Forming Connections
My final artwork is titled Forming Connections. This weaving is a compilation of all my reflective art journals throughout the semester. The working process for this artwork began during the first week. It began with answering the questions: What is your teaching philosophy? What is a metaphorical representation of that philosophy? The components I find most important in the classroom made my list, including respect, being present, and building community. To me, these philosophies are the framework to all other classroom management and strategies. Immediately, I thought of a weaving or a woven rug as a metaphorical representation of my philosophy and all of my teaching experiences.
Like a woven rug, my learning and teaching experiences are each individual threads that must be carefully and methodically woven to become an intertwined, strong creation. The first major step in my process was to create a paper weaving. The choice of materials was based on my act of using paper day in and day out throughout my schooling. After making this first paper “rug”, I had an epiphany about this process of combining materials to create a weaving. I realized that my creation of a completed weaving was a bit premature.
During the first week of class, I imaged all of the information I was receiving as the threads of a rug being woven together. After the next week’s discussions, readings, and lesson planning practices, they lead me to rethink all of that information in more complex and concrete ways. One of the most significant discussions was an in depth discussion about social justice issues, which made me reflect on all of the forces impacting the lives of students. It becomes our job as teachers to help them work through those feelings and issues. This process of rethinking became a process of rethreading; of taking my weaving apart so that I could later put it back together. To me, this was metaphorical of the process of learning, putting into practice, failing, relearning, and reflecting, which is the cycle of both art making and teaching.
The next step was to take apart my original paper weaving thread by thread. With those threads, I used them to record all of the words, concepts, and questions that had been floating around in my head during weeks prior. Then, I delicately mended the paper strips together by sewing them end-to-end with black thread, ultimately creating longer threads that would become part of a larger weaving.
During one week I decided to take inspiration from Sarah Bridgland’s collaged artwork. She creates collages as an act of collecting memories and creating reiterations of narratives from her life, which was an intriguing and symbolic concept to me. This deepeed my idea of creating a weaving that interconnected many different working parts. I started seeing each thread I was creating as individual memories or narratives of my past, present, and future experiences. It was here when I started thinking about specific learning experiences from my childhood and my current teaching experiences in peer teaching, at Polaris, and at Poudre High School. In the future, all of these threads will act as memories of my progression as an educator.
The next week I connected the metaphor of a cycle to the Colorado Art Content Standards and the Lakota medicine wheel. We’ve gone over the standards and looked at the standards wheel over and over; the first time it was introduced, it immediately reminded me of a familiar motif. The Lakota medicine wheel is a symbol that represents harmony and balance with all elements of life. The quadrants of the wheel embody the four directions, the four seasons, and different forces and states of being. To live a harmonious life is to create balance between all of the directions, much like the balance a teacher must create between the standards of the art making process and the complicated elements of teaching. As I planned and taught lessons throughout the semester, I started realizing that teachers needs to find balance between each of these processes in the art making cycle.
In the process of creating my final artwork, I formed connections between all of my teaching and learning experiences throughout the semester and reflected on how all of them are related. All of the photos, drawing, doodles, and notes I created on paper over the last few months are representative of specific thoughts or reflections. One week I created a drawing representing the improvisation that is required when something goes wrong while teaching, while another week I made doodles about my personal growth in the classroom. These papers were then deconstructed into threads as I cut them into thin strips. The hardest part of this artwork was deciding how to combine all of these threads as one. I tried several different methods, but struggled with finding a composition that conceptually fit with the materials.
Wanting to represent the connection I made between the standards and the medicine wheel, I decided to use a circular piece of raw silk fabric as the warp for the weaving. Raw silk was my final choice because I used it in several artworks that were very personal and were major stepping stones in my progression as an artist. Mimicking the shapes of both wheels, I divided the fabric into four quadrants using black thread, and cut strips into the fabric to create warp threads. Then, I carefully wove the paper threads into the warp, which became a reflective and meaningful process of connecting all my experiences. As the final touch, I stitched the beaded medicine wheel patch at the center of the weaving, creating balance among the entire composition but also placing myself at the center, trying to find harmony.
The best part of this autoethnographic art making process was connecting my experiences and new understandings to my past and current experiences, as well as my culture, which ultimately makes me who I am. The repetition of this four quadrant symbol almost seems like a sign that I am on the right path in my life. In my future teaching, I will strive to continually reflect through writing and art making because it is one of the most important parts of teaching. To keep in alignment with the symbols, I also plan to seek balance and harmony in my teaching practice.