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Last Saturday (Nov. 14^th) I had the pleasure of working with the Walker to develop and teach MyNet: Google SketchUp, a course designed to introduce the amazing world of 3d computer modeling to both kids and their parents (as well as older siblings and mentors). Computer modeling and rendering has long been a staple of architectural education and practice, but the software involved was, more often than not, exorbitantly expensive and frustratingly difficult to learn. The combination of these two factors ensured that such amazing technology was only accessible to those at the advanced stages of their design education or those already working in the field.

Then came SketchUp…

With its simple interface and simple tools, SketchUp was an instant hit. It was intuitive and inexpensive, making it accessible to just about anyone. While this was certainly a great development for grad students and professionals, its greatest potential lies with the introduction of this software as an educational tool for K-12 children!

That belief was validated and solidified by our class on Saturday. Students and parents not only learned the basics of the software, but also got the opportunity to apply this new knowledge to an actual project of their own design. The focus of the class was to design an ideal “fort” or “hang-out.” Before we jumped into SketchUp, though, everyone first made physical, scale “study models.” This hands-on process, allowed everyone to first focus on the design of the project before getting caught up in the excitement of trying to learn how to use a new computer program.

Building a prototype together

By using this process, students and parents were actually following the real-life, organic process used by designers of all disciplines! Once everyone had tested out their ideas with scale models, we then moved into the digital world and covered the basics of SketchUp. Thanks to its simple, user friendly interface, most were able to pick it up right away! We then shifted focus back to the forts and hang-outs, learning how to translate from the miniature scale models everyone had made to full scale digital models in SketchUp that allowed them to “get inside” their projects.

Adam Jarvi leading a family through the 3D modeling process

I was absolutely amazed by everyone’s work! Not only were the original models recreated in SketchUp with remarkable accuracy, they were also edited, refined, and personalized with colors, materials, people, and even furniture. The sense of ownership, engagement, and empowerment that comes along with the ability to create something that is uniquely your own was clear for all to see. As a designer myself, seeing others become engaged by the same things that excite me was extremely rewarding!

A final SketchUp project: one family's hideout

Thanks to all who attended! And thanks to the Walker for making this event possible!

Adam Jarvi

Designer and Assistant Director at DEMO, a non-profit focused on spreading the power of design to K-12 students and teachers throughout the Twin Cities.

Dan Graham, New Space for Showing Videos, 1995

7-yr-old O. and I had an unexpected day off on Wednesday, and we checked out the Dan Graham show. It was SO MUCH FUN. He loved the models (especially the high-rise building with the tiny movie theather) and exploring the mirrored stuff together was the most fun I’ve had in a museum in a long time. (The guards were even a blast — showing us how to play with the time-delated cameras in one room). O. summed up the show perfectly as we walked back to the car: ” I know how to make sense of it, but it still doesn’t make sense.”

Painting of a pony from the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Recently, I’ve run into several parents of young kids who haven’t taken their kids to museums or galleries — or if they do, take them only to the kids’ play rooms at the institutions. My kids have been hauled out to museums since day one (almost – - Baby J. was 7 days old for her first museum visit), mostly because, selfishly, I wanted to go.  Taking kids to a gallery can produce anxiety — they’re not quiet, they move fast, they grow extra hands when you’re not looking.

In case it feels like art musems are just for contemplative adults who talk in quiet tones, here’s a nice post by writer and critic Edward Goldman, who’s more than happy to see babies in museums — hooray!

Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge (1988). Whether you bike or drive to the Walker, start your visit with a trip across this fabulous bridge by Minneapolis artist Siah Armajani. Look for the poem, count the cars.

Wind Chime (After Dream) by Pierre Huyghe

Wind Chime (After Dream) by Pierre Huyghe. Tell the kids your going to go see some wind chimes (they’ll be unimpressed), then walk with them through the grove of chimes installed in the sculpture garden. It is unexpectedly mesmerizing, and kids can play tag and listen at the same time.

The Garden

The Garden by Claes Oldenburg. A successful visit with my kids always involves food. Thursday nights, you can order hot dogs and hamburgers cooked outside on the grill. Place your order inside in the Bazinet Garden Lobby, and check out the rows of mysterious, rotting lemons in glass jars, then go outside, and see the garden where they’re buried while the burgers cook.

Sky Pesher by James Turrell After dinner, run up and down the hill a few dozen times, then make one more trip up the hill and discover one of our favorite semi-hidden spots at the Walker:  Sky Pesher by James Turrell, which is built into the ground near the WAC building. It is a delight and a suprise, and a great place to end a busy day.

It turned out, he loved it. It helped that Dr. Mallett is an engaging speaker, with an inspiring personal story. O. was fascinated by the talk of exploding stars and black holes – from which nothing can escape! It was a lovely night with O. – it was a challenging topic, which we were both interested in, but neither of us knew much about. We were on the same intellectual footing.

I met another parent from the Walker’s parent advisory group – and she noted how much she is enjoying going to things with her daughter (who is about the same age as O.). Now that her daughter is a bit older, she’s finding that they share more interests and can have more in-depth conversations about art, the news, what they’re reading.

O. and I are off all summer – I’m wondering what we should do next. I like the idea of a weekly or bi-weekly mom-son date night, without the two-year-old in tow. Oskar hasn’t seen the Tomás Saraceno exhibition – maybe that’s next.

In this article in the Guardian, Hockney argues that there’s a basic, human need to draw, and that while digital tools can be useful, there’s no substitute for drawing and paintings. And he says the school system is “swindling” the children — I love that characterization!

I’d argue, too, that using real materials is important — my boy needs small motor skills (drawing is good for that) and while he doesn’t like drawing from his imagination, he loves to reproduce all the details of a real thing, like an airplane. He also loves to do stuff on the computer, and taking digital photos. But I think his interest in things is lots more about what the project is about than what the tools are (he’d be more interested in drawing a 757 than a person, no matter what tools he was using). Any thoughts?

Todd Deutsch, Oscar(Vader) , 2007 Courtesy the artist

Since I first saw them on his website, I’ve found Todd Deutsch’s photographs of family life absolutely captivating. I’ve caught myself studying the images for the evidence of everyday life with kids: spaghetti in the living room, scattered shoes, chicken nuggets and naked noodles, a couch stripped bare of its cushions. And toys – LEGOs – everywhere.  Chaos and mess and play, all anchored – or set loose? -  by intensely focused kid energy.

The photographs – and my interest in artist/parents – made me curious about  Deutsch, his work, and his home life. How do his kids feel when dad’s camera is focused on them? With three kids, how does he get any work done?

Deutsch will be speaking about his photographs of gamers and family, and how he keeps it all in balance, at the Walker next Tuesday, May 5 at 7:00pm.  A few weeks ago, I met Todd at a coffee shop to talk a little about his life, work, and what he’d be discussing at the Walker.

The Basics:
Todd and his wife have three boys, and are expecting a forth. Todd works primarily at home – he does not have a separate studio. During the academic year, he teaches at the College of St. Katherine, and between teaching and the time he spends with the kids at home, he doesn’t have much time to make work. In the summer, he’s off, but so are the boys. Finding time to make photographs is always tricky, but because the studio is at home, he’s always around and being with the kids is just part of his working process.

About being an artist and a father:
The two roles – dad and artist – are always in tension, always competing. But the camera also provides a perspective on daily life: it slows things down a bit, gives you a chance to revisit and reflect.

Where is your studio?
It’s at home at the kitchen table.  My workspace is in my house – I work on the computer. The boys have taken over most of the house. It would be nice to have a separate space, at times, but for now, this works.

When do you work? After bedtime?
Mostly I work when the boys are around – I am not an evening or night person. I get a couple of weeks each year when they’re still in school, but my teaching has finished, otherwise, they’re with me when I am working.

How do you get work done with the kids around?
I used to work sculpturally – building three-dimensional, sculptural objects out of photographs. Now, I am working at home, and there’s no time, no money for a studio, no money for those kinds of materials.

I’ve learned to work in smaller blocks of time. With the boys, I can work for about 10 or 15 minutes at a stretch, but I’m always getting interrupted to go put out fires. Working digitally has made that possible. When I am working on a series, I edit work with small prints that I spread out on the table.

How do the kids feel about being photographed?
I’ve has been photographing the kids for years, since my first son was born. When I get out the camera, they’re interested in the camera at first, but get bored, and then stop paying attention to it and go back to their own stuff.

They’ve grown up with me making photographs. It is all happening at home – I ‘m making the photographs, and doing my work – but once they’re printed and leave the house, it’s a different thing.

About making art with the kids:
We have the family camera and my camera. We’ve made some stop motion movies – take photos with the lowest resolution possible, and put them together into a movie. With some help, they can do it. If I start making something, they’ll get interested – but if we are really into it – they’ll back off. They want to get their own interests.

How do you stay connected? Who do you talk to about art?
I always worked alone, even when I had a studio with other artists around. My wife is an RN, but we met at art school. So I can run work by her and she’ll understand and be able to respond both as a parent and as an artist. And she understands how important it is to me to keep making work, even though it takes time and attention -– she understands that side of being an artist.

So, how DO you balance everything?
Making art is kind of a selfish activity. You’re constantly conflicted, constantly in a process of choosing how to spend your time. So, choosing to spend a couple of hours in the studio is hard. I know the kids are around – I can hear them in the next room. It could be different with a separate studio, but then I wouldn’t see them.The key is having a partner who is supportive – it is a miracle that anyone would help you with this!

Mia's Installation

The latest installment in my series of interviews with parent-friends who happen to be artists (or artist-friends who happen to be parents?) Do their kids benefit from having an artist for a parent? Why or why not?

This from my friend Chris who’s a sculptor and stay-at-home dad in California:

I have two young kids ages 4 and 2. I am also not a young father. I had my first child at 38. So, I think theres a certain maturity to being that age as an artist with young children. So as an artist, I think I try to have some consistency while allowing constant chaos, madness and creativity – just like my own practice

Chris mentioned to me that he often has his kids in his studio with him:

My daughter plays in the studio with her chalks and also makes little installations of acorns, woods, and pine cones -whatever she can find lying around. She inspired my latest work of coloring wood with graphite. She had one day started coloring a wood piece with her chalk and I asked her what she was doing. She said “I’m making art.” And sure enough I had a pencil in my hand doing the same thing.

I really love that idea, and have tried it (with mixed results…) I would love to have my kids in the studio, making their own work, but O. in particular is sometimes hesitant to draw. And Chris writes:

My son tried very hard to draw everything, but got frustrated. I would draw a figure with ease and he couldn’t help but be frustrated watching me. I had to step back and be somewhat careful not to hamper his desire to draw. And so I encourage him to continue to draw. It has taken him awhile til he is able to draw without restriction and frustration. He enjoys it and can sit down and concentrate on it.

I think that’s what’s going on with my son, too!  The activities at Free First Saturdays have been great for O — they’re facilitated by someone else (not me) and they’re something new & different than what he’d do at home — good encouragement for him to try something new.

A good friend who’s a photographer writes that her kids

…actually like that [we] are artists. Sure, they complain about us all the time, but that’s sort of their job. I can’t imagine they’d think I was any more or less of a loser if I were a bank teller or a dog groomer. The difference is that they know we work days, nights, and weekends – we are always on. We also won’t stop and retire at 65.

And her husband, also a photographer, writes that he thinks their kids

… are certainly both sensitive to their surrounding conditions because of who we are. How many children would call their parents from the school bus to tell them that the light was nice on the parkway?

As you know I work late a lot – tonight in fact – but like you, I put that down to being self-employed and the business in general. [My son] was aware very early on that I never really considered what I do to be a “job”.  He told me that he didn’t want me to go to the studio, but that he was happy because he saw that I love what I do,

Young artist at work

I had a funny conversation recently with an artist. Upon learning that I have kids and make art she remarked, “Oh — I have two grown children, and I think they really suffered as children because I was an artist.” I am not quite sure what to do with that bit of information: abandon all art-making quick, in an effort to spare my still-young kids? Or keep working, but brace myself for that future day when they announce I’ve ruined their lives?

My theory has always been that an art-household can be a great place for kids, but I do often feel guilty about the time and money that go into my art. So this artist’s comment, and the inescapable “difficult economic times”, really made me think twice.  Does my artmaking foster a creative household or is it just a selfish, expensive hobby?  I decided I wanted a larger sample size. I asked a bunch of artist-parent-friends to share their impressions of making art as parents (or what it had been like for them growing up with artist-parents). I also got the chance to talk with Todd Deutsch, a photographer and parent of three boys on his experiences making art in — and about — his very busy home.

Over the next week or two, I’ll post the responses.