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Kashia Moua

February 25, 2016


Art 135
Amber Ward
Written Reflection: The Journey
The Journey is a studio project that is intended to inspire the artist to reflect on some
aspect of their personal development over the course of time. The key concept of this project is
journey which can be defined as the act of traveling from one place to another or a long and
often difficult process of personal change and development (Oxford Dictionaries). Some
attributes that can be assigned to the concept of journey are that journeys can be literal or
metaphorical, that journeys can have moral significance, that journeys can be direct or indirect,
and that journeys often have many milestones.
For our Art 135 class, the subject of our Journey project was our development as art
educators. Essential questions such as what or who inspired you to embark on this art education
journey, what turning points determined your pathways to art education, and how is it that
you arrived here prompted us to think about our origins, our encounters and obstacles, and
where we are now as art educators. We also read from Michael Birds 100 ideas that changed art
and John Parks Universal principles of art: 100 key concepts for understanding, analyzing, and
practicing art to learn some concepts and principles that could be applied to the project. From
Bird, we learned about narrative, making books, allegory, authenticity, the artist, and conceptual
art. From Parks we learned about autobiography, imagination, and semiotics. These concepts and

principles all have the common theme of chronicling ones experiences accumulated over a
lifetime and presenting it through art.
The project itself has us design a handmade book or altered book that answers one or
more of the essential questions about our art educator journey. This book making process did not
limit us to conventional bounded books and we could use any medium to create our books. Our
books did not have pages or text or even pictures and the books themselves could be the artwork.
This allowed us to interpret our project freely and I was surprised at some of the ways my peers
made their books. I tackled this project in an orthodox manner and defaced a hardbound book
with my journey. I appropriated Michelangelos The Creation of Adam on the inner covers of my
book in order to show the influence my father had on my growth as an artist and educator. I
mainly drew on the pages but I did cut out a chunk of pages to do a relief and I plan to collage
photos and copies of my artwork over the years on the pages as I go along. The concepts I
applied are autobiography, imagination, semiotics, authenticity, and the artist.
As a potential art project for high school students, I believe it will be a good project to do
not just for self-reflection but also so that the educator can learn about the student. I found that
most of the concepts in the assigned readings were applicable to the project and gave me a
vocabulary to describe the process so I would keep the readings but scan and print them out in a
packet to give to the students before they do the project. The big idea would still be journey but I
would change the essential questions to focus on more relevant subjects to the students such as
their journey as a student, their journey making art, or their journey towards a goal they have set
for themselves in the future. Before they do the art portion, I may have the students do an idea
map and brainstorm what they want to do for their project. For example if they want to make a
narrative, it would be a good idea to organize the significant events in their lives on paper first

before they put it together through art. Then I would show my students examples of other artists
works that also incorporate the idea of journey and examples of book art for inspiration. I would
provide students with old books they could alter but encourage them to think outside the box and
make their own books with the materials provided and the materials I provide. I would provide a
variety of materials that will give students options to cut, glue, and craft their project but I will
also allow students that want to do something different (ie. clay, metal) to be able to access those
materials and use it for this project. This is a good project to do early in the school year to gauge
student ability and participation so I would not spend too much time on it in order to assess them
and use them to learn more about the students.

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