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 projects!
Today, students spent the day making their art journals and portfolios to prepare for the term. Students make art journals so they have a place to take notes, write down ideas, sketch ideas, and set goals for themselves in class. Tomorrow we will begin by talking about our first project, the clay creations! We will talk about how with clay artists often group work into form or function - so we will talk about functional clay pieces vs. non-functional clay pieces and how some clay sculptures are strictly about form (their shape). We will look at examples of clay creations and look at a variety of sculptures that are just about form as well as others that are functional but focus on the form and others that are just functional pieces. The big idea of this project is that students are creating something and then thinking about how form and function plays into their piece. Check out our pinterest page to see some of our inspiration!
We will also look at two videos about famous architects, Frank Gehry and Antoni Gaudi (Click their names to learn more about them) and how they differ from each other in terms of simplicity versus ornamentation as well as looking at how Gehry is able to achieve movement in buildings. If you would like to watch the videos, click the links below:
2/10/16: Getting into three-dimensional thinking and making!
This week, students are working in groups to work on a practice project in which they must design and create a unique, original, and interesting sculpture out of paper using essentially only tape and glue. Students were challenged to think about the ideas of form and function...how some artists make things strictly about form (shape) while others make functional pieces....but then there are some artists who make functional objects and the form is emphasized by making something really unique, original and interesting! Check out our pinterest board to see what we looked at in class and discussed! Now check out some of the paper sculptures students have made together.
2/22/16: Building with clay has begun!
Today we jumped right into clay, the kids were ready to get their hands dirty and start building! They have begun to construct their clay sculptures and I am very excited to see the variety of things that students make. The main theme they are thinking about is FORM and FUNCTION and how either one or the other or both work into their final product! Check back to see some images of students in process!
3/4/16: We are done sculpting with clay and they are drying out!
Students have finished sculpting their clay pieces and they have now begun to dry out before going in the kiln! They have come out so awesome and finally seeing them all together on the shelf really shows how strong all the pieces are! Check out some photos below of some of their work!
3/4/16: Continued...
Now that students have finished building with clay, we have moved on to our next project while they dry out and get fired. We are focusing on observational drawing and learning about shading and creating realistic drawings. We started out by just practicing sketching objects set out on our tables. Check out some images below!
Now, we are getting into our actual project. For our project, we are focusing on everyday tools that we sort of take for granted because they are so functional and so a part of our life that we forget about how important they are to our everyday life. So each class will be focusing on a different kind of tool - one of my 7th grade classes is focusing on Kitchen Tools while my other class is doing Art tools. They are first creating a surface that relates to the tool somehow and this surface is what they will draw their tool on. Check back for more images as we make more progress!
3/7 - 3/11: Progress on our mix media still lives of everyday tools...
Students have been making progress on their mix media still lives of tools that we use everyday...check out a few photos of some in progress work...
3/21 - 3/25: A lot of progress and finally some finished still lives!
7th graders worked really hard this week on their still lives of either kitchen tools or art tools, check out some finished ones! They are amazing!!
After finishing our still lives of tools, we have moved onto mono printing! We started by practicing creating mono prints of our tools and learning about how this kind of printmaking creates lots of one of a kind pieces that have a very loose, gestural feel to them! We looked at several examples of mono prints to see how much variation there can be in this kind of printmaking and then we dove in! We decided to do our mono printing by painting right onto our tables, it has been really fun! The project students have just begun working on is a dream/memory/moment/feeling mono print...students are to try and visualize a dream, memory, moment in time, or feeling that they've experienced or imagined through a mono print. They began by filling out worksheets that broke down whatever dream, memory, moment, or feeling they chose, it asked students to think about what colors, shapes, textures, smells, feelings, and moods came to mind when thinking about that dream, memory, moment, etc. Then students would use what they wrote down to inspire what the mono print would look like. Check out our experiments so far while working with mono printing! Check back for more images next week!
We also have finally finished glazing all of our clay creations and the majority of them have been fired and look great! Check out some images of finished clay creations where students explored the ideas of form and/or function!
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!