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artist's way guided intent (december)
December 7, 2007
artist's way: session 11
by gl. at 12:38 pm
our final week is always a surprise when it arrives, even though i often warn us about its coming a month in advance because the participants are assigned a "response project" to present at the last session.
response projects are like final projects but they aren't worth 50% of your grade. (as i kept reminding them, "you can't fail artist's way!") it gives creative cluster members an opportunity to explore one of the arts we've done during our time together or to strike out on their own. because while i very much enjoy creating the opportunity for them to create art at the studio, the point of going through artist's way is to learn to create art outside the studio on your own. :) anyway, some really phenomenal pieces, including a series of images connected to the basic principles, a powerful music cd, a set of art dolls representing everyone in the cluster, a slideshow presentation, a guerilla art project with hearts in library books, a copperplate etching, a small dancing performance, and an artist's book.
after each presentation i gave everyone an specially chosen inspirational magnet and a dried scarlet runner bean from our garden. but there was a lot of gifting going on: laminated hearts, art dolls, books, and even a tiny tea set!
i am pleased to announce that given my experience with this cluster, the 10-week format works! so i'm going to try it again, timing the next artist's way creative cluster with the spring quarterly calendar in april 2008.
center (faith): soup! the studio has a kitchen; why not use it? :) since i believe creativity is not just limited to Art, on the last session we make a stone soup where each member contributes something. i provide a veggie broth base, and this year we had a stew chock full of carrots, onions, parsnips, yams & brussel sprouts. the rosemary is for remembrance. i usually add special star pastini 10 minutes before serving, but one of the particiants brought noodles, so we had starless soup. but the fried onions i got on the outing last week were a big hit!
music: k.d. lang's ingenue
posted by gl. | December 7, 2007 12:38 PM | comments (4) | categories: artist's way
Comments
It would be so SAD to fail Artist's Way!
Posted by: michael5000 at December 7, 2007 11:24 PM
m5000, this is partly why i never made a good adjunct. ;)
Posted by: gl. at December 9, 2007 9:08 PM
I love the gifting that you do as part of your events! The sense of abundance it creates - so YUMMY! And the final projects sound GREAT! This is part of what's so wonderful about doing longer, more intensive courses - people bond with one another and hopefully, feel more comfortable to take risks and dive in and be vulnerable with each other.
And questions - Session 11 in a ten-week course? And did they used to be a different length? What led to the changes?
Posted by: Bridget Benton at December 10, 2007 10:13 PM
bridget: the time it takes is 10 weeks, but there are 11 sessions. it's not week 1 'till a week has gone by! :)
i reduced it because the job club people said it needed to be shorter; it was 12 weeks long. i strongly resisted it, but after 2 spring clusters didn't fill, i decided i could probably combine two chapters and try for 10 weeks. this gave me the advantage of using the psu/osu quarterly calendar to pick when classes begin/end. in fall, especially, that means i get 2 more weeks to promote, and during the time people are more likely to be scheduling that sort of thing. it seems to me portland is fairly attuned the the psu calendar.
so now we'll see if the format change makes a difference in filling spring classes. i sure hope so!
Posted by: gl. at December 11, 2007 3:10 AM