Marcel Dzama

100,000 Years of Revenge, 2004, http://www.richardhellergallery.com

There is the peculiar feeling in a Marcel Dzama painting that you’ve woken up into a dream. The places are vaguely familiar and people unthreatening as they go about their business unaware of you. But as you rub your eyes and become more aware of where you are, there is a sense that there are problems here. Something is not right.

Last Winter Here, 2004, http://www.richardhellergallery.com

Oh yes, things are very wrong indeed.

Untitled, 2003, http://www.richardhellergallery.com

Dzama paints in a straightforward figural style, and his people and animal hybrids are reminiscent of mid-century illustrations or some hand-me-down children's book with yellowed pages. He uses a root beer base for his melancholic browns and khakis, and his figures bundle up in furs and overcoats appropriate for Dzama’s Winnipeg home. They smile, chat and link arms as they point and laugh at aliens, wrestle bears, and threaten to kill each other. And there are tree people.

Fearful Lineup, 2004, http://www.richardhellergallery.com

Some of it can be quite dark, but it is often darkly comic. His sketchbooks, recently published by McSweeney’s, reveal a sense of humor behind the surrealism. Hilariously appropriated magazine clippings (the mayor’s head atop a dinosaur with new caption: “Mayor Glen Murrayasaurus, I Love You!”), comic strips (Super Happy Fun Comic: “I wish my mother would stop lighting my bed on fire”), notes, Polaroids and sketches for costume pieces give some insight to the process. These aren't merely clever illustrations, but the work of a true artist with a brilliant (and enviable) imagination.

Untitled, 2007, http://www.artnet.com/

His work is quite fashionable these days – celebrities are driving his prices up and his paintings can be found on album covers by Beck and They Might Be Giants – but his work still connects at a deep, perhaps subconscious level. It’s not necessary to share his or his character’s experience (thankfully) because the otherworldly, dreamlike quality is universally beguiling. He is a sort-of modern day De Chirico in the sense that his work is simple, but implies a vaguely disturbing narrative beyond the image. There is also something classic and shopworn about his work that reminds me of the expressionistic, vintage-inspired films of Guy Maddin (also from Winnipeg).

Untitled, 2002, http://www.tate.org.uk

Dzama formed a group called The Royal Art Lodge with some like-minded artist friends in 1996 as a means to collaborate and share drawings and ideas. Each finished work they produce is sorted into piles of "good", "bad" and "OK", and stamped with a date. They apparently still meet once a week.

Art, Contemporary.

I am often asked by one of my students, usually following a discussion of modern art, “So what is going on in art today? What movement are we in?”

One of the biggest challenges of teaching art is the problem of contemporary art: How do you keep abreast of current trends and movements in contemporary art, and how do you determine which artists are relevant, lasting, or universal? It is too vast an ocean, it seems, and too deep with varieties of approach. Factors that helped create some formal or aesthetic commonality in the past – regional identity, shared faith, academic canon, mutual ideology – just do not exist the same way in our global culture. Is it a massive web of interrelated artists drawing from some collective database of influences, or a sea of individuals making art for a personal experience (a post-postmodernism?)

There are resources to help sift through the diaspora: online resources, local galleries and art magazines all offer some taste of what is currently happening in art. But perhaps the best resource is a series of books, webpages and videos made for PBS called Art: 21. The series focuses on current artists and organizes them according to themes such as romance, power, death, and so on. The artists chosen represent many different approaches, aesthetics, and nationalities, but all share an innate passion for art and creativity (and some degree of professional success). It is a well-presented series that offers a thoughtful and accessible overview of current trends in contemporary art.

So what movement are we in? Haven’t the foggiest.

Instead, I will post a few words about artists I discover here and there. Artists who interest me, or may be interesting to my students. Some come from Art: 21, some come from my own exploration, some… I don’t know where they come from. Perhaps after looking at several posts it will be possible to see a direction that contemporary artists are taking, but this will certainly be too incomplete a list to be indicative of anything more than my own passing fancy.

First up: Marcel Dzama.

New Art School is back! But different.

Too much has happened since my last post, so I will dispense with the detailed update. Here is what you need to know: I finished my first year at this new school, CH, and to answer my question below, “do the CH pros outweigh the HHS pros”? Yes. It is a wholly different experience, but put simply, yes. This is a destination job. I am teaching ideal classes (drawing and painting, graphic design, art history) in an academic community to students who by-and-large value creativity. I am able to make more meaningful connections with students, and I am still finding new challenges, both professional and personal. It is a very good place to be.

Another good place to be is grad school. I am now enrolled in a masters program at Ohio State University, and the function of this blog is going to change. While I still have funny stories about wacky things students (and sometimes I) say and do, I am going to use this blog in a different way. I will be using this space for some discussion of art education research and reflection on various practices. I invite discussion and feedback, so please do chime in if the spirit moves you.

Let me leave you with one funny story from last year (and the egg is on my face this time):

Art history student: “What was the relationship between van Gogh and Gauguin?”

Me: “Gauguin and van Gogh were close friends and similar artists, but very different personalities. Think of Gauguin as the yin to van Gogh’s wang.”

Class: (erupts in laughter)

Art history student: “Definitely putting that in my top 5 favorite teacher quotes on Facebook!”

Art, New School

"But you definitely won't have students humping each other in class, that's for sure"

This was the last phrase in a long list of "pros" we brainstormed that ultimately outweighed the "cons" in a dilemma I didn't expect to have this summer: I have decided to leave my current position to take a job at another school.

A little backstory: When we were living in Pittsburgh and finishing our teacher training, we hadn't really considered looking outside the area for jobs, even though the job situation was bleak in southwestern PA. It was on a whim that K (my wife) found a media specialist position open at CH, a renowned and prestigious public high school in the NC college town where she went to undergrad, and a short distance from her home town. Too good to pass up, yes? That's what her interviewing committee thought as well, when they picked her from over 100 applicants.

I got my job at HHS and you only need to skim a few previous posts to see how that went. But to recap: a troubled, resegregated school with strong neighborhood pride and also some strong neighborhood problems. In short, an academic disaster. Look at April/May posts to see the kinds of behavior problems that were customary.

In spite of this environment I was relatively successful in my short tenure. I made some worthwhile connections with students and even had a few breakthroughs along the way. I worked closely with the other performing arts teachers on the musical productions, and I helped to establish a visual art course in the International Baccalaureate program. Plus, it was a thrill to see our National Art Honors Society kids plan and enact an after-school art club for the nearby elementary school.

All of these things outweighed the kid who dropped his pants in class or the girl who cussed me out. Because, in part, I knew that my problems were not as severe as other teachers who were unable or unwilling to make a personal connection with the students. Also, it is often rare that good things outweigh the bad (waiters always remember the 1 bad table, not the 10 good ones), so I knew that these things must have really been true assets. That's why it was not hard to decide to stay at least one more year, even after being emotionally beaten down and exhausted at the end of the first. The next year still looked promising.

So why did I take a job at a different school?

It wasn't because HHS was a difficult school, or because I was unhappy in my placement. Quite the contrary, I told everyone at the end of the year that I had no intention to leave (In fact, teachers and students are reluctant to get to know new teachers because of the high turnover rate). In the back of my mind, however, there were two area schools that could tempt me away from HHS: The district's School for the Arts, and CH.

As it happened, the 30-year veteran art teacher at CH retired without warning this summer. Art teacher jobs are precious and rare commodities, despite the nation-wide teacher shortage, and a job at an academic school with a strong art tradition was impossible to ignore.

So what are the pros and cons, anyway?

Well, the pros are many. It is a school with a strong arts tradition. It has high student participation in visual arts, with students that go on to major in studio art or art history. It is in the process of becoming an arts academy, with which I will be involved (sure to be the subject of future posts). I will be teaching an AP Art History course. And, yes, behavior issues are very different at a school in an academic community. Oh, right, and my wife works there, too! (Indeed a plus - she student taught at my first school)

Cons include a faculty in a state of flux and the fact that this is an affluent community in which students will be successful regardless of who the art teacher is.

Do the CH pros outweigh the HHS pros? It is too soon to say. I hope so. I believe I am making the right decision, because I believe CH is a better fit for me. I did not choose this school because it is where my wife teaches, or because it will be easier (whatever that means) to teach there. I am sure I will find a way to make it hard.

I chose this school because it will challenge, and hopefully reward, everything I love about teaching.

I can say that I leave HHS with great affection, and with the feeling of unfinished business. I am truly disappointed that I did not fulfill my promise to students that I would stay for more than one year. They have become so accustomed to teachers coming and going that new teachers are often greeted with "Hi, I'm ___, are you gonna be here next year?"

I always answered that question "yes".

As it turns out, I am just another teacher who lied to them, who let them down. Art students who will be seniors this year will have had a different art teacher all four years. I am ashamed of this, and am especially sorry to the advanced and IB students with whom I had such a close relationship. But these students will be able to take care of themselves. I feel if I have betrayed anyone it is the student who maybe didn't care about school until my class. To that student, I want to say I'm truly sorry. I am sure they will have another, perhaps better, art teacher but I am sorry that I wasn't true to my word. Ultimately it is a professional decision, and one that I hope is properly reasoned.

My arts partners at HHS will be missed, as will the supportive principal. But I will most miss the great friends and mentors (why is this plural? there is only one Mary Beth) that made the experience so rich. I don't like the air of finality to this post, because I fully intend to raise a happy hour glass with them as often as possible this fall.

Now, who will I root for in HHS homecoming game against CH??

(by the way, CH's colors are black and gold: coincidence?)

Where is New Art School?, Revisited

Oops!

I realized, thanks to an email suggesting so, that the statement "big changes" next to a postcard from San Francisco would lead one to believe that New Art School is relocating to the Bay area. Not so. Just vacationed there.

More later...

Where is New Art School?

Why is the last post dated "May"? Why is there nothing posted in June or July? Perhaps it seems to you, dear occasional reader, that New Art School has gone on some sort of summer vacation. It is true. It has.

However, big changes are afoot for New Art School as the new year winds up. Once the dust settles and next of kin is notified, it will be posted about in detail. Please come back.

Pacman going to see Jesus

"It's pacman. And he's going to see Jesus."

For our project on surrealism, one student is painting exactly that. It's pacman. Going to see Jesus. The big yellow guy is on one side, gobbling up ice cream cones on his way across the page to a cross.

"See? It's pacman going to see Jesus!" he keeps telling me.

I helped him draw the pacman ghosts as angels with wings and a halo. He graciously let me keep it as a sample for future classes. It is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

"It's pacman. Going to see Jesus!"

Also, as part of the project, students read some surrealist literature and composed a surreal story to accompany their painting. Below, the legend of pacman going to see Jesus. A new religion, anyone? (Is it any less plausible, or relevant to modern times, than the Mormon bible?)