2/1/16: First day of a new month and first day of quarter three in art!
Quarter 3 art has begun! To start off the quarter, students are making their mark on our classroom. Because new quarters and new classes often start off with lots of talking and transitional things (like learning the classroom and about each other) we decided to take the very first day to just make. Get our hands moving and get some movement out of our system before we have to hunker down for a bit of talking...then we'll get back to making, and do lots of it!
So today, on the first day of art, students were asked to make their mark on our classroom, show their piece of ownership before we get busy working on projects. For this one day project, students were asked:
HOW CAN I EXPRESS SOMETHING ABOUT MYSELF THROUGH NON-REPRESENTATIONAL (ABSTRACT) MARKS (LINE, FORM, COLOR, PATTERN, TEXTURE, ETC.) USING PAPER?
Students then cut a 4x4" square out of their choice of colored paper and then added their marks to this square to express something about themselves to hang on the wall in the classroom/hallway and make their mark.
Check back for photos of some of the marks students made today!
2/2/16: Day two in art!
Day two of quarter 3 went well! Today we did a scavenger hunt as a way for students to learn about the classroom and the teachers! Students specifically had to locate certain things/areas of the classroom and not only learn where they are but more importantly come up with a rule/expectation for that particular area. This way, the students themselves are coming up with the rules/expectations and we don't have to talk forever about what is expected. Then we had a fun questionnaire where students had to guess which teacher applied to which fun fact! The students seem to really like this and we have a lot of fun with it as well! As an extra part to this activity, we had students write a fun fact about themselves, then teachers read through the fun facts and the students had to guess which one of their peers applied to the fact! It was a great way for both the students and teachers to get to know each other! Tomorrow, we will be making our art journals and portfolios!
2/3/16: Getting ready to start our first real project!
Today students in art made their art journals and portfolios! We make art journals for each student so they have a place to take notes, write down ideas, sketch ideas, and set goals for projects! Tomorrow I will be introducing the first project to students which will be our abstract painting project where students try to show space in their paintings. To begin, we will learn about color theory - primary, secondary, tertiary colors, tint and shade and how to mix colors. Then we will have a color mixing contest where students will be asked to invent three new colors and give them each a name! This is also where students learn about different kinds of brushes and brush strokes and what kind of brush to use for different parts of our paintings as well as learning how to get a really nice clean edge when painting.
After this, students will move on to learn about how artists create space in artwork. We will look at our pinterest page and talk about how in each artwork the artist has done something specific in order to show space. We will also discuss abstract art as their paintings will be abstract. We will talk about how artists who work abstractly use things like color, line, shape (geometric or organic), texture and more to create abstract works. Then students will begin to sketch their own ideas onto canvas boards!
2/10/16: Inventing new colors!
Over the past few days students have begun to learn about COLOR THEORY (click the link to check out Mrs. Ford's great resource page on color theory). We have introduced the students to primary, secondary, and tertiary colors as well as tint and shade, complimentary and analogous color schemes and contrasting colors! Today students got a chance to start playing with paint and invent their own colors!
Students were challenged to invent 3 new colors and one had to be a contrasting color. They also had to invent a silly / unique name for each color and record the recipe for how to make it! We now have a great resource board in our classroom with all of the students' invented colors and recipes so if students want to make a particular color they see for their painting, they can go learn the recipe!
Check out some examples below!
2/12/16: Getting our abstract sketches started!
Before we left for February break 6th grade students begun sketching their ideas for an abstract painting showing space onto their canvas boards! Take a look at some sketches coming to life!!
2/22/16: Back from February break!
The first day back from break can be tough sometimes because we are used to sleeping in late, playing or hanging out all day and now we are back at school. So, as a way to sort of ease us back into the routine of school the art teachers thought today would be a great day to introduce the collaborative project that our class will be working on together along side our individual projects throughout the art term.
I first introduced the class to the artist, Vik Muniz, who is shown below:
6th Graders have just learned about Vik Muniz, a world renowned Brazilian artist and photographer. They watched clips from Wasteland, a documentary capturing the life of Vik Muniz as he travels to Brazil to visit the country's largest landfill, Gramacho.
In Wasteland, we hear Vik Muniz's goal for his next art project: "to change the lives of a group of people using the materials they deal with everyday"
It is here, in Brazil at Gramacho that he will meet a group of very special people that will become the subjects of his artwork. He learns about the "pickers" as they are called, people who work at the landfill, sifting through all of the garbage to separate all of the recyclable products in order to make a living, support themselves and their families. After meeting them, he begins taking photographs of them and then together, with the pickers help, they use the garbage to assemble large-scale portraits of the pickers. The assemblage portraits are then photographed and turned into extremely moving portraits to honor these people and all that they do. It was a way for Vik to honor these people so that when people look at these portraits, they not only see the image, the whole idea, but they also see the materials and they begin to think about how these people are not just materials, they are not just garbage pickers, they are much more than that. They are much more than just the garbage that they sort through.
Through this work, Vik was able to help these people to find a purpose in their life and to strive for something bigger and better for themselves. After the work was completed, Vik took the photographs to an international art auction and all of the proceeds went to the pickers. It was because of this work that Vik was able to achieve his goal of changing the lives of a group of people using a material that they deal with everyday. The pickers were able to move on to new jobs, move out of the favelas or slums and move into safer, better communities and change their lives for the better. Wasteland is a great documentary to watch and I urge families to look into it as it is a very moving story.
6th grade students will be working together as a class to assemble materials into a large scale portrait mural of a chosen person, a person who is contemporary, part of the students generation, that has somehow impacted the world for the better. Before they choose a person, they will help me to finish my quarter 2 class' mural as we weren't able to finish it. My quarter two class decided to honor Vik Muniz. Check out some images of it so far!! The 6th graders will help me to finish this one and then we will go through the choosing process to start a new one. I urge families to spend some time talking with their students to think about what kinds of contemporary figures that your students will know that have impacted the world somehow. People we have already chosen: Serena Williams, Steve Jobs, Malala, Lionel Messi, Vik Muniz, Pope Francis, Emma Watson, and Ellen Degeneres.
2/29/16: Brainstorming and voting on a person for our new mural!
Together as a class we brainstormed a list of possible people to honor with a large scale mural....our list consisted of the following people that have impacted our world somehow:
-Taylor Swift -Michelle Obama -Barack Obama -Julia Hill -Beyonce -Paul McCartney -David Bowie -Lady Gaga -Robin Williams -Selena Gomez -Hillary Clinton
After talking about each person specifically and what they are known for or things they have achieved we went through several rounds of voting and finally settled on one person to honor: LADY GAGA!!
Some of her accomplishments / things she is known for: -World famous singer and songwriter -Many of her songs are known for her self-empowering messages -Dreams of changing the world -Known as one of the most influential artists in the world -Known as one of the most powerful artists -Outspoken LGBTQ equality advocate -Leading activist for the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell movement -Fighter for LGBTQ rights -Fighter for women's rights -Helper in HIV/AIDS prevention -Started the Born This Way Foundation (to inspire youth and build better communities)
6th grade families:
We will be starting our collaborative large-scale mural of LADY GAGA very soon! In order to start our mural we need to collect materials that relate to Lady Gaga. Your students have come up with a list of materials that we might use to create the portrait of her, if you have any of the following materials you would like to get rid of please send them in with your child! Thanks in advance!
Old electronic parts (phones, cameras, computers, etc.)
Things related to the idea of fame (awards, trophies, lights, ribbons, etc.)
Have your child drop off any items in the art room (room 322)
Note - your child is NOT required or expected to buy anything for this, we are using recycled, old, junk drawer, treasures to build these murals, feel free to look at past quarters to see the murals progress! Thanks!
Now for some in progress photos of students working on their abstract space paintings...
Finished abstract paintings!
6th graders have finished their abstract paintings! Check out some photos below:
3/7 - 3/11: Beginning out new project - the movable beast!
For our movable beast project, students were first introduced to famous artist Theo Jansen and his Strandbeests! (Click his name to check out a video of some of his Strandbeest's walking on the beach as well as learn more about the artist himself.) We watched a ted talk (click to watch - it's really fascinating!) on Theo Jansen as he explains the background of this project as well as get a closer look at how they actually work!
After watching Theo Jansen's ted talk 6th graders had a discussion about the work and the idea of creating a movable beast! Then we looked at something very exciting in today's technology - Google's subsidiary Boston Dynamics has created Atlas, The Next Generation Robot - click to watch Atlas, the Next Generation Robot roam around the woods in Eastern Massachusetts!
6th graders new project is to design and create a movable beast (a beast must be some kind of a living form - human, animal, insect, bird, plant, alien, robot, monster - basically have some sort of features that show that it is a living form) and this beast must have at least one movable part. Check out the pinterest board we looked at for inspiration!
Students then made sketches in their journal for a potential beast they would like to create. Then I asked students to do some research on movable parts when they went home. I asked them to look at things like how do doors open, how does the movable part work, how does your car move, how do your toys move? Then when they came to class the next day, we shared a few of the things that we noticed and we talked about different kinds of movable parts such as: a lever, wheel & axle, pulley, crank, gear, natural forces - wind, water, and more!
After talking about some of these types of movable parts and how they work we looked at a few artists who create kinetic sculptures and tried to identify some of these parts at work! The first was artist Anthony Howe and his amazing kinetic sculptures, though they are not creatures or beasts, students were able to look at how kinetics work into the art world. The students really responded to this particular video as the sculptures are quite mesmerizing!! After looking at this, I had one more video to show them that I had just found and thought was SO COOL!
Swedish musician and I would say artist as well, Martin Molin, created and built The Wintergatan Marble Machine (click to watch) which is a hand made music box that powers a kick drum, bass, vibraphone and other instruments using a hand crank and 2,000 marbles. It is such an amazing machine that he has built and it uses many of the movable parts that we are learning about!
Now students are beginning to build their own movable beasts! Check out some in progress photos of students at work below!
Helping to finish up the mural of Vik Muniz!
Our large scale murals are currently on display at the ACA (Arlington Center for the Arts)! In order for us to get all of our murals to the ACA in time for the Teen Visions / Teen Voices show I had my 6th graders help me to finish Vik Muniz up! Check out some in progress pictures of students at work on the Vik Muniz mural!
And finally....Check out the finished Vik Muniz mural!!
And check out one more close up to see some of the amazing materials students used to create this mural:
3/21 - 3/25: A very productive week for 6th grade!
6th graders have been productively working on their movable beast sculptures and they are coming along so wonderfully! They are quite the creative group! We also got our boards this week for our new murals, so Lady Gaga will be starting most likely sometime mid next week! Check out some photos of 6th graders working this week on movable beasts!
CHECK OUT ART SHOW PHOTOS UNDER THE OMS ART SHOW TAB!
Hover over the 'OMS ART SHOW' tab and click on 2016: Quarter 3 Art Show to see pictures from our amazing show!