Depression is a focus on the past. Anxiety is a focus on the future. Breathe in presence. Exhale stress. Focus on what you can do. Do.
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Being funny with students requires a certain amount of facial expression. I have been debilitated in my attempt to be funny with students.
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As a teacher, I see the full range of work ethic and value choices. Tatum works while Melanie sleeps. I do not judge because everyone is fighting a battle. I provide a safe place for students to create and breathe and sleep and be. I create a non-judgmental space that often accomodates students and adults who feel free to voice thier opinions... which can often be judgmental. We are fighting battles and we are on our own journies of self awareness. Peace.
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No peaking, and the experience is more valuable than the product.
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Observational pencil sketch of bananas.
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Drawing to see. Seeing in parts.
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This one is from a photo.
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Teaching painting is a great task to ask of a person who doesn't paint. I do not paint. I teach the manipulation of media through experience. "Learn from doing!" I say. Monochromatic pastel exercises help my students to get a handle on the media. We explore value and composition and the handling of media. Sometimes happy accidents occur. This was my example to the teens on composition and value. It is a journey.
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Often I am given to making marks on paper that reflect the objects I see coming towards me as I gaze out the front car window. I do this exercise as a passenger of course. The goal is not the end product, but the process of connecting what I see with motor control. The product is an indication of movement and energy. Give it a try!
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Lighthouses offer a plethora of possibilities for metaphors. This was an exercise in composition and uses for watercolor.
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A quick sketch from a memory of an encounter on a visit to Maine.
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Watercolor and pen
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Pencil. Waiting for my daughter to complete her shopping at forever 12... I mean forever 21...
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What is your relationship with a Higer Power like? A friend of mine mentioned to me that a Rabbi Friend of his suggested that God likes a good argument. I thought that was funny. The self portrait is G2 .o5 on bristol board with marker for the added color.
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Gouache experiment.
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A wonderful reflective poem from Wendell Berry entitled "How to be a poet" is a fantastic foundation for an art curriculum. The last of three stanzas reads as follows:
Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.
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It's hot. No air in school, so we took to the shade and drew trees. I drew students drawing trees.
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I use to take students to museums. COVID has altered much. We adjust now. So much is virtual.
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A value study sample for students. Grey out the paper. Erase light areas. Darken shaded areas. Refine. Lots of success on this one.
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This quick sketch of an impressionist painting is a reminder to me of how we cannot see anything until we are taught to see it. I was enjoying the painting because of the way Tarbell captured light, when a man and his wife joined me. The man said to his wife: "This is a wonderful painting, but I wonder whose lap the baby is on.". I was shocked because I was not able to see the baby till he mentioned that there was one. I noticed that it was indeed difficult to tell whose lap it was on. It was a transformative and humbling experience.
Hello, my name is Dean C. Graf, 
