M I C H E L L E L E E

exploring chinese new year

seemichellelee — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:24:19 +0000

student with dragon! age 5

there’s a general shudder that goes around the class whenever there’s talk of a craft-based lesson. it’s the last thing any art teacher wants to do in their classroom – a lesson full of pre-cut shapes and instilled ideas that the student is completely clueless about – the worst is that every project looks the same, with no hint of the students’ own ideas or process.

this week at TCCS, our teachers thought it might be interesting to introduce the students to Chinese New Year. we live in new york city, and there’s a parade and many other big celebrations in chinatown and all over. the concern however is, how do you introduce a cultural holiday through an art activity, and moreover, how do the students connect to it? can it be relevant to them?

the dragon is an important symbol in both chinese culture and when ringing in the new year. it’s interesting not only because of its’ mythological and spiritual importance, but also because in many ways it is representative of the ultimate being, imparted with a number of traits from different animals – scales like a fish, the claws of a bird, horns of a deer, etc.

in that sense, our dialogue touched on each student’s own vision of their own dragon to bring in the new year – what kind of parts could it have? how did they imagine it? how would they show it? students were given pieces of paper and cut out their own “head” and “body” while using various types of paper (tissue, cellophane, and construction/scrap paper) to collage. We then added sticks to the puppets so they could hold it similar to a stick puppet (although much larger)!

so, while we introduced chinese new year a bit, the students ultimately created their own magical dragons in their own way. special thanks to the amazing people I work with at TCCS: annie, deb, jesse, and our teachers, sara and laura.

on a personal side note, I went to chinatown for the new year for the first time and popped a confetti thing. I loved it

Food for Thought – Arts Education

seemichellelee — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:10:21 +0000

This post was written December 18th, but it’s taken me weeks to take a second look at my rambles.

It’s finals week at Teachers College. Obviously, I should be working on major papers due next week, but I thought it might be interesting to take a moment and reflect on the semester, what I’ve learned, and what has been inspiring.

Our program at TC is based (so far) on a lot of developmental philosophy. Art, and drawing in particular, as a way of recording their world and how they perceive it. ideas evolve out of experience and exploration with materials, just as their artworks are initially drawn from their own previous experiences. Instead of introducing adult art works immediately, one of my professors said it’s best to show that artwork later in the sequence, to allow students to first make their own, express their own, and then they can look at this artwork and relate it back to their own work. There is a certain amount of guidance, included in the motivational dialogue that precedes the lessons.

I could go on, and on, but I’ll spare myself. Anyway, if anything, I’m learning a lot of about how you “scaffold” lessons to create an overall learning objective, and how these layers can add different, and important, elements that lead you to accomplish these different objectives in different ways.

However, when I went into this program, I had thought a lot about contemporary art and artists. How do they fit into this picture? And why is it that the two exist in such different universes? It’s a bit unfair to assume art teachers aren’t artists themselves (or to be bitter, artists who couldn’t make it!) – but I do think it’s necessary, as an art teacher, to continue your own practice. It should inform your practice as a teacher, right?

We had a lecturer last week who spoke on the matter of including Contemporary Art in a Social Studies curriculum – and the inclusion of Contemporary Art in Art Education. In their book History as Art and Art as History (Dipti Desai, Jessica Hamilton) they state seven principles of post-modern artists (appropriation, juxtaposition, etc.) and Dipti asked us, “we teach children the principles and elements of art, but do all artists today use these elements and principles today?” – the answer is, no, they don’t. I think we were all in shock. Contemporary practice in art today is diverse in method and material..and process. Artists do historical research, they take existing material and recreate it for their own purposes, digitally and traditionally. there are so many infinite ways we work now. It isn’t to say that what we are learning isn’t right – it is. you can’t sit a child in front of a Haegue Yang installation and assume they will understand that she was clearly addressing the relationship between karl marx, the wife, and the mistress – but can the ideas be taken into the curriculum and translated somehow for students? I don’t disagree with my program at all, but there is reason to ask why sometimes the world of art education and the world of “artists” exist in worlds apart. I think there are initiatives and non-profits that change that, but at least in the discourse of our program, I’d like to have more of a connection to the studio art side sometimes. In my own work, I am curious to discover more about curricula and objectives that can fulfill both the material exploration as well as foster a relationship with the way art can exist right now. with everyday objects. in new media. etc. etc.

I am nervous with this post because it is quite honestly a lot of generalizations and bits and pieces from readings and coursework from my first semester at Teachers College. I’m learning quite a bit about education and the arts, and much of it for the first time. The truth is, teaching art itself is an art quite separate from the studio art pedagogies we’ve been exposed to in our undergraduate years; it’s a different training. Just because you’ve been taught to draw and paint doesn’t mean you necessarily understand how to teach it; I think that can be exemplified by the first class I ever taught at the museum – it’s a whole other subject matter and realm with different ways of thinking. Not that I haven’t always known that, but in that way, our studio classes within art education are different and the approaches to art making are very different. I sometimes wonder what’s best. Isn’t the root of it all from the first time we started scribbling with crayons? How do you transition? Everyone is an artist, but in the art world there are “right” ways and “wrong way” and “ironically wrong but right ways”. Sometimes I miss the toughest critic in the room from the studio art days, but at the same time, it’s been a joy to be part of such a supportive and open-minded community. We seem to be all part of this for the greater good, and because we love it absolutely more than anything else we’ve done so far.

places we can go.

seemichellelee — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:43:58 +0000

small step in my paper sculptures. finals are finally over, I’m planning to write a reflection on the semester later. a lot has changed. for the better.

image thanks to my buddy lindsay

I love you underneath the moon.

seemichellelee — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:17:52 +0000

Hands on the radio.
We left too soon.
We left you in the afternoon.

I hurt somebody.
I love you too.
I love you underneath the moon.
I love you underneath the moon.

This town is my favorite and I promise I’ll come back.
Girls, I promise you.
Boys, I promise you too.

With hands on the radio, we’ll get there soon.
We’ll get there in the afternoon.
Fans in the stadium, they leave too soon.
They always leave in the afternoon.
They always leave in the afternoon.

This town is my favorite and I promise I’ll come back.
Girls, I promise you.
Boys, I promise you too.

This town is my favorite and I promise I’ll come back.
Girls, I promise you and boys, I promise you too.

- Chris Garneau, Hands on the Radio

it’s a holiday

seemichellelee — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 05:45:21 +0000

two shows at the macy gallery @ TC back to back in the next few weeks.

jewish holiday installation in bushwick, october.

bulges

seemichellelee — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:31:38 +0000

you better run, you better run.

from my processes and structures class. the class is meant to inform our practice as teachers, but instead I think it’s having more of an effect on my own process. somewhere in the years since school, or even during then – the aspect of playing with material and understanding how the process can guide you – was lost and now found again in this class. yes, it’s paper mache, or lino cutting, or simply just paper and a piece of charcoal. but the exploration is incredibly different from what I experienced in undergrad and is giving my ideas a breath of fresh air.

now testing

seemichellelee — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:28:05 +0000

a sketch / homage to eva.

it is a sculpture attached to the wall, made of paper. I like the gesture. It feels lighter than most

why so quiet?

new studio work / in progress

seemichellelee — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:30:20 +0000

go ahead, go away go, where I can do no harm

go ahead, go away go, where I can do no wrong

mexican blue.

seemichellelee — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 05:48:41 +0000

JOLIE HOLLAND MEXICAN BLUE

You’re like a saint’s song to me
I’ll try to sing it pure and easily
You’re like a Mexican blue
So bright and clear and pale in the afternoon
I saw you riding on your bike
In a corduroy jacket in the night
Past the hydrangeas that were blooming in the alley
With a galloping dog by your side
When I was hungry you fed me
I don’t mean to suggest that I’m like Jesus Christ
Your light overwhelmed me
When I lay beside you sleepless in the night
And when you dreamed my guardian spirits appeared
And the moon stretched out across your little bed
They said they’d started to get worried about me
They were happy we had finally met
We had finally met

A mysterious bird flies away
Seemed to be calling your name
And bounced off the top of a towering pine
And vanished in the drizzling rain
There’s a mockingbird behind my house
Who is a magician of the highest degree
And I swear I heard him rip the world apart
And sew it back again with his fiery melody, melody

When you were mad at me I didn’t care
And I just loved you all the same
And I waited for the wind to push the hurricane
Out to sea, and the sun could shine again
Oh I don’t mean to give you advice
Its just liek Delia said, “oh, Jesus Christ”
Just don’t get so high you leave the ground
Everything is so much better when you’re around
Just don’t float so hight you drift away
Stand tall, with your feet on the ground
I love your songs, I love your sound
Everything is so much better when you’re around

When the moon is as clear as an opal
And the amethyst river sings a song
I’ll remember all your dreams and the mysteries
You have borne in your crystalline soul
That you sing from your golden throat
That you shine from your sparkling eyes
That you feel from the goddess in your thighs

You’re like a saint’s song to me
I’ll try to sing it pure and easily
You’re like a Mexican blue
So bright and clear and pale in the afternoon
In the afternoon

there is good.

seemichellelee — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:21:58 +0000

Melody searching for seashells..

I know it goes something like this; a conversation from last week – how sad it must be to see our lives from afar, to feel small.

It’s only a longing that sticks to your being if you allow it..a tug and a pull that says, there has to be more.

over and over

seemichellelee — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:20:10 +0000

save it all for tomorrow. islands, land and sky, infinity and longing.

come pick me up

seemichellelee — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:25:20 +0000

I wish you would. I wish you could.

more ocean, less talk

seemichellelee — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:14:53 +0000

disposable.

that sparkle turned to black.

seemichellelee — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 13:55:46 +0000

in the eyes of a million girls, you think you make them shout.

couldn’t be better

seemichellelee — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:41:19 +0000

almost spring. to be done with drawing, for a while.

the rest of the nights

seemichellelee — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:01:37 +0000

mixed media on paper, 7 x 9 inches, 2011

it’s not very simple to be simple.

I couldn’t tell you why,

seemichellelee — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:45:40 +0000

my good friend Magali Duzant took this photo while we were wandering the beach at point reyes state park, north of san francisco. I love dead kelp rotting all over the coast. Totally beautiful. and it describes the general sentiment of the entire weekend. whatever, nevermind.

the good life.

seemichellelee — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:27:19 +0000

(from the front)

(from the side)

I finally got myself into the studio last night. The animation would be great, but I thought it might be better to slow it down and just try working on something. So here it is. Still thinking about how to translate drawings into sculptures, how to take forms I’m interested in and making them feel heavier, monumental. Yay, experiments.

Recent developments: accepted into grad school for art and art education. So excited to get back into teaching again, and the practice of making things! Also, the prospect of spring and summer. Also, life. we will light up the sky with the look in our eyes. Indeed.

instant self-portrait

seemichellelee — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:35:57 +0000

melody playing around on my phone. I should probably go make a storyboard. studio time begins this coming week, along with armory arts week. will be my first time around doing this kind of thing, so excited to see what it’s all about.

the only girl in the world

seemichellelee — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:27:10 +0000

debauchery post cocorosie beachland ballroom in cleveland ohio june 2009. summer is coming right?

I like the idea of using pop song lyrics more and more. There is something so emotionally empowering, but also stupid, about these empty songs about relationships and love, and it’s so hard to take them seriously, but why shouldn’t we?

Want you to make me feel / Like I’m the only girl in the world / Like I’m the only one that you’ll ever love
Like I’m the only one who knows your heart / Only girl in the world… / Like I’m the only one that’s in command
‘Cause I’m the only one who understands how to make you feel like a man / Want you to make me feel like I’m the only girl in the world / Like I’m the only one that you’ll ever love / Like I’m the only one who knows your heart / Only one.

don’t forget the light

seemichellelee — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:03:46 +0000

spent last weekend in pittsburgh; it was nice and gray. on the ride home, I felt that something that was, isn’t. I have a bad memory, and it seems that everything I knew is cloaked in summer’s air and a complete work of fiction.

renting my friend Anna Ortiz‘s studio for six weeks while she and her boyfriend explore europe, lucky kids. I’m planning on doing this animation. I have been thinking a lot about dead fish still, and the other day while getting on the bus, there was a huge dead fish just lying at the bus stop. I think it’s a sign.

excerpt.

seemichellelee — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:46:26 +0000

Found a book I didn’t finish, just started drawing in it again. Just cannot sleep tonight, too much coffee or tea tonight. a couple of months ago I saw the raymond pettibon exhibit at david zwirner, and although our subject matters are a little different, after seeing it I felt impulsed to draw and draw and draw, even if I am not sure where I am headed right now. most things in galleries tend to have me feeling exactly the opposite.

we will light up the sky with the look in our eyes and a lifetime left to kill — “raze,” richard buckner

everything is here

seemichellelee — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:28:52 +0000

I just created several new pages for your enjoyment. As great as having a website is, I thought I could make up more ways for you to look at all my work. Flickr, seemichellelee.com, and now this. so when you look up top, you can browse through my drawings (part of that whole hey-let’s-make-100-drawings scheme), look at sketchbook archives from my (ahem) younger days, and see newer works from 2010 and 2009 under “works”

this paper thing is something I’m still trying to figure out. it started with the fish, and seeing all these images of them being strung up, hooked, and completely dead (as well as passive, and powerless, which is how most things tend to be in my work). I wanted to understand those forms, but it ended up evolving into something else entirely. I’m trying to figure out how this can be part the larger picture. dear readers, if there are any, if I don’t post a picture of a model of an installation in a month, hound me! it’s something I’ve been meaning to do ever since october.

details below:

PLEASE WATCH

seemichellelee — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:36:16 +0000

A good friend of mine, LAURA MILLER, is applying to school! She also makes really great POWERPOINTS! Please watch her video and click the LIKE button if you’re into it! She’s going viral!

we were in a show together last year, where she made WHALE NOISES and pondered the impending DOOM and how we could CREATE places to be AFTER the APOCALYPSE.

something relevatory

seemichellelee — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 03:09:15 +0000

happy new year everyone. It’s been two months since I’ve posted. Vermont was great, and then I was trying to get my move on to new york, so I admit to being neglectful. to the left is an image of my paintings hanging at young blood gallery, in atlanta. right above a classy couch, that’s how you know I’m up and coming. the paintings were completed while I was in Vermont, and they were a bit of an experiment in seeing how I could use the figure…I was interested in space, and this and that, but how the figure interacts with the space is what I’m still trying to understand. if it’s even necessary, that is.

anyway, yes, I have moved to brooklyn, trying to find my way around this “urban art jungle” as an old professor once referred to it. my thoughts are mixed, but so far the best part has been being able to go look at art, all the time. as for now, I’ll leave you with my favorite one.

by the way, the whole of these paintings is titled “Homecoming.” In a lot of ways, the end of the summer and moving out of Pittsburgh, and all of the going-ons with my family made me feel like I was in a giant transition and I had yet to be grounded, or even really existing. Maybe that’s what this is all about.

mixed media on panel, 9″ x 13″. 2010

I’d like to build off this one, eventually.