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Ultimately I want to be able to assist you in your development, so if there is something you want to know more about, I will try to guide you in the right direction.


Sunday, August 6, 2017

WK 1 Greetings/ Letter to Parents


Hello,

Thank you for your enrollment in our elective classes!

I’ve been an educator for over 15 years teaching both college and secondary students. I find it rewarding to help students develop their sense of design, skills, knowledge, and confidence to become the best artist/designer and student that they can be. Moreover, I am interested in helping people be the best they can be as human beings.

Additionally, I am a rancher and have been a commercial welder and an infantry soldier in the U.S. Army. That said, I understand that one of the keys to success and survivability is being able to follow procedures and maintain a disciplined approach to the task at hand. I’d like to make my expectations clear from the start for all of us to be successful this year.

Respect

·       Respect yourself and others – always.    Be the person you would look up to

·       The people and institutions, Code of Conduct and rules that try to make you the best you can be

Expectations

·       Honesty and Integrity - always

·       Work is to be respected no matter how great or small – yours and others - always

·       Work is to be done to the best of ones’ abilities and turned in on time following turn in procedures

·       Work areas are to be cleaned and tools and work put away before you exit

·       Timeliness.  I depend on you to be on time and ready to work. This means in your work area with paper & pencil sitting down, working on the task on the white board.  

·       Stay on task - always     

·       DO the right thing, not the easy one. Follow procedure and protocol

Cell Phones/electronic devices

·       Electronics off and stowed while in the classroom. Solves 100% of the problem every time.

·       Parents, if you need to get ahold of your student while in class, email me so they don’t get into trouble

Behavior

·       For 90% of issues, a reminder or mentoring is provided.

·       For the 10%, students are sent to the Choice program with a referral per infraction.

·       For the 5% of the above, parents will be called to find alternative solutions.

·       Should there be a 1%, a meeting with the student and parent will be scheduled through guidance



Parents, I will care for and safeguard your child as if they were mine while they are in my care. Students are in an active working environment and their health and safety is important to me. Students work with cutting and mixing tools in this environment as well as vapor(s) and dust may be present. Please email me with any specific health concerns or any other needs you have for your child. Mr. G

I look forward to working with you and making this year productive and enriching.





Mr. G












Greg Wortham, MFA

Lab Fees

              Just like college, there are costs incurred for classes which go beyond reading a textbook. I can assure you, the majority of your students’ time in this class is by producing great work! Please ask them to show you what they worked on during the weeks ahead. Even students initially not proficient in art will develop their skills. Please encourage them to develop a sense of pride in their work and confidence in their development.

At Ridge Community H.S., 3D/ Ceramics and 2D courses have a $25.00 lab fee to cover the cost of supplies, equipment and materials used in this class during the school year. After doing this for many years I can tell you that we make good use of the funds and you can check this by going to an art supply store and price checking. I save students and RCHS over 50% of what it would cost individually by purchasing in bulk and scouring sales.

Partial list of materials provided with lab fees for the class enrolled

2D/ Drawing

Paper/ Surface: manila, heavy weight, charcoal, watercolor, scratch board, construction paper, tag board, illustration board, matt board, plywood, scrapbook paper.  sketchbook when fees are paid in full

Media: pencils, pens, pen nibs, ink, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, paint markers, tempera, charcoal, markers, crayons, collage materials, felt, brushes (over 5 types), etc.

Adhesives: rubber cement, white glue, glue sticks, mounting tape, spray adhesive, office tape, painters tape, plastic adhesive tape, mounting adhesive glue, hot glue, etc.

Access to equipment/tools: paper cutter 36”x36”, matters adhesive gun, glue gun, light table, rulers, tape measures, scissors, cutting boards, exacto/utility knives, stencils/templates, punches, staplers, saws, hand tools, etc.

3D/Ceramics

Some of the above items but smaller quantities. Largely the budget goes towards clay and glaze, the colorant used to finish pottery made with heavy metals ($)

Equipment/tools/ consumables: pug mill, slab roller, clay tools, potters wheels, extruder, kiln, kiln equipment, dryers, saws, hand tools, wire cutters, plastic wrap, containers, mixers, trim tools, banding wheels, lumber, calipers, etc.



Your student is not required to provide anything for the course after paying the fee. I understand this is a hardship for some families. Families can pay either the full $25.00 in cash at one time or I offer the ability to pay the lab fee in $5 increments until the fee is paid off within the first six weeks of enrollment. We are sorry, but checks are not accepted due to insufficient funds issues in the past.

Parents, if you do not want your child to participate in this elective class, you must disenroll your student through the guidance department - I don’t have the ability to change your students schedule. Your student will have the ability to fill out a change of schedule request form online once released or you may speak to their guidance counselor.  If you would like more clarification on this, please contact me at Gregory.wortham@polk-fl.net

This letter is sent home with students to be signed and returned. This is to formally alert the parent that there is a financial obligation to be met for credit for this class

Name                                                                         Signature                                                                   Date



___________________________________________              __________________________________              __________

Please return form within 1 week of enrollment for student to receive participation points.



Week 1&2

If you transferred in, or missed the first week, this is for you. It should clarify the course and my expectations.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

CPALMS formerly Sunshine State Standards for the Visual Arts

Grade: 912

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Math for Artists, Exercises & Tests on Space and Time

Math. Not exactly most artists' strong suit and certainly not mine. However it is vital that an artist have at least a rudimentary grasp of a few mathematical concepts to be productive, thrifty and make reasonable decisions.

Measuring. Starting here for students who are unfamiliar with measuring on a ruler or with fractions.
Tape measure

Standard/ Imperial/ English Measurement


  1. The ruler game. Read the information prior to taking the test   (start with whole numbers then work down to the 16th's as you figure it out)
  2. Good walk through based on increments
  3. Measuring with rulers worksheet
Wood Inch Ruler

Metric and Standard

  1. Metric and Imperial Standard worksheet

Assessments
 T1

Time 



Actual pre-employment test (contains a few other mathematical problems)


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Lifeguard Shacks

























shutterstock image pictured above

I was spurred onto a design challenge for HS students to design a lifeguard tower. After learning that there had been a competition in Miami in 2001 for the bienale it seemed like if was good enough for Michael Graves, it was probably a good idea.

Obviously it is still in the formulative stage so this will be a sloppy posting of links haphazardly placed to remind of reconstruct where the idea is/was whatever.

Miami Beach Lifeguard tower history
wiki article
pinterest pics.

Super sweet photographs from a photographer with a plan.




Interesting rendering of a lifeguard tower proposal






Monday, February 10, 2014

Asia, Automation and Abundance



http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/manufactured-landscapes/

Outstanding. Much appreciation to the site for hosting this work of Edward Burtynsky. 

If you haven't thought about what the abundance of goods means in reality (or virtual). here you go. A type of koyaanisqatsi of manufacturing. 

http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/koyaanisqatsi.php

on that note, Adam Maygyar has produced a few amazing works that also capture a view of life in a manner similar to Koyaanisquatsi but with time being sloooowed. to see it as it is in a particular moment (s). 

http://www.magyaradam.com/

I recommend "Stainless"

here it is on Vimeo. Excellent!
http://vimeo.com/83663312

Vocabulary from this Chapter

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7531883/whole_new_mind

inchoate: beginning, formulative

outsourcing: goods or services procured from an outside source

sequential: arranged in particular order

aesthetic: beautiful, pleasing appearance

Left: hemisphere known for logic

Right: hemisphere for holistic insight

tacit: implied without words or speech

imperative: not to be avoided or ignored



Research on propaganda

Research on propaganda. Information is in a formulative state and meant to illustrate a point of the value of the image. By no means do I condone it's use for any side(s), I am simply trying to find an effective way explain how it is used and it's very simple formula.

Exercise 1
Watch video #1. Ideally the title would not be shown to allow the viewer as little contextual clues as possible.
Please turn off sound and watch until :35

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-IBF8nwSY&list=PL17XfnsYBKs15IVYgmn0rKmR1cJHWb5wX

A. Compile a list of imagery used
B. Compile the connotations of the imagery
C. Identify the people in the ad.
D. Attempt to discern who the ad is for- who is the "target" audience?
E. Write one sentence to sum up what you think is the message or meaning of the ad.
F. Watch the remainder of the ad.
G. Read the following excerpt from the reading/link.

The majority of people did not care for the new art which many resented as elitist, morally suspect and too often incomprehensible.

Instead, the the model was to be classical Greek and Roman art, an art whose exterior form embodied ideal of "perfection" It was, furthermore, to be comprehensible to the average man. This art was to be both heroic and romantic. 

Values of _____purity, militarism, and obedience.Other popular themes were people at work in the fields, a return to the simple virtues of love of homeland, masculinity (interpretation), and the lauding of the female activities of child bearing and raising symbolized by the phrase children, kitchen, church...[1]

Personally the most sobering observation on propaganda is supplied from the source. 

"Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. (...) All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. (...) The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. (...) The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood."[2]


What is the benefit of creators for offering only two solutions?
Homework, make a list of 10 very important things that (to you) have only two solutions. 
Make a list of 10 things that others want you to think there are only 2 solutions to. 
In the grand scheme of your life, not a fictitious or idealized version of your life, what do you see as "yes or no, right or wrong" decisions. 
Are any of those situation? Conditional? 
Which side of the mind would want to see life presented in this way?
Why does one side of the mind desire to see things so?
What is truth? Elusive. What of the other values?
What are some of the effects of strictly right or left brain thought? 
Should one question their emotional response? If so or if not, when and why
Ultimately, someone is trying to influence you. What are things you can do to protect yourself?
List 5. 

Exercise 2

1. Once again. turn off the volume and simply watch. 


2. Make a similar list of observations to the above. 
3. What does Clint Eastwood mean to you as a person, as an actor. Which do you see him as?
How doe the advertiser want you to see him?
4. What is the function of this ad? Does it work?
Watch again with volume on and listen to what is spoken. 

5. The ad was from two years ago. What would you title this ad. 
6. Bottom line, is it selling you, the viewer as a "winner" or "loser"? It is only offering two options. 
7. Read some of the comments and ask yourself if the viewers are passionate about their response? 
8 . How many of them are reasoned arguments?
9. How strong was the narrative, the "story"
10. The author, Daniel Pink has mentioned the 3 "A's" Is there anything in this ad that tends to address this?
11. Is it asking you to "change", if so, why or why not?
12. Please follow the link http://quizlet.com/5435505/flashcards
Go through the exercises and take the quiz at the end. 


follow this exercise. 
and this one 


and finally, what started this all, the quote: 

"Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz commented that, “We are in the arts and entertainment business, and we’re putting a huge emphasis on world-class design… Art, entertainment and mobile sculpture, which, coincidentally, also happens to provide transportation.”


Bob Dylan, music Icon does a commercial for Chrysler. 
Owned by Italian company, Fiat.