This first trimester involved a lot of the student's and I getting to know each other, and settling into new routines and expectations. In my class, I expect students to be work hard and be self directed, push themselves creatively, and be kind and respectful to themselves, peers, me as well as the materials.
I am really impressed with the seventh grade classes on the whole!
As far as what we've been working on:
Every class recreated an artist's masterwork using oil pastels. Each student was given one piece of the work to copy and enlarge, and, once finished, we put it them together like a large puzzle. We had three different works by VanGogh, Rivera, and Hopper represented in the style of each student.
We then did a mixed media piece entitled "Walking in your Own Shoes." Students completed contour drawings of their shoes, adding in a variety of colorful patterns using sharpie or colored pencils. These were glued down to a watercolor wash, and we finished by adding in symbols that said something about who we are or reflected our personalities.
Next, we began the process of becoming an "expert" artist working in the traditional way (in conjunction with the Alpha Team becoming "an expert" in something). We created nature journals (in collaboration with Ms. Harris on Winton) in which we sketched, rendered, and planned for a final artwork, a pastel based on the work of Wolf Kahn. For this process, we went outside, closely observing and studying nature, in a manner similar to how the Old Masters would have worked. We are finishing up the pastel now, as well as faux leather folios, another "traditional" artist's tool, which will store our journals.
Our next unit will be be a combination of new technologies and old technologies: photography, the computer, popular culture, gridding and painting to create some fun self portraits! I look forward to see what the student's come up with!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Erika White's Classes: Learning Summary
Erika White’s Classes
We have had a great start to the year in the art room. The middle school students have been working very hard to produce some great work.
Alpa 6: Students began the year working with a poem they had written in L.A. They took a line from the poem to illustrate. We made beautiful collage papers with a variety of painting and printing techniques. Using these papers we illustrated their poem in collage. Students wrote their line form the poem around the work to frame it. We then worked on a printmaking project using trees as our theme. Students planned a design, transferred it to a printing block and carved it out. Different colored inks and paper were used for the printing.
Holden 6: We began the year looking at trees for our inspiration. After drawing trees we moved on to a sculpture project: wire trees. Students bent, twisted, and formed wire into a trunk and branches using their hands and pliers. We made paper beads to use along with glass beads to adorn the trees. Most recently we have drawn intricate mandala designs focusing on pattern development. Currently we are designing and carving a mandala design into a printing block.
Winton 6: We connected with a social studies project to make collages in response to interviews the student conducted about 9/11. We sketched, planed, made colorful collage papers then created our final collage. Most recently we have drawn intricate mandala designs focusing on pattern development. Currently we are designing and carving a mandala design into a printing block. We will use colorful paper and inks to print these awesome designs.
Symphony 6 and 7: We began by connecting with the book “Seed Folks” that students were reading in Language Arts. Students had to pick a word that was an overarching theme from the book as the basis for their artwork. Some of the words were: love, community, grows, diversity, beginnings. We then carved these words into printing blocks paying careful attention to the way the word was written. Students were asked to design their font to express their word. We then printed with bright inks on a variety of papers. Our next project was working with clay. Using a coil method we created unique vessels. We worked with high fire clay and glazes.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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