Art Education
22
Mar 12
Photo Response Project: Work in Progress
The students have really been doing a great job with the “Photo Response Project.” One of my 1st Grade students explained it perfectly, “You just draw how the picture makes you feel.”
Here are some of the images we have so far:
Once all students are done I will bind them together in a book and send them off to NYC!
21
Mar 12
Art House Co-op’s “Photo Response Project”
For those of you artists and/or educators out there who have never heard of the Art House Co-op you should definately check them out. They offer various community based art projects throughout the year and are a great place to gain a little inspiration. My students and I at the Roots and Wings After-School Program at Vance Elementary School are going to be participating in their no fee exhibit “Photo Response.”
As stated on the website the Photo Response Project Asks Artists to:
“Perform a visual translation and respond to it in any visual medium — just keep the dimensions to 4″ x 6″. Write a (very) short story, draw or paint, manipulate the image itself or simply try something new.”
They will then “exhibit each photograph together with its responses and explore the many directions that emerge from a single starting point.”
Stay tuned for our responses to the image below. 
20
Mar 12
Classroom Management:
Positive Reinforcement Board Game
Being an Art Teacher brings with it it’s own set of hurdles when it comes to classroom management. After you get your students to understand your routines and procedures how do reinforce their positive behavior? There are so many great strategies out there but this seems like the best tool for the art room. I found the “Positive Reinforcement Board Game” on “Teaching Palette’s Photostream” on Flickr.
What do you need?
- “Game Board”: Some teachers use a whole bulletin board while others have made theirs out of card stock. Your board can be as plain or as creative as you want it to be. Some ideas I have seen include: various art themes, the color spectrum, patterns, famous artists, or art related places in your city.
- Board Pieces For Each Class: Some examples might be pushpins, pieces of fabric on t-pins, magnets, or velcro.
How does it work?
- The game’s rules are the rules of your classroom.
- Each time you see a class and they follow the rules they get to advance a number of spaces. The blog that I found this “tool” on suggested five spaces a class for top behavior. You may want to keep track of the amount of spaces by adding stars or smileys on the white board during the class so students know how they are doing.
- When the class reaches the end of the board game they win a big reward. Don’t forget, this is a long term goal so students will need to feel like it’s worth it. The idea that was suggested on the Teaching Palette’s website was an “Art Party” where students would be able to work in centers while watching an art related movie. It’s their reward for working hard so think of what they love the most and get creative!
19
Mar 12
The Vance Garden En Plein Air
Student got a chance to enjoy the wonderful Spring weather while working “in the open air.”
18
Mar 12
How many greens can you make?
In preparation for our plein air paintings students were challenged to create as many greens as they could. Students experimented with mixing primary and secondary colors as well as using green’s complement, red, to create neutrals. “En Plein Air” is a French expression which means “in the open air.”
16
Mar 12
Changing Education Paradigms
Click the link below to watch a great animated lecture addressing some of the major things wrong with public education today and ideas on how we can make a change.
RSA: Changing Education Paradigms Animation
15
Mar 12
African Masks
After looking at images of African masks and a quick PowerPoint on symmetrical balance students were able to explore mask making on their own. While working students enjoyed listening to the “African Radio” station on Pandora to gain further inspiration.
-
-
-
-
-
Media Used: Oil Pastels on Constructions Paper
12
Mar 12
How do colors pop?
Using complementary colors in abstract art.
Students started off these pieces by making organic lines in Sharpie. We then reviewed the color wheel talking about primary, secondary, and complementary colors. Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are “opposite” or each other on the color wheel.
- Red and Green
- Yellow and Violet
- Blue and Orange
When complementary colors are placed next to each other they make each other “pop”, when mixed together they create a neutral color.
We also looked at some examples of pop artists. Pop artists such as Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann played with complementary colors and color theory to create their works of art.
After students created their Sharpie underdrawings they were free to experiment with color by placing complements next to one and other, and by using them in a pattern within the shapes they had created.
12
Mar 12
Bubble Prints
Students experimented with bubble printing today. Some of the realizations that they came to understand through play were that you need to:
- Reverse the image before you print it.
- Add a good amount of pressure while burnishing the paper if you want to capture the whole image.
Students will be using some of their prints for textures in their Eric Carle inspired collage projects.
07
Mar 12
Totem Poles
Inspired by the totem poles of the Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest, we created ours by using animals found in our native surroundings of Western North Carolina.
Feeling inspired?
Here is the Pandora “Native American Station” we listened to while working. Enjoy!
07
Mar 12
Totem Pole Thumbnails Sketches
Before beginning their totem figures students worked on thumbnails sketches in their sketchbooks. Can you see their thoughts in action?
05
Mar 12
Kandinsky Circles, R+W After-School
Students in grades K-5 created these circle drawings based on the work of Wassily Kandinsky using oil pastels on white cardstock.
This is a great assignment to teach students how to use a ruler!
15
Feb 12
Kandinsky’s Circles, R+W Enrichment @ The Carolina Day School
Students created drawings inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s “Concentric Squares and Circles.”
See a Power Point of this lesson on Mrs.Brown’s Art Class.
07
Feb 12
Flying Machines, R+W Enrichment @ The Carolina Day School
Students created these “Flying Machines” using collage and crayon. They drew their inspiration from planes, hot air balloons, rockets, and other machines.
Documents:
Flying Machines Lesson Plan
Flying Machines Rubric
20
Aug 10
Andy Goldsworthy Installations, Summer Studios, MassArt
Students in the 2D/3D class at MassArt‘s Summer Studios program worked in small groups to create these installations in the Boston Fens. The pieces were inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy.
18
Aug 10
Figure Drawing, Summer Studios, MassArt
Students in MassArt’s Summer Studios program created these figure drawings while working from a live model.
07
Aug 10
Wire Figure, Summer Studios, MassArt
Students in MassArt’s Summer Studios 2D/3D course created these wire figures while working from a live model.
07
Aug 10
50 Drawings Project
Students drew a single object 50 times experimenting with media and viewpoint.
07
Aug 10
Chimeras
Students combined various animals to create their own mythical creatures out of clay.
10
Jul 10
Andy Goldsworthy Installations, Creative Vacations, MassArt
Students in the Studio Explorations class at MassArt‘s Creative Vacation program worked in small groups to create these installations inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy in Boston’s Fens.
07
Jul 10
Wire Contour Self-Portaits
Using observational drawings, students manipulated wire to create contour line self-portraits.
07
Apr 10
Social Issue Collage, Lowell High School
After studying the work of Romare Bearden students created collages that addressed many of the social issues we are dealing with in America today.
Some of the issues addressed were: prescription drug abuse, war in the Middle East, the portrayal of women in the media, and the loss of childhood innocence
07
Mar 10
Peter Max Figure, Drawing II, Lowell High School
Students spent several classes creating figure studies of other students playing Twister. They then incorporated one of their figures into their psychedelic artwork based on the work of Peter Max. To get into the “groove” we listened to music by: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane.
07
Jan 10
Still Lifes, Drawing I, Lowell High School
For the Still Life unit students in my Drawing I classes created a still-life a day, with each day being an introduction to a new media.
Some of the mediums we covered were: charcoal, sumi-ink, soft pastel, and graphite.
07
Dec 09
Cubism and the Figure
This unit started with traditional figure drawing techniques, then students were asked to break the figure down to more basic forms using Cubism to convey an emotion.
Documents:
Cubism and the Figure Lesson Plan
08
Nov 09
Shepard Fairey Inspired Self-Portrait
This sophomore wanted to create a self-portrait inspired by the work of Shepard Fairey. First he used a digital photograph to create several stencils. Then he used those stencils with spray paint to layer the image.
07
Nov 09
MLK Jr. Group Drawing, Studio II, Lowell High School
Each student in my Studio II class was given a 1″x1″ black and white image to enlarge on a 4″x4″ square using colored tape. Unaware of the image as a whole, students had to consider scale, and positive and negative space to create their individual squares. Once each student had finished we pieced the mat board squares together to create this image of Martin Luther King Jr.
07
Aug 09
Group Drawing, Summer Studios, MassArt
This group drawing was created using charcoal and a reference image from National Geographic during MassArt’s Summer Studios 2D/3D class.
09
Apr 09
David Hockney Inspired Photomontages, Lowell High School
Students in my Dark Room Photography class went into color with this photomontage project.
28
Apr 08
Paint for Peace
Students in my Drawing II classes worked on the “Paint for Peace” project which was started by Boston-based artist Robert Charles Guillemin, better know as Sidewalk Sam. The project which first started on the streets of Boston is aimed to promote peace, as well as to curb youth violence in the Boston area. My students worked together in small groups stenciling doves in front of each outside door of Lowell High School. Each dove has a purple banner underneath it which reads “Stop Violence-Create Peace.”
This project empowered students to create peace in our community while also adding to the aesthetic appeal of our campus.
Thank you to Sidewalk Sam, ArtStreet Inc., and the City of Lowell for enabling us to make this happen.
07
Dec 07
Shibori Backdrop, Studio II, Lowell High School
Working with students and teachers in the disciplines of Dance and Studio Art in the Fine Arts Academy of Lowell High School, Lowell, MA, my Studio II students used the Japanese surface design technique of Shibori to create this backdrop for the Fall Dance Performance.
The concept behind the performance was “Color Theory.”
07
Oct 07
Slow Shutter Dance, Lowell High School
Students in my Studio II class worked with students in the Dance I class to create these moving images. The Dance I students held Christmas lights while they danced and Studio II students snapped away capturing the images using a slow shutter speed.
The images were then printed and pieced together to create a mural in an empty store front in Downtown Lowell.
