Covid19 changes how we deliver sculpture and school in general

So while I am putting together this online version of my course, I keep reminding myself that our students will have unknown entities pulling them in every direction, and school , esp. sculpture, most likely is at the bottom of the list. We are supposed to pick up BFA work in a week and have had to think about the reality that we can set up a show, but there will be no one to see it, and contact with humans will have to be a part of this process. An online exhibition seems to be what we should do, but damn- this sucks! I can tell students are giving up, and freaked out and all you can do is say, this too shall pass. We have been given the task of going from interacting with our students daily, especially as a sculpture professor, to no interaction except through this machine I am currently praying does not die on me. I worry about my students mindset, what they are dealing with while I plan, and how this will work.
With all of this said, I think in times like this, when we are cooped up inside because a blizzard is coming, we should keep our hands and minds busy. Pretend we don't have to do anything, and use the creativity we have honed for our whole lives. Every day, when my boys are asleep, I pledge to put up art/sculpture ideas for students and artists alike to keep your mind and hands busy. It will help me as well to share what I love and imagine the 10 followers on this blog might turn into 100s just for the love of connecting to you as a human. Hope you enjoy and please reach out if you have any questions. ahc1@uwyo.edu

Todays food for thought...

We as teachers have these plans of what we will do every semester. I think about it, and play/practice with the ideas, research inspiration in artists to look at and materials/processes to focus on, and I have to figure out how my well thought out plan can be changed to eliminate our face to face interaction. Instead of giving the students big projects, focus on small tasks/pieces the students can finish quicker while still focusing on materials and processes they can do at home. They may be caring for an elder family member or watching their siblings while their single mom has to go to work, we simply do not know what other burdens our students are carrying, so instead of adding to it, allow them an 1/2 an hour-1 hr a day that they dedicate to keeping their hands and minds busy. I think of Linda Fleming and her maquettes. How beautiful and different each one is. Of course she does a lot of these with a laser cutter which is not an option, so what about an xacto blade and paper that the student picks whether from the to do list, or the newspaper that is in the recycle bin, or god forbid, an old book that is laying around. I am not only reconfiguring my class a bit, I am getting ready for a public art project proposal ( which has not been canceled crazily-yet..)with my husband which means writing and drawing to sell an idea and making maquettes to wow. Let's go back to the basics. Bigger is not always better, but give it some scale, a footer, a small person next to it so though the piece is 6 inches tall, the students finds or makes a tree, a figure walking, a dog made of sculpey next to the piece so we imagine what the piece will look like at 20 ft tall.