Entry #4
February 14, 2020
#approachingchrysalis
In 2017, we had the opportunity to visit the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City. It was a very spiritual experience for me. Despite the fact that I am Mexican American, I grew up with a very Europeanized view of life, art and religion. Walking through the remnants of El Templo Mayor, only a short distance from The Metropolitan Cathedral in the historical downtown district, I was able to physically and emotionally experience the efforts of colonialism to basically eradicate any vestiges of what the Great Tenochtitlan once was. The Metropolitan Cathedral was literally built over Aztec sacred ground as a symbol and message of how the Aztec way of life was over and a new dawn was upon them. Sitting before the altar at the cathedral, surrounded by the beautiful Baroque embellishments in gold, I couldn’t help but wonder what life all that gold was before being appropriated for the Cathedral. What beautiful pieces of art were destroyed to enforce an ideology, who wore it, what other altars it was a part of. Walking out of the Cathedral, there are indigenous women and children begging for money on the very steps of the church. This was such a paradox for me, to see in real life a physical representation of what historically happened in the same region hundreds of years ago, and how the effects are still seen today, I grew up visiting archeological sites in Northern Chihuahua in a place called Paquime, known in the archeological world for its beautiful pottery. I had always looked at these beautiful ceramics as archeological artifacts, but not art. Seeing the remnants of El Templo Mayor, it dawned on me that all the beautiful jewelry, pottery, figures, etc, is beautiful art, and that because of my Europeanized view of what art should be- paintings of landscapes, portraits of aristocrats, or marble white statues, I had never realized this. That was one of the first moments I realized I wanted to be an art teacher and be an influence in young minds of what art is and how it encompasses other cultures and forms of expression other that what is traditionally seen as art.
I had been focusing so much on personal expression, I had forgotten about the importance of visual literacy. I’ve always been interested in teaching about historical and contemporary art and artists, when necessary, but the tools to get there had not fully materialized. Learning about Visual Thinking Strategies and facilitating group dialogues to interpret art has helped me feel more comfortable with engaging students in dialogue about art and particularly nonrepresentational and abstract art. Abstract art has always been intimidating to me because I always thought I simply didn’t understand it. Of course, knowing historical background on the time in which the piece was created, the circumstances under which it was created, the ideas of the artist and movements they belonged to help with interpretations. However, understanding that art objects are full of meaning and have lots of room for interpretation and that preexisting interpretations of a work are not its “ultimate” meaning but someone’s vision of it with room for other’s ideas and connections to the work. I am looking forward to implementing these strategies and merging culturally responsive teaching to teaching about all art to help students understand that art is more than replications of the natural world in representational form, but that art can be expressed in many other ways.
I’ve mentioned in previous entries about my interest in incorporating butterflies whenever possible because it is such a personal signifier of who I am. I am hoping this art journal project will evolve into a stop motion video of the life cycle of a butterfly by the end of the semester. This is particularly significant because with every semester, class and lesson I learn in this journey, I feel a step closer to stepping out of my chrysalis. However, every time I learn something new, I realize I’m earlier in the process than I expected and am closer to a caterpillar than a butterfly still. As a future art teacher, I know there will be times I won’t always feel like a butterfly in full flight, there will be times I might feel I wasn’t ready to fly, because teaching is also about learning and always transforming to better serve our students. Perhaps it is also about multiple transformations and life cycles in various aspects of teaching throughout my career. In the grand scheme of things, I am happy to be on this path, and to be feeding on the knowledge necessary to make a full transformation into the teacher my students deserve to have.
The scaffolding of knowledge and skills I am acquiring on this path have step by step increased my confidence in teaching art. Making art relatable and pertinent for my students, providing choice and guidance, facilitating dialogue for the interpretation of art and increasing visual literacy skills to see art as pieces they can make personal connections with and not be intimidated by. The more I learn, the more I am inspired to promote in my students a spirit of cooperative meaning making. Visual thinking strategies will help develop critical thinking skills that will intrinsically generate curiosity and further exploration of art beyond the time they spend in my classroom. Developing visual thinking strategies personally will also help me be a better teacher and better artist. Developing productive dialogue around interpretation of art as an individual will help be make personal connections with art beyond only the art that interests me. I have never personally been drawn to abstract art, but having the tools to better analyze and “see” art helps me make connections that I had never even attempted before. This helps and informs my own creative process and inspiration.
