Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg is an artist who took very simple tasks and broke them down into a complicated process. On his website are a variety of his comical pieces that are all unique but very similar in their own way. By seeing this, it made me realize how much variety you can really have with art and the many different ways it can be portrayed.

In the article by Thomas A. Oakley, being a high school art teacher he talks about how he used Goldberg's work to help inspire his students who felt they had no talent in art to create work of their own. I can see how Goldberg's work would be perfect for this because it is expressed in a way that can appeal to a variety of viewers, they range from very simple pieces to much more elaborate pieces, which is what really helped Oakley's class. He used his work to have his students write about ways in which art is made, and this idea can be modified in many ways. One way that I could use his work in my own future class is 1) for a source of entertainment and enjoyment but I can also use it to break down all different sorts of activities or subjects that are being learned in the class. For example, if I was doing a lesson on photosynthesis with my class, I could have my students break down all of the processes and steps involved in photosynthesis. Or for something with a little more variety I could have students draw pictures of their typical Saturday afternoon. There are many things that could be inspired by Goldberg's work.