Some Great Creative Thinking Quotes

Creative Thinking Quotes from Luke Sullivan's book - Hey Whipple Squeeze This

 I have been taking an art direction and typography class to satisfy an elective requirement for a master’s I’m pursuing.  The text is by Luke Sullivan entitled Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.  There are many things I could say about it, however, I am just going to share some quotes.  I had a difficult time curating these, as there is least one per page.  What’s more, Sullivan mentions other books he’s read which I’d love to get into, maybe after the thesis.  Anyway, enjoy!

“Look for polarities.  Where you find them you will also find tension.  And where you find tension, you will find creative sparks.”

“ ‘Ask a better question.’ By that he means a question to which you don’t know the answer.  He likens it to ‘placing the solution just out of your reach,’ and in answering it, you stretch yourself.”

“I’m serious.  Creativity is exactly like washing a pig.  It’s messy.  It has no rules.  No clear beginning, middle or end.  It’s kind of a pain in the ass, and when you’re done, you’re not sure if the pig is really clean or why you were washing it in the first place.”

“The best answers always arise out of the problem itself.”

“Woody Allen says, ‘If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything innovative.’ “

“When forced to work within a strict framework, the imagination is taxed to its utmost and will produce its richest ideas.  Given total freedom, the work is likely to sprawl.”

Ok that’s it for now.  I’ll come back with some more later.

Cheers,

Devin

keeping it Going On Instagram

Unfortunately, the Bodies exhibit would not allow us to take photographs, so we couldn't make it work there.  However, With the grade seven Japanese exhibit we had the students complete
their responses using Visible Thinking routines.  It would be inappropriate for me to send out the the student Instagram posts, but I put of a couple of their responses on my Instagram.  Recently I also made a post all on my own.  check out #mralleniscool.

http://instagram.com/dplusinternational

Challenge

It has been difficult to write with school keeping me busy over the past three months.  I have a little respite so I am taking advantage to write here some.  I will make my best effort to continue to write this blog over the following terms.  There have been several creative thinking ideas I had over the past stretch of time, above is an image from an eperience I had that was most definately a creative thinking exercise.  I was brought in to work with Theatre du Reve for a performance at the High Museum of Art.  The performance celebrated French History and specifically the role the Tuilerie Garden took. My role was to create street art during the performance.

To develop the imagery I looked through the script and experiemnted withusing differnt elements in a graffiti style.  I found that dialog from a play isn't always the most graffiti friendly.  There is a reoccuring theme throughout the play, how people should be free and that this sometimes comes through violent action, the French Revolution, the Terror, WWI, and Nazi occupation all played a part of this performance.  The balloon also made several apperences in the text , so after a while I took my freedom message, droits de l'homme, the balloon worked as a good visual element that attracts the attention, then it was just time to work out the color scheme.  This came mostly from experimentation, in the end, one doesn't go wrong with a primary triad.

What you see above is a mock-up I did on the painting wall at school.  As it turns out the museum was funny about me using spray paint so the mock up turned into the actual thing the night of th performance, where instead of painting, I wheat pasted. Problems promote creativity!

Film as an Educational Tool

I have been mulling over the idea of using film as an education tool for students for some time now and over the past week I have started to think about it more in ernest.  I should describe what I mean.  When I say film as an educational tool I do not mean showing students films that relate to content in the class, or as a reward or anything like that.  Rather I mean students should be making films to exhibit learning.  This originally came from an experience I had in the classroom where instead of requiring students to write a reflection (I called it an artist’s statement) at the end of a unit I offered the option of writing, or recording sound or creating a short video.  Later I offhandedly said to my students “For your artist’s statement you can write longhand, type and essay, record a video, write a song or a poem or whatever tickles your fancy as long as it covers the following points”.  The points are listed in their book as well as in a rubric and I covered them verbally.  I did not expect it, but when the artists statements were turned in as normal I got many typed essays and videos and low and behold I got one poem and two songs.  I believe this points to the nature of current students’ environment and where they are comfortable working and expressing themselves. 

A while back I was reading a graphic design back (by a while back I mean probably six or seven years now) and a particular statement stood out to me.  To paraphrase:  Graphic design is not longer about static images, if you create a logo or symbol, eventually someone will spin and twirl it.  If we extend the definition of students all the way through university then I feel comfortable is saying that students today have grown up in an environment of moving images.  It is not novelty but a way life is presented to them.  Naturally they should then feel accustomed to receiving and also sending information in this manner.  In fact they are so comfortable with this platform that I have found students often do a better job of meeting class requirements when allowed to communicate in this manner.  To set the stage:  In my class part of the requirements of the every unit is to reflect.  Often times there are audible groans in the classroom when the work ‘reflection’ escapes my lips.  The sad thing about this is first, reflection is shown to be a very valuable learning tool as it promotes metacognition in students and second, reflection can be quite exciting but students have learned that reflection is the same as describing.  Sincerely, when I read a description of what happened in class I also groan because I was there, I saw what happened in class and do not need to revisit.  What reflection should be about is describing meaning and pinpointing areas where a multitude of possibilities became an idea worth pursuing and where for artistic reasons the student took a direction different from the design.  It is my belief that as students come to recognize these moments (and there are more than I have just written) then we as teachers develop better honed thinkers.  Through giving the students an option to record a short film for their reflection instead of writing, I have seen students respond to the above mentioned moments instead of just describing what happened.

This is a singular event, film can be used to go beyond reflection and can also be a tool for exploration and of course, expression.  However I want to stress for the time being that a film as a thinking tool does not need production value which is a problem I have run into with film in the classroom.  At times with both students and enthusiasts of film, production value has gotten in the way of content.  From a simplistic point of view with basic tasks, clarity in communication is more valuable than a good looking film.  In most cases the better video reflections I have received are shot on the Mac program Photo Booth and usually features the art work and the student.  So long as the video and audio are clear  the job can be done and high marks can be earned.  This is not to discount the value of production but in circumstances I have described it is not important. 

But there are places where production value is important.  Making an eye catching film is the content of other education domains.  Drama and ICT for example.  Seeing as these are the places where the art of film are of paramount importance I believe this presents an excellent opportunity for true cross-curricular education.  The thinking skills and techniques that are being instiledl through these classes can be put to use by making it easier to operate the hardware/software and to better communicate a message.  Additionally, the platforms for sharing are increasing all the time.  You Ku and You Tube aside, film festivals and even student film festivals continue to grow every year.  I believe this give us a teachers the opportunities to exhibit to students how intellectual and technical skills are linked to valuable participation in the global community.

To conclude, I hope I have made my point that the value of using short film is great for a generation of students who understand and communicate in this method.  As teachers we should be giving the students the thinking process, technical skills and the platform to develop their minds and their abilities.

Basic Understanding

I have been reviewing some of my practices and to do this I wrote out some of the techniques I have used in class with my students.  Through this process I actually changed some and please keep in mind this is for just developing the idea, there is still a lot of art to be done when it comes to creating the art.  As always, free to use as you wish because I'm a good Communist like that.  However, if you end up making some good money maybe you could kick a little my way since teachers don't get paid squat, or even better, buy me a bottle of wine.

School-Scapes Grade Six

1. Brainstorm feelings.
2. Brainstorm feelings about school.
3. Associate colors and shapes with feelings in #1.
4. ASsociate places with those feelings in #2 and add colors and shapes from #3.
5. Review good photo-taking techniques.
6. Go out and take photos around campus and keep in mind #4 and #5.

Ceramic Culture Grade Six

1. Define what culture is, both what it means and what are some examples of it.
2. Look at Principles of Design pattern, rhythm, harmony, unity, variety.
3. Research how different cultures have identified themselves on ceramic work (this is coupled with a slide show where one culture from each continent is displayed as well as some contemporary work).
4. In process journal brainstorm cultures you may be interested and making a cultural motif of.
5. Keeping in mind the principles of design we studied develop a decoration for your ceramic object.

1. Research different ceramic techniques and terminology.
2. Practice with each of the techniques - pinch pot, slab construction, coiling.
3. In your process journal design at least three different profiles.
4. Execute your work and halfway through working on it write a short journal entry about what is working well and what is difficult.

Artists and Communities Grade Eight

1. Brainstorm words that are important to your person or your place
2. Ideally 4 - 5 letters
3. Write on in all capitals
4. Join the bottom of the letters together
5. Write three questions about your name/tag.
6. Add a number and symbol.

Surrealistic Portrait and Still Life

1. Look at several surrealistic paintings and identify things you believe make them surrealistic.
2. Think about some dreams you’ve had, they are difficult to remember so do not rty to remember the whole dream, just images and as you have one write it down in phrases or a couple of sentences.  If you really can’t think of one then use classic ideas of dream imagery.
3. Practice drawing techniques found in both still life and portraiture.
4. Introduce students to some of the symbolism found in Carl Jung’s psychology, e.g. Greek myths symbolizing aspects of the psyche.
5. Have students brainstorm with images - circle exercise - of symbols they think represent themselves.
6. After a good bank of images exists, then design the drawing, with the symbols and the ultimate design of the painting, keep in mind that it needs to be surrealistic, so make odd changes in your imagery or juxtapose things not normally found together.  Also keep in mind you portrait and your hand need to be in the composition.

Sequential Art Grade Nine

1. First map out (write in words, in order first, second, third . . .) normal activities of an insect.
2. Now map out the insect doing something a human would do.
3. Now combine the two.
4. Look at your story map, rearrange parts of it.
5. Make an official story map.
6. From a story map make a story board.
7. Film your animation.

Crossing Cultures Grade Nine

1. Choose one work of art from one of the traditions.  Interpret it for the purposes it serves - look at the Purposes of Art for examples.
2. Describe how the work looks, be specific about colors and shapes and their relationships, narrative and overall design.
3. Take individual words from these activities and write them in a top to bottom list.
4. Now do the same with one work of art from the other tradition and write your top to bottom list next to that list from the first tradition.
5. Look for natural connection and random connections, as you make these make a small sketch of an image this makes on another sheet of paper.
6. Take these images and compose a drawing of one or a combination of a few.

Magazine Development

I have been working more scientifically (not really scientifically mind you) and have begun compiling evidence for creative thinking exercises.  Below is something I have written up in a report and I thought it would be nice to share.

Task Description:

When embarking on this unit I asked the students to think about the content of their magazine cover and I wanted them to follow a certain protocol when developing their ideas.  I instructed them that this method is not the only method but one I had found successful for students.  I also instructed them to put their idea development on paper, I believe this is most beneficial because it allows the mind to focus one one thing, new ideas, and allows paper to do the job of keeping track of ideas.  The concept here is that one should put as many ideas down as possible and then when they are documented, choose the best or most appropriate.  The student followed the following protocol:

1. Make a group of nine circles on you paper and in two minutes time fill in each circle with one thing they like.  It could be in the form of  words or sketches and that quantity is better than quality.
2. Then I asked the students to review verbally the previous lesson about the design of a magazine covers and make another circle brainstorm of topics they found interesting.
3. After the students had filled several pages of ideas I asked them to pick one of their ideas and brainstorm in a list sub-genres of this topic/item.
4. Finally the students were required to discuss with the classmates at their table their brainstorms and have their classmates give honest response to what was a good/interesting idea, what would be most suited to the student and alternative solutions.
5. Once the students had an idea they were happy with they could begin sketching out possible designs.

This is not a very involved process and in total time it lasted about thirty minutes.  My intention was to show the students how they could use what was already in their mental vocabulary and then developed that concept more robustly.  Then to make editing decisions that would best suit their skills, interests and third party opinions.  What is missing from this picture here is that the students had already been thinking about magazines and they had been given the unit introduction which definitely influenced their decisions.  On the opposite end some of the student reflections are missing so it is difficult to evaluate their exact opinions on how the creative thinking exercises assisted them.

Student A followed the in class method well.  She gave herself a variety of options when beginning the idea and choose clothing.  Where the idea for fashion for pensioners came from I do not know.  I believe it is related to her desire to do something different from the norm.  I do not recall specifically if this conversation took place between myself and this student, but several times I did discuss the issue of not having a magazine only about fashion but to choose a particular demographic to target.  Her choice is clever and entertaining.  This student’s trimester grade for Criterion C Thinking Creatively is six out of eight.

Student B used a slightly different method, choosing from a more limited brainstorm but then expanding upon that brainstorm and setting a kind of to do list for herself before beginning on the design of her magazine cover. This student’s trimester grade for Criterion C Thinking Creatively is a six out of eight.

Too Much

Ah too much time has passed since I've written here but I have a good excuse. I am a teacher and we had reports to write, then it was Thanksgiving and now it is the build up to Christmas.  Sadly I do not have anything properly prepared although I have a few things in the works and I will preview these with a little follow up to something I started a few months back.

First, to add to sequential art.  It has been the second time around that I have asked the students to make a story map, then a story board then studio work of art telling a story.  The first project of this unit is complete and assessed and the students are now onto their second project.  What I have noticed is somewhat inconclusive.  First, out of thirty students only about five or six actually completed both a story map and a story board (although all but one completed one of these) so it is hard to read whether it helped them creatively or not.  Secondly, as teachers know, students come in all mental shapes and sizes and while some ideas are quite imaginative, it may be a naturally occurring thing rather than the opportunity to use a thinking exercise.  What I have noticed is that the student who did not make either story board or map had a very limited story, with only one scene change and no bodily change showed in the art's subject matter.  Also the story board (which most of the students completed) definitely has an effect on how well they designed their work and even when the story was simple, it came out well rendered and engaging.  One student even wants to have the story mounted on a record player so that one can sit and watch the story spin before one's eyes.  The students are now onto the film making aspect of the unit and results won't be in until just before the Christmas holiday.

Also I spent some time working with one of our Spanish teachers and we looked at different ways we use story telling in our classes.  She uses it to help students access information and display learning.  We both thought that this is an excellent opportunity to start collaborating because I am working on the art of the story, she is using the form of the story and our ICT department is discussing the tools.  What I really like about this is the change in education that is being indicated here.  We all inform each other how to work and what we work on, and students can employ methods which are relevant to contemporary society in their education.

As an addition to this I decided to take my own medicine and created several narrative for myself which I could then turn into art.  This has had several results.  I've created a couple of paintings where part of the narrative is told and it has given me new ideas for imagery.  Another result is that my graffiti is taking on a more engaging aspect.  as well as getting my tag up I've been using my character (an octopus) to interact with the surrounding environment.  I'll link in my art Tumblr, not a lot is up there but you can see some of it.

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/devinallenart

Something I have been preparing to write (actually I wrote the outline but have since misplaced it)  Is the idea of struggle and creativity.  As one possible technique of examination I looked at the impossible problem.  Derive a solution to an impossible problem.  I think back to the time when I devised a scheme to create an atmosphere on the moon.  I will save you the details here but it involves planting one flower in a jar and letting things go from there.  Not that I really think this is possible but it's fun to imagine and could set the stage for a good story, imagery and maybe even dance, possible design.  This is somewhat highlighted by an NPR story filed about a month ago concerning how Japanese and American students respond to work.  Even when given an impossible to solve mathematics problem the Japanese students stayed with it for the entire time given (one hour) and attempted to derive solutions from it.  Here's the story you can listen for yourself.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning

There is another exercise I am working on involving nouns, adjectives and verbs but it is less well formed so I won't write about it.  So that's it, if you are celebrating a holiday this month or next hope it goes well.  Like always I will celebrate Christmas and Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) because I like the idea of seeing family, eating too much and blowing things up.

Daniel Pink, Autobiography and a Little More

At school today (I'm a teacher) Daniel Pink came to give the keynote address.  I watched his TED previous to watching him speak and I was a bit turned off because he seemed to spout the same thing a lot of people talk about regarding the right brain and creativity and the need to change schools.  The first issue here - right brain - I find annoying because recent research that I have encountered says that the brain is dynamic, not just hemisphere and I feel this description is just simplifying the complex issue of teaching.  However, his keynote address made up for what I expected to be a mediocre performance.  What I appreciated most is the data he presented us with concerning what the science and technology industries are looking for in education and how the policy makers in education are defining the system.  I will allow you to review what he said, since he said it and the information is readily available and my point here is to expand upon it from my point of view.

If you have been following this blog for the last six months you will see that I am working at creating exercises that can be employed in any situation to allow one to develop new ideas.  This informal research started out to assist my art teaching, however, upon consideration I have determined that it is applicable in many situation and I just have not worked out the details.  In fact, part of the reason for me writing this blog is so that others can try some of these concepts out and see what results can be obtained.  In this respect I am a punk/communist/Buddhist e.g. no one owns a guitar chord or idea, this should be owned by all and try it for yourself to make the best out of it you can.  Some of the exercises I have written about in the past are brainstorming plus, writing from a point of view, motion as a creative thinking skill (this one is weak but kudos to Will Percy for turning me onto an article about a motion classroom that helps students think) and story mapping.

Last night I put my money where my mouth is so to speak by employing one of my techniques (mind you I did not invent these, they came about over the course of my experiences, some synthesized, some dreamed up and some just from conclusions I've drawn).  In an effort to make my own art work stronger I brainstormed two categories to make art about and ultimately would like to combine them.  The first autobiography the second what I fantasize or dream my life to be.  I forced myself to write non-stop for a given time period for each of these categories, even if I did get off topic, and then review the results.  What I found was some thoughts that pop up once and again but I never focus on and some ideas I think about have finally been put to paper.  From there I put titles at random on the top of sketch book pages and while I may have no visual vocabulary at present and am requiring of myself that I make two sketches of each title.  What has piqued me most is that I have a problem to solve and generally speaking it is a fun problem for me to solve.  Will it make my art stronger?  I hope so.  Something nice that did come of it was my affinity for art materials and then a collage from art supply flyers that will be a drawing or painting soon.

An implied charge in Daniel's address today was that it was up to us, the teachers, to figure out how to educate students to think creatively, holistically, recognize patterns and develop systems and things people need.  Hopefully this is what I am doing, at the very least, it is what I am attempting to do.  I am beginning to consider how this work can be made into a tangible and I am looking for people who would like to collaborate with me on this endeavor. My initial thought is to create tablet computer apps (I even have some hand-drawn interfaces for these) or to work with people in a variety of industries and have work sessions where we try out some of these exercises an see what results present themselves   If you yourself are interested or know someone who might also be, by all means get in touch and let's see what can become of it.  I am going to do something bold here, I will put both my phone number and email address. - 2167540879 - china.devin@gmail.com.  This is because I am not sure if you can get the info from my blog, but I hope it shows how sincere I am in this endeavor and how much I trust humans' good nature.  Waiting to hear from you

Point of View

Over the past week I have been writing an additional supplement for my grade eleven students about how to analyze art.  The course they are studying requires that they pay the most attention to the study of art, which I find quite fascinating  especially for a high school student.  They will be assessed most heavily on their research and exploration.  While they are required to make art the importance is on what they think about and what I can find in their sketch books.  In my graduate studies I happened upon a course which discusses the fundamentals of analyzing a work or art.  In brief there are two main types of analyzing, formal and stylistic.  formal deals with how a work or looks and stylistic is about interpreting its meaning.  for the longest time I felt that what critics were interpreting in art, while entertaining to read was based so much on just one's subjective opinion.  Ultimately I have trouble with subjectivity, at least as it being the sole basis of evaluating a work of art.  There is such a thing as good and bad art, but this good and bad is difficult to pinpoint and left me the weaker of the arguments.  Another thing I find quite annoying in art is that shock and/or entertainment value seems to be how people immediately recognize a work of art as good or bad.  I myself am guilty of this but I have gotten better at enjoying the immediate pleasure derived from an eye catching work of art but also forcing myself to look deeper to see if the piece is really of value.

Let me tie this together now.  Through my re-review of stylistic analysis I was able to put together two practices I have encountered over my work as an artist and art teacher.  What we have already been talking about, stylistic analysis and what a colleague of mine dubbed 'The Idea Generator'.  Let us talk stylistic analysis first.  I am actually going to write about more specifically contextual analysis.  The idea that one adopts a certain standpoint when interpreting a work of art.  The common contexts I have come across are Marxism and Feminism.

Let's start with Marxism.looking at the work of art from the standpoint of artist as worker and patron as gentry.  I told my students to ask questions like 'What does this work say about the life of the artist versus the select public that enjoy it?'  However, I feel this does not go far enough and I have individually substituted the artist as creating a product and the public as consuming that product.  So when we look at a work of art, we are the consumers, how does it influence us when we consume it?  I am quite pleased that art is now more in the public realm than before and we can even ask 'How does the public consume the art?'  How does it influence our clothing, our food and our computer games.  I'm not a gamer but I am aware that a lot of popular music is now used for the soundtracks.  So next time you are at the gallery ask yourself "When will this show up in my breakfast?'  Have a look at Takahashi Murakami's work with LV to get the idea.  Feminism works in a similar fashion only we are reading the art from a woman's point of view.  Ask yourself "What story does this work tell?" "How do women understand this?" "What is the role of the artist in relation to their use?"  Beijing based artist Megumi Shimizu has a performance piece where she reverses Yves Klein's blue model work with red and a boy, and when I saw it that boy must have just been eighteen.  The reason I am writing about this as a creative thinking skill will become apparent soon.  We are putting ourselves in a context or a perspective and applying thinking skills from those perspectives to imagine meaning.

The Idea Generator - I read that Bob Dylan book a few years back.  In it he discussed placing himself in a character's position and then writing from that position.  I've seen art teacher Richard Todd do this and he even made a graph for it.  Take a concept and brainstorm what that concept means from and old/young position, a old/new position, mother/father, student/teacher, commercial esoteric, analogue/digital, baby boom/generation y.  Really two terms that are unlike in some way.  The IBO does this when they ask students to think from different areas of interaction.

So try this for me.  Seize on a thought you find interesting.  The run it through different contexts to see what new comes about.  Add interpretation and also new meaning.  See where the contexts take you.  If you are an artist, make art about it, if you are a thinker build a syllogism around it. See what becomes.

Brainstorming Plus - The Spiderchair Incident

Brainstorming is a good start but experience has taught me that it needs more steps to make it more effective.  This is particularly apt with middle school students who sometimes need more guidance when developing ideas.  For purposes of clarity I want to define brainstorming as writing words and phrases freely, without editing or even stopping.  I often tell the students they must write no matter what, even if it's nonsense, for a given amount of time.  I limit this to writing because words usually work in concepts.  Images are also good but I believe they are thinking in a different method and I treat that as another creative thinking exercise.

I have serval starting points.  The first is to allow the students to just have at it and see where their ideas take them.  The next is to give the students the unit question and/or significant concept to think about and again go at it.  While some students will naturally take to this the results I have seen in the classroom are as follows:  About fifty percent of the students get right to it and the other fifty percent are stymied and may write one or two things down but spend the rest of the time looking at their paper.  Of the writing fifty percent only about 25 percent will have something that is a good representative of their ideas and the other 25 percent get off task.  Not that getting off task is entirely bad, but in the classroom setting where the teacher is guiding the students to a goal centered around a certain topic, it is ultimately unproductive, but I reiterate, still valuable.

These observations have lead me to construct the 'plus' method.  Break the concept down into more simple themes and have the students brainstorm along a certain theme.  The brainstorm may deviate as work progresses but it makes the work categorical.  From here I may take another aspect of the concept and have them brainstorm along those lines as well. Or instead of brainstorming along another line of the concept, have them run the first brainstorm and use another aspect of the concept as a lens to view the brainstorm.  Perhaps my writing is not clear but it is far more straight forward when actually conducting the exercise.  I will illustrate with a couple of examples:

Concept: Artists can combine unlike ideas together in a work of art - credit to Richard Todd who wrote this concept.

The students will create two brainstorms they like in separate columns in their workbooks.  Then randomly draw links between these columns and see what ideas generate.  (This moves onto a different idea of concept association that I will discuss in another blog entry) As I mentioned earlier this stymies some students and others get quite off task.  In my opinion it is a little too broad for students.  So my remedy has been to give the students more guidelines.  For this particular unit (once again credit to Richard Todd for planting the seed of this unit) I give the students two concepts to brainstorm, one of my choosing - furniture and another of their own.  Here I encourage the students first to brainstorm nouns and then to pick some of the nouns they feel attracted to and brainstorm those further.  When the massive brainstorming is complete then it's time to combine the concepts.

Typical instructions may sound like this:

1. Open your books and on the next blank page write 'Furniture' then take two minutes and write as many different types of furniture you can think of.  Don't worry of you get off of the furniture idea just keep writing for the entire two minutes, even made-up words are ok.

2. Now go to the next page and for two minutes brainstorm as many nouns as you can.

3. Pick three nouns you find most interesting and brainstorm them on separate pages.

Now comes time for concept association, which is another exercise I will discuss in future blog entries.

Here is an alternative example:

Concept: Humans made tools to make life easier and they make objects attractive to improve quality of life.

1. Brainstorm objects for use.

2. Take three objects from your brainstorm and describe each object looking pretty.

Ok I am going to leave it here.  In reality, many of the exercises are not isolated and please keep in mind that after the ideas are generated there is still a lot of work to do.  Refining the idea, designing and executing.  The goal of these exercises is to access the idea.  There is still a lot of creativity involved but I have found getting the idea makes the next steps more successful and more fulfilling for the students and teachers. 

This painting is from some time ago, but since I have not photographed any of the recent painting I've executed this will have to do.  I placed it here because in the past month and a half I have been painting a lot of pine trees (some other varieties as well).  The reason has a bit of a explanation.  I recently moved back to the USA after nine years in China and one in Korea, by far China has the stronger influence.  I was quite struck by some contemporary Chinese paining (by this I mean ink and wash painting, you know the classic style of birds and flowers and landscape etc. but the painting I was looking at was of a contemporary subject matter).  The power of the black ink was almost palpable.  That week I purchased paper and brushes and ink and had a go.  A complete fail but there was potential and I adopted it to how I was working.  Shortly thereafter I moved to China and after about six months I started studying the traditional techniques and I spent about a year and a half with two different teachers.  Another year or so after I stuck to the tradition, then it faded.  About three years ago I began to take it up again and this leads to the painting above as well as why I've been painting pine trees so much recently.

After I accepted the job in Georgia I began making plans to use the Georgia countryside as inspiration for traditional Chinese paintings.  Even though I am in the city (Atlanta) there is no shortage of pine trees (and others) to serve as inspirational pieces.  This past week I was on a school trip (I'm a teacher by profession) and lucky for me we spent the week at a YMCA camp where I had ample opportunity to view and draw.  I bought a brush-pen and sad to say I am complete shit with it but that's ok, the shape of the trees and leaves are there so now it is just the work behind working it out with a brush, and I am quite looking forward to this work.
      P.s. - the first attempt was also shit but I am working on it.

For those of you who are still reading I'll give a brief description of some of the techniques I use. You are welcome to give them a shot and let me know how you get on.  Some of the traditional rules to follow: Compose square-ish painting in a kind of C shape and long-ish paintings by an S shape.  There should be good rhythm between black and gray tones.  There should not be too much black.  By the way the Chinese can never be pinned down by how much is enough and how much is too much.  Unfortunately the trend seems to be whoever is talking to me always has the correct amount and I never do.  Anyway - whatever.  The brush is supported between the thumb on one side and the other four fingers opposite the thumb.  Once I saw in the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco) that there should be the distance of an egg between the palm of the hand and the shaft of the brush, but none of my Chinese teachers ever said that.  Paint with the paper flat on the table or floor the the brush, more or less perpendicular, at least when you start.  The reason for this positioning is because the combination of wrist, elbow and shoulder give you every available angle from which to make a mark.  The beauty of Xuan Zhi (rice paper - which oddly enough has little to no rice in it) is that despite its fragility it can really take a lot of ink and water and color.  For instance you can paint in some gray, then add color, then let it dry and add black, then add some more color.  Or - this is one of my favorite techniques - make a nice think inky line and then wash the brush and add water right to the mark allowing it to bleed.  This effect is something that is looked for in 'good' paintings.  Another nifty trick (anything that entertains me I equate with good) is to load the brush with both color and ink in different parts of the brush then make a mark - cool two-tone effect.  Among my favorite strokes, and one you can see in the painting above, is the wavy, downward  line (my own description not an official term, my Chinese was pretty poor when I was taught this and I never learned the proper terminology).  Set out the edge of a shadow on a mountain or cliff and then alternate gray colored ink, water or even a little color in a wavy, downward stroke.  Another fun stroke is the hatchet (I now this one because my teacher drew me a picture of a hatchet when he demonstrated).  This one works best with think, black ink.  Load up the brush and turn it sideways against the paper and then with force shoot the brush in either direction that gives a full width streak.

When approaching a Chinese style painting (the Japanese and Koreans do this too) the Western style general to specific, light to dark method will not serve you well.  Just get yourself in a quiet mindset and go at it with no fear - like a Samurai - There will be varying levels of success at first but when you reach that place where you can actively make decisions without having to think will yield some pretty wicked paintings and a good experience for you.  If you are going to go the traditional route work on parts of the painting that are nearest the viewer and work your way back into space.  If you are doing non-traditional subjects then fuck all, just see what works for you.  These techniques are really applicable to all subject matter, I really like to paint octopuses and jelly fish and one never finds those in Chinese painting.  I have no problem with this seeing as I am not even a little Chinese, I'm all American in blood at least.

So there you are, a ramble about something I have contemplated for the last ten years.  I'll post some of my current paintings as soon as I get an SD card for my camera.

I was just looking at my stats, really 700 people have looked at this.  I didn't think so many.  I was setting down to use this as a diary today, now maybe I am a little shy - ha ha.  No, I'll still do it because probably no one is really reading close.  Stop the news feed to so I can think clearly.

As I have written in the book-format diary, I need to focus a little more on money in the coming weeks.  I have gotten the house as settled as it can be until the rest of my stuff arrives.  The fish tank is in the place and furniture is placed wisely (I hope) to get good fengshui for the immediate future.   These things were bothering me so I am glad I took care of it even at the cost of a bicycle which I desperately want this morning.  I had it in my head to take week-end rides to the Virginia Highlands and other cool spots as I am totally sick of driving to these places and walking takes much too much time.

Back to money, it is not really money actually, it is more along the lines of having more control of what's going on i a professional/career direction.  It must be about art since I am at that age where changing career directions would slow me down.  I teach art right now and to those ends I have made some progress in the creative thinking project.  Other teachers have responded to my forum post and given good insight and ideas as well as feedback.  The information is not analyzed just yet but that is ok, still early.  Something I do need to get on is pushing the application and seeing what else is out there.  I did some simple drawings but these need to be more finalized.  Bill Eisner was one I wanted to talk to about this.  Project Zero is another group of people I need to make contact with.  Additionally I will need to look at student reflections.  I should spell the current development out more clearly here:

At the moment I am working with the idea of story-boarding as a creative thinking tool.  The students were given a sequential art unit where they are to create a book as well as a short animation sequence using clay.  I introduced the idea that they story board not as a planning document but as a thinking document.  Th concept comes from a Merce Cunningham quote. What I expect to happen is the students think about and then arrange a story into bite-sized parts.  From here they can re-work as needed or perhaps this act will move them into directions they didn't think about earlier.  I just stopped for a moment here to looks at Bloom's Taxonomy and I believe this ideas falls into the category of 'Application'.  Not as high up on the list as I thought, nonetheless it is good to have it in there somewhere.  Now the task of applying it properly to the task and ideas arrived.

Another thing a friend turned me onto to is Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics which I have only read articles about, not the book itself.  I looked to see if it is on iTunes - no luck.  I'll check the book store as well as the school library and the public library as well.  Something that stands out to me looking at the Wikipedia entry is the six platforms - Idea/Purpose, Form, Idiom, Structure, Craft, Surface.  Just writing and reading about this stuff gets my brain into a creating mode.  I am thinking about my octopus making his way around town or in a space, is he cure or scary?  Don't know, but he must be eye catching.  I did a story-board for him before but it was quite simple.  I want to drop what I am doing now and get to it, but I won't because I have made a lot of art recently.

Now onto something different - design. Not really me making design, more along the line of me selling design.  I want to sell both quality, Chinese furniture and also Tibetan items from my friend Zhuoma.  The key here is to understand the market/clientele before I begin spending money here.  There is that artist Joy I met.  He said he sells things, if I understood him correct.  I have told myself to contact him but have not yet been able to get myself to do it.  I would be curious to see how he goes about it.  This is where living in a more communal area would do me well because I could be making connections and learning about who is out there and if they are buying anything.  This is sort of the rich part of town, but that is not to say I have made any friends around here.  How should I go about this?  Get on online sites and see what people are selling maybe.  This idea is far more rough and I do not have a lot to go on.  This one defiantly needs a brainstorm before I will make any progress on it.  The same is somewhat true of the vintage business.  I sent things off to CZ this week but that is not really a whole lot of anything.  The conversations I had with Pearl hae been much more productive.  I read up on activating my business fengshui in my den which is not there yet, but I have to put off buying things to make the fengshui better in here, low on cash.  I considered at times painting these items myself.  Again the issue here is not knowing the clientele well enough.  I am not sure what is needed there and honestly CZ has not been much help.  I should get Jimi in on this because he is probably easiest for me to deal with.  I had a good idea looking at the web-site Pearl sent me.  To buy 501's which are in abundance here and put the ATLBJ logo on them as well as some other cool stuff.  I was reading in Fader that floral patterns are cool so maybe I'll do that as well.  Here we go again, just writing about this stuff gets my juices flowing and inspires me to work and make some patterns and go get jeans and call Jimi and all that cool stuff.

I got caught making graffiti the other night.  I thought is was an abandoned building, however, it turns out someone lives in it.  He wasn't upset and we got into some good conversations.  There is a design opportunity there but I think there are other opportunities that are better.  I hope he sends me his email.  He is a combination preacher/social activist.  Of course help him with his logo which I wouldn't charge him for, I would just want apercentage of his enterprise.  But more importantly I would like to help him make short films, iTunesU stuff, and political graffiti to make Catalina happy - haha.

See this is why I don't any friends to go out with, because I always have things I want to work on, intellectual pursuits.  But to turn these into reality I will have to have friends to tell about and to help me find an outlet for.

Last thing:  Ihave been blowing the trumpet lately, the trombone too.  The urge to get a guitar and bass has been big but I have put it off because of lack of money and also so as not to serve as a further distraction.  Make beats in Garage Band before your purchase turntables, instruments or anything else.  Maybe I should peruse the local rags for bands that need musicians.  Should I get back into rock n roll again?  Oh well plenty enough here.  Get on to something else.

Update

This is a photo of another book that I have been working on. The actual book I've had in my possession for a very long time but I never touched it for fear of screwing it up, then I basically forgot about it and it wasn't until I bought a smaller one last fall and completed a rather pleasing little line that I went the big on (after I found it again). Actually the anxiety I had about making a mistake was pretty relevant at the time, but as my work has changed it has become easier. Even from that initial change about a year and half ago there has been a slight shift. I think this is common with all artists, at least ones that really painting for themselves, their work is always in evolution. I have been considering the idea of putting a book together that is charting the change in my painting over a year's time. Perhaps this blog could serve the same exact purpose.

My work now continues to be abstract, but at times less so and this is a result from my interest in graffiti and printmaking. The printmaking shift came as a result of me getting the materials to behave for me. Which really opes a lot fo doors. Also the amount of photographic work I've done, particularly with the Holga, Seagull and Fisheye. There is a strange sense of freedom working with these toy, print cameras. I don't worry about the composition of shots as much, I just point and click. Really I should be doing this with the digital as well as the phone.

There is a down side to my current working style, actually, it has been a down side to my work all my life. I don't have an intellectual theme, I just kind of go with what I like. Last Autumn when the Artists Who Teach was up, that was a big difference I noticed between myself and all the other artists, they all have themes, their work is about . . . (fill in the blank). Mine just comes from things I like to look at and make images about and it can vary quite greatly. Why is this? I kind of have an answer: It is because I don't care that much - ha ha. I was listening/watching The Story of India last week and in particular the section on the Buddha. He was far less of an righteous preacher than the religion leads us to believe. He basically just got along. Perhaps it is my detachment, which I didn't really learn fro Buddhism, it is just sort of my nature, I can be very detached, and I like it that way. And thereby my work is also detached, because I don't really care about anything enough to make art work about it. I like lines, I like patterns and designs and fashion magazine images and abstract expressionism and gold pens and books mad out of recycled art and still life drawing. And I like finding interesting things with my camera and taking photos of them, sometimes I want those photos to be well composed, sometimes I want to shoot them from the hip and appreciate the result. I also like Asthanga Yoga and Wing Chun. That is what my work is about.

Not Sure

Not sure what to write exactly, just thought I would put something in because I have the opportunity. Yesterday I worked on the big painting a bit as well as the long one, and glazed some ceramic ware and even a little printmaking work. It was quite a day for me and art making. Ad really, aside from my clumsiness at glazing thepots, things seemed to go very well. I will go in again today but I do not think I can work on the big painting at all, it'll be too wet. Yesterday I was starting to get into working on the book. I recall what Sun Lian Gang was talking about with letting things go and allowing the painting to just come out when I'm painting, and to an effect I can feel that. I am sure he still wouldn't like it, but that is because he is like that. Like a lot of Chinese people, always knows everything. Actually, I guess that is not a Chinese thing, a lot of people are like that. Maybe I should actually get some classroom work done. Actually, the main reason I want to go into school is to swim. I also read up on Angor Wat last night, another very pleasant evening of reading, drinking a White Russian and smoking a cigar. I tried to practice the bass last night but I just couldn't get quite on it. Here and there things were working but I was having a hard time keeping with the metronome and I kept running into problems with Fly Me to the Moon. My fingers and eyes couldn't keep up. Even my old standard Alright, Okay You Win was off. I gave up after about half an hour. I need to keep it up though. Contrary to what the guys in the band are doing I still want to do a lot more acid jazz stuff. Standards are fine to begin with but I want it funk and new, not just another jazz band. After this gig I will introduce some new tunes. Zhu Kun brought in All Blues which I think is a good start to something new. I was thinking about my personality the other day. I will never be that kind of person who makes a lot of money or is always in public eye or anything like that. I just don't possess the personality for it. When Helen and I were out at Migas the other night I could feel it. I got along well with Ursula but most everyone else I was pretty much a dud. Even the American/Canadian loser club. I just don't fit in to a lot fo groups fog people and as a result things in normal groups people never work out for. It is not that I am sad about that, I am just learning about myself more and more these days. A month ago when I finally broke out of the the depression I started to be more happy with myself and I am able to recognize these things. The last couple of days as well because, finally I get some rest and I have some energy. Well that's all I have to say for today.

Another Day of Musing What I should Do

Ok a lot to do and before I get distracted by actually doing stuff I need to take this time to get all my thoughts out so I can stay focused rather than waste time thinking I am accomplishing something. I would have liked to do this on the blog, but I need to be in a shield which isn’t conducive to listening to the radio at the same time.

So let’s see, I have to make arrangements for Cambodia, pay Seki and look into a visa, also I have to do some serious work on GtB. I had a good meeting with Vanessa last night, it left me inspired and ready to get some things done. I still have not looked for jobs elsewhere which is important as well as looking a graduate schools to make certain that I am at the top of my game when I apply. Absolutely none of my school work has been done which I need to do, specifically I need to adjust the units I am currently running and brainstorm some new ones. In relation to GtB I really want to look into my design gallery idea, really, find out what green means and where to find these things. I need Qiqi to look at my apartment contract, I have to retrieve money from both Elliot and Ruth (desperately needed). I am happy that the rent and the savings plan and the school fees are paid. speaking of school I have to check with SCAD about when there classes end, how to get from SZ to HK and back again and what kind of things I need to bring with me. Of course there are contact I have to get in touch with in HK like Julie, Sarah’s sister and Mari. I had a good start studying Chinese ad I have to keep it up, work on the basic lessons from the BLCU units rather than ust playing around with vocabulary. Also se t the band rehearsal schedule, and that is about all I am going to do for the band. There is a variety of shopping that needs to be done and I should get on a an exercise schedule again. There are the long term goals as far as finding out who I owe money to and getting tat paid and of course I need to visit with Wang Ting, Sun Liangang and while I am there Leng Yan. And I do not want to stop painting, really I want to make a book of my painting because that seems to be the method here. Should I look at web hosting as well - Devin Allen Art Music Education - ha ha sounds good. I should write a real blog, although I will most likely use this article and just paste it into my blog. I haven’t really know what to blog about, maybe I should talk about my trip to the Temple of Heaven, that would make a pretty good story. It’s good to write a lot, to get better at writing and language. Ok what else? I am not sure, actually I am fairly happy with this list of things. Oh yeah I have to adjust the finances spreadsheet. Ok that actually is it I believe. Normally I am not this satisfied with my lists, always feeling like there is something left out, but this time I think it’s good.

The Ride

Ok so I was going through the magazine Milk this morning and it inspired me. Also I was thinking about a meeting I had with Carissa and I feel like there is another possible direction. I got a response from a gallery in Shanghai and I think there is an option - I got really apathetic at school today, I should be working now, but I am not, I am planning. I need to write this so I have a clear head. Qiqi continues to make me sad and unhappy, the couple of days I didn't speak with her I was much better. Last evening Elliot and Zhu Kun came over and we smoked some grass and played some blues, it was quite nice, I wish we were in Jiang Hu or another small, wooden club. There are some important things to get done this weekend - some of it playing. I wish Helen were back, I am going to eliminate Qiqi from my phone again. Up next, the To Do list:

• Tidy up classroom
• Get triangles made for bedroom scene
• Get money transferred to China Merchants
• Correct reports
• Pick up HSK Score
• Respond to m97 and see about how to get an interview there
• Keep looking for jobs in Shanghai - start with galleries
• Study more Chinese
• Meet with Joel, Leng Du and Charlie tonight and tomorrow
• Show Leng Du what you are interested in as far as 'fashion' photography
  
• Brainstorm GTB - "Home is where the art is."
• Collect photos of cafe racers
• Print Moob and Negative
  

Week in Preview

I am just going to write my week in preview - like I do most Mondays - but instead of my book this time I am going to use my blog. Let's see - last week I got a bit done with the scanning slides and I have even started to get them into digital format so I can transfer them to screens - it would be nice to have a quicker pace but I have been so busy these days that I rarely get a longer than an hour or so to work on something. The photography/lomo article is still in its outline stage and I really do need to pay a little attention to that before it falls by the wayside and the Tibet trip needs finalizing. Rehearsal went well and I must check with the rest of the group to see where we are practicing. Don't forget that there is the event at Landgent tonight and make arrangements to repair the motorcycle and go see Charlie on Wednesday. Get the Lomo guys in here and maybe Leng Du for a photography workshop with the students - light graffiti! There is assessment that needs to be done, I want to retake the HSK (check on your results of the last test, and while you're at it check the grade you recieved from HUX). Which leads me to the next point, what classes are available this summer and next fall. Get yourself a credit card and pay down you bills. Units need reflecting on and start designing that free for all t shirt - in fact buy more blank t shirts.

Ok well that's the list, I would like to come back to my blog to check on my list and leave my book for drawing this week. BTW - if you are actually reading this, then check out my Lomo Home - it's fun!

Whao

Again, quite some time since I have been up here. 2010 was an absolute shit year and probably it was best for me not to post anything, it would have been depressing anyway. 2011 is turning out to be a bit better, trianign Wing Chun, studying and finally seem to be getting involved in a stable relationship (albeit slow, but that's good for me). I have been reading a lot about stylistic analysis recently, what has stuck with me is an article about the psychoanalytical aspects of Jackson Pollack paintings. Recently I have begun to look at my art in the same way. Unlike Pollack, I am not looking to figure stuff out, rather I a looking to express the way things are. Similar to a Ravi Shankar concert I attended years ago. Anyway, have a look.

Far Too Long

Far too long since I have written, I am getting back into now. I have just been so busy doing that there has not been time to think, at least not about things that don't relate to work. But last night I was reading another book about Zen and I can across this passage:

To model yourself after the way of the Buddhas is to model yourself after yourself. To model yourself after yourself is to forget yourself. To forget yourself is to be authenticated by all things. To be authenticated by all things is to effect the molting of body-mind, both yours and others'. The distinguishing marks of enlightenment dissolve and causes the dissolving distinguishing marks of enlightenment to emerge continuously

At first, when you seek the truth, you have distanced yourself from its domain. Finally, when truth is correctly transmitted to you, you are immediately the primordial person.

There is a lot going on in here ad what I think I like most is the finding in past experience illustrations of what is being said. I suppose not writing for a while has lead me to have experiences so that I can come here today and write about events that correspond with intellectual pursuits. I won't go on and on, but here is one.

I have been studying Wing Chun Chuan recently. One of the exercises that our coach has us go through is a push and pull duel with another student. The students take a stance similar to that of sprinter's stretch and slowly play in and out of one another, looking for places that the other is falling off balance. Then taking advantage of that off balance feeling. After several minutes of the exercise one start not to feel like there is a person, just flowing of energy and one becomes in tune with the push and pull. This may sound kind of flakey, but I cannot think of another way to describe it. It's a rocking, a flowing, not looking for opening but feeling an opening.

I have read Zen and Tao texts for many years now and while I have understood intellectually the points, physically experiencing the points is a whole different way. I have similar experience riding a motorcycle, or swimming and surfing. Tomorrow I will hit the slopes for the first time in two years. I'll let you know how it goes.