Artwork for Donation

I am creating a series of artwork for donation to the local domestic violence shelter. Hope Alliance, the local domestic violence center, hand a very big hand in my recovery from a domestic abuse situation with my son's father. I want to pay it forward and help other women that are going through what I have been through and encourage them the same way others. As I begin working on art pieces for the shelter, my students, where I am currently teaching in a High School, are constantly commenting on my pieces and inspired just by watching me create my artwork. This has me thinking that I need to share with them parts of my story and inspire them to dig down and create on a more personal level. As I near the end of this teaching year, I have already begun planning for next year’s courses. Many questions have come to my mind as I am planning, changing and adding new things as I go further in my grad course. Many things I find myself wondering are: How can I inspire my students? What projects can I give them that really get them thinking and creating on their own? How can I get them to dig down deep and create from their souls? How can I get them to create amazing artwork that they want to create? And How can I relate past artwork to their current lives? As I was talking to another teacher I found myself sharing my story with him and he posed the question: “Have you shared this with your students?” (Albert Demarest, personal communication, April 9, 2013). My answer was “No, how can I share something so personal with them?” Would that not break the line that we so cautiously walk on with our students anyway? How many parent phone calls would I receive by sharing my story? This is usually what most teachers think about before sharing anything personal with our students.

When I decided on this project of creating artwork for victims of domestic violence I constantly wondered how I would create anything that was as exceptional as the first piece that I did. And then I read this quote from Chap’s (2012) book, Live Through This and things became clearer, “Sometimes those primal screams on the canvas come out looking like the vomit of God, and you wonder how on earth you managed to do it. And then you’ve got a new problem: how will you ever do it again?” (Chap, S. pp 11-12).  I used my first piece of healing artwork as inspiration for the donation piece. I wanted to reuse several of the same images and text from the original piece. I started by tearing up domestic violence police reports I found online, along with a blank report. I then proceeded to cover them up so they are barely legible with purple and blue pastel colored paint in a very abstract style. I started writing down words that I found inspiring.  Healing, strength, valued, trust, free, courage, just to name a few. As I started thinking about what I wanted this piece to represent more words came to mind. I was cutting letters out from magazines and piecing them together, just as we pick up the pieces and create a new piece to the puzzle in our own lives. I also wanted to incorporate the chains being broken, as for me, that was one of the strongest images from previous works. I also included the lock with no key broken in two. For me, this is showing how strong we are in some of the toughest situations we go through. I painted a dove, which of course is one of the purest symbols of peace and love, I think there is. When I started painting the dove I built the paint up and it mixed on the canvas and blended the white and blue so beautifully. I drew in hands praying, as well as a key, flower and angel wings. I also plan to add the original Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr

God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen. (Wikipedia, 2013).

This piece is still in the works and will hopefully have more added to it in the next several weeks. Below is the work in progress.

 Work in Progress, No Name. 16 X 20 inches. Mixed Media. Andrea Johnson. 2013.

Work in Progress, No Name. 16 X 20 inches. Mixed Media. Andrea Johnson 2013

(Here is another picture of the progress I have made on this piece. It is done complete yet, but hopefully soon.)

As I put this piece down and started a project with my Art I students, using two pieces of poster board to create a slot sculpture. One of my students drew out his hand and then withdrew from school before the piece was finished. For some reason the hand drawing just struck me and I decided I would finish the piece he started. As I started working on the hand drawing it got me thinking about all different kinds of hands, and how we use our hands as a symbol of growth for young children. We paint children’s hand’s for mother’s day presents and to show how much they have grown from the day they were born, each year as they get older, and into an adult. I started tracing my own hands, in different positions, and then cut them out and drew all different designs on them. Some have words on them, some have patterns, some are more symbolic of an idea, etc. My original plan was to layer them all over a canvas and then paint on top, but the hands turned out so much better than expected, I didn’t want to cover them up and changed my thinking. Same as with first piece I started, I wrote all the hurtful words we hear in domestic violence situations, well at least the words I heard, and painted them in bold, black letters, and then washed over them with white and blue pastel colors, but so you can still see the black coming through but not very legible. I then took five of the hands I had created on the poster board and hot glued them to the canvas. In between the hands I painted positive words in white, covering up the black even more. Words like FREEDOM, STRENGTH, LIVE, HOPE, BEAUTY, COURAGE, DREAM, SERENITY, LOVE, and PEACE, words that give hope. This is as far as I have gotten on this piece as well, and hope to continue to add to it, images such as chains being broken, keys, dove, etc. I have so many ideas I know I have many more works to add to this series. 

(This was the first process I started with on the canvas, writing words that are hurtful in big, black, bold letters).

 Work in Progress, No Name. 16 X 20 inches. Mixed Media. Andrea Johnson. 2013.

Work in Progress, No Name. 16 X 20 inches. Mixed Media. Andrea Johnson. 2013.

(Close up of hands and chains) 

I am creating artwork that not only will continue to heal me on my journey but will inspire those that are just starting out on their journey, their path of healing. Art is healing for everyone that is willing to go through the process. I was watching the news and a story came on about juvenile offenders having a silent auction and art show. This is a rigorous program they go through while incarcerated. Art is another way for young people to heal and deal with their issues, as I was listening I couldn’t help but think about this project and my students. This quote from Gardner-Betts Art Auction website only confirms more of what the arts can do for our young people of today, “The art/music enrichment classes are offered to these juvenile offenders on the premise that art is a constructive outlet for emotional conflict, a positive strategy for anger management, and a means to foster self-awareness.” This brings me back to teaching, and planning for next year’s classes. The questions rise again, how much can I share with my students to get my point across and not cross any lines, between teacher and student? I then think about the blog we created for the research class and think about what I have shared with them. I want to share my story with my students in a way that focuses on my artwork and how powerful my art is, how powerful their art is and can be, how they can inspire others and create artwork, for more than just to create a pretty picture, but have more depth and meaning.  I want them to use their journals as a tool in the thinking process and research their ideas. I want them thinking about what they are creating and why they want to create their piece, what message are they trying to convey to the viewers, as well as how I can help them create this piece. I also want them to think about artists and artwork from the past to inspire their own artwork. When incorporating Art History into a lesson, most of the time students get the glazed over look and stop listening. I would like to incorporate an idea that I found from Edutopia website. After reading this excerpt “For example, I was in a history class last year and my teacher would always explain what happens in the Medieval World and the Renaissance. And after every lesson, every essay, every assignment, he asked us, "How does this event relate to current times?" It brought me to a greater thinking, a kind of thinking where I can relate the past to the present and how closely they are bonded together. If you relate the topic to the students' lives, then it makes the concept easier to grasp" I realized this was a great way to incorporate Art History with each lesson. In their journals, before they start any piece they will write those questions down and answer them to the best of their ability. I also want them to look at other artists for inspiration and include those artworks as well as where they retrieved those pieces from to look back on in their journals. I know that things will change and develop and go in directions they never thought possible if they stop and think about things before putting pen to paper, just like in English when we have a brainstorming session before writing the final paper. As a teacher, I, myself, also need to follow the same steps and set an example for my students, not only to show them how I would do it, whether it’s the right or wrong process, but also to help develop my own artwork in an even more in depth perspective.

The first project that I want to have my advanced art students do is the I am From poem.  I will show them several poems written by others artists or writers on George Ella Lyon’s website. On the website there are written poems and short videos with the poems. Then I will show them my poem.

I am From

By Andrea Johnson

I am from the fireworks that were once beautiful

And then fizzled out

I am from Star Wars and Texas Rangers baseball

To cousins, brothers and sisters

I am from nature and wildlife of wisteria and magnolia trees

that smell so sweet and grow so tall, to the divorce of my parents

I am from the single mother of 3 and becoming a Johnson from an Adcock and Ragan

My heritage follows me from Scotland to Germany to Ireland and a little bit of Indian

I am from high achieving success of first time family college graduate to an Art teacher

I am from the battered and broken, worthless and nothingness to the strong and confident mother

I am the insecure woman to the standing strong, protective mother of a beautiful, smart little boy

I am from the Texas dirt, the country girl at heart

I am from the pencil, the dust of the charcoal the drips of watercolor, the colors blending together and changing

I am the daughter of the Holy Spirit and our Lord and Savior, Father God

I am from the spring flowers, the colorful Gerber daisies blooming;

and the rays of sunshine

I am from a victim to a Survivor
I am in love with a wonderful man whom loves me back

I am from a woman of faith and serenity

I am from courage and inspiration to other women

I am loved

I am me

I am proud of who I have become, the mother, daughter, wife, sister I have always wanted and dreamed of being

I LOVE ME

I AM ME

After reading this out loud to them I want to show them my process for creating an artwork. To me this is as personal as you can get. Take them back to their roots and think about where they come from, where they are in life and where, as well as, whom they want to be in life. I think this will start the process of digging deep down and creating more personal artworks.

I will share parts of my story that are appropriate and my artwork inspired from my personal journey, and can only hope that by sharing a part of me that this will inspire my students in a different way. Rather than showing nothing but artwork from the past or lecturing about how to create something that often comes off meaningless and impersonal, I would rather inspire them to inspire others with their creativity, through my creativity. I am looking forward to the journey ahead of me and the challenges I face in the classroom with my students and getting them to create more than just a piece of art but something they can grow from. 

References

Chap, S. (Ed.). (2012). Live Through This. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press.

Gardner-Betts (2013). Gardner-Betts Art Auction. In Real Estate Council of Austin.  Retrieved May 13, 2013. From http://www.recaonline.com/index.php/events/gardner-betts-art-show-and-silent-auction.html

Lyon, G.E. (n.d.). Where I’m From. In George Ella Lyon. Retrieved May 3, 2013. From http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html

Niebuhr, R. (2013).  Serenity prayer.  In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 3, 2013. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (April 26, 2012). Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement. In Edutopia. Retrieved May 13, 2013. From http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-stories-heather-wolpert-gawron