I am interested in paintings as contemplative spaces. For many years, like many people with complicated lives, my painting moments have been wedged between work, family and civic life. The scale and the content of these paintings provide effective opportunities for this practice.
These work originated through gestural line drawings, which refer to forms and fields of energy. In relation to these origins, materials, fields, figures, color, gesture, and surface, along with life’s conditions, reinforce and subvert those original drawings. These interactions converse with and mimic other kinds of thought. Hopefully, these images animate space, attract viewers attention, and hold their attention long enough to resonate with their own thoughts about everyday events, as well as truth, beauty and goodness.
Artist Biography
John Howell White is Professor of Art Education in the Department of Art Education and Crafts at Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He has an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute and a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of Experience Painting, a textbook for secondary art students. In 2012 he was named the National Higher Education Art Educator of the Year and in 2009 the Pennsylvania Higher Education Art Educator of the Year. He has conducted research and published extensively about the history and philosophy of art education. He has served as Chair of the National Art Education Association’s Research Commission, the Department of Art Education and Crafts at Kutztown University, the Council for Policy Studies in Art Education, and as Director of the Higher Education Division of the National Art Education Association.
Education
1994 Penn State, University Park, PA PhD, Art Education
1975 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY MFA, Painting
1972 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO BA, Fine Art
White, J. (2014), Accounts about before from now: Historical research methods, In M, Buffington & S, McKay (Eds.) Practice Theory: The power of teacher researchers, Reston: VA: NAEA
White, J. (2004), A history of Art Education: 1920-2002, In E, Eisner & M, Day (2004), Handbook of research and policy in the field of art education, Reston, VA: NAEA
White, J. (2001), The ethnic aesthetics of Pedro deLemos: Editor, The School Arts Magazine (1919-1950), In D, Blandy, P, Bolin & K, Congdon (Eds.), Histories of Community-based Art Education, Reston: NAEA Publications
White, J. (1997), Intersection: School Arts magazine and Native American culture, In P, Bolin & A, Anderson (Eds.), History of Art Education (pp, 95-104), The Pennsylvania State University
Stewart, M., Congdon, K, and White, J. Mapping Identity for Curriculum, In Y, Gaudelius, & P, Speirs (Eds.) Contemporary Issues in Art Education, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Periodicals
White, J. (2014), Navigating the research / practice divide, Visual Inquiry: Learning and Teaching Art, 2014, 3(10) 249-261
White, J., Garoian, C., & Garber, E, (2010), Speaking in tongues: The uncommon ground of arts-based research, Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research 2010, 51(2), 134-146
White, J. (2006), [Review of Performing pedagogy: Toward an art of politics], Studies in Art Education, 48 (1) 113-118
White, J. (2004), The preservation of handicrafts in the Southern Highlands: Northern philanthropy and social idealists, Visual Arts Research, 29(2), 44-52
White, J. (2001), Imaging (Native) America: Pedro deLemos and the expansion of art education (1919 - 1940), Studies in Art Education, 42(4), 298-317
White, J. (1998, November), Inspecting Magic Words, Art Education, 51(6), 12-21
White, J. & Congdon, K. (1998, May), Travel, Boundaries, and the Movement of Culture(s): Explanations for the Folk/Fine Art Quandary, Art Education, 51(3), 20-42
White, J. (1998), Pragmatism and art: Tools for change, Studies in Art Education, 39(3), 215-229.
White, J. (1984), Pittsburgh now: 8 artists, New Art Examiner, 15, 56-57
White, J. (1984), Continuing the American folk art tradition, Dialogue
White, J. (1984), Bronze Sampler, Dialogue, 21
White, J. (1984, September), Stamps of approval: Pittsburgh curators, Dialogue, 7-9
Collection
Corporate
National Steel Corporation Oxford Development Corporation Pittsburgh National Bank Westinghouse Credit Corporation Coordinated Financial Services
Affiliations
Council for Policy Studies in Art Education APSCUF National Art Education Association
Professional Experience
1991-2017 Professor, Art Education, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
2002-2017 Chair, Department of Art Education & Crafts, KU
2014 White, J., Blandy, D., Memory, NAEA Conference
2013 White, J. & Blandy, D., Improvisation, NAEA Conference
2012 White, J., Blandy, D. & Gude, O., Improvisation, NAEA Conference, New York, NY
2011 White, J., Meier, E., Garoian, C., & Lucerio, J., Delay, NAEA Conference, Seattle, WA
White, J., Scale: The Object of 21st Century Art Education, NAEA Conference, Seattle, WA
White, J., Accounts about then from now: historical research methodologies, NAEA Conference, Seattle, WA
2009 White, J., Grounded Assessment, CAA Conference, Los Angeles, CA White, J., Skill, NAEA Conference, Minneapolis, MN
2008 White, J., Figure / Ground: Difference as an Opportunity for Learning, College Art Association, Dallas, TX
White, J. & Stewart, M., Teachers teaching teachers: Best Practices in art classroom, New Jersey Art Educators Conference, Somerset, NJ
White, J., Garoian, C. & Garber, E., Speaking in tongues: A comparison of arts-based research and pedagogy, NAEA conference, New Orleans, LA
2007 White, J., Garoian, C. & Garber, E., Speaking in tongues: A comparison of practice and language in the Visual Arts, Paper presented at NAEA conference, New York, NY.
2005 White, J., Allen Eaton and American Crafts, NAEA conference, Boston, MA
White, J., Carnegie Corporation and community arts, NAEA conference, Boston, MA
2003 White, J., Historical Antecedents of Visual Culture, NAEA, Chicago, Il
White, J., Philanthropic Initiatives and Art Education in the Twentieth Century, NAEA, Chicago, Il
2002 White, J., Panelist, New contexts for past lives, InSEA Research Conference, New York, NY
White, J., Moving images: Travel and exchange in a century of change, InSEA Congress, New York, NY
2001 White, J., Panel Chair, Remembering the Past: 100 years of School Arts Magazine, NAEA, New York, NY
White, J., Travel, Tourism, and the Art Classroom, 1920-1945, NAEA, New York, NY
2000 White, J., Craft Curricula in American Art Education, NAEA, Los Angeles, CA
White, J., Panel Chair, De-Sign, NAEA, Los Angeles, CA
1999 White J,, Pedro deLemos in New Mexico, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
White, J., Art, Community, and Curriculum NAEA, Washington, DC
White, J., Art Education's Latino Heritage, NAEA, Washington, DC
White, J., Manuel Barkan Memorial Award, Presentation of paper, Travel, boundaries and understanding in the arts, NAEA, Chicago, IL
1998 White, J., Pedro deLemos, School Arts, and Native American cultures, NAEA, Chicago, IL
White, J., Using contemporary art works, issues and events for understanding curriculum, NAEA, Chicago, IL
1997 White, J., Concerning cultural memory and the biological dimensions of inquiry NAEA, New Orleans, LA
White, J., Interpreting curriculum as activist artwork, NAEA, New Orleans, LA
1995 White, J., Native American presence in School Arts magazine: The deLemos legacy, Third Penn State International Symposium on the History of Art Education, University Park, PA
White, J., Concerning the moral dimensions of inquiry, NAEA, Houston, TX
White, J., Concerning quotation and inquiry, NAEA, Houston, TX
1994 White, J., Interpretation: Nelson Goodman and the intersubjectivity of art, NAEA, Baltimore, MD
1993 White, J., The ideology of montage II: Dialogic pedagogy, NAEA Chicago, IL
White, J., Radical pragmatism: Interpretation, emergence and the deconstruction of self, NAEA, Chicago, IL
White, J., Deconstruction of self: Framing as consciousness, NAEA, Chicago, IL
1992 White, J., The ideology of montage: Cognition, language and multiculturalism, NAEA, Phoenix, AZ
White, J., Truth and community: Reality construction in the visual arts, Working Papers in Art Education, NAEA, Phoenix, AZ
1991 White, J., Rorty and Richter: Private visions and public accounts, NAEA Atlanta, GA
White, J., Rorty and Richter: Private visions and public accounts, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the College Art Association, Washington, DC
White, J., Native American presence in Art Education: Icon and artifact, NAEA, Atlanta, GA
1989 White, J., Arts and issues: Creating a context for art, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the California Association of Independent Schools
Exhibitions
Solo
2008 Recent Work (2008), Gallery 908, Reading, PA
1987 John H. White (1987), One Oxford Center, Pittsburgh, PA
John H. White (1987), Mendelson Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
John H. White (1983), Pittsburgh Plan for Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Group
2016 Related Visions, Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA
2014 Related Visions, Maryland Hall, Annapolis, MD
2007 Painter’s Progress, Northhampton Communty College, Bethlehelm, PA
1993 Scaled Down: Small Works From Southeastern Pennsylvania, The Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA
1993-1995 Small Works, The New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA
1990 The 80's: A Post Pop Generation, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA
1987-1989 Invitational, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY
1988 Pittsburgh Highlights, Three Rivers Arts Festival Invitational, Pittsburgh, PA
Perspectives From Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Unrestricted Horizons, Carnegie Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Invitational, Gallery 10, Washington, DC
1986 Juried Visual Arts Exhibition, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
Annual, Greensburg Art League, Westmoreland County Museum of Art, Greensburg, PA
1983 Young Painters, Provincetown Art Association, Provincetown, MA
1982 Small Works, Austin, TX
Juried Visual Arts Exhibition, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
