Jiro Yoshihara, Please Draw Freely, 1956. Paint And Marker On Wood. Installation View During The Outdoor

My practice is largely focused on play as an artistic and pedagogical activity and philosophy. I recently wrote an essay called "Form, Function and Fun: Playgrounds as Art Education," about the fun and informative history of artist created playgrounds. In addition to several examples of actual playgrounds created by artists, I include a tried and true example of a lesson I like to use where students make their own paper playgrounds. You can read my essay here.

Image: One of Khor Ean Ghee’s dragon playgrounds in front of a community housing development in Toa Payoh, Singapore. Photograph by Jimmy Tan, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

First image: Irving Kriesberg, (no title) drawing from the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, c. 1929, graphite on paper. Collection of the Irving Kriesberg Estate Foundation. Second image: Irving Kriesberg, The Victim, 1994, oil on canvas. Collection of the Irving Kriesberg Estate Foundation.

Irving Kriesberg developed an aptitude for art at an early age by filling notebooks with drawings of museum taxidermy he encountered at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. This early experience of biological rendering made a lasting impression on Kriesberg, who manifested his own animal imagery and phenomenal aesthetic environments throughout his career.

The untitled graphite drawing of a leopard seizing a bird in its claws is from around 1929, which would mean that Irving was about 10 years old when he drew it; the painting, titled The Victim, is from 1994, when Irving was 75. Both compositions feature a large cat pouncing on a bird.

It is amazing to see how interests, explorations and influences from childhood manifest creatively throughout the course of one's life. This is an apt insight into artistic development of a professional artist. Read more about this phenomenon in my latest blog post "The Childhood Origins of Working Artists."

Josef Albers examining a folded paper construction with his students at Black Mountain College, 1946. Photograph by Genevieve Naylor.

5 years and over 200 Artfully Learning blog posts later, I finally got around to writing about Black Mountain College. "Weaving Art with Life" describes the unique art-centered pedagogy of the school that shaped the course of modern art history. Read it now on Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/weaving-art-with-life/

Harold Cohen coloring the forms produced AARON’s drawing Turtle at the Computer Museum, Boston, MA, ca. 1982. Collection of the Computer History Museum, 102627459. Is it possible to stop worrying and learn to coexist with AI? That's the question I begin to explore in the Artfully Learning post "Living and Learning with AI?" Read here: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2023/01/17/living-and-learning-with-ai/

Winold Reiss, Elise J. McDougald, 1925. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

German painter Winold Reiss' paintings and drawings of Harlem residents included both renowned civil rights leaders and unsung social reformers like local teachers. Instead of rendering them from the lens of an outsider, he was committed to portraying and advocating their achievements and cultural prowess. One example is the portrait he made of Harlem educational reformer, Elise J. McDougald who became the first African-American woman principal in New York City public schools during the late nineteenth century.

Read more about Reiss' multicultural portraits and his unique approach to teaching art in my blog post "Winold Reiss’ Intersectional Art Education" https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/08/26/winold-reiss-intersectional-art-education/

Birch bark letter no. 202: spelling lessons and drawings by Onfim (aged 6 or 7), c.1240–1260. Source: Wikimedia commons

Find out more about this drawing in my Artfully Learning post: "Ancient Art Education"

Isamu Noguchi's rendering for a playground. I wrote about the educational philosophy behind these artful playgrounds in a post called "Fröbel’s Gifts, Noguchi’s Playgrounds" on Artfully Learning. Read it here: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2020/12/01/frobels-gifts-noguchis-playgrounds/

Louise Berliawsky, (no title), c. 1905. Courtesy of the American Art Collaborative.

This is an early twentieth century interior scene by a young girl named Louise Berliawsky, who grew up to become renowned for her modernist monochromatic, wooden sculptures under the name Louise Nevelson. Read more about the importance and influence of children's art in modern and contemporary culture via my Artfully Learning post "Conference of the Animals & 120 Years of Children Drawing New York City."

I wrote about Asawa's journey to become a renowned artist and art educator in a post titled "Weaving Art with Life." Read it now on Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/weaving-art-with-life/

Ruth Asawa teaching paper folding, ca. 1980s [© Estate of Ruth Asawa]

I wrote about the empowering educational theories within Ej Hill's artwork on my blog, Artfully Learning. Read the post: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2021/06/09/artfully-assessing-an-american-education/

“#Lesson #3” by EJ Hill @iheartbeuys Photo by @juliafeatherphoto More info at: https://barbarapicci.com/2022/06/03/lesson-3-by-ej-hill/

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