Dresden Codak

I've been following Aaron Diaz (@dresdencodak) on twitter for a while. It was one of those follows that results when you read a few witty or eccentric tweets and think that you need something different in your feed. My twitter stream is composed almost entirely of educators, centred on my province, educational technology, social studies, and public education advocacy. This is awesome as a professional development tool but it sometimes makes for way-too-serious reading and often raises my blood pressure. I'm trying to add some colour and humour to my feed, at the same time trying to avoid anything connected to celebrity or sports.

As it goes sometimes with twitter, it took me while to realize that Aaron Diaz was a graphic artist (and author, illustrator, and internet curator of comics lore based in Portland, OR), and it took me even longer to realize that he had an interest in illustrating the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, something dear to my heart and the theme of course I just started teaching called Middle Earth 12. I came across his Silmarillion Project a few weeks ago and was blown away by his renditions of characters that are known by the select few who have been Inducted. I find that his sketches and art go right to the profound thoughts I have about key characters and skip past the mental images I have about what they might look like. This is a big deal for me because I don't want these characters to be fixed down (the way they become after you've seen a book turned into a movie), I want them to remain fluid and possessed of the ability to inhabit new interior landscapes depending on where I'm at.

Today I emailed Aaron Diaz and asked if I could use his images with my course on handouts etc. and for comparison and study. He said "sure thing... kids need Tolkien." So, I'm thrilled to share his unique art with my students and help make the connection for them that the passions and interests kids have in high school can translate to satisfying lifelong pursuits and even paid work!

This image above shows Fëanor, a troubled elven prince in Tolkien's world, who created great gems called the Silmarils and set in motion a chain of events that altered the history of Middle Earth. The story of Fëanor has haunted me for 30 years, and is never far from my thoughts. I'm not sure if this was wise (given his tragic fate), but my wife and I named our son Fëanor. We gave ourselves a backdoor, though, in the moniker Finn.

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Image credit: http://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/, Dresden Codak (Aaron Diaz) artist, author, and illustrator. Used by permission. Check out his main page at http://dresdencodak.com/ and more visual musings at http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/.

do your homework

O.K. I'll bite. A digitally dynamic educator from Penticton, Naryn Searcy (@ncearcy17) dropped a "getting to know you" meme-thingy on me and a few others:

• 11 Random facts about yourself
• 11 questions asked by another
• 11 questions that you ask to another 11 people in your PLN (professional learning network)

11 Random Facts about me:

1. I can exhale through my right eye. Busted tear duct valve or something -- makes a sound like letting air out of a balloon.
2. Although I consider myself outgoing, humorous, loud, and prominent in a crowd (big guy, after all), I consistently place in the Introvert camp when I do a Myers Briggs test.
3. Huge Tolkien fan, have a big bookshelf just for JRR. Named my kids after Tolkien characters... Luthien (Lu) and Fëanor (Finn).
4. Snapped my ACL while boxing with oversized gloves in a bouncy castle in the gym with hundreds of students watching... too much pain to be embarrassed.
5. Met my wife while treeplanting in 1991... at the time she was the camp cook and I knew it was love when she served me a up a whole chicken. Still, took us 6 years before our first date.
6. During my teacher training studies at SFU, I lived in a tent in the woods near where I parked my car. Both G-lot and those woods are now developed into something called UniverCity (how original is that?).
7. For my final project in my Masters of Ed degree, I wrote about the Epic of Gilgamesh, explored ecosystem theory in education, and made a film about a Sasquatch where I got to strip down, get covered in mud, and run madly through the woods.
8. My first real job, and one I almost carried through to a career, was that of forest ecosystem geographer. While I loved the wilderness, map-making, and the study of plants, I grew weary of isolation and being chased by bears.
9. I've had three concussions, had stitches 7 times, and been struck by lightning once. The latter happened in the woods of northern Alberta -- didn't really hurt, but the crackling waves of blue made me wretch.
10. My favorite go-to lesson involves a spatial history of the English language, one I borrowed from a beloved prof (now deceased) from UBC... Fred Bowers
11. I sometimes embark on endless bizarre undertakings because someone dares me to in a round-about way... intensive study of anarchism, massive genealogy project, building a web empire, challenging local school district decisions, creating a "Middle Earth 12 course," etc.

Answering Naryn Searcy's questions:

1. How do you balance time spent on face to face relationships in your own district vs online relationships? My online "PLN" is really just a list of tweeps that amuse and/or challenge me... I'm not sure I would call them "relationships" although I do learn from them. I send/receive a hecka lotta emails, but am making headway trying to squeeze my screen time into smaller and smaller daily windows. I reserve as much of my professional face time as I can for get-togethers with teacher friends -- fellow Social Studies teachers aka @pacificslope.
2. Where do you want to go in the world that you haven't been yet? Pretty much anywhere in Great Britain... I've started a list of things to do and see, and it already looks like more than can happen in one trip.
3. Are you a morning or night person? Usually morning, although if there is some stress or pressure I often put in late nights, too. I'm usually awake by 5:30, and have slept in past 9:30 only a handful of times in my life.
4. What was the last book you read/movie you watched or song you listened to? Reading: Fall of Arthur by Tolkien (posthumous publication), listening to Graceland today (introduced the album to my daughter), saw The Hobbit DOS a couple of weeks ago.
5. In what school/position do you think you "grew up" as an educator? My current school.  In keeping with William Blake, my Innocence as an educator was College Heights (1996-2003) and my Experience is D.P. Todd (2004-present)
6. What is one thing you would miss if you had to leave the community you currently live in? Friends, family, my street, the Knowing that comes from living in a place for 40ish years.
7. What is the source you rely on most for news about what's going on in the world? CBC web/radio, twitter articles, some alternate media.
8. What is your favourite movie and why? Groundhog Day, for reasons I don't fully understand.
9. Who will win the SuperBowl and Stanley Cup this year? I don't watch sports so I have no idea about NFL or NHL... it would be nice for the Canucks to win once, but only if they don't get drunk, tip cars, loot and burn.
10. If your son/daughter wanted to enter the field of education right now, would you encourage them? BC K-12??? Probably not, unless wages, respect for teachers, and relationship with management improved drastically. There are parts of the job that are unrivalled, absoutely fulfilling, but there are also parts that are mind-numbing and unduly stressful.  If my kid is going to be poor and misunderstood, I'd rather they be an artist or musician!
11. What is a good moment from 2013? Watching my kids at a recent swim club meet -- progress and confidence. Taking a moment recently to be in awe over my wife as she holds 2 part-time jobs (including elected school trustee) plus amazing mom and potter. For me, having the local university recognize a "Tolkien-themed" course I developed as an academic credit for admissions.

My questions for 11 others in my PLN:

1. If you morphed into an all-round Olympic athlete, what would be your Winter Sport and your Summer Sport?
2. What was the most interesting book or written work you read in 2013 (and was it paper or digital)?
3. What is a major change you would make to the BC Education system?
4. What is a work of art (any genre or form) that inspires or challenges you?
5. Considering the wealth of oil in northern Alberta that we seem anxious to liquidate in a single generation, are you in favour of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline?
6. What is a food experience that you wish on your children (or nieces/nephews)?
7. If your house was burning, but insurance would cover the obvious expensive items and your family & pets were safe, what meaningful artifact would you rescue from your home?
8. If you had to pick a different career than the one you're in, what would it be?
9. If you were to ever publish a book, what would you like it to be about?
10. What was a great event or experience in your work life from 2013 (e.g. teacher experience for many of you)?
11. What was a great family moment from 2013?

Here are the 11 people I'm inviting to do their homework, in alphabetical order... there are others in my "PLN" but they seem to have done this thing already, or they don't blog so they will find this activity frustrating. Some of these folks I just want to hear more from, others I have included because it will annoy them (Rob, Kate) and if they do this they can totally skip the last step of passing this on... but all of them excellent folks to follow on twitter for a variety of reasons:

• Andrew Campbell @acampbell99
• Steve Chase @Chase_Steve
• Kate Cooke @TrusteeCooke
• Kelley Inden @ksinden
• Bryan Jackson @bryanjack
• Andrew Kurjata @akurjata
• Rob Lewis @Lewy007
• Kathy Rice @Kathy_Rice
• Tobey Steeves @symphily
• Chris Wejr @ChrisWejr
• Rhea Woolgar @mizwooly

Added challenge... optional: if you post your response on a blog or such, include a random childhood pic of yourself. The one I placed at the top shows my first bike in 1973 -- 4th birthday.

Ekphrasis

Last week my friend, poet and PGSS teacher Al Rempel, helped put together a night of EKPHRASIS at the local Groop Gallery.

I'm no Stephen Lewis, but I think my vocabulary has some depth -- I know perfidious from penniferous for example (if you were both, you'd be untrustworthy and covered in feathers). Ekphrasis, however, was Greek to me... literally.

It is a word on that "Greek side of life's lexicon" that I tend to avoid. Words of singular or archaic use strike me as pompous or overly abstract, but are nonetheless puzzles that beg solving. The almighty Google tells me it is a description of a experience, the naming of a thing, or a "calling out" of what is being observed. Ekphrasis is used more commonly to refer to a work of art that evokes the essence of another work of art for an audience. Typically, this means writing or image-making applied to a specimen of the visual arts.  A photo exhibit on architecture could fulfill this definition, as could a poem about a dance performance.

In the case of the Groop Gallery, Ekphrasis was both the name of the exhibit and the nature of the closing night for a successful show that featured local artists and sculptors (see right column). The result was both dialectic and synergistic: "local visual artists present their works of art to invoke inspiration from some of Prince George's finest poets and literary artists. A closing night scheduled for May 31st will feature poems and literary interpretations based on the exhibited works."  The poets had visited the gallery at the exhibit's opening, picked a piece to "unpack," and spent a few weeks crafting a response.

On May 31st, A relatively large crowd packed into the tiny gallery on PG's eccentric 3rd Avenue. We had a half hour or so to study the artworks, and then a bevy of poets standing an arms length from us and a work that had inspired some writing, let loose with some spectacular verse. This experiment was a bullseye shot for my learning style or whatever it is that throws my brain into the focused-frenzy that I associate with learning.  When I had been observing the artwork, I posited my own silent verse and free associations onto the pieces. I imagined the sorts of things that the writers, particularly my friend Al, would be thinking, cringing at certain possibilities, excited for others (I must admit that I have a love/hate relationship with poetry).

When the poets spoke, I could feel a few of my predictions and personal viewer-responses burn up and float off into the crowd. What grew back in their place were the quirky, compelling, and insightful observations from some talented writers. Some seemed honest, straightforward, even vulnerable -- clear image making inspired by evocative art. Others seemed contrived, not in a bad way, but in the sense that the poet's voice was so strong they had a hard time giving/opening up to the power of the artwork. I could sense that the normally confident poets had soft hearts for the most part, quite cognizant of the fact they were commenting on someone else's work and that most of the visual artist were in the room.

I was immediately stunned at the possibilities for my students. What kinds of experiences or evidence can I present to them, or can they find for themselves, that compels this kind of synergy? How can students feel safe to explore their voice along the full range from simple "opening up" through to sanguine expression?  I happen to have a single class of English 11 next year after solid Social Studies for many years. I suppose as a basic start, I could take my students to an art exhibit (in our school or out in the community) and try some ekphrasis.  I think I'll try that, but I also want to capture the process somehow, and find other ways to employ the rich engagement that came from one practitioner valuing the work of another. This ain't a new topic for me, I've been preaching "identity" as the basis for student (and educator) engagement for as long as it has seemed obvious to me, but I've often ignored or forgotten the power of direct connections between a Self and a complex Other.

When the Other is both a person (in the room), with their identity as artist in the fore, and a work of art that conceals and reveals a variety of meaning, the possibilities are gorgeous. Ekphrasis is a great way of looking at how learning takes place, part imitation, part inspiration, requiring of discipline and motivated by the lifework that we do to affirm or develop identity.