Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Art 135
Amber Ward
4/5/17
Reflection # 4
For the fourth studio investigation within the Creating Unit of Art 135- Secondary Art
Education, we centered on an activity called the Lifes Deal which focuses on the Big Idea of
Risk and Reality. Key concepts we focused on were mainly how risk takers expose themselves
to failure and push boundaries, how artists take risks for a variety of reasons including their arts
content, formal qualities, materials, and techniques, as well as how reality is socially constructed
and how are often reflects reality and thus life. Essential Questions which we aimed to answer
included; describing the ways risk takers expose themselves to failure, how and why artists take
risks, asking what reality is, and art reflects it as well as life in general. The artist we drew
inspiration from for this activity is Hollis Sigler and the works in question were a pictorial
journal that was comprised of more than one hundred works that detailed her journey through
life with her diagnosis of breast cancer, a disease that affect both her mother and grandmother as
well. The works, many of them metaphorical, combined personal experiences concerning her
family with other cultural aspects including medical statistics of breast cancer, as well as political
conscious raising, to give a voice to women who struggle everyday with the deadly realities of
breast cancer. We also looked at a deck of cards which contained fifty-two unique works each
done by a unique artist, commission by Hollis Sigler, that were created to be mass-produced to
raise money and awareness for the Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization. After looking at
these works, we then completed an artists questionnaire in which we narrowed down our
selection to three question concerning our own lives and drew three simplified visual symbols to
reflect our answers. We were then asked, using various materials, to design and create 1-3
collages that capture these questions and our own individual perceptions of what Risk and
Reality meant. We then were asked to create individualized playing cards, based off of our dealt
numbers and suits, which reflected the questions answered in our artist questionnaire.
Personally, I love the idea of creating these personal collages and cards that reflect the
individual and their own desires and struggles for those students in secondary education. As the
presentation and project is currently, I think that it is perfect for secondary students. I feel as
though the implementation of the private artists questionnaire would be a great way of posing
this concept. During their teenage years, children go through a variety of tough situations and
more often than not will not or cannot share their struggles aloud. These questionnaires allow
them to privately reflect and then create symbols of their own choosing that are abstract enough
to maintain their privacy or reveal their struggle. This project would give the otherwise voiceless
As for adapting the content within this project to fit a Secondary Education or High
School Population, I feel as though it is already perfect in its execution, however I would give
the students more time to reflect on what their personal struggles and meanings through their
questionnaires with them being able to take them home and perhaps have a day or so to think. I
would also implement a variety of materials, asking students to bring in things that they feel
reflect their struggle and either use those as inspiration or use them within their works.
Photographs, trinkets, and clothing would be favorable items that would allow for a deeper
exploration into the work. Utilizing such programs such as Photoshop and also allowing students
to go online to find images of their own would also be favorable because it would allow for
students to have a more individualized grasp upon their works as opposed to just using found
collage material from magazines. To go about doing this, I would allow for an exploration day in
which we would visit the computer lab and the library to seek imagery that the children can use.
Enduring Understanding: Creativity and innovative thinking are essential life skills that
can be developed.
8th grade- Document early stages of the creative process visually and/or verbally in
Enduring Understanding: People create and interact with objects, places, and design that
7th grade- Apply visual organizational strategies to design and produce a work of art,
Enduring Understanding: Artist and designers develop excellence through practice and
constructive critique, reflecting on, revising, and refining work over time.
HS Proficient- Apply relevant criteria from traditional and contemporary cultural contexts
to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for works of art and design in progress.
TPE:
incorporating the visual and performing arts, as appropriate to the content and
context of learning.