Friday, April 30, 2010
Breakthroughs
I just gotta share, I feel so - what? happy, fortunate, rewarded - yes, all of that. There were two breakthroughs that fell to me this week. One regarding my artwork, but I also want to talk about my class in ESL (English as a Second Language).
I've been teaching ESL to a number of refugees from Bhutan once a week for maybe three months now. I took this on reluctantly - it was much easier, and more fun working at the low-intermediate level with Mexicans and assorted others from Asia and the Mideast. But then we had this Bhutanese group dumped on us. They knew NOTHING. Zombies! To say that they were at a basic level would be gross grade inflation. We have tons of great teaching manuals and materials, but you have to be able to at least communicate somehow to use them. There aren't any guides for starting with adults who know nothing. This group hit all our classes, and all the teachers felt flummoxed.
A little background: I'm working as a volunteer with the South Philadelphia Literacy Partnership, and we provide free ESL classes to anybody who walks in. Our classes are held in a battered Community Center in South Philadelphia. We provide eight 2 1/2 hr classes every week and by now have an experienced staff of volunteers and have established a degree of credibility (many groups start an ESL program that doesn't catch and soon peters out for a variety of reasons). So these Bhutanese were coming to a bunch of our weekly classes, not just mine on Wednesday mornings.
OK, so how do you start with a group like this? Lists of things (the alphabet, days, weeks, numbers, time, etc) and verbs. Flash cards of subjects, verbs and objects to assemble 3-word sentences. About a month ago, I realized that these people really were understanding some things and had memorized a lot of words, especially verbs - thank you to all the other teachers. They do great with flash cards. But they had no concept of reading, very limited writing (watching them write their names on the sign-in sheet is like watching a three-year old learn to print). And they refused to use English. Getting them to repeat a three-word sentence was almost impossible.
I kept lowering my entry point for instruction - finally realized that these poor people were starting without any knowledge of the Latin alphabet! They'd memorized it by now, but didn't have the easy facility that we all take for granted. They used Devanagari - the language used by some 17 million other Bhutanese, Nepalis, Burmese and Indians. It looks a lot like Punjabi with a line over every word. Also, English has sounds they don't use. So, I use simple children's songs, lots of alphabet exercises and we sing the Alphabet Song repeatedly in every class. I use stuff like Pat-a Cake to support the sound of English and add kinetic activity.
But none of that got them to use English themselves. So I tried games. Shoots and Ladders (actually, Slides and Ladders - how would you ever define a "Shoot?") was way too complex. I finally hit it with Dominos, and over a couple of weeks was able to get the idea of the game across. This week they got it that after they played a Domino, they should turn to their neighbor and say "Do you have a two (or whatever number was needed)?" and the answer should be "Yes, I have a ---," or "No, I don't have a ---." Wow! Lots of surprise and slow smiles. And when one of their children rolled a soccer ball to me, I got them to say "Throw the ball to him." They have now successfully put sentences together. And USED them! We have something to build from!
So that was big-time success, as far as I'm concerned. But there was more to this class. They do murmur "thank you" as they leave class, but it is hard to really know whether what I'm doing is appreciated - after all, we can't talk together (at least, not yet). The only indication is that the size of my class has slowly been growing (from the initial 5 or so, it is now 14 or so).
This past Wednesday after the class had started, we had to move to another room. That meant taking the easel and all my backpack, notebook, and piles of stuff. The class would not let me carry a thing, not even a paper! They took it all, and put it on the table in the new room, with even a little bow to me. Then they repeated the process at the end of the class. It was clearly out of respect, and made me feel so very appreciated and cared for. I still get a warm feeling when I think about it. What a great payback for being able to work with them and help them!
So that was my class this week. The history of these Bhutanese refugees is fascinating, and tragic. Another on-going catastrophe created deliberately, by political choice and intolerance of ethnic differences.
Click here for their story, including how they came to be in the USA after 17 years in refugee camps.
Ummm.
Still with me, after that long digression?
Then, on to the next:
The breakthrough in my painting comes from trying to find a background for my painting of a standing nude studio model that provides some kind of INTEREST, some CONTEXT that goes beyond simply being One More Painting of a Standing Nude Studio Model. My solution was to add literary content to the painting, but in a way which is in itself semi-abstract. The goal would be to use script to create a question or indicate subject matter, but in to way to make any kind of statement. That, after all, is what can and must be left to the observer.
After a lot of experimenting with oil sticks, brushes and different viscosity of paints, and paint markers, I found a system that I thought might work for what I wanted to do. And I think it did. Here is my standing nude studio model, as she is developing. Adding script did demand a lot of additional work on the figure (every small change in a painting always demands a lot of other changes to accommodate it), but here is where things stand now - before and after the script:
This is still a work in progress. Some of that script needs to be toned down, the cloth needs a slight figuration, and that black panel now needs a white (or gray, I haven't decided yet) edge.
Preparing to add script to the painting, I wanted to first try the technique and see if I really did like the results on a work that I didn't care too much about. So I chose a figure I painted a year ago with Doug Martenson and have never liked much (no fault of his, he did his best to advise). It is just to vacant to have much interest. Adding script changed it dramatically, and I like it a lot better:
So I'm rather taken by the impact of what script does to a painting. I think it may especially lend itself to portraiture in a strong way. There is a lot to play with and learn, here. How literal should it be? In what way should it relate to or reflect or comment on the object? At what point would it begin to detract from the subject?
And of course, there is all the wealth of visual stuff - color, how clear, how large, what about erasures, blots, crossouts, scratches, broken lines, on and on. Much to explore!
I've been teaching ESL to a number of refugees from Bhutan once a week for maybe three months now. I took this on reluctantly - it was much easier, and more fun working at the low-intermediate level with Mexicans and assorted others from Asia and the Mideast. But then we had this Bhutanese group dumped on us. They knew NOTHING. Zombies! To say that they were at a basic level would be gross grade inflation. We have tons of great teaching manuals and materials, but you have to be able to at least communicate somehow to use them. There aren't any guides for starting with adults who know nothing. This group hit all our classes, and all the teachers felt flummoxed.
A little background: I'm working as a volunteer with the South Philadelphia Literacy Partnership, and we provide free ESL classes to anybody who walks in. Our classes are held in a battered Community Center in South Philadelphia. We provide eight 2 1/2 hr classes every week and by now have an experienced staff of volunteers and have established a degree of credibility (many groups start an ESL program that doesn't catch and soon peters out for a variety of reasons). So these Bhutanese were coming to a bunch of our weekly classes, not just mine on Wednesday mornings.
OK, so how do you start with a group like this? Lists of things (the alphabet, days, weeks, numbers, time, etc) and verbs. Flash cards of subjects, verbs and objects to assemble 3-word sentences. About a month ago, I realized that these people really were understanding some things and had memorized a lot of words, especially verbs - thank you to all the other teachers. They do great with flash cards. But they had no concept of reading, very limited writing (watching them write their names on the sign-in sheet is like watching a three-year old learn to print). And they refused to use English. Getting them to repeat a three-word sentence was almost impossible.
I kept lowering my entry point for instruction - finally realized that these poor people were starting without any knowledge of the Latin alphabet! They'd memorized it by now, but didn't have the easy facility that we all take for granted. They used Devanagari - the language used by some 17 million other Bhutanese, Nepalis, Burmese and Indians. It looks a lot like Punjabi with a line over every word. Also, English has sounds they don't use. So, I use simple children's songs, lots of alphabet exercises and we sing the Alphabet Song repeatedly in every class. I use stuff like Pat-a Cake to support the sound of English and add kinetic activity.
But none of that got them to use English themselves. So I tried games. Shoots and Ladders (actually, Slides and Ladders - how would you ever define a "Shoot?") was way too complex. I finally hit it with Dominos, and over a couple of weeks was able to get the idea of the game across. This week they got it that after they played a Domino, they should turn to their neighbor and say "Do you have a two (or whatever number was needed)?" and the answer should be "Yes, I have a ---," or "No, I don't have a ---." Wow! Lots of surprise and slow smiles. And when one of their children rolled a soccer ball to me, I got them to say "Throw the ball to him." They have now successfully put sentences together. And USED them! We have something to build from!
So that was big-time success, as far as I'm concerned. But there was more to this class. They do murmur "thank you" as they leave class, but it is hard to really know whether what I'm doing is appreciated - after all, we can't talk together (at least, not yet). The only indication is that the size of my class has slowly been growing (from the initial 5 or so, it is now 14 or so).
This past Wednesday after the class had started, we had to move to another room. That meant taking the easel and all my backpack, notebook, and piles of stuff. The class would not let me carry a thing, not even a paper! They took it all, and put it on the table in the new room, with even a little bow to me. Then they repeated the process at the end of the class. It was clearly out of respect, and made me feel so very appreciated and cared for. I still get a warm feeling when I think about it. What a great payback for being able to work with them and help them!
Part of my class, at Dominos: "Do you have a five?"
So that was my class this week. The history of these Bhutanese refugees is fascinating, and tragic. Another on-going catastrophe created deliberately, by political choice and intolerance of ethnic differences.
Click here for their story, including how they came to be in the USA after 17 years in refugee camps.
Ummm.
Still with me, after that long digression?
Then, on to the next:
The breakthrough in my painting comes from trying to find a background for my painting of a standing nude studio model that provides some kind of INTEREST, some CONTEXT that goes beyond simply being One More Painting of a Standing Nude Studio Model. My solution was to add literary content to the painting, but in a way which is in itself semi-abstract. The goal would be to use script to create a question or indicate subject matter, but in to way to make any kind of statement. That, after all, is what can and must be left to the observer.
After a lot of experimenting with oil sticks, brushes and different viscosity of paints, and paint markers, I found a system that I thought might work for what I wanted to do. And I think it did. Here is my standing nude studio model, as she is developing. Adding script did demand a lot of additional work on the figure (every small change in a painting always demands a lot of other changes to accommodate it), but here is where things stand now - before and after the script:
The script, again, is not meant to be clear enough to read. But it is taken from "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri, as he talks about the relationship of the background to the model. So there is this deliberate and logical contextural relationship.
This is still a work in progress. Some of that script needs to be toned down, the cloth needs a slight figuration, and that black panel now needs a white (or gray, I haven't decided yet) edge.
Preparing to add script to the painting, I wanted to first try the technique and see if I really did like the results on a work that I didn't care too much about. So I chose a figure I painted a year ago with Doug Martenson and have never liked much (no fault of his, he did his best to advise). It is just to vacant to have much interest. Adding script changed it dramatically, and I like it a lot better:
The same old painting, before and after adding script and scratches. Of course that also required adding some additional highlights to the figure, but that was pretty minor.
Reminder: Just click on any of these images to enlarge them
So I'm rather taken by the impact of what script does to a painting. I think it may especially lend itself to portraiture in a strong way. There is a lot to play with and learn, here. How literal should it be? In what way should it relate to or reflect or comment on the object? At what point would it begin to detract from the subject?
And of course, there is all the wealth of visual stuff - color, how clear, how large, what about erasures, blots, crossouts, scratches, broken lines, on and on. Much to explore!
