Student Self Portraits

These student works are from my Art Foundations Class at Kean University where I teach studio art to non-art majors.  I am always so interested by how the students choose to express themselves when it comes to their self-portraits.  Don't they all tell fascinating stories without words?  Triada

 

A page from the journal of Triada Samaras

    Where is home?  Home is hearth.  Home is sustenance.  Home is window.   

    Home is blinders. Home is walls.  Home is skin. Home is sin.  Home is talk.

    Home is silent.  Home is sanctuary. Home is spirit. Home is special. 

    Home is secret.  Home is caution. Home is red flag.  Home is darkness. 

    Home is safety.  Home is enclosure. Home is entrapment.  

    Home is protection.  Home is love.  Home is connection.  Home is refrigerator.

    Home is form.  Home is place.  Home is light. Home is illusion.  

    Home is light.  Home is life. Home is dreams. Home is dysfunction.   

    Home is cinnamon.  Home is apples.  Home is mold.

    Home is deflection.  Home is connection.  Home is dust. 

    Home is visceral.  Home is family.  Home is disarmament.

    Home is alarming.  Home is disarming.  Home is love.  Home is moments. 

    Home is war.  Home is now.  Home is scotch.  Home is later. 

    Home is turkey.  Home is shouting.  Home is hope. Home is overrated.   
    Home is here. Home is underestimated. Home is smoking.  Home is the last puff. 

    Home is the last word.

    c.  Triada Samaras 2013/2014 

This photograph comes from my New York to New Jersey and Back Photographic series.  It is time to find a place to exhibit this series. Triada

Poem

The Conundrum

The artist groped through the paint trying to see

With her fingertips the things she could not say

The more she could see

The less she could say so

She spoke in whispers

Even to her secret self

Asking where does the paint

Want to go?

The more she could say

The less she could see so

She stopped the brush

To catch her breath often

The paint drifted about the canvas

Like waves on a lazy boat

Lapping here

Landing there

Landing nowhere

In particular

The artist played

The game she learned long ago, pretending

Her brush was deaf

Her fingers mute

And the game of smiling

When it was not called for

She stopped the brush

To catch her breath, often

The more she could say

The less she could see so

Asking where does the paint

Want to be,

She spoke in whispers

Blaming paint

Even to her secret self.

c. 2007/2014  Triada Samaras

Student Works by WIlliam Paterson Univeristy Pre-Service Teachers

These art works are created by my Creative Arts and Early Childhood Literacy Class,  that I co-teach with Dr. Janis Strasser.  Torn black and white paper collage is not only easy, inexpensive, and highly creative, it is also guaranteed to create interesting art works!  
I use the article I wrote about collage LINK and stress this type of collage is inherently linked to literacy via narratives, poems, and collaborative story telling exercises that can accompany it.  One book that always comes to my mind to use with this collage making activity is It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw LINK

Poem for Patrick Daly, Former NYC Public School Principal

Time is a mysterious thing.  It always seems to me like just yesterday that Principal Daly left us.

FOR PATRICK DALY, PRINCIPAL*

Listen to the rain

Wash away the pain

Listen to the rain

Wash away the pain

Drip drop Drip drop

Rain and pain will never stop

Drip drop Drip drop

Pain and rain will always stop

High in the half-lit sky

the Maker opens Her wings

and the water flows down

Down it falls on tan, painted bricks

and on red, baked ones and

on sprawling graffiti

and torn-up sidewalks

On umbrellas old and withered

and on stolen cars

with gold, spindly hubcaps

and elevated rear-ends

pounding with rhythm,

On fading murals

and upon the Spot

Headlights gleam

and make their way

through the dull shower

But the spot

is still a hallowed place

A silvery ghost or

an aura that marks the blot

Where the Principal, Patrick Daly,

died in vain

or in heroism
or simply in the gentle rain

The postwoman makes her way

across the spot

Children run and skip

through it

Baby strollers glide

over it

And dogs dive

on top of it

A tree is planted

upon it/the spot

And all the water

from the vast and cloudy sky

Fills the hole in the earth

where the tree stands

with water and more pain

Up sprout weeds of all kinds

Those that strangle sidewalks

and those with purple flowers

and those that stink

and in the middle

Sprouts a single tulip

with lips so red

and a center so bright

that it glows in the rain

and lights up the sky

Blooming and standing so tall

in a sea of grey

til a frolicking, foolish child

picks it for Mama

Listen to the rain

Wash away the pain

Listen to the rain

Wash away the pain

Drip drop Drip drop

Pain and rain will never stop

Drip drop Drip drop

Rain and pain will always stop

c. Triada Samaras 1996-1998/2014

Patrick Daly was a beloved school principal of PS 15 in Brooklyn, NY who was accidentally killed in 1992 by gun fire during a drug dispute at a housing complex as he was searching for one of the students at his school who had gone missing. I was assigned to work as a teaching artist in residence at PS 15 after his death with Studio in A School. I remained there for the next 7 years. TS

Student Text Art Work

Many people are surprised to find that undergraduate, non-art majors in a university can create compelling art works.  For me, it is a no-brainer.  I have always believed that, “Art is not the possession of the few who are recognized writers, painters, musicians; it is the authentic expression of any and all individuality” (Dewey p. 109).  Below are some text art works created in my Fine Arts Foundations Class  at Kean University.  These are non-art majors:  their majors include criminal justice, biology, occupational therapy and many others.  Enjoy.  Triada Samaras 

  Dewey, John.  Time and Individuality, NY:  New York University Press, 1940.  Print.

A page from the journal of Triada Samaras

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The road to New Jersey and Back is impossible to describe.  How light flows from one place to another and on top of things is one beginning.  How we all reflect that light knowingly or not is another piece. Triada Samaras

STEAM EmPOWERMENT at Paterson Eastside High School this school year

One of the most interesting projects I am involved with this year as an interdisciplinary artist and educator involves a Geraldine M. Dodge grant to create, develop and implement STEAM Curriculum at Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ.  STEAM puts the A for Art in the middle of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  This means Art teachers collaborating with science, math, etc. teachers and it can be a very good thing if done thoughtfully.  Officially I have the title of WPU/William Paterson University "Art Professor in Residence"/Art PIR and I work with a highly talented team taht includes:  STEAM Grant Manager and WPU Science PIR, Dina Scachetti;  and Art Teachers, Marilyn Simon and Darryl Jones who are both practicing artists.

What can happen when science and art teachers and WPU PIR'S collaborate?  One gorgeous example is pictured below:  the Georgia O'Keefe Flowers and Bones project done in Mrs. Simon's art class.  Students learned about science (flowers and bones and Georgia O'Keefe's love of nature) while they created these amazing art works.  

Below I am pictured with the Eastside High School Science Supervisor Levette Glanton and we are discussing how a plumb line can help me hang the art works and plastic straighter.



Below is another wall of STEAM art work wall I hung at Eastside High School recently. This art work comes from Mr. Darryl Jones' art class and is student-driven and research based.  Mr. Jones is working with the idea that both the artistic and scientific processes are similar and that if students are encouraged to do research in studio art class, then this learned skill will transfer over to their other classes such as biology or history.

As the creator of the STEAM blog, I found my community activism blogger background came in very handy.  My previous CORD blog and blogging has taught me a great deal.
 
Moreover, social media proves to be extremely useful as an exhibition, documentation, and communication tool for this Paterson High School community.  Triada

Using Collage in the Early Childhood Classroom

This post is for early childhood art teachers and educators who are looking for a simple, cheap and process-based method for using collage in the classroom. For this collage activity, just need some black and white paper and lots of willing fingers.

Please see my published article:

Picturing Good Practice:  "Using Collage to Encourage Creativity, High-Level Thinking and Conversation!" by Triada Samaras And Janis Strasser with Michele Russo

was published at:
TYC Journal February/March 2012 - Vol. 5, No. 3   

NAEYC/National Association for the Education of Young Children 

 You can order a back copy from NAEYC here:  http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/pastissues

However I will get around to scanning the article and placing it here one of these days soon! 

Triada

TYC Journal February/March 2012 - Vol. 5, No. 3 published by NAEYC/National Association for the Education of Young Children.