Art events coming up........

Art cruise the Marlborough Sounds

New Zealand

17th-20th January 2013

with your tutor Duncan Hill

Come aboard.....

For artists who have begun their creative journey and want to extend or deepen their confidence and competence, who love nature and the outdoors and who want time to get into art without interruption.

This will be a ‘working holiday’ you will never forget: a three day creative journey into the pristine Marlborough Sounds aboard a chartered motor launch.

Sailing into coves and sounds that know no roads-getting some serious art tips or be left alone-its up to you. Guided by a friendly, encouraging and experienced artist and tutor who allows you the space to develop your own art without overt interference, but who is there to help you when needed.  All without the huge price tag and the overseas travel that a comparable art tour might involve.

What you will find………..

Feel alive and enthusiastic about your art, gaining more confidence in handling your chosen media, visual notetaking and drawing/painting from real life observation.

Newfound sharpened awareness and ways of seeing,

You’ll feel inspired, relaxed and invigorated by the dramatic and beautiful Queen Charlotte Sound.

An enjoyable experience of working together in a small supportive group.

And you will have made some lasting friendships!

About Duncan Hill

Duncan Hill has been making art, writing, teaching and building and for over 20 years. He creates art and word works for people who want to understand, reflect on and celebrate life. In his teaching capacity Duncan has been teaching art in a classroom setting and with adults and children  since 1991.More specifically he has tutored drawing and painting in a variety of media. He enjoys the interaction with people and walking in with them in their creative travels.

Duncan also enjoys time in the wilderness, being a keen tramper and outdoorsman. He has previous knowledge of and love for the Marlborough Sounds having lived there for periods of time during the 80s and 90s and returns there as often as he can.

For more of Duncan’s work see www.duncanhill.co.nz

What people have said

“What I gained is to use drawing as a way to relax and express a creative side in myself. Duncan is hugely supportive of that and somehow miraculously makes it possible for all in the course to create most beautiful art work. My way of looking at things changed and I see a great more detail. I also started enjoying working with different materials and discovered that ink is one of my favourites”.

Maria Borovnik

“I really enjoyed Duncan’s art classes - he creates a positive learning environment with a relaxed atmosphere..

He brings energy and creative enterprise to his classes, along with honed adult teaching skills, coupled with an intrinsic understanding of the learning and creative process. As a tutor he instills in his students a passion for art and gives them the confidence and encouragement to seek their inner artist”.

Lyn Nikoloff

For more information and registration forms contact Duncan Hill

badi@slingshot.co.nz          06 3637575        mob 0272623666

Sustainable people

A little while back we contributed to a web video resource about 'sustainability' (whatever that means!)
Anyway its good because its pretty down to earth (no pun intended)conversations about stuff thats a bit more sensible than the rife, rapacious, market-driven gobbledegook we are saturated with.
http://www.sustainablepeople.co.nz/?page_id=422
Love youse all
Duncan

Transformers (a poem)

I says to my son:

Well its basically about

Mostly bad transformers

Trying to beat up good transformers

And kill everyone in the world

And take it over

And he says

Well, I like that dad

Uncollege forever

Yesterday I caught a young American dude on the radio talking about real education in a way that was both refreshing and comforting.He's begun a kind of social movement called Uncollege. Its really an unschoolers manifesto: give a human a chance to go their own direction,doing what they love and you'll find a happier person with motivation to burn,contributing to society using their innate an developed talents.And all this outside of the tertiary education system where in American the average student debt is $60,000-and ours not far behind. Refreshing because it was a change from the numbed out uncreative monologues of the Ministry of Education,who all advocate more and earlier testing,staying at school longer and starting it earlier.He spoke eloquently of the"12 year prison sentence" that is school.The fact that schools were set up for the industrial age factory workers to teach them how to do a repetitive task,meet deadlines and follow orders.And now there isnt even those type of jobs out there.Not that I.see school as feeder for the workplace.The paradox is that teacher charters (I still belong to an organisation of teachers!) all say how its all about the individual and child-centred learning blah blah. Meanwhile at school the same people fixated with power and control are magnetised into the profession,where they proceed to live out their neurosis with the blessing of the system.
Comforting for me because it reflects my and other's views and confirms that humans, somewhere, somehow are alive and well and waiting for everyone else to wake up.

I wonder if you could donate a painting?......

Artists get asked to donate an artwork for fundraising-the practice has always been there-but it has a few questions around it for me.Though artists are usually pretty willing and generous,most aren't wealthy benefactors. Ever met a rich artist?
 You don't get people asking accountants or builders or rest home workers to donate something. So how come? Anyway,I'll not moan too long, but I'd like to see a bit of fairness here. Here's a solution: Ask your local ............. (pick someone who makes a bit of dosh) to buy an artwork,and then he/she donates it to the worthy cause. That way you still get the artwork but someone else takes the hit.Its going to catch on...............

How ewe learn: a blog 4 educationalistically minded people

Educating a kid 

1. You get a kid and you sit there,saying nothing.At this point remove any limiting beliefs such as,"I'm gonna break his spirit" or "All kids are bad unless we do something to them/for them". Ok well done. Now, listen, look and feel your feelings (a tried and true permaculture principle).Great!Almost home! 
2. Get out of the way. 
3. Have some resources ready. These can be people,things,tools,books.Hint: If you havent got them ready,dont panic! Make a plan to find some.
4. Watch out for lurking populist ideas which reinforce getting what you want  while making the kid believe you are helping them eg Nigel Latta,Steve Biddulph
5. Watch out for ideas that suggest more is better (homework and staying longer) and earlier is better (teaching babies).
6. If they are interested show them what you are doing and how you do it.
7. If they are not interested,you are unsuitable for this position and its better for everyone that you quietly slink away and find something else to do.

      You've done it!

Examining exams

Righto,so i think exams are dumb.To explain why I came to this view I will look at(examine haha) some of the assumptions and premises which are taken for granted.Here's the commonly held rationale behind them: You need to test what people know. Now,don't teachers spend time with students?Ask any teacher around mid year,mid semester-do you know what your students know?I have asked; most know what they know.They have spent time with them.Once apon a time that's just what teachers did.They were entrusted and trained to do just that-see how students are going and work with them to assist them and mentor them .Now we have a 'low trust' model operating-its not enough for you to know your students and them you.
The second rationale is you need to have a pressure cooker system to make people learn better.Why do we create a stressful exam environment,with clocks ticking and success linked to them? If we want to test for how well we do under stress,why dont we say that?Why link it to the subject? It could be a subject in its own right-How to Solve Problems Under Strict Deadlines. Somehow we got to the insanity we have in the school system (and beyond) where we mistake learning for solving problems against time.There is no evidence that anxiety improves learning-on the contrary there is plenty of evidence to show that anxiety makes learning, thinking and doing harder.And for many if not for all,exams are anxiety producing.
The third rationale behind exams is that you should try and catch students out by 'surprises"- another cruel ploy by a system that fails to understand why and how people learn.Catching them out may reassure insecure teachers of the fact that they know something that students don't,but it doesn't have anything to do with learning.More erroneous beliefs are that learning is associated with discomfort,punishment,force or coercion.
I don't support assessment of any kind anymore.It drives down morale and self esteem,most people know their strengths and weaknesses very well.Teachers use it to what I call 'negatively teach'-the weird belief that pointing out failures and mistakes is the role of the teacher,and that they will do better if they are told.Mostly I've seen this when its used exclusively as a teaching strategy.The light goes out from the students' eyes and pretty soon they give up (inside). An analogy: Its like felling a tree in the forest to make it grow better.
An anecdote from a friend whose son recently delved into his favourite Classics subject.He loved it; its his passion. He produced an amazing document for a project but was told he only 'achieved' and did not gain 'excellence' (the New Zealand School system classifies work in terms of not achieved,achieved,merit or excellence) because his project was too long.That sort of petty meddling makes me really angry,especially because the odds are so high that this fellow will now feel deflated and lose interest in a subject he formerly loved.
One reason to support assessment is that an employer or a third party who wants to know something about a student can look at formal bits of paper and get an idea of their strengths etc.
My son has been mesmerised into thinking that he might not know anything about a subject-depending on how well he does in his exams-despite the fact that he his at the top of this particular class! Wak!! What the hell?Dont get your hopes up,it might be all dashed on the rocks! The end result is the mantra "don't trust what you know,you might be wrong"