eLecture

Screaming for Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch, born to Christian Munch, a medical officer and Laura Cathrine Bjølstad in Norway on December 12, 1863, was the second of five children. Both he and his favorite sister, Johanne Sophie (born 1862) were said to have gotten their artistic talent from their mother. When Edvard was only 6 years old, his mother died of tuberculosis. Nine years later, Sophie also died of the same disease. This left Edvard in the care of his father and his aunt Karen, who raised Edvard and his siblings.

As a child, Edvard spent much of his free time drawing. Because his father's military pay was very low, the family moved frequently from one flat to another. Edvard would create many of his earlier drawing and paintings in the interior of those flats.

By the age of 17, Munch began to focus on his paintings. As he struggled to define his own style as an artist, Edvard experimented with creating paintings in both the naturalist and impressionist styles of art, where the emphasis was on light, movement, and ordinary subject matter.

Eventually Edvard did find his style as he became one of the most well known artists of the expressionist movement. This cultural movement of art focused on creating work that expressed elements of anguish, brooding, and pain based on personal obsessions and grief. His later works became more and more personalized with images relating mostly to illness and death.

Munch held an exhibition in 1892 that shocked the public so much that the show was closed. Munch's most famous painting "The Scream", and "The Sick Child" demonstrate the trauma that Munch underwent when he witnessed the death of his mother and sister to tuberculosis. Many of the Munch's paintings convey limp figures, hidden faces, threatening shapes looming, brooding houses, sexual anxieties, and innocent sufferers. Overall the moods of his works are meloncholic and intense. Edvard Munch was hospitalized when his anxiety became too serious and he returned to Norway in 1909. Edvard Munch died in Oslo in 1944 and left significant works that were simple, vigorous and direct in style, which worked as important forces for later modern graphic art.


Painted in 1893, The Scream is Munch's most famous work and one of the most recognizable paintings in all art. It has been widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man.[45] Painted with broad bands of garish color and highly simplified forms, and employing a high viewpoint, the agonized figure is reduced to a garbed skull in the throes of an emotional crisis. With this painting, Munch met his stated goal of “the study of the soul, that is to say the study of my own self”.[46] Munch wrote of how the painting came to be:

I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature.[47]

He later described the personal anguish behind the painting, “for several years I was almost mad…You know my picture, ‘’The Scream?’’ I was stretched to the limit—nature was screaming in my blood… After that I gave up hope ever of being able to love again.”[48]





Did You Know?......

• That there is mysterious graffiti scribbled within a streak of the sky in Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream (1893)? No one knows whether it was Munch himself who wrote it, or if a disgruntled visitor to one of his early exhibitions scribbled the pencil inscription onto the painting itself.
But the fact remains that, for whatever reason, Munch never removed it from his now famous painting, though he must have been aware of it. What does the graffiti say? In Norwegian: “Could only have been painted by a madman”.

Source Reinhold Heller, “‘Could Only Have Been Painted by a Madman’–Or Could It?”, Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul, New York: MoMA, 2006.

• On February 12, 1994, the same day as the opening of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, four men broke into the National Gallery and stole its version of Scream, leaving a note reading "Thanks for the poor security".[7] The painting had been moved down to a second-story[8] display as part of the Olympic festivities, and the presence of international media covering the games made the theft a sensation.[9] An early claim of responsibility by a Norwegian anti-abortion group turned out to be false. After the gallery refused a ransom demand of USD $1 million in March 1994, Norwegian police set up a sting operation with assistance from the British Police (SO10) and the Getty Museum, and the painting was recovered undamaged on May 7, 1994.[10] In January 1996, four men were convicted in connection with the theft, including Pål Enger, who in 1988 had been convicted of stealing Munch's Vampire.[11] However, they were released on appeal on legal grounds: the British agents involved in the sting operation had entered Norway under false identities.[12]

• In 2004 a version of “The Scream” was stolen from the Munch Museum in Norway by two men wearing dark ski masks. Two hours later, less than a mile away, the police found shattered wooden frames and glass from the stolen works -- a discovery that caused art experts to fear that the two treasures might already have been damaged. Three months later -- after the government refused to pay a $1 million ransom demand -- four Norwegian men were arrested in an elaborate sting operation in which British undercover agents from Scotland Yard posed as representatives of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and offered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure the painting and return it to the National Gallery in Oslo, said Leif A. Lier, the lead detective on the case and a former assistant police chief in Oslo.




Activity

Materials
• White drawing paper 12x18
• Rulers
• Pencils and erasers
• Colored Pencils, crayons, markers
• Paints, brushes, water
(students can choose any medium or teacher can choose for students depending circumstances of the class)
• Image of the Scream

1. Share this information on Edvard Munch and The Scream with students.
2. Show the painting to students and open up a discussion about what feelings the painting expresses.

-Here are some possible questions to open up the discussion:
• What colors do you see in this painting?
• What kind of mood does those colors express? Happy, sad, etc.
• What kind of lines do you see? How do the lines in the image help to set the mood of the picture?
• What do you think this man is feeling/thinking?
• Where do you think this place is?
• Is it real?

3. Next, have students create their own version of the scream. Tell students that they can change the mood of the picture by creating different kinds of lines and using different colors. Talk about what colors set different types of moods.
4. Have students use a different expression on the face of the man. Let them decide what character he could be. Is he old, short, rich, poor, happy, sad, etc.? Tell students to make it original. They can add any type of clothing or accessories to the person in the picture to help to express who he is, where he is, and what he is feeling.
5. When students are done, teacher can have a critique as a class on their work.

Variations of the Activity

• Teacher can incorporate technology into the lesson by uploading the drawings to Voicethread. Once on the website, teacher can have students critique their classmate’s work either by text or voice.
• For lower grades, teacher can focus on color mixing. Oil pastels can be used to mix colors in their pictures. A mini lesson can be taught prior to this lesson about primary and secondary colors and color blending.
• Try recreating the image using only one color with white/black to create a monochromatic image. This is a nice play on setting mood and teaches students about color mixing.

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch
• http://arthistory.we-wish.net/2007/04/29/did-you-know-edvard-munch-the-scream/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism
• http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/world/munch-s-scream-is-stolen-from-a-crowded-museum-in-oslo.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_scream
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sick_Child
• http://www.arthistoryguide.com/travel/travel23.aspx

WebQuest

Maurice Sendak


Maurice Sendak is artist, illustrator, theatrical set designer, costume designer and writer who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are: a story about an angry little boy who gets sent to his room without dinner and imagines himself as king of the wild beasts in an imaginary land.




Maurice’s interest in art started at age twelve after seeing the Walt Disney movie Fantasia, but his love of books came even earlier when he developed serious health problems and had to be confined to his bed. His illustrations were first published in 1947 in a textbook titled Atomics for the Millions by Dr. Maxwell Leigh Eidinoff. He spent much of the 1950s working as an artist for children's books, before beginning to write his own stories.

Maurice has also written and/or illustrated other books:

The Nutshell Library (1986)
-A boxed set including miniature versions of "Alligators All Around: An Alphabet", "One Was Johnny: A Counting Book", "Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months", and "Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue".

Outside Over There (1981)
- Story about a little girl who is jealous of her baby sister, but ends up saving her from goblins by playing her wonder horn. He received the American Book Award in 1982 for the book, which was also a Caldecott Honor Book and won the 1981 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Illustration.

Higglety Pigglety Pop! (1999)
-Jeannie the dog is pampered, but unhappy. She leaves home to find more and discovers a wonderful opportunity to be an actress. However, she needs experience and goes on to have some very disconcerting experiences. This clever story is also interesting as an account of the lure of an artist's true vocation, even in the face of obstacles and discomfort.

In the Night Kitchen (1970)
-Illustrated in a style reminiscent of comic books, this is the exuberant story of a little boy and his nighttime adventures. Mickey is awakened by a noise, falls out of his clothes, and "into the light of the night kitchen." This fantasy is very appealing to small children. In 1971 it was recognized as a Caldecott Honor Book. The book, first published in 1970, has often been subjected to censorship for its drawings of a young boy prancing naked through the story. It has been challenged in several American states including Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Texas. It regularly appears on the American Library Association's list of "frequently challenged and banned books." (6]

Questions:

-What is the job of an illustrator?
-What are the benefits of writing and illustrating your own stories?
-Does an artist have more freedom writing and illustrating his/her books or solely illustrating?

Your Webquest:

1. Use the internet to research more work of Maurice Sendak. There is something in common that many of his books have. It is called a "style." His style of writing and illustrating includes monsters and/or animals in his stories. The way he paints his images also has a style, it has texture by the way he uses his lines.

2. Look for another artist/writer/illustrator who has written or illustrated books. Choose one of these people who you think has a "style" to their work.
(HINT: look up the work of artist Kadir Nelson)
I would define his style of work as:
* Using African Americans in his work.
* Using images of people
* Telling stories about important people in history.

3. Define what kind of style that this artist has. Present 2 to 3 images or books that shows the artist's style.

Here are some websites that will help you to get started on your search:
-http://www.google.com
-http://www.yahoo.com
-http://www.childrensillustrators.com
-http://www.qbbooks.com/store/40380.htm

Activity:
• Write your own children's book!

Here are some suggestions to get your stories going:
-Think of a funny incident that has happened you in your life.
-Base your story on a cool dream that you have had.
-Make up an imaginary character and write about their adventures.

• Be the illustrator and define your style!
-First, think about the words you have written in your story.
-Next, choose “key” words that help to describe your story.
-Use those words to create pictures that will describe the story.
-Use colors that will help to set the “mood” of your story
(Example: happy-yellow, sad-dark blue/black, angry-red, etc.)

• Take your time, do the best you can, and have fun!

References:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Things_Are
-http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2009/03/arts-and-sciences.html
-http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060255008/Nutshell_Library/index.aspx
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Night_Kitchen

Silhouettes and Shadow Puppets

Tonight I cut out a shape of an elephant and a mouse. I thought to create a shadow puppet show based on the two shapes. The story would be that the two animals had an unlikely friendship because they are such different sizes. Within the story, the two animals would go on different adventures and meet new animals that they would meet on their adventures. The story and the character shapes would be written and created by my students. The animal shapes could be created very simply for younger students or more complex for students who are older and more experienced. However, I thought this would be a nice lesson for the older students to create and perform for the lower grades. I plan to try this lesson and see what happens.

Ed. Media A

Hello everybody! Here is my first post for my Ed. Media A class. I am very excited about learning even more ways to incorporate technology into my art classroom. Last semester, I learned so much about websites that enable me to post my students' work onto the internet. I think the most visited site I went to was Voicethread. This is a website where you can post images and then comment on the image via text or by recording a voice. This was a wonderful way for me to introduce my students to critiquing. I would post their artwork on the website, have them briefly describe their work, and then record their classmate's critique of the work. Surprisingly, all of the students were very kind to each other in their critiques and it turned out to be a positive (and effective) way to introduce technology into my classroom. I am looking forward to learning so much more this semester!

Artsonia!

Hey everybody! When you get the chance, check out Artsonia. I was going through some of the artwork of students and there are many wordles displayed. When you get to the homepage, go to the top left and click on Art Museum. From there, you will put "wordle" in the keyword search. It will take you to a whole page of wordles done by students. It was really exciting to see that what we are learning is being used in classrooms throughout the country.
Also, this is a great website to display your future students' artwork on and plus, you can get ideas for new projects!

Social Tagging: How Can it be Used in the Art Classroom?

There are great resources for art educators to build collective technological intelligence and incorporate it into their classrooms. Website such as Wordle and Tag Crowd can serve as excellent research sources for this. In the classroom, they can be used from generating discussions to creating cross-curricular lessons.
Wordle.net is a website that will take a text or passage and create a word cloud from that text. Once the cloud is formed, the fun begins. You can edit the cloud by changing the layout, the font, and even the colors. Words that are used more frequently will appear larger in the cloud. If there are words that you wish to omit, you can simply right-click on them and they will be removed.
Word clouds can be used in many ways. I have introduced them to the staff at my school and several teachers have utilized this resource, incorporating Wordles into their lessons. I will describe to you different ways in which I have found Wordles to be used. I will first give some examples of how word clouds can be used for interdisciplinary lessons and then show how they can be used in the art classroom. Perhaps these ideas will be useful to you and you will be able to use these for your own lessons or build upon the basic ideas.
One teacher at my school used Wordle in a poetry lesson. He first asked his students to use their names as the basis of the poem. From there, the students were asked to find words that would describe their personality, who they are, or express an emotion or feeling they have. Dictionaries, thesauruses, and the internet were used to find definitions of words. Once the students had written their poems, their teacher showed them how to take the poem and copy and paste it into Wordle. He explained to them that the words they wanted to show the most emotion on or wanted people to really notice first, to type them more times. They would appear larger. This lesson really went over big with the class because it not only build up the students' self esteem, but it increased their vocabulary. After the lesson, students gave their classmates very positive criticism and it evoked a discussion on the artistic value of the word clouds. Many of the students found that they used various fonts to help set the feeling of the words in the word clouds.
This lesson was taken a step further in Media class. The Media teacher took the wordles and had students pick out books that they were interested in reading. Their choice in books were based on their interests. Whether it was sports, nature, science, or another subject, it had to be chosen on the interest or hobbie of the student. Each child was asked to take the book home and bring it back the next week with a list of words that described the book. The students were asked to then take the list and create a wordle from the list. Again, they were asked to take what they learned from the previous wordle and incorporate that into the new one. Changing the layout, the colors, and the fonts helped to set the tone of the book in the word cloud. This served as a great way to show the connection of language arts and media in our school. Plus, this reinforced their vocabulary and reading skills.
Our science teacher and history teachers plan to use word cloud in similar ways. This will help to familiarize students with terms and historical events. The wordles can be used as study maps and a fun way for brainstorming when beginning projects.
Wordles can also be used in the art classroom in a similar way that the media teacher used the books. The art teacher could have the students do research on an artist and create a wordle using terms that help describe the artist, their style of work, or the titles or work they have created. This will help the student to familiarize themselves with the artist and their techniques. It will also help to lead into a discussion on aesthetics and art criticism.
In my own classroom, I used this very idea. I did a lesson on the elements and principles of design. I had half of one of my classes look up the terms of the elements of design. The other half was asked to look up the principles of design. Each half was then asked to create a wordle the elements of design and the other from on the principles of design. I had a couple of students from the elements group present their wordle to the class and go through each term in the wordle. The rest of that group created visual images that described the terms. The principle group then presented their wordle to the class and did the same thing. The end result was very successful. The students became familiar with the terms. They also were challenged to speak in front of the class and utilize what they learned, speaking in an intelligent and informed manner. This was also a basic introduction to teaching the students art criticism. This lesson was broken down into two 40 minute class periods. My principal sat in on one of the classes and thought it was terrific.
There are many other ways Wordle and Tag Crowd can be used in the art classroom. They can be used as a opening for a discussion for further research. Wordles can be used in a higher level design course as an image itself. The class can discuss parts of the image that works or doesn't work and why. This too could then lead into further discussion of aesthetics. After a discussion on creating the wordle as an image itself, the computer teacher at my school showed me a way to create the wordle and save it as a pdf file (the option is at the bottom left on the wordle screen after you create the wordle). He then came up with the idea to copy and paste the wordle into Adobe Illustrator. Once the image was on Illustrator, we were then able to change the total look of the image and play around with the size of the words and actually move words around on the image. This was not an option on the wordle website. In Illustrator, the artist is able to have much more control over the wordle as an image itself.
I had an idea that hopefully I will find a way to work out one day. I thought it would be really clever to create a wordle and use each word within that wordle as a hyperlink that would connect the viewer to either an image or another website about the word. This would be very helpful in several areas of business, class discussions, and in presenting research projects. My hope is to one day be able to present an artist to my class and create a wordle with various words and titles of works by that artist. I would then like to have the words or titles as hyperlinks so that when I click on the word, it will take me right to the image of that particular work by the artist. I am still working on trying to figure out a way to do this.
As you can see, the options are endless as to how you can use this type of collective intelligence in the educational setting. I have found some websites that are very useful in suggesting lessons for the use of wordles in the classroom:

This website is a quick tutorial on how to create a wordle.
http://www.technogogy.org.uk/wordle/wordle.htm

This website shows how a class used wordles to describe their experience on a visit to an art museum.
http://huntedweb.googlepages.com/home22

This website suggests some ways wordles can be used in the classroom.
http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=103

Here is a wordle that I created from my blog page. I simply put in the url of my blog page and the wordle was created for me. (Notice that the words that occurred more frequently on my page are the largest in size.)
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/678796/My_Blogspot

Midterm for Ed Media B

My group is concentrating on Word Clouds, e.g. Wordle, Tag Crowd, etc.
These are sites that take word associations and make them into a sort of cloud. Not only are they useful, but they are actually fun to create. Here are the people in my group listed with their particular sections to focus on:
Jodi-What is it?
Shannon-How does it work?
Roberts-Example?

and here is my question:

How can Word Clouds, e.g. Wordle, and TagCrowd, etc. be used in the art classroom?