Welcome Back to School!

Welcome back everyone! I hope you've had a fun and interesting summer, and have fully recharged your creative batteries. Summer went by incredibly fast!

I was traveling last week, and look forward to seeing everyone the first day of school.

To get us started, here are a few things that you should know:

ATCs, ACEOs, and Art in Miniature is all about creating small scale works. We will have "trading time" built into each class.

Explorations in Art (6-9 and 9+) will follow the Core Knowledge program. The focus will be on learning:

• Elements and Principles of Art
• Studying the works of Masters
• Comparing & Contrasting great works
• Creating art inspired by the works discussed

Ceramics I and II require far fewer things from home. This year you need only bring:

• An old shirt to protect your clothes (adult size shirts make great art smocks!). Clay WILL stain your clothes! 

All Ceramics classes are "hand building" classes, which means that we will be working in the traditional methods of pinch, slab, and coil. A "clay calendar" will be posted later on in the semester, so be sure to check back for important dates!

Don't want to miss anything from our Virtual Classroom? Be sure to subscribe (link to the right)!

A Note About Web Challenges

Last year I posted weekly web challenges and gave away prizes. This was a lot of fun for me as well as the students. While this year's schedule won't allow for a challenge every week, I will do my best to offer as many as I can. More about this later!

The Great Power Race!

"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

 - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I love that quote, which I found when searching for thoughts about competition. A little healthy competition can be a good thing. And the competition I'm going to tell you about is a very good thing. It's called 

The Great Power Race

and is sponsored by one of my favorite groups, 350.org.

The really great thing about this particular competition is that, in the long run, there are no real losers. :)

That said, it looks like the U.S. is already in last place:

India has registered 214 schools!

China brings in 2nd place with 173 schools,

and the USA currently has 98 schools signed up.

The race has begun . . .  :)

Happy Summer!

Hey, Kids! I hope you're enjoying your summer and finding some creative time! If you work on any special projects over the summer, be sure to bring them in to share with the class when school starts up again.

In the meantime, 

Stay Cool!

Operation: Art Show, and the Art of Jim Rowe

For the next 3 weeks, we'll be in 

Operation: Art Show 

mode, which means that most of the work being created in class will be  shown in the Open House/Art Show during the last week of this month. Hence, I won't be posting a lot of photos here. Instead, let's take some time to review what we'll be doing for the next 3 weeks . . .

Lily, Age 6, has been working on her bookmark for many, many weeks! Didn't she do a fantastic job? (above)

During May 4th through 6th:

All Classes: Continue with/finish current work . . .

Fiber Arts (Tues): We'll start weaving with different materials (cane, reed, sea grass). There will be 2 different projects. Younger students will create a simple(ish) work, while older students tackle a harder project.

Fiber Arts (Wed): We will finish our large weavings over the next several weeks. Students who would like to "bead" the edges of their works will get a chance to do this. Also, anyone who would prefer to add a wooden hanger (rather than beads) should let me know before the last day of school :)

Drawing and Painting (Tues/Wed): We will continue work on our Gestalt piece. The goal for this week is to finish whatever medium you need to finish (oil pastel, watercolor, acrylic).

Portraits (Tues/Wed): We will continue to refine our portrait drawing skills. Students should put their work into chronological order (in your portfolios). Each artist has been asked to identify their "first" portrait and their "best" portrait to display, diptych-style, in the art show. The best may be yet to come, so art show entries won't be put together until later.

Ceramics I and II (Tues/Wed): Over the next 3 weeks, our wares will be bisque fired and returned to HSC. We'll spend our class time glazing and painting our creations.

Drawing and Printmaking I and II (Thurs): We will continue finishing work in our portfolios, and picking entries for the art show. If you've come up with a title for your work, please let me  know!

Explorations in Art I and II: No class this week! Enjoy your field trip to My Art Workshop!

After finishing some Art Show entries, Nathan M. and Morgan F. had some fun during the last few minutes of class (above)

May 11th through 13th:

All Classes to Continue with Present Work in Progress!

See above for details! Otherwise:

Drawing and Painting (Tues/Wed): We will continue work on our Gestalt piece. The goal for this week is to finish whatever medium you need to finish (oil pastel, watercolor, acrylic), and to start thinking about a title for your work. Miss Heather and I will help you to re-attach your pieces. Those who are ready will use one medium (probably acrylics) to "tie" the three pieces together.

Explorations in Art I and II: This week we will discuss, compare and contrast, and critique a number of Abstract works, then create our own!

May 12th (Wed): Field trip to Pump It Up! Classes dismiss at 11:55 (immediately following Portraits class).

Several students in Tuesday's Fiber Arts class found time to do a second weaving! (above)

May 18th through 20th:

All Classes to Continue with Present Work in Progress!

See above for details! Otherwise:

Explorations in Art I and II: We will discuss American Indian Art, and then create a woven piece (Navajo inspired!) with paper. I have some beautiful papers to choose from, so this will be loads of fun!

All work in every class will (hopefully!) be complete at this point. We will decide which pieces to put into the Art Show (1 per student per class), and students will choose a title for their work. 

This week's van Gogh award goes to Nathan in Evergreen! Nathan's "untitled" work reminds me of a fence:

Great work, Nathan!

May 25th through 27th:

There will be lots going on this week! The most important thing is that we will be setting up the Art Show! All work will be mounted, labeled, and hung for the show. Once this is done, we'll spend our time cleaning out and organizing the art cabinets, cleaning up the clay tools and work boards, playing Art Games, and doing "free draw." :)

Cow in Leather, by Jim Rowe

This week's featured artist is 

Jim Rowe, a Canadian artist and illustrator.

The Fisherman, by Jim Rowe

Jim is entirely a self-taught artist, whose work falls into the category of "Outsider Art."

Care-Giver, by Jim Rowe

Jim states that, "The subject matter of my work is a study of myself and my interaction with my environment. I am able to uncover and symbolically sort out what is happening and how it affects me, through doodling. It is a form of automatic writing, only it is automatic drawing."

The Goaltender, by Jim Rowe

Farewell, Earth Day, Special Visitors, and the Art of Donna Sakamoto Crispin

The past week was significant for a number of reasons. First, we said farewell to a couple of great kids, and fantastic artists: Avalon and River. 

They're moving to North Carolina, and we will miss them dearly. They've promised to stay in touch, though, so hopefully I'll be able to update their travels and adventures in the future.

We all celebrated Earth Day this past week, which fell on a Thursday. Hence, all of the photos from this post are "Thursday" photos, which I took in Evergreen. To honor our beautiful planet, students created Earth Day posters . . .

Each young artist worked very hard to depict a scene that depicted the significance of this 40th annual celebration . . .

. . . students also made ATCs to share . . . 

. . . and bookmarks, too! What made this day even more special is that Thursday also happened to be 

Take Your Child to Work Day!

so we got a chance to meet (and make art with!) 

Talia and Jake!

Jake came to HSC with his mom, Miss Jen, and

Talia came with her mom, Miss Elona.

What's more is that Thursday afternoon, we all enjoyed the HSC Science Fair!

The theme, or goal, for this year's science fair was to make something that either:

1. Makes our lives easier, or

2. Helps our environment

Let me tell you: There were some AMAZING entries! 

In Explorations in Art, we discussed the portraits and self-portraits of Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo. Students successfully identified van Gogh's early works as being strikingly different from his later ones, and critiqued the variety of Kahlo's self-portraits. Afterward, students created portraits that either used Impressionist colors, or depicted a Surreal image . . .

. . . Check out these very expressive eyes!

And finally, our featured artist of the week:

Donna Sakamoto Crispin

Lotus teapot made of red cedar bark, NW sedge, 
sweetgrass, curly filbert  branch by Donna Sakamoto Crispin

Donna is a fiber artist, who lives and works in Eugene, Oregon.

Copper Cascade made of sheet 
metal copper, copper wire by Donna Sakamoto Crispin

She often gathers her own weaving materials . . . 

Bird Transformation, made of face bead, 
assorted threads, beads by Donna Sakamoto Crispin

And uses her skill as a basket maker and fiber artist to create a variety of art. 

tiny coiled wire basket with turquoise button 

by Donna Sakamoto Crispin

Art, Lookout Mountain, and the Work of Erica Smith

Before we look at photos from last week’s classes, I’d like to take moment to remind students of a few things. First, there are only 6 more weeks of school, which means that any “works-in-progress” will need to be completed before we break for summer. Second, we will have only 2 more “wet clay” classes in ceramics. The reason for this is that our works will need time to become “bone dry” before they are bisque fired. After the initial firing, some wares will need to be glazed and returned to Woodrow for an additional firing. Also, a number of works will be painted (with acrylics) during class once we run out of “wet clay” time. Finally, because our last official day of class is also the last day of the semester, students in each class will be assisting with the Art Show setup! This means that there are really only 5 weeks of actual art making!

 

Students in Fiber Arts have been working on a variety of projects. Tuesday students have been working on a “student choice” project. Some are making bookmarks, some are working on slightly larger weavings, and a few are making friendship bracelets. Photos will be published here when the works are done, but in the meantime one artist, Natalie (an experienced bracelet maker!), finished her friendship bracelet in record time.

 

Portrait students (Tues) spent the class time exercising their eye muscles by doing “blind contour line” drawings of fellow classmates. By looking ONLY at their subject (not at the paper!), students concentrated on shape, silhouette, position, etc.

Thursday Drawing and Printmaking students continued work with oil pastels. Clearly, the theme of the day was Rainbows! Aren’t these beautiful?

 We had a short day on Thursday, because Evergreen students enjoyed a field trip to Lookout Mountain. We learned all about native flora and fauna, took photos, hiked, and enjoyed one of the most beautiful days we’ve seen in a very long time! The 1st - 3rd grade students took turns using 4 very nice digital cameras (compliments of our tour guide, Jim), and shot some incredible photos!

  It Looks Deep, Self-Portrait by Erica Smith

Which inspires the featured artist for this week, 

Erica R. Smith.  

Great-Grandma Laughing, by Erica Smith

Erica is a photographer who grew up in Washington DC, but now lives in Denver, CO.

Stanley Mines, by Erica Smith

Erica always strives to find a unique angle when shooting a photo. She likes to give the viewer an "unexpected" image.

Four Flies on the Window Sill, by Erica Smith

Erica considers no subject to be insignificant (as above).

Four Generations, by Erica Smith

And when shooting a portrait, or self-portrait, she endeavors to make the finished photo a work of art.

Classic, by Erica Smith

Erica's formal eduction in photography focused on traditional darkroom work. She doesn't use a digital camera . . . 

Down the Stairs, Self-Portrait by Erica Smith

. . . and prides herself on using the camera to "crop" the image, rather than a computer.

Giraffa Camelopardalis, by Erica Smith

Winding Down, and the Work of Roxanne Swentzell

Welcome back from spring break everyone! There are only 7 more weeks left in this semester, and so we'll spend the remainder of our class days finishing works in progress, and creating projects that can be started and finished in a relatively short span of time. 

This past week, River (Evergreen) finished a piece that he's been working on for the past several weeks (above). The artwork is a mixed media piece, watercolor and marker on watercolor paper, and is titled Graffiti. River created the "graffiti" image from the letters in his name. If you look closely, you'll find them. 

Great work, River!

Ceramics I student works were recently glaze fired, and were returned this past week. These are just a few photos of the works that were returned to our class following the firing. There is, clearly, some very nice sgraffito work here! What amazing artists!

Thanks to all the students who chose to do the spring break web challenges! The following artists did ALL THREE challenges, and each added 3 more ATCs to their collection:

Ivy, Parker, Tavia, Hunter, Morgan, and John-Luc! 

Great work, everyone!

The previous challenge was to learn about "altered book" art, and to find an artist's work which appealed to the student. Several students stepped up to the challenge. They are . . .

. . . Joel, Dillon, Keith, Delaney, Morgan, Hunter, John-Luc, Tavia, Parker, and Ivy! Again, fantastic work everyone! If you get the chance to see any of these jewels in person (altered books), be sure to take advantage of the opportunity. Pictures rarely do them justice :)

Tribal Mask by Roxanne Swentzell 

I have some personal commitments that will occupy much of my time in the coming weeks, so rather than offer up new web challenges, I will feature works from artists that I often mention in class, but whose work you may not be familiar with. This week, I'm sharing the work of one of my very favorite contemporary artists, Roxanne Swentzell, who is a well known ceramic artist from the Santa Clara pueblo in New Mexico.

Steps Through Time by Roxanne Swentzell.

Roxanne has a beautiful gallery--The Tower Gallery--that is filled with her work. You can visit her gallery, which is located less than 1/2 hour north of Santa Fe, NM, in the pueblo of Pojoaque. It's well worth the trip, and is free to the public.

Babies at Indian Market by Roxanne Swentzell

Please note that, while there won't be any further web challenges this semester, I will continue to post photos of the work we're doing in class, along with each week's featured artist, so be sure to check back here each week! Also, over the next few weeks, I will count up the total number of challenges done by each student, and anyone who has done 5 or more is eligible for an ART PRIZE!
Good luck, Everyone!