Art Education: A Public Presence

4/21: Photo Class Created Sister Cities Light-Boxes for City Hall

My Advanced Photo class just completed a unique and informative work of public Art for Gainesville's City Hall. This series of mural-sized collages were turned into light-boxes and installed on City Hall’s front lawn. Gainesville's Mayor Lauren Poe and Steve Kalishman, Director of the Sister Cities program were on hand to dedicate this installation and plant a friendship tree at the Sister Cities Pavilion.

This public art project is meant to educate the community about the many relationships Gainesville's citizens have made with individuals and cities around the world. Oak Hall has maintained a proud involvement with many of these Sister City projects and we are happy to participate in this latest effort to raise awareness about this peace-building work. Gainesville’s Official Sister Cities are Jacmel, Haiti /Kfar Saba, Israel /Qalqilya, Palestine / /Novorossiysk, Russia /Duhok, Iraq /Deir Alla, Jordan /Mejdlaya, Lebanon / Rzeszów, Poland, and Matagalpa, Nicaragua are represented by the student collages. The lights were not hooked up yet but will be this week. They look great and the students did a great job.

Next time you are in downtown Gainesville, be sure to check out these light-boxes visible from Bo Diddley Plaza. Once the lights are installed these glowing bright and colorful panels will be highly visible from University Ave. at night. I am very proud of my students!

12/20: Art Education in the Age of Covid- Socially Distanced Seating

I’m proud of my Engineering and Design class students! They unveiled their "Socially Distanced Seating" area! Designed with Covid in mind, these students constructed and installed this custom seating area to enhance the upper school campus and add much-needed outdoor seating. This can be used for lunch or as an outdoor classroom area! Seats 10 safely and separated! The class pitched their design proposal before a committee of administrators and staff. The students collaborated to come up with a safe and comfortable seating area that upper school students could use during lunch, and teachers could use as an outdoor classroom space throughout the day. They explained their design process from inception sketches, developing 3D models, building a prototype, researching budgets, and alternative site plans. The committee loved the idea and offered their financial support to make these student's vision a reality! This will surely become a timely, useful, and appreciated project that will further beautify our campus and stand as a monument to this strange and difficult year.

4/20: Round 1 of the Prosthesis Challenge!

My students experienced the "Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Da-feet" during our first Prosthetic Leg Challenge! Working in teams of two, students researched, designed, built, tested, and improved their designs for the first portion of this 2 part challenge. We saw many successes and some failures, with the underclassmen taking the lead over the seniors... but there is still time for them to make improvements and make a comeback! Will they be successful? Tune in next time to find out! For now, enjoy these video highlights:

4/20: Round 2 of the Prosthesis Challenge!

Final Results: The Prosthesis Challenge! The Seniors had technical difficulties during round 1 but they made a comeback! Will it be enough to take the lead over the underclassmen? Watch this highlight reel to find out!

Murals, Murals, and More Murals!

My students and I have created murals all over the city. Our most recent is this 1/21 "Social Justice" mural at a city park. Enjoy these other highlights from past projects as well, such as a 911 memorial, an Interstate underpass mural and more!

Tonka the Taiko Drum

We built a giant Taiko drum!  It took us months, but my students and I built a massive Taiko drum for our school's music program and the story was covered by MAKE: Magazine!  Read about our project here: http://makezine.com/2015/06/15/making-the-25k-odaiko-drum-on-a-budget/

A large part of my artistic life revolves around my teaching. “ Life is to short not to know how to draw”, is a mantra that I repeat over and over to my students.  As Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Oak Hall School in Gainesville Florida, my curriculum is designed to give students the foundations needed to learn the skill of truly “seeing”.  My goal is to demystify the art making process and make each student understand that not only do they have the ability to make good art, but encourage in them the motivation to do so.

The skills they learn are just a mere first step.  Skills alone don’t make good art… it is what you creatively do with those skills that makes a difference.  To these ends I most enjoy challenging my students to take their skills out into the world in an attempt to have an impact on the community.  Here are some highlights of the various public art projects that my students and I have embarked upon...   

We Built a Bridge!  Really!

Read this story about the bridge in Make Magazine!

9/11 Memorial with Salvaged World Trade Center Steel

Students are the Real Teachers

While I am known as an artist and teacher, from my perspective I learn more each day from my students! As this is true at home, this becomes even more evident when I visit our friends abroad. This video below shows how the girls at a school in Qalqilya were truly my teachers!