Welcome!
Art by Doust
Joust - to fight in combat, just like two knights on horseback.
Remember joust, and you can remember Doust.
Practical Art - I always thought I wasn't an artist because I am practical, and practical isn't creative. Everything I do, make, buy and place in my home has a practical purpose. And Artists aren't practical, well that's what I thought! This has been a lovely experience.
Reflecting, it seems I come from a line of artists. My Grandmother was a seamstress and woodworker. My Grandfather was musical, and I inherited the family Mandolin (over 100 years old). My mother enjoyed pottery and quilting, which I also explored as a teenager. Over time, I've had a go at a few other Arts. I played the Saxophone for many years, learning theory and practice to the fifth grade, before stopping to concentrate on the HSC. I played in the school Orchestra, Concert and Jazz band. In the mid-90s, our School Orchestra was picked to perform at the Sydney Opera House, which we also combined with a two-week tour of local schools through western NSW. When I became a stay-at-home parent, I taught myself basic woodworking skills using youtube, creating household items. Lastly, I took up laser-cutting, which has been my greatest creative outlet. This is a passion of mine and something I would greatly love to transfer into the classroom and use as part of my unit of work for this assessment.
What is Art by Doust
What will you find on this website?
This website was built as part of the Central Queensland Universities Unit called "Teaching the Arts". The content contained within this website was created from the two assessments undertaken over the course of this unit.
The first assessment focused on the Arts strand of the Australian Curriculum and created the following pages - Resource Package, Challenges One, Two and Three. Challenge One and Two is based on Visual Art, and three is music focused. The Resource Package is called 'Lines and Dots' and centres on Optical Illusion Art (or OpArt). It was created for the band years 5 & 6. The Resource Package includes a few teaching resources:
- a teacher guide
- student ebook
- resources such as printable activities and PDF for Smartboard teaching
The second assessment focuses on the Technology strand of the Australian Curriculum. This strand is broken down into two separate subjects - Design and Technologies and Digital Technologies. Challenges Seven & Eight (Design and Technologies), Nine and Ten (Digital Technologies) were created as part of this assessment. Lastly, an opinion piece is found on the 'Our Conversation' page and is the culmination of this unit of work.
This article is to reflect our learning as pre-service teachers over the length of this unit. In true learning style, the product of the article is not the goal but the process of writing the article. I think Gabora from 'The Conversation' described the process well stating creativity is a cognitive process and "transforms one's understanding of, or relationship to, the world" (2017, para.6). Through this article, we will reflect on what we have learnt and create an opinion piece based on a topic or question raised during the gaining of this knowledge. The outcome or content of the opinion piece created by the students from this course will be as individual as we are, just as our journey through this unit has been. The opinion piece has the following parameters:
- written in a format similar to articles found in 'The Conversation.'
- answering a relevant topic or question to do with the Technology Strand.
- reading age of 14-15-year-olds.
The Conversation was created ten years ago by academics and journalists, who joined together to write easy-to-read articles for the general public. Building a bridge that is often broken between academics and the general public. That bridge includes turning important research, often written in the difficult (and boring) language, into engaging and educative information for the 'average joe' - you and me.
Before starting this opinion piece, it is important to define the 'average joe' or the audience of this article. The Australian Government provides statistical data on Australian adults reading levels (see table below). Research indicates 52% of Australian adults have a reading level of 3 or above (Australian Government, 2021). So targeting this article to reader capabilities of around grades 8-10 is appropriate. It allows this article to be accessible and understood by a larger audience group.
(Australian Government, 2021)
I hope you enjoy the contents of this website. If you would like to provide feedback, don't hesitate to send an email to kate.doust@cqumail.com
Peer Review Feedback:
Your choice to use the words that communicated your feelings involved with creating the self-portrait within your actual portrait is so inspiring to me, and I can see how it would be so helpful for students in the classroom. I will definitely be keeping this strategy in my back pocket for future visual art lessons and probably even for myself!
Your exploration of cubism has a great foundation with your work here, and your use of colour within that piece helps to show me your emotions, and they carried through in your digital manipulation work. I wonder if you did this intentionally, but I found your subdued feelings around this Challenge communicated through the colour choices very clearly.
Your final Book Cover also has some lovely design choices, like the colour gradient change showing the change you went through. I found some techniques here that I found very helpful in preparing to teach students who don't think they are "an artist". Thanks for the wonderful reflections! Kira