Teaching Portfolio: Level III - Daily Plan

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Level III - Daily Plan

Title: Response Painting

Day #: 1

Brief Description: The class will look at and discuss whom Jackson Pollack is. We will then introduce the final project in the unit, which is this Response Painting. Class work time will be dedicated towards brainstorming and starting the abstract proposal.

Media and Materials Needed:

Back-up assessment packet

Artist:

Jackson Pollack – (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollack)

Multi-Modal Supports:

Pollack work examples
Slide projector

Daily Objective(s):

Students will be able to interpret the action paintings created by Jackson Pollack by participating in a group discussion of his work.
Students will be able to participate in a guided visualization.
Students will be able to brainstorm for an abstract painting process.
Students will be able to write a proposal for abstract painting piece

Procedure
1. Greetings

Name something beautiful that has happened to you in the last 24 hours.

2. Introduction and talk about Pollack:

Show slides and ask Motivational questions
Finish slides and read the following:

“When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.

Think about that, no fear of making changes. Visualize a time when we as the class were creating our action paintings.

(Call on student) During the time when you made changes in your painting did you feel any kind of emotion when that happened?
(Call on student) Was there a time when the painting you did took on a life of its own? What does that mean to you?

I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.”

Visualize when you did your group paintings. (Call on student) When it was your turn and you were connecting with the painting what did it feel like when you lost connection?
(Call on student) Does Pollack mean that a well done painting is when the artist never loses physical contact with the painting? Emotional? Both?

It was about the movement of his body, over which he had control, mixed with the viscous flow of paint, the force of gravity, and the way paint was absorbed into the canvas. The mix of the uncontrollable and the controllable.

(Call on student) What was it like to walk the line between uncontrollable and controllable… Did you think about it?

Flinging… dripping… pouring… spattering… he would energetically move around the canvas, almost as if in a dance, and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see.

“A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor. . . . There was complete silence. . . . Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as if he suddenly realized the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black, white, and rust colored paint onto the canvas. He completely forgot that Lee and I were there; he did not seem to hear the click of the camera shutter. . . My photography session lasted as long as he kept painting, perhaps half an hour. In all that time, Pollock did not stop. How could one keep up this level of activity? Finally, he said ‘This is it.’”

Visualization:

Close your eyes. Imagine a time when you went into a trance while doing something, anything. Where time seemed to melt around you. When you lost all of the vicious negative or even positive thoughts that constantly play like a voice in your brain. Think about what that felt like. Think about how it felt to not imagine your next step or ponder what you might have done right or wrong the step before – imagine what it is like to be purely DOING. Being the DOER. What were you doing during that time? Whatever that is – that is the place that brings you peace. Think about the textures and lines that exist in that place. For everybody that could be a different thing. With your dreaming hand reach out very slowly in your place… Touch the shapes… Feel the lines… look at the colors…

Abstract expressionism is about process over product. Your process is what is important. It is also important to take part of the process of this creativity with you into all of your areas of artwork. When you did your action painting the last time we were here, whether you knew it or not, you stared into the abyss that is the life of the present moment and the creativity that connects us all. Now the challenge is for you to use it to inform who you are right now. Take that power and put it into your artwork. See in your mind the picture of you that is the DOER… How do you connect that with what artwork we have done? How do you take the lines, colors and textures from that moment and express them in a painted visual way? How will you take your world that brings your peace and express it abstractly with paint?

We are going to take three more deep breaths and on the third allow yourself to slowly come out of your visualization and join us in class. I will know you are ready to proceed when your eyes meet mine. 1… 2… 3…

3. Objectives for Assignment:

Brainstorm 15 different Processes - Activity sheet located in assessment packet
Process Proposal finalized and submitted BEFORE you start painting -
Activity sheet located in assessment packet
Use 3 different Painting methods. Either Acrylic or Watercolor
Pay attention to your process because there will be a self-critique element at the end that will measure your success with this project.

4. Outline expectations:

Painting Process Examples

Dry Brush
Splatter
Wet on Wet
Mixing color
Straw blowing
Turning the canvas with wet paint
Texture
Sponge
Something you can find that relates to your peaceful place
Layering color

Demonstrate brainstorming - go over how to fill out activity sheet

Examples:

Do a painting in the span of your favorite song
If you like basketball maybe you would roll the basketball in paint and use the texture of rolling it onto the page in different ways
Do the entire painting blindfolded

Demonstrate Process Proposal activity sheet - Go over how to fill out sheet