HAPPY SPRING!
We have been very busy creating art as spring slowly rolls in. First and second graders are studying the ocean this year, so after they finished their ocean animal printmaking project we then created a 3D form of an ocean animal out of clay. Students were reminded of the pinch pot method, then were challenged to use the pinch pot as part of their animal. They were taught clay attachment methods to construct their ocean friends. Students were able to choose any sea creature they wanted to create. I love the variety and creativity shown in their creations. Additionally each class constructed a collaborative clay coral reef sculpture. Each student made a piece to add to the clay base. They came out so beautiful and colorful. This year first and second graders are also studying the continent of Africa, so we began a unit of study on African art. The first lesson in this unit taught students about African masks. Students created their own construction paper mask collage. They had to some guidelines to follow during their mask making. It had to be symmetrical, at least 3 colors, and had to have something popping up from the surface and something going beyond the shape of the mask. This was a great challenge for them, that most embraced! They were so creative and each one is unique. We then created large collaborative class African masks out of found objects/recyclable materials. These were great fun to create and they truly got to demonstrate democratic practice and teamwork during this creation. They still have some painting to do on them, but they are looking fantastic! Currently, we are learning about West African textile art, specifically Adire Eleko Cloths and Senufo Mud Cloths. Photos and updates on this coming soon. January 2018 Happy New year! It's hard to believe it is January already! Time sure does fly by when you are having fun. 1st and 2nd graders have been working very hard on a sea creature print making project. Print making is always amazing to kids. They love it. It is one of those mediums that is tricky to manage and can be quite messy. Since this is the case I work with a few students at a time on their prints. We use real print-making ink, rollers, rolling plates and brayers. They first made colorful backgrounds to print on. Many looking like tye-dye's or fireworks. This process took us a while, but the results seem worth it. This project will be their square one art project. Stay tuned for this popular fund-raiser. During enrichment time, students learned how to create a sculpted tin foil figure. We then played with light and shadow (in preparation for their current residency with Derron Wood). They then taped their figures on paper in a standing position and had to then work with a partner to hold a flashlight at the spot they chose, so they could trace the shadow. They seemed to really be intrigued by this. Hope they made it home in one piece. We are now working on clay sea creatures! They are coming out amazing! Stay tuned for pics of these beauties to come. Welcome to another school year! It's hard to believe September is over. Every year I like to start out with an important message... "Don't worry if you make a "mistake", turn it into something beautiful. Sometimes it's the best thing that could have happened to that work of art." I use the book Beautiful Oops! By Barney Saltzberg. This books’ message helps kids feel comfortable about making “mistakes” and encourages turning it into something, instead of getting upset by it. They love this book and will refer to it often. Students then demonstrated their creativity and wild imaginations through creating something out of drips of paint. Characters and stories emerged from their unique creations. They “knocked my socks off” with their creativity! They are currently photographing their work and recording either by voice or an artist statement about their creation. I hope to be able to share these digital files with their parents in the near future. Next we dove into a review of what a line is and various line types. We focused on how we can use lines to create patterns. To enforce this we looked at the earlier work of famous french artist Henri Matisse. Many of his paintings were of interior rooms that were full of various colors and patterns. He also painting many paintings that included goldfish. His most famous one, Goldfish, 1911 was the only one in which the goldfish were the main subject of the painting. This is the painting we are using as our inspiration for this next project. Students learned how to create a drawing that looks like a corner of a room using a horizontal, vertical and diagonal straight line and used rulers to draw these lines. Students then created their own line patterns to fill the 3 sections of their drawn room using oil pastels. Next we will paint each section a different color using tempera cakes. The following couple weeks will include adding a table with a bowl of goldfish on it. Students are currently using a planning sheet to plan this project out. We will be using collage for this part of the project. These are bound to turn out really great and certainly colorful! Stay tuned. 2016-17 It's Spring....FINALLY! It seems like the art train is in full speed this time of year. So many wonderful things going on. First and second graders worked so very hard on creating 3D Paper Mache dogs. These dogs were inspired by famous artists, George Rodrigue and his much loved "Blue Dog" painting series. Students first drew their own "Blue Dog" for our square one art fundraiser. They were so cute right? Thank you to all who participated. We raised close to $3000 for our school. Be sure to check these dogs in the display cases in the hallway towards the library. They are so amazing! They really seemed to enjoy this project that took them weeks to finish. Recently during Art enrichment classes students created "funky feathered friends". These collage birds were inspired by some of my own artwork. It was a lot of fun to share my work with them and to have them create some birds of their own. I look forward to seeing many of you at our Share Fair on June 14th. Please be sure to come to the art room to check out their latest creations! |
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Happy New Year! Welcome 2017!
So much has been happening in the art room! This fall 1st & 2nd grade classes focused on learning to draw from observation, through drawing fruit and veggies. They used color pencils to add color and learned techniques in using them. Students cut out their final fruit & veggie drawings and created a collaborative fruit & veggie portrait of a person (1 per class). This project was inspired by the artwork of a famous italian painter, Giuseppe Archimboldo. He lived during the 1500's and was an art student of Leonardo DaVinci. He most famous for his paintings of people made from fruits and vegetables. Each student contributed their own fruit and vegetable drawings to their class portrait. We used democratic practice to construct their portrait. They worked very hard on this project and should be super proud of these. Check out this cool website to create your own fruit and veggie portrait online! http://www.middlestreet.org/archim/archimframe.htm The follow up project was having each student then choose a fruit to draw at a large scale. They used oil pastels and collage to create a large piece of fruit on a table with a shadow. We actually used vegetable oil to blend the oil pastels. These came out fantastic! I just love the big bold colors. Currently students are finishing up a very exciting work of art that integrates many subjects. You'll catch a sneak peak in a few of these photos (in the slide show here on the right), but stay tuned for some photos of their finished work. (more on this to come) During Art Enrichment classes studesnts worked in teams to create a structure that could stand on it's own using random found objects that I gave them to use. They blew me away with their creativity! They also created zentangle pumpkins, and are now working on a collage project of an evergreen tree in the snowy forest. The year starts off with
a Beautiful Oops! Students showed off their creativity on day one! I read them the book Beautiful Oops! Which teaches about how you can turn a "mistake" into something "beautiful". Students "spilled" some paint onto a piece of paper and picked it up and let it drip while turning it or shaking the paper to manipulate the paint. Once they were happy with their spilled shape, they let it dry until the following week. Their challenge was to then turn it into something using Sharpie Markers, colored pencils and they had the option of googly eyes. They did a fantastic job and their descriptions of their creations were priceless. To the right you find some pictures of their creations! Here's a link to the book/song video that we watch: https://youtu.be/2fZjMYdQjGM What's been happening in the Art Room you ask? Well, the answer is, A WHOLE LOT! First & second graders have been creating away. Boy, how time flies when your having fun. I hope you all are enjoying your Square One Art products with your child's rainforest animal art on them. They did a great job creating their own wild art and were super excited about getting their own artwork in sticker form. Thank you for making this fundraiser a success - it all benefits your kids! This year I focused on teaching students the elements of art, in other words "BIG ideas" in art. They are line, shape, color, form, value, texture and space. So, before we created actual 3 dimensional art forms, I taught them how to draw some simple 3 D shapes, by using value and shadows with colored pencils. This was challenging for some, but once they figured it out, they were so excited. To extend the learning about rainforest animals, we took out the clay and created 3 dimensional rainforest animal forms. Students got to choose which animal they were going to create and we used pinch pots as the base of the animals body. They were super creative with their creatures. Wait until you see them - some are still being fired in the kiln as I type this. Be sure to come into the art room and check out all of their hard work during our special Lyman Lytes night, Thursday, June 9th. Since students have been learning about South America this year, I chose another lesson that would tie into that region, and that was a textile art from Panama (yes, I know it's technically in central america), called Mola's. We didn't use textiles, but instead we used construction paper. Students had to choose a rainforest animal as the focal point of their art and create a colorful, layer design reminiscent of a traditional Mola. They are just about done with these, and are turning out fantastic! January 2016 - Focus: Element of Art: Value First and Second graders started off this year with continuing to learn about the art element, value (lightness & darkness of tones & colors). They created their own tints of blue to create a "scuba divers perspective" of the ocean while looking up toward the surface. They then learned that a silhouette is like a shadow- a dark shape of something that shows no detail. They created their own sea creature silhouettes by cutting out black paper and gluing it to their blue tinted ocean painting. I wanted to have students display these beauties on something that would tie into the whole ocean theme, so we did a form of printmaking by creating bubbles with water, food coloring and liquid soap, and gently placing our paper on top of the bubbles. They absolutely loved this - and they came out great as well. We ended this project with a whole-class art critique. They really did some impressive work on this project. What does creativity mean? Students were asked to answer this question by creating a work of art. They were given many different art materials to choose from to accomplish this task. I then interviewed each of them to find out what they were thinking as they created. They blew me away with their creative imaginations. Enjoy the slideshow to the right of the process. |
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March
Ahhh, spring. March was a Hoot! 1st and 2nd graders enjoyed drawing their own unique owls in a night-time setting. They used oil pastels to create their tree limbs and moon then added watered down tempera in various shades of blue to create the night sky. These colorful owls were then sent to Square One Art for our art fundraiser. They truly came out beautiful and unique. February
During the month of February 1st & 2nd graders continued their study of 3D art. This time the art medium was clay - a favorite of most. They were to create a pinch pot to start the project, something they remembered doing in Kindergarten. Then they were to turn their pinch pot into a creature, an animal, alien, made up monster, whatever they wanted it to be. The only direction was that they needed to use the attachment method they were taught, Scratch, Slip, Smoosh & Smooth. They learned the importance of this method in order to successfully attach pieces of clay together. They did a great job with this and the variety of their creativity amazed me. They will be glazing these in March. I can't wait to see them finished. |
April
We used the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, that they have been focusing on in their classrooms with resident artist Carol Glynn, to learn about drawing with perspective. Students chose to either draw a giant or a beanstalk, then used watercolors and watercolored pencils to add color to their drawings. Students seemed to really enjoy learning this new skill and truly impressed me with their efforts. Up next....painting symmetrical GIANT insects. January
This month had presented us with some challenges. What sort of challenge you ask? Actually having art class! Mother nature had other plans. My poor Monday art students had only one half hour class for the entire month. Fortunately though, they were a little bit ahead of my other classes as far as projects went. In January we finished up our Klimt inspired wire sculpture trees. Students did a great job on this somewhat challenging work. Klimt's Tree of Life is filled with shapes and symbols. We talked about various symbols and how they represent things. The students were then challenged to create a symbol to represent their families. They then had to incorporate it into the wooden block base, of their tree, and then write what the symbol was and why they chose it to represent their family. They did an amazing job at this. They are displayed in the glass cases now, along with their written explanations of their created family symbols. This lesson was designed to aid in their learning about trees and family heritage which are two central themes for our 1st and 2nd graders this year. In this slideshow you will also see the finished Louise Nevelson inspired assemblages. |
December
One of my goals this year is to teach students how to talk about and critique art using age appropriate art terminology. One way in which I am doing so is by holding whole class art critiques of their work and the work of famous artists. This month we practiced these skills by breaking into groups and discussing a work of art, then presenting their critiques to their class. They really impressed me with how quickly they are learning these new skills. They did a great job with this exercise. Check out these pics from their presentations. We also began a study of Gustav Klimt's work. We are focusing on his famous Tree of Life painting. Students discovered his great use of shapes, lines, patterns and symbols that are used throughout his paintings. Just before winter break, we began creating wire sculptures of this famous swirly tree by manipulating pipe cleaners. This lesson has been of great interest to these students, and I cannot wait to see how they all turn out when we start back up in January. October
During October we finished up our Only one you fish, decorated our own portfolio folders and had a wonderful residency experience with photographer Craig Norton. The kids loved learning about capturing emotions felt through music with a photograph. Stay tuned for a glimpse of their work and a video that pulls it all together. To the right are some pics from our photo taking sessions for you to enjoy in the meantime. September In the art room, we started the school year off by getting our “creative juices flowing.” I read the students Beautiful Oops! By Barney Saltzberg. This books’ message makes kids to feel comfortable about making “mistakes” and how you can turn it into something instead of getting upset by it. They love this book and will refer to it often. Students then demonstrated their creativity and wild imaginations through creating something out of a scrap of colored paper. Characters and stories emerged from their unique creations. They “knocked my socks off” with their creativity! Come on in and check out their creative work! We continued our creative work focusing on lines by creating our own fish, inspired by a book I read to them, Only One You by Linda Kranz. It has a great message about being yourself, exploring the world around you and making it a better place. They did an excellent job using various lines, showing their own uniqueness and impressed me with their watercoloring knowledge. You can also enjoy some photos of a special "I am an Artist" ceremony we had. Each student of mine picked out a bead and slid it onto a branch of my metal wire art room tree, as they did so they had to say "I am an Artist". I explained to my students that each time I look at the tree I will be reminding of all my little artists. It was a very sweet "ceremony" that they took quite seriously. Up next, we will be learning about composition, elements of art and digital photography with a resident artist photographer, Craig Norton. I am super excited about this residency. |
November
This month we began a unit on 3D art with our first lesson focusing on the art of Louise Nevelson. She is famous for her abstract wooden assemblages. Students learned about abstract 3D art that is also asymmetrical through studying her work. Using cardboard as a base students arranged various shaped wooden pieces, popsicle sticks and clothespins together to create their own mini assemblage. We then worked as a team and created a larger class assemblage. Each 1st/2nd grade class created one and now are that would later be displayed together to represent a "sculpted wall", just as Louise Nevelson used to create. They came out very cool and the kids just loved this project. |