I have just returned from the three day Colorado Art Education Conference in Breckenridge. While I was there attended classes and lectures to expand my practice as an art teacher. I learned many new and old processes for working with ceramics such as how to screen print on ceramics, glaze resist techniques, mishima, and sgraffito. One of the most unique classes that I attended involved making a simple instrument that lights up by creating a circuit. I also took classes on encaustics, installations, and ball point pen engravings. I am excited to share what I learned with my students. Below was a quote from Pablo Picasso that I found in Breckenridge that I thought perfectly sums up my experience as an art teacher.
The last two weeks the 5th graders have three interactive murals up for students, family, and staff to interact with. These murals were created in honor of anti-bullying month which was October. The way these murals were interactive were through cardboard tubes that were attached with paper inside of them. One mural required that you sign an anti-bullying pledge by reading the pledge and signing your name on a piece of paper and putting it into a tube on the mural. The other two murals had empowering statements in them that were for people to take and read. They included statements like, "You are enough.", "When I shine bright, others shine brighter around me.", and "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the third mural before a bunch of the tubes fell off, but pictured below are two of the murals with pictures of the descriptions. The middle school students are currently pretending to be famous artists hired by the City of Denver to create a large public sculpture. They are first to create a prototype of this sculpture out of paper mache. This project was introduced by discussing and viewing Denver's public art. One key component of public art is that it is meant to start a conversation with the public or bring awareness to an issue. The students were required to come up with three different ideas for a public sculpture that would hypothetically be placed somewhere in Denver. They were required to come up with a concept and purpose for the artwork and then choose one. They then were to decide where this artwork should be placed in the city. For example, if it is a work of art promoting community, then maybe they would choose City park or a community center. After they settled on an idea, I taught them many different ways to create an armature for papermache. They are currently finishing up their armatures and some are just starting to paper mache. In the coming weeks, I will post pictures of their finished sculptures. In the mean time, you may see them working below.
This past week the students learned about the artist Georgia O'keefe by viewing her work and voicing their observations. The students shared why they like flowers and what they know about different kinds of flowers. We then created tissue paper collage flowers. We talked about overlapping and how the center of a flower looks different than the petals that surround it. Some students experimented with bunching the tissue paper up, while others explorered overlapping with different colors and shapes. I thought they turned out beautifully.
In 2-Dimensional Design we explored the idea of identity by creating self-portraits. Some students drew actual portraits of their face, while others chose to create drawings of things that represent themselves. The students were given examples of seven different approaches to self-portraits that included various abstract and realistic subject matter.
While exploring the idea of identity, I asked the students to think about how they change or stay the same over time. We discussed what culture is and how our culture can help form our identity. We explored different questions to help them define who they are. The students learned about the artists Chuck Close and Frida Kahlo. We discussed Chuck Close's unique process of creating portraits using a grid method. We compared and contrasted the multitude of self-portraits created by Frida Kahlo. The students learned about two different grid methods, as well as how to create value in a drawing to make it more realistic. Below are some of the portraits that the students created; each one is very unique to the individual that created it. |