This project has been 10 years in the making. I interviewed my artist-educator mentors about their art practice, teaching and research and how they balance these roles. My goal with the interviews is to share them with my classes, so the pre-service art educators I'm teaching, can hear from master artist-educators in their own words, how they bridge the disciplines of studio art and art education and use their personal art making interests and experiences when developing curriculum and research. Below is a video clip from my elementary art teacher, Lilian Thomas Burwell.
In addition to the video interviews, I decided to create woodcut portraits of each mentor. The wood blocks are 18" x 24" Shino and video stills were used to make the portraits. Each portrait includes symbols and colors in the background (wallpaper) that speak to the subject's ethnicity, and/or personality traits. For example, the portrait of Lilian portrayed in the clip above, has the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol, Mframmadan [fortitude, preparedness, excellence and elegance] cut into a red-orange (feisty) background. I have two left to complete---stay tuned!
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