Marieke Van Der Maelen
is a product of the Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Art program where she
was exposed to local art conservators and various studio art techniques. After college, she pursued a career as an art
conservator in Chicago, IL, preserving period clothing for the Milwaukee
Harley Davidson Museum, conserving Japanese and West African ethnographic
textiles, and restoring a rare Finn Juhl “floating couch.”
As a child she studied traditional Irish Stepdance, eventually reaching champion status under An Coimisiun Le Rinci Gaelacha out of Dublin, Ireland.
She performed nationally with All Ireland Champions and Grammy Award
winning artists, including Howard Levy, William Coulter, John Williams,
and Liz Carroll. She made a special guest appearance (as a performer) for Mary
Robinson, former Irish President and U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights and received a nomination at an Evening of Scenes at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C. for her work in Kerry Kennedy Cuomo's Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark in 2004.
Her desire to
share her love of art and entertainment and combine it
with modern technology led her to eventually move to the classroom where she taught the
science behind art conservation and scale model building to students at the University of
Chicago’s Charter School System.
Her unique background in art, science and
education continue to inform her most recent work. She teaches S.T.E.M. workshops with Carnegie Mellon's Gelfand Outreach Program, where she combines augmented
reality with set design to redefine how people tell their [#OwnVoice] stories through visual art, technology, and entertainment.
SAMPLE WORKS
NOTE: All photographs are available at my Pinterest account in the event that they do not load properly on my blog. The photographs have been organized under my Portfolio Board according to each section.
Additional photographs of works in progress (WIP) are also available through my Pinterest Account @House of Paidia in the WIP section under my Portfolio Board. Please visit the link below to take you directly to the photos.
What if our food could take a selfie? As a millennial, I am fascinated and repelled by the way my generation obsesses over our social media personas, perfectionism, and materialism. I decided to do a study of these #Instagramworthy snapshots of perfectionism, unattainable luxury, and fake realism... but through the lens of our dessert.
Over
the course of a year, I created a product line of eight 1:12 scale
models of cakes using polymer, polyurethane resin, 24K gold, and various
custom meshes of natural diamond dust [Kimberley Process Certification
Scheme]. I will be adding a ninth cake later this month which will
feature faceted sapphires spilling out from the center of the cake. The
diamond dust cake is awaiting a shipment of perfect cut diamond helliots
to adorn its top and sides but the diamonds didn't make it by January
15, 2019 because #customs #millennialproblems.
Fig. I.2 Truffles Cake
Each
cake takes hours of planning and hand sculpting. Multiple prototypes of
each design were made and then tested for durability before settling on
the final design. I wanted to create designs that could later be
replicated and sold as part of a larger collection. I would classify my
work as a mix of modern Impressionism and caricature, as I try to give
each creation a larger than life impression through subtle size
exaggerations, bold colors, and Instagram filters.
Fig I.3 Diamond Dust Cake, view 1
To
date, I have received multiple orders over Instagram for birthday cakes
and baby shower desserts because people are fooled by the realism of
these tiny models. WARNING: Dear Millennial... you can't have this cake
and eat it too.
For more images of these cakes and other 1:12 scale models, please click below.
When
I was younger, people asked me what I wanted to be. I told them, I
wanted to become a hand-drawn cartoon, complete with digital glow like
on my TV screen. I was six.
Fig II.1 A hand-drawn illustration of myself, minus the digital glow.
When I was twelve, my grade school
introduced me to Broadway Musicals and even took me and my classmates on
a field trip to Toronto's Pantages Theatre to see The Phantom of the
Opera. The moment the chandelier dropped from above my head, I decided I
would grow up and become something theatrical.
To bide my time until I #adulted, I built 3D models of the
Paris Opera House out of foam core, and tried for years to figure out how the cats craddle
mechanism worked (which then allowed the Phantom's chandelier to fall from the top of
the theatre house to the stage). Unfortunately, my dad stepped on my model Opera House
in the middle of the night. At the time, I blamed it on my underdeveloped frontal lobe... and him.
Now I am better at putting away my toys... I
mean tools.
Fig. II.1 The first of my stage characters, created during my seventh grade year
However, I did manage to save my little models of Broadway
characters, which were made from polymer clay, copper wire, embroidery
floss, and loads of patience. These have been in my portfolio for a long
time, as I was in seventh grade when I made these - and they even
helped me secure my first job as an art conservator in Chicago.
For more photos of my work in this section, click below.
Marianne Wright Edelman once said, "If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time." ~ Speak Truth to Power
Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of entertainment. Everyone has a story tell. In this time of uncertainty and rapid technology advances, I believe that it is more important than ever that people are given the chance to be heard, to tell their #ownvoice narratives, and use their experiences to bring about constructive and positive change in this world.
This is a collection of stories and poems that I wrote over the course of 15 years, from the time I was a sophomore in high school, through college, and the first years of early adulthood.
Figure IV.1 A student solving an original Pythagorean Puzzle.
While I was teaching middle school science, I met a seventh grader from another school. She was struggling with the concept of Pythagorean's Theorem. I had taught high school Algebra prior to working at the University of Chicago Middle School, and back then, I had realized that much of the current curriculum, even that from Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, did not really explain the logic and reasoning behind these formulas. Pedagogy for middle - high school level sciences and mathematics hadn't changed much since from when I was high school student. For the record, I have never been formally taught mathematical proofs or the reasoning behind mathematical formulas. I wanted to give my students something more than what I had been taught when I was their age. So one summer, I sat down and played the mental game of What If, mathematician edition - and tried to come up with a good answer for "what the heck is the Pythagorean Theorem used for outside of SAT and ACT tests?" Two months later, I created Prove Your Point, a unit on Pythagorean Theorem and Proofs for middle school - high school. This particular curriculum worked well with students with special needs, including autism, learning disorders such as Dyslexia, Giftedness, and ADHD. My initial hypothesis and work were later verified by a mathematician at Massachusetts University.
Photographs of the print copy of my curriculum is available here.
My first dilemma was that, using traditional methods and pedagogy, I could not recognize whether or not any of my students actually understood a2 + b2 = c2 beyond simply memorizing the necessary steps for solving the equation. I wanted them to know why and when they could use this formula. So, I taught the Pythagorean Theorem by first presenting the Pythagorean Theorem formula in two other formats by using the Distance Formula and Slope (both formulas which they had used before in math class and both formulas are actually the Pythagorean Theorem organized in different ways). I dissected each part of the formulas and showed the students which part of one formula was equivalent to another, i.e. that c in Pythagoreans was actually slope, or m, and was d in the distance formula. I wanted my students to see that there were different ways of looking at the same equation, and that seemingly unrelated equations or formulas could be disguised as other formulas and equations. This is an important concept to understand if one is to eventually be able to write and solve mathematical proofs.
Then I decided to challenge my students further by asking them to think outside the box (or square as it were). We dispelled the misconception that the Pythagorean Theorem was the traditional right triangle example - and that it actually referred to three geometric and congruent squares, placed in a way that their edges formed a right triangle.
Then I asked my students to manipulate the Pythagorean Theorem further by applying the formula to regular hexagons and circles and organizing 3 congruent hexagons and circles so that their sides and diameters (respectively) formed the right triangle used when comparing congruent squares of the traditional Pythagorean Theorem.
Figure IV.3 Using CAD software to transform my paper calculations into a 2D puzzle.
Eventually, I had the students study and develop proofs in the form of 2D acrylic puzzles which we then laser cut with a CO2 laser cutter. I also created a semi-original proof, based off of Pythagora's Proof by creating an original puzzle, which is featured below. We used CAD software to aid us in our designs.
Figure IV.4 The laser cutter had to live outside for awhile until we could properly ventilate the room.
Fig. IV.5 Calibrating the laser cutter and cutting out my Pythagorean Puzzle
Fig. IV.6 Teaching how to spatially manipulate proofs using old-school methods, i.e. pencils and rulers.
Figure IV.7 The finished algebraic proof where the top left square is b2, the bottom right square is a2, and the diagonal center square is c2. All of the 11 pieces from a square and b square combined fit into the area of c square as demonstrated in Figure IV.2
I use the Mini-Lesson Model to teach. This structure of teaching allows students to spend the most time putting what they learned into practice. The lecture time is shortened but still is designed to teach the actual academic concept or scientific principle... Guided practice allows students to talk through any misconceptions and troubleshoot with the aid of the teacher. Independent Activity allows for higher order thinking skills and higher levels of Blooms Taxonomy to be implemented by students. I stress linking the scientific or mathematical principle to the lesson and focus on strengthening reasoning skills. I don't want students to simply be able to copy what I just did. I expect them to come up with a creative use of the concept such as the Pythagorean Theorem Puzzle in Section IV.
Below are photographs of some of the models I built for my students to use because I didn't have the funding for materials, lab equipment, or toilet paper. Sometimes it felt like we were back in the old days... of homesteads and Conestoga wagons....
Fig. V.2 Some of my pioneer students in a one room classroom.
For more photos of my curriculum and science manipulative portfolio, please click below.
As a child she studied traditional Irish Stepdance, eventually reaching champion status under An Coimisiun Le Rinci Gaelacha out of Dublin, Ireland.
She performed nationally with All Ireland Champions and Grammy Award
winning artists, including Howard Levy, William Coulter, John Williams,
and Liz Carroll. She made a special guest appearance (as a performer) for Mary
Robinson, former Irish President and U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights and received a nomination at an Evening of Scenes at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C. for her work in Kerry Kennedy Cuomo's Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark in 2004.
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