LIFE IN THE ARTS
LONGTIMERS PRODUCTIONS AND
THE MONTEREY COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION
PRESENT
Vincent Van Gogh with Pat Soifer
Is there a Van Gogh in your classroom?
"ARTISTS IN THE CLASSROOM" TELEVISED PROGRAMS
ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1999 10:30 - 11:30 AM
There is a life in the arts, and now your students will be able to interact with art professsionals live from the MCOE studios in Salinas.
Guests include: PAT SOIFER , an art docent from the Monterey Museum of Art, together with television
personality and series host Maia Carroll, will introduce your students to Vincent Van Gogh and his many styles and contributions to the art world.
* LEARN HOW TO CREATE A SELF PORTRAIT OBSERVE VAN GOGH'S PAINTINGS AND HIS GREATEST PERIOD OF PRODUCTION FROM 1885 TO HIS DEATH IN 1890.
* LEARN HOW ONE ARTIST SPENT HIS LIFE TRYING TO EXPRESS HIS FEELINGS THROUGH HIS PAINTINGS.
THIS PROGRAM IS BEING PARTIALLY FUNDED BY THE CULTURAL COUNCIL FOR MONTEREY COUNTY & THE WILLIAM McCASKEY CHAPMAN AND ADALINE DINSMORE CHAPMAN FOUNDATION
PROGRAM GUEST
PAT SOIFER, is an active community volunteer with a long term interest in the arts, visiting and studying art across the nation and abroad. Before she came to Monterey, she was a docent at the Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento. She has volunteered locally with the Monterey SPCA and Friends of the Sea Otter. She is now a volunteer teacher in the Creative Response art appreciation program, one of the Monterey Museum of Art's educational outreach programs. Pat has adapted one of the program's lessons for MCOE to bring an introduction to Picasso to Monterey County students. She has B.A. degree in English with a minor in speech and Theater and a Secondary Teaching Credential from Indiana University.
CAREER CORNER
SCHOOL TO WORK TRANSITION
Art Teacher
Gallery Owner
Museum Curator
Painter
Art Historian
QUESTIONS FOR THE TELECONFERENCE GUESTS
Like other artists, Vincent Van Gogh often showed in his paintings what was going on in his life during his short lifetime. Which of his pictures seem to do this? What in his life do they show?
Artists often use their paintings to reflect their own feelings.They also try to get emotional responses from people who look at their pictures. Which painting (s) projects feelings of love? Which painting (s) project feelings of terror and horror? What other emotions or feelings do you get from the pictures you looked at?
STUDENT PROJECT
STUDENTS WILL DRAW A SELF PORTRAIT RELATING TO ONE OF THE PICTURES SHOWN DURING THE LESSON. THE PROGRAM TEACHER WILL GIVE DIRECTIONS.
MATERIALS NEEDED
DRAWINGS PAPER, PENCIL, COLORED MARKERS,
Vincent Van Gogh 1853- 1890
Van Gogh is one of the best-known artists in the world but do we really know the man behind the paintings? though he was only 37 when he died, he left behind 879 paintings and over 800 letters, 668 of which were written to his younger brother and best friend, Theo. Though he did not complete a university education, he wrote fluent English, French and Dutch. He knew the works of Shakespeare, George Eliot, Dickens, Balzac, Flaubert and Zola among others. He knew art from his own century as well as the past and even remote cultures such as the wood block art of Japan that was being collected by the French Impressionists.
He lacked academic training and had trouble with disciplined instruction but he did Plein Air painting (out of doors on site) early and always did drawings in pencil and ink. He constantly experimented with color and technique. He envisioned a community of artists who would live together sharing and enriching each other's artistic experiences.
He was always a man of conflicting feelings and actions and his own worst enemy when it came to personal relationships. He was from a middle class family but identified with the poor and downtrodden. He tried his hand at teaching, preaching and art dealing before he found his calling as an artist. He spent his short life trying to express his feelings through his paintings because he had not succeeded in doing it by any other means.
We will look at 15 of his paintings that show how he grew and changed in a very intense period from 1885 until his death in 1890, his greatest period of production.
