Auto Ethnographic Inquiry

This is a fourteen week documentation of my research for my final thesis project. Ummm, well, in all honesty, it is a diary of facing my fears, literally and figuratively, by committing to draw my portrait in four distinct ways: metaphor [superhero animal], Distorted/Altered, Folk/Outsider Art inspired, and Extreme Close-Up, [realism], and document the events as they unfold. To some this may seem simple and straightforward (big whoop); however, for a person, like myself, that deals with severe, crippling self-esteem issues, this is a daunting task. However, the emotional investment is not nearly as important as the adventure/investigation and real life implications for my students. Adolescent students often fight similar self-identity issues. Inquiry: Does drawing self-portraits assist in developing a positive self-identity? Or is it merely an exercise in "looking" at yet another face?

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Thinking about: setting students up for success in art and possibly life

As I thought about the four drawing processes, I feel that the line-up should be:

1. metaphor self-portrait [superhero animal representation]
2. altered/distorted - building up a spirit of humor, acceptance, and a willingness to share with others. With a new sense of community and shared positive experiences, the final self-portrait art problem will be more accessible and lighten some apprehensions that would normally arise. Question: Do we ever see ourselves in distorted rather untrue ways? What causes that and how can we change it?
3. Folk/Outsider – This allows students opportunity to embrace ethnicity, culture, interests, special challenges faced in life, even feelings and emotions in their work.
4. Realism-Students as well as some teacher/artists do not like to attempt this process for fear of failure, failure to render a true likeness, failure to sustain interest, failure to be accepted or liked by peers (critique), and worry of harsh criticism. (vulnerability)

Alongside the art assignments, students are encouraged to investigate self, likes, strengths, skills, dreams, animal facts, superhero characters, and along with the realism process, students will be encouraged to journal for every bad thought or feeling of inadequacies they might experience, they must write two great things about themselves.  They must stay committed to the process.  And if they seem at loss for ideas, they are encouraged to ask family and friends to help develop even more lists of positive aspects of his/her self.  It is my theory that an investigated, informed process will further enhance the actual art made. Busy learning about self–actively drawing self-leads to a more actualized self image.

I will be the student for this autoethnographic study. I am putting myself in place of the student.  I will follow the same steps stated above. I will also have my artwork critiqued by art teachers, family and friends. This will allow me to experience critique, understand the process, with all of its hesitations and apprehensions, and reflect on the outcome. These steps are critical for understanding my students actions, reactions, creativity, and problem solving.  And to evaluate if this self-portrait program, bolsters actualized [true] self-image.
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