Coil Pots, African Shrines and Grayson Perry!!! Raise Your Hand if You DON'T see the connection.

So, students are just getting started on this lesson in ceramics. Last Sunday, after a week of pulling students teeth to finish their introductory pinch pot lesson in ceramics, a lesson that I thought had enough choice and gave students a good balance of skill building and creative expression, and which more than half the class was silently and slowly whining "So why are we doing this? What is the point? I hate making mindless patterns. WTF?" I decided to throw my usual tradition of one by one introducing basic skills out the window and throw my ceramics classes into the big leagues.

In this post I'll be talking about a lesson my class started last week where I introduced coil pots in a new and hopefully engaging way. I began the lesson by showing my class a video on African Coil Pots. I found a video on YouTube, previewed it and imported it into the TEDed lesson creator. I then created questions in the TEDed creator and uploaded it to our online class management system so students who missed that day could catch up and get the same type of experience from watching it.

Here's the lesson on African Pottery Forming and Firing! I had them fill out a worksheet during the video, which I've found keeps about half of my students focused. I skipped around in the video to make sure there was time for conversation. During the video we talked about the history of ceramics, the way clay is made, construction and firing techniques. I also asked an administrator who did his student teaching in Africa to come in and give his two cents, and with his help we pulled up Google map and pointed out the regions of Africa where artwork in the video was shown, and emphasized to our students that Africa was a continent, with hundreds of different languages and cultures, beliefs and distinct styles of art. Now...The reason I started the lesson with traditional African pottery is to illustrate that the hand building techniques that we've started the semester off with are among the oldest art and craft making techniques of our human race. We talk a little bit about the function of the pottery as well as the beauty of the pottery. We talk about the fact that only women are seen making pottery in the video. I mention that there are similar videos from almost every remote corner of the world, including from our own country, and I briefly show a couple of slides of Maria Martinez.

After students have completed the worksheet for the video and we've discussed it, I introduced Grayson Perry. I explain to them that from now on, I expect them to put themselves into their artwork. Whereas in the previous lesson abstract designs were the focus of the work, from now on I want them to make work that is meaningful to them, that they put their heart and soul into. I tell my students in my classes that as artists they don't have to give up all of their secrets, that some artists like to make their audience guess at the meaning of their work by making their work like an illusive and beautiful poem. Some artists only give hints to their soul, and other artists like to throw up their soul all over their artworks. I tell students that I love both types of artists equally, but that I'm the type of artist that likes to throw up my soul all over my painting, and I admire students who have the courage. In this particular I attempted to bring in student interest and student voice, by having them brainstorm a narrative about a time in their life when there was a big change and how it affected them. I show Grayson Perry's pottery, as well as his quilts and pictures of him cross-dressing and talk about how his artwork reflects his personal beliefs about subjects very important to him. I talk about how he puts it all out there in a narrative and beautiful way. Students perk up a bit at his scandalous cross dressing and bold illustrations.

The next day we start the coil pots together. We are now a few days into the lesson, and focusing primarily on the technical pots. I have had several students share personal stories with me of the times in their lives when everything changed. Parents being sent to jail, parents splitting up, when they got caught doing something, when they had a medical emergency and almost died. For those students that are hesitant to "throw up their soul" I talk to them about memories, and how memories stick around for a reason. If they remember something that happened when they were 7, they probably remember it for a reason. I tell them that the day their favorite cereal stopped showing up on the grocery store shelves might be as important as any other. Sometimes taking life seriously is over rated. I also talk to students who are struggling with reliving traumatic memories about resiliency. I talk to them about how processing a memory and focusing on how they've survived through the hard times can change them from a victim to a survivor. I talk to them about neurons and brain chemistry and how they have the power to take control of their lives and rise above their past.

After students begin to finish their vase shapes, I'll demo how to pull handles, make feet and give a few options for lids, and we'll revisit the work of Grayson Perry, along with, perhaps, a few other narrative contemporary ceramic artists. We'll talk about the technical aspects of bas-relief, intaglio and introduce under glazes. I'll talk about how I'd rather have students create one meaningful and marvelous piece of art than rush through to the end, and students will work on their story telling. We'll experiment with photographic transfer, tracing, and projecting. We'll layer images and create meaning. Throughout the process we'll post our progress on Tumblr, they'll write their struggles and triumphs and I'll give them constructive criticism and praise. And when all of the pots come out of the kiln, we'll write artist statements and have a show, perhaps in the school library, perhaps at a local coffee shop.

This lesson began before I read the articles this week, so in retrospect I could've done things a bit differently that first day when we looked at the art from Africa and the work of Grayson Perry. The Burnaham and Kai-Kee book talked about dialogue surrounding art appreciation in many of the chapters. Chapter 6 which focused on questioning is where my mind turns to as I reflect on that day a week and a half when I was totally guilty of asking leading questions and I like the idea of starting with one exemplary piece of art and spending 1-2 minutes silently looking. That doesn't sound like a lot of time, but man, 1 silent minute of visual concentration in any high school classis a challenge! Then, as the book's authors suggest, open up discussion by asking for observations or thoughts. I really like that in the book, a museum educator gives no information to the viewers up front, so they don't first see the works of art as a historical objects. I wonder what the authors would say about cultural objects such as African shrine pottery? During my lesson, one of the topics I touched on for about 30 seconds was the inequality between the money the African artists made and the amount the galleries made. Though I was pressed to cram all of this into one day, I think it's important to have the conversation about historical cultural artifacts showing up in museums half a world away. This would have been a good time to have the conversation about whether functional or ceremonial pieces are in fact art. Something else I regret about the way the beginning of this lesson started was the lack of time given to students to create dialogue based on their prior knowledge. From previous experience I recognize that working in small groups or partners to come up with answers is a valuable way to start dialogue based on prior knowledge. Students are able to test out their opinions and observations without fear of exposing themselves to the larger group. They are also more likely to ask a question if they realize they are not the only one that doesn’t understand.

I’m excited to see where this project will go, and look forward to creating an open dialogue where I am more careful about the questions I ask. I’ll let students voice their observations and theories, and bring in their prior knowledge, and I’ll teach them about the culture, stories and intention of the art and artists that we look at. Aw man, I spent so much energy on telling the story of the lesson that I have no energy for quoting the readings more. You get the point though, right?? Art History- connecting the past, with contemporary and bringing in students personal experience to make it relative and to connect the student with the world around them. Peace.