May 2011
3 posts
ART ALL STATE 24
Art All State Over — Recapping the event.
ART ALL STATE actually begins the October of the previous year, when AAS Manager Gillian Bonazoli accepts the artist applications and begins the screening process. G as I like to call her, does an absolutely remarkable job throughout the whole process. Her professionalism, charm, humor, wit and facilitation skills create a seamless drama free...
ART ALL STATE BLOG OVER on FISHWRAP
Go here to read the 2011 entries
ART ALL STATE 24
This is my seventh consecutive year as an artist/mentor at Art All State, and they’ve asked me to live-blog it again— only this time it will be on MY BLOG instead of TUMBLR. Please follow the adventure over there!
Final Thoughts...
(Image pilfered from Krista’s blog)
To quote Christopher Walken “Wowie wow zow!”
As I fill out my Artists Evaluation it allows me a few minutes to give thought to the entire event. Having done this multiple times you’d think I’d have nothing new to learn, but that’s not the case— each year is something different.
ART ALL STATE is not doing an...
Wrapped up
Today went by extremely fast— we spoke at length to reporters from both the Telegram and WoMag who seemed very impressed with the process. The kids were serious and steadfast in getting the work done.
We closed out the weekend with an incredible effort from the group— the studio came out quite well and it was an absolute pleasure working with this group of kids— and especially...
Kids
It’s hilarious to work with High School Juniors vs College Seniors (as I do in Boston); some of these kids are going to have a harsh awakening if they do end up going to art school— learning to take criticism and adapting to an idea is 90% of being a successful artist.
I’d love to see an AAS skewed with boys (right now its about 80% girls) because they seem more able to bend to...
Last Leg...
I’d say we’re slightly behind— and we have a little over 90 minutes— but that’s a good place to be.
The Day's Half Over
The students worked out notes for their studio statement and then composed an overall theme for what everything represents. It’s amazing how deep they can be thought wise— to me sometimes a spider is just a spider.
They also decided they wanted to incorporate the final image from our icebreaker into the gallery space so we’ve moved it to another wall and written up an...
Studio Statement
The students are working up their studio statement— still a lot of work to go but we’ve got a solid few hours to get it done- so no worries…yet
Blogging while Artisting
We’re off and running for day two. We just had a quick meeting to see if we’re all still on the same page and working towards the goal we set out (we are).
The students are energized and ready to rock this.
Day Two Begins...
The first day came to an end with the introduction of a missing student. Alex had thought the event was Saturday/Sunday so he didn’t arrive until well after 8pm. Making him feel part of the group after coming in so late created a challenge that Susan and I attempted to address by engaging him into the process. Today will see if we were successful.
One of the instrumental elements to the...
After Dinner...
The meal always makes everyone tired. It’s funny how nervous some of the artists say they are before the lecture portion— because you’d never know it listening to them. There is no better expert on yourself than— yourself.
The last two hours are spent working on the studio. The kids are tired and keeping thier enthusiasm up is the challenge now.
Dinner Break and then the Artists Talk
Dinner can’t come soon enough, the work is progressing nicely— having a strong ice breaker exercise makes such a huge difference in how the kids work together.
After dinner we have the artists presentation— always fun because I can never remember what pieces are going to show up since I haven’t seen them since late March.
The presentation allows questions from the...
Tape sculpting a head...
Is it worth a kid dying? Maybe. But not today. Luckily WAM has a full size head in the closet.
Secret Ingredient
IN addition to our chosen materials; packing tape and confetti— we are given one “surprise” material— ours? Plastic limes.
They make great baby spiders.
Tape and Museum Directors
Couldn’t get Jimmy Welu (WAM Director) to sit as one of our models— but maybe later.
Brainstorming results
The three groups came up with similar ideas, a bit of mixing after the brainstorming and now we’re playing with the materials to see what is the most effective way to carry out the idea.
My partner is making herself tea like Frankestein
Susan is using some bizarre english device to make herself a cup of tea— and it’s not even 4 o’clock!
Brainstorming
Good museum visit— the kids have broken into three groups of 6 each (18 total) to come up with ideas for the installation. Each group will present to the studio and then we’ll incorporate various ideas into what will work best for the project.
After Lunch
The Icebreaker went well, the kids are great. We pushed the museum visit back to after lunch since getting the icebreaker finished is my priority— much to the chagrin of the museum guards who want us in at a certain time. Oh well.
The kids will start planning out what to do with the materials once we come back from the galleries to look at the pieces we’ve chosen for inspiration.
The Ice Breaker Cometh Stillith
Here’s the completed image once put together correctly. It’s important in choosing an image for this exercise that all the pieces have at least something on it of interest, otherwise somebody gets stuck with a boring piece.
The name game went very well— and I thought ahead and actually numbered the pieces on the back before I handed them out— otherwise we’d still be...
The Ice Breaker Cometh
Choosing the image takes some thought because you want all the squares to have something interesting to draw. This is the completed image. The Name game went well, I also made notes on my roster to remind me of who is who in the group— it’s not easy remembering 16 names in one day.
The Ice Breaker
The Ice Breaker is possibly the most important part of the first day of Art All State— you’ve got 16 high school juniors who don’t know each other— as someone who works with this age group a lot I can tell you they are not always instantly social.
Here’s ‘ow it woiks:
The image above has been divided and cut into 16 pieces. Each kid is given a square from...
It begins...
Making sure I have all my last minute items— music, phone, ice breaker image (more later). We’ll have a quick artists meeting this morning then over to the meeting hall to get a look at the kids work after WAM Director Jim Welu’s opening comments— then it’s meet the kids and here…we…go…
ART ALL STATE
I’m Andy Fish and this is my sixth or seven year as an Art All State Artist/Mentor— these blog posts are for anyone interested in learning more about AAS and giving you a first hand look at the process— I’ll be posting right from the action starting tomorrow morning!
You can find the Official AAS page over at
http://www.worcesterart.org/Education/allstate.html
but you...