The most wonderful time of the year!

Students in my high school art class are enjoying creating art through the use of some unconventional materials.  This is a nice idea before the holiday break because the criteria is more open-ended than the autobiographical paintings we just completed.  Here are some in progress.  They can use plaster, pop cans, wire, clay or cardboard.  It is a very GREEN approach to making art!

Sixth Grade Self Portraits in Progress

ARTS INTEGRATION!

This six week session I have been integrating visual arts into Mrs. Koppelberger's sixth grade social studies class.  It has been an awesome and natural process because they are currently studying Mesopotamia, Sumer and Ancient Egypt and there is an abundance of early art to talk about!  Last week, students developed their own pictographs and cuneiform (the first written language) just like early scribes of Sumer.  Because paper was not yet used, students carved their cuneiform into rugged clay tablets which are now currently in the kiln.  They tools they used were primitive, just as scribes used to create detailed carvings for their pictographs and also wedged tools to create symbols in their written language, cuneiform.

Next, we are going to discuss symbols and perspective of Egyptian art and why craftsmen often drew from the angle they did.  My hope is to teach them how to create paper from pulp next week so that they can add hieroglyphs, just like ancient Egyptians.

A New Learning Tool

I found this quote online and loved it.  Plus, my classroom door could really use some sprucing up!  Now it is a learning tool.  I incorporated the styles of several artists we have recently studied--Don Drumm, Gustav Klimt, Wassily Kandinsky and Vincent Van Gogh.  It's a work in progress, but definitely fun to do during my lunch hour:)

Malone University Alumni Art Exhibit

Two pieces of my artwork titled Marriage and Motherhood were recently on exhibit at the Malone Univeristy Art Alumni Exhibit in the Fountain Gallery of the Johnson Center.  This past weekend my husband, son and I traveled to Malone, where I attended school as an undergarduate to see my pieces on display.  Grady and I are standing by the dyptich Motherhood, inspired of course by his birth last summer.  Not only do I feel it is important to teach my students about art, but I feel it is also pertinent to be a working artist myself.  To find out more about my current work, you can visit my other blog at http://www.inowpronounceyoupaintings.blogspot.com/.

Below, my high school Art 1 class is wrapping up a creative hand study.  Here are a few I'd like to share...



What's Happening in Our Hallways!

This six week session is drawing to a close and art is really alive in our building!  Students will be moving onto physical education and music and will revisit me again in twelve weeks.  At all levels we have had the opportunity to experience many different art mediums.  Plaster, clay, paint, printing and more.  I wish these pictures did our hallways justice, but they don’t…