Long ago in my first year living here in China, I learned that "Kung Fu" actually meant that you have expert proficiency in something.  It has come to mean expert proficiency in the martial arts, but you could, theoretically, exhibit kung fu cooking skills, or painting skills, anything.

For example, while I'm busy working on my Kung Fu parenting skills (still a long way of from being a master), Kung Fu Photographer Martin Klimas shoots ceramic pieces at a moment of impact.  Particularly noteworthy are these Kung Fu pieces in mid-destruction.

HULK SMASH!

Perhaps his work illustrates best the idea that destruction is part of creation!

I was thinking of this idea today, because our school's guest speaker Dr. Yong Zhou was talking to our students about taking risks, finding their bliss, and achieving mastery.  His speech channeled all the best ideas of Dan Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, Joseph Campbell, and the countless artists who espouse hard work and risk taking as key attributes of success.  In particular, he talked about the 10,000 Hour Rule, but framed it in such a way that it made even more sense to me- he explained that the 10,000 hour rule doesn't mean doing the same thing every hour for 10,000 hours.  It means using your time to push yourself further in your selected discipline.

And that, grasshopper, is how you become a kung fu master!

I'm not sure how to describe this short.  Maybe a 'moving info-graphic about the elements of story presented in story form'...?  Either way, it presents a great framework for students who are creating their own stories- be it on film or otherwise.  What are the basic elements of a story, broken down into their absolute simplest components?  If their story arc works, it might look something like this:

Tiny Story from Sebas & Clim on Vimeo.

Are you anxiously awaiting the publication of Surrealistic Me?   Need some brilliant student artwork to hold you over until our next book launch later this year? Great news!   Paint the World with Light and FLOAT are now available from the Student Creative Online store as ebooks for your iPad or iPhone.  I just downloaded Paint the World With Light for my iPad, and it looks absolutely terrific!

As always, 100% of our profits from these books benefit the Jacaranda Foundation for AIDS orphans in Malawi.   Blurb takes $1.99 per download, so our price of  $2.99 means that's $1 for every download.  Buy some for your friends too! It's the best six bucks (you need both books, obviously) that you'll spend today.

Although in a post from last week, I had the chance to share with you a peek at my new adopted home town of Shanghai, I do miss my old home New York.  I miss our annual field trips to the Whitney and The American Museum of the Moving Image (which has a very cool Muppets exhibit going on now, and its killing me that I can't take my students or Amaya who - in the word of Alvy Singer, 'Luffs' her muppets.  Her dream of jamming with the Electric Mayhem will have to wait for now!)

I'd also have been curious to see Doug Wheeler's Infinity Room,  and hope to catch some work of my new post-post-modern hero, Hanksy at the Krause Gallery or on a stroll down some familiar streets on our next trip back.

Oh New York, I thought I'd kicked you, but I guess this torch is still lit.

If you need some inspiration for the Rotoball Project, or maybe a watercolor project, or maybe...both... check out this fantastic animation by Irina Dakeva of WIZZ.


Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours (feat. Irfane) - HD from Ed Banger Records on Vimeo.
Its also kind of a catchy tune!

Fun fact: We just passed 900 posts here at the revolution!  Crazy.  Who knew I could pontificate so long on one subject?*


*Put your hand down, Kim.

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but Art Ed rock star Tricia Fuglestad has posted instructions for rotoscoping on an ipad!  This would be absolutely brilliant for the rotoball project- and I might just use it to start rotoscoping Amaya's dance routines (her toddler art skills extend to the performing arts by the way). Here is her ipad test:

Thanks Tricia!

Don't forget!  Rotoball 2012 entries should be received by March 31st.  Check out the project website here and register your classes here!

 

One of my former students, who is just a great video editor, put together this little snippet of her impressions of Shanghai. For those of you curious about what life is like in the big city next door and little Zhudi town where our school is located, check out Meg's awesome slice of life film:
Shanghai In My Eyes from megin peake on Vimeo.

As noted in a previous post, I've become a pretty active 'pinner' on Pinterest recently.  Somehow I know that statement is going to come back and haunt me some day, like admitting that I was a Trekkie,  or an 'edupunk', or something. However, while it doesn't have the organizational excellence of a bookmarking tool like diigo, Pinterest has been simply a great way of organizing images and ideas visually.  What would really be ideal (someone who knows how, steal this idea) would be something that works organizationally like diigo or Pearltrees, but operates more visually like Pinterest.




Anyway, I mention a few of the benefits of Pinterest along with Theresa McGee from The Teaching Palette in an article that we were interview for in Education World.  I don't know if I agree that it is 'taking over education', but its a good article about the inclusion of the website in the art classroom.

One of the things that I've used Pinterest extensively for is putting together images that help describe Nick Rouke's synectic trigger mechanisms from Art Synectics. This has been in service of the Student Creative's Surrealistic Me project which is featured in this months digital edition of School Arts Magazine.  You can download the article here, and once you are sufficiently enraptured with our nefarious plan for globalized art projects, register your class for the project here.

Now, just because I'm on the topic of articles about art education, and feel like indulging in a mini rant, here's an article from Edutopia that I have a few misgivings about. While I appreciate any effort to stress the importance of art education in the school curriculum, I can't help but become sad and frustrated when its explained in terms of its importance of bolstering other subjects.  I've never heard the argument that students should take social studies because it bolsters the critical thinking skills necessary for art making, or math because it helps with compositional skills. 

Paul Gaugin said that art was either plagiarism or revolution.  Art class, to me, is where we teach students to reach for that transformational energy in their own lives. 

If it also helps their math scores, great - but they have awesome math teachers who can do a much better job with that than I ever could.  I didn't become an art teacher to help my students with their geometry homework. 

I know you didn't believe me, having been gone so long, that I'd be back shortly with some more art edd-y goodness.  Today I bring you an interesting Kickstarter project - a documentary about the history of a pastel company in France.  Full disclosure- the filmmaker is a former student of mine.  Check out her project at her Roche Documentary Kickstarter page, and (if you are so inclined) show her some love with a small donation to get her project going! 


I'm not much of a pastel enthusiast myself, but this looks pretty cool!  Good luck, Leah!

Although my posting around here has been sporadic since Amaya was born two years ago, I've disappeared completely in the last month largely due to the arrival of our second daughter, Elianna!  Welcome to the world, my little revolutionary!

Tomorrow I'll be heading back to school following my paternity leave- and though it breaks my heart to leave my family, I've got some great stuff to post about here as well.  See you soon!