Conner Malone

Today I'm going to talk about Conner Malone. Conner was one of my AP students this last year and he is a fantastic, exceptional young painter. He's actually kind of amazed as the last couple of years we've watched him produce artworks in acrylic and oils. Conner does some really pretty exceptionally sophisticated complex things in his artwork. Some ideas that he focuses on, and so his sustained investigation focused on questions surrounding gender identity. And so he did this in a way that was not necessarily what you would expect. He used some very small trinkets, things you might find on your grandmother's bookshelf—trinkets, figurines, tchotchkes, little things like that that you would find—traditional items that you would find in a home. And he used these and set them up in still lifes. That kind of changed the way we have to view them, change the way the lens in which we view them through, so he would even take things apart like break the figurines and rearrange them, reconfigure them, and kind of control the setting that he wanted to show that he was a part of. And as we did this, we started looking at his writing and looking at the artwork he was producing. We started having a discussion about whether these were still life or whether these were really more self-portraits. If these were things in the way that he was trying to express himself in the world that he lives in the way he was trying to control his world. So the two pieces you've seen in this exhibit, you see Conner actually kind of stringing out a locket and connecting it to one of the figurines. I think it's called Voluntary Femininity and then the other piece is the piece that he actually painted on glass. So, you're having to look at the surface on which he painted that he added, and then through the glass you see whatever is behind. So it's the idea of transparency and the idea of looking beyond the surface of something or someone. So again, his processes in his, his techniques, and his ideas are really in synthesis of one another. They're coming together. They really are connected from the process all the way through to the finished product. Conner has had the good fortune of being part of a large art department. At Little Rock Central, we have eight art teachers. And all most of us, not all of us, but most of us are networked artists that are making artwork and creating new artwork and showing artwork around the area. So, I think that helped that he sees us going through some of the same problems and issues as we make our own work, and he can apply that to what he's doing with his. We also have an administration that really supports us that really kind of promotes our art department. So we have a lot of kids that come to our school just to take art, and even the kids that are already there, that interest and involvement from the administration really validate the things we do in class. I think that helps kids develop into kids like Conner. If you are trying to build an art department, if you're a teacher that's trying to develop an AP program, really focus on having your students write and build bodies of work from the very earliest classes all the way up through AP. In my Drawing II class, for instance, I have my kids do a small version of what the AP students do; a small portfolio where they have to deal with the central questions and, and developing ideas, and investigating an idea across several pieces. That tends to help our department, so anyway, I really appreciate AP giving Conner this opportunity. There's no more deserving kid. I'm excited by the work he's made this last year and I'm really encouraged to see what he does as he moves forward as a student in Chicago. Thanks a lot, hope you enjoyed it.