owned, and did not find importance in holding onto family photographs or personal belongings. This assignment was a challenge for me, because my family simply does not have old snapshots, scrapbooks, or memorabilia from the past. Our legacy is one of hard work, manual labor, and pride in a hard day’s work.
I spent considerable time on ancestory.com for this assignment and have learned much about my past. I learned that there are many former soldiers in my family tree. And it was fascinating to see how distant relatives from across Europe all ended up in the same rural community in Minnesota.
My last name is McGuire, but the history of that namesake is largely lost. Not much is known about my great grandfather, Frank McGuire. What we do know is that around the age of 15, he lied about his age to join the military during World War II in hopes of supporting his wife and children. One of his sons, my grandfather Robert McGuire, worked as a firefighter and became chief of the Mankato fire department before passing away in 2009. My father, Kelly McGuire, has worked as a carpenter throughout his life; building houses, fixing furniture, and maintaining homes for others. Throughout five generations of living in the United States, my family has been known for hard work and dedication to our craft. We do not see the importance of holding on to physical memorabilia; rather we focus on the journey of our labors by helping others. While some families are mentioned in newspaper pages often, or lead companies, or hold prominent civic positions… this is not my family.
I am the first in my family to graduate from college. The importance of education was stressed by my parents at an early age. My experiences in college--and especially now in graduate school--are foreign to my parents. They do not know how to write an academic paper or navigate a college bureaucracy. My dream was always to be a teacher, and I loved art from an early age. As a child, art was the way I found to open up and express who I am. I have never been a person who picks up a book or reads for fun, but I can paint, draw, doodle, and sketch for hours. In some ways, I am the first person in my family that has had the option to really explore art and enjoy a white-collar-type career in education.
Impacts of my heritage. I see evidence of my European heritage all around me. Historically, Minnesota has not been the most diverse state; I have always been surrounded largely by other people who look like me. When I think of my Irish, Norwegian, and German descent, much of what comes to mind today are stereotypes. Images of Saint Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest are the easiest to think of. My family is not especially religious, so much of that link to my past is somewhat irrelevant to me today. I love to travel, and have been able to see first-hand some of the Irish landmarks in New York and Boston.
Professional experiences. While student teaching for my undergraduate degree, I taught in nearby Willmar, Minnesota [population 20,000]. Willmar is a very diverse community where many recent immigrants have come to work in factories and large farms. As a white man, I was a minority within the community, educating East African, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, and African American students in a middle school setting. I saw first-hand how the traditions and deeply-held beliefs of these cultures impacted classrooms. My Muslim East African students were not encouraged to express themselves through self portraits or using symbols in their work. This made it difficult to teach art because that is what I believe art is: expressing or symbolizing an emotion, a thought, an idea. Like myself and my heritage, I think and act strongly when it comes to family traditions and abide by the rules and expectations that were taught to me.
The students in my classroom were never forced to draw self portraits or use symbols and images that they were uncomfortable with. I found it fascinating that many chose to do these things in assignments anyway, even though their parents likely would loudly object if they saw their children’s artwork from school. I sometimes felt like the young people were using my art class in their new homeland to assimilate and blend-in with the culture of the community their families had moved to. The community at-large was full of cultural symbols from around the world. There are several East African restaurants, shops, places of worship, and gathering spaces. Bright colors made these places easy to identify. I am not sure that many thought of these buildings as art because they were not fancy buildings--mostly spruced-up older buildings in the downtown area that had sat unused for years. But I enjoyed seeing how they stood in contrast to so much of the rest of the town. And the traditional dress worn by many young women in class gave students a way to express themselves and their creativity.
My artwork. For this assignment, I did not have old photographs from my family; since they did not keep photographic memorabilia. Instead, I used images of my life today with friends, family, and places I have traveled. I also incorporated images of the culture I live in now via social media, famous quotes, and my artistic background. The main image of my photomontage, is a picture of me. I painted the United States flag over my head which resembles the culture I live in today. In comparison, the background or the negative space of the composition, it is painted like that of the Ireland flag (from left to right--green, white, orange). The meaning behind this artwork reminds me that my heritage is apart of my past. The collage of pictures are my memories or my way of life, which are transparent to the life that I live. The United States flag empowers my face resembling my pride and sense of place in this country.