What is my perspective? Course Philosophy
The course, Introduction to Visual Art, is intended to be a holistic introduction to art making. Primarily targeting freshman and sophomores, this course will be enrolled with many students who have never taken a high school level art class before. The Introduction to Visual Art course must be taken prior to enrolling in more advanced art electives such as Figure Drawing and Printmaking. Because it is an introductory course, there will be a wide range of abilities represented. Due to this, the course is designed to accommodate students of all aptitudes. The coursework appeals to novice students who have never drawn before and will challenge students who enter the program with more developed skills or innate talent.
Introduction to Visual Art is guided by the yearlong essential question, What is my perspective? This question steers the curriculum through an exploration of the power and capability of art and the artist. The essential question deals not only with visual perspective, the way in which objects appear to the eye, but also cognitive perspective, one’s point of view and the context that informs one’s beliefs, opinions, and experiences. It is my goal, through the course, to imbue students with the understanding of how important it is to question their own perspective, both visually and cognitively. They will learn to shift their visual perspective, thereby improving the compositional strength and interest of their artwork. They will also learn to shift their cognitive perspective, to see things from alternate points of view and widen their world view.
The course is divided into four units that are designed to introduce students to the versatility of artistic media. Under the umbrella of the essential question, each unit builds on the last and requires students to apply their knowledge in a variety of applications. Unit One, How do I see Art? is about challenging the traditional, western perspective of what art is. It focuses on building an art historical knowledge base through exposing students to a wide range of references and materials. The goal is to increase their comprehension of what counts as art. Unit One also concentrates on building critical thinking skills and giving students a vocabulary to discuss their artistic choices. The art making in this unit will focus heavily on forming conceptual ideas. This unit is not about building technical skills, as those skills will be developed in the following units, but rather piquing the artistic creativity of the students and pushing them to apply their dynamic thinking to each project they encounter.
Unit Two, How do I see my identity?, is designed to help students apply the critical thinking skills they have started to develop in Unit One to issues regarding their identity. They will be challenged to use symbolic imagery to represent their personality, personal history and social affiliations from various perspectives. This objective is coupled with the introduction of the Elements and Principles of art. The projects within this unit will strengthen the students’ use of line, value, form and shape while working with media such as pencil and charcoal.
The third unit will begin students working with color media and will continue application of the elements and principles of art, with an emphasis on color and space. These skills will be established in the context of Unit Three’s essential question, How do I see my community? which will prompt students to explore the features and figures that make their community unique. This unit is intended to build on the previous units both technically and conceptually. The projects it entails are more complex – they require more research, greater analysis of background information and the ability to convey a narrative symbolically.
The culminating unit of the course employs the students’ knowledge of the elements and principles of design and their ability to create engaging compositions with a myriad of materials. Using this body of knowledge and skills, the unit, entitled How do I see the media?, focuses on messaging in art. The projects will engage the students in creating dynamic, thoughtful works of art that demonstrate clear intent, direct messages and consideration of their audience. The students will also employ their research and critical thinking skills to explore works of motivated art and discover their purpose and partiality.