my proud mom moment

This past Friday marked the end of my second session of teaching photography classes at SUNY Purchase this summer.  This session was a 4 week, pre college course for high school students interested in developing technical and aesthetic skills in photography, using both digital and 35mm cameras.  The kids did an amazing job during the 4 weeks learning to use their film and digital cameras.  They also learned how to develop film and print in the darkroom and edit their photos with Adobe Photoshop in the mac lab .  In the final days, they learned to edit, mount and hang their work for the group exhibit.  After all the work was up on the walls, I had a true proud mom moment and gushed to tell them how impressed I was to see the finished product.  They really did an excellent job from start to finish over the few weeks we spent together and it could most definitely be seen in the stellar exhibit they presented.

    students made invitations to invite their friends and family to the exhibit

each student had individual portfolio reviews with myself and the co-teacher for the class together, to help edit work for the show

exhibit space ready for guests to arrive!

a guest arrived with invitation in hand!

each student wrote an artist's statement to accompany their work...

they included digital and darkroom prints; as well as a book made digitally using Adobe Photoshop

people really liked looking through the books!

till next summer...

crumpled paper

neuberger museum of art elevator!

I took my class to the Neuberger Museum of Art the other day for a tour of the permanent collection given by one of their wonderful docents.  After, they were on their own to walk through the special exhibit titled Living with Art: Collecting Contemporary In Metro New York.  This exhibit is pretty cool because it is all works of art that are owned by people in the area where we live.  By giving us a glimpse of their personal collections, we almost become voyeurs as we look at what is usually displayed and viewed within the privacy of their own homes.

When we got back to the classroom, one of the students noted of a very contemporary piece, "we don't understand why crumpled paper is art".  This sparked a long, but good conversation with the students about "what and why art is art".  The art in question, was indeed a crumpled up piece of legal paper, inside a plexiglas box, on a white piece of wood.  I mentioned to my students that often times when I see work by an artist that I like, or creates curiosity, or causes me to question, or even arouses dislike, I often write the artist's name down, and later research the artist for more information.  Of course a photograph of the art would be helpful as well, but many museums, including the Neu, do not allow photo taking.  

Artist/Work I googled:
Martin Creed - British artist born 1968
Work of art on view art on view at the Neu - 
Work No. 652: A Sheet of paper crumpled into a ball, 2007

The MOMA has one that is very similar...That is where I got the image below.

work no. 301: a sheet of paper crumpled into a ball

For more information on Martin Creed, check out his website....He's a pretty cool guy, with lots going on.  Crumpled paper is just the start :)