UAEA: ST GEORGE

i am so very behind on blogging. it has been a long while. hello again blogosphere.

two weekends ago a group of art education students and myself took a trip down to the ever sunny st. george for a utah-wide art education conference. classes and workshops were held, speakers spoke, and adventures ensued. we have a great collection of people in art ed. put us all together in large vans and it gets pretty entertaining. we also went on a little hike to slot canyon with dr. mark graham but it was all so sudden and spontaneous that i forgot to bring even one of my four cameras, so i have no documentation of it yet. but i did collect red dirt in a water bottle so i can make paint or pastels out of it. now, i suppose i should educate you on what i learned and experienced. 

{and as a side note, seeing palm trees in utah was just plain weird. those belong in florida}.

 i took my nikon dslr but only used my iphone to take pictures. life moves fast. go figure.

watercolor painting the red rocks.

 paint out.

 

 the next three were taken by diane.

 our chair from DI stuffed in the van. 

 street painting workshop. 

brandon with model magic clay on his face. he provided the hilarious stories, we provided the laughter.

kolob.

the keynote speaker was dan goods. he is an artist that works for the jet propulsion lab {jpl} at nasa. sounds awesome you say? that's because it is. very. he has worked on some some amazing projects including typography on fog, eclouds, and an installation of sand representing the galaxies. 

read about him here. and then watch these videos:

i learned about collaboration, fingerprint drawing flipbooks, ink monsters, shaving cream screen printing, portable art galleries, post-structuralism, autonomy & identity, cooperative studio practices, a lot of other things, and most importantly, using all of these things and more to become a better teacher. i love everything about the education i am pursuing. art is important, remember that. and watch this ted talk: {i can't figure out how to get rid of the large gap unfortunately}.

we have awesome professors. who may or may not have helped facilitate the making of street art in downtown st. george. we visited the local DI [skipped class] and once there brandon proposed an idea for an installation. we bought a chair, some information/inspirational books, a book rack, and sidewalk chalk. the purpose was for passersby to take a moment to sit in the chair, read and/or think about things, and then write their thoughts with chalk. we even created an email so that others could share documentation/thoughts with us after we had left. randallsvandals@gmail.com. {randall is the name of brandon's hedgehog if you were curious}. shelby also made a video about it:

this week will you please stop, sit, and think about it? write your thoughts in a journal or even better in a public place. life is better when you slow down and take a look around.

thank you art ed friends and st. george for a wonderful weekend full of laughter, learning, and adventure.