Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Celebration of the Arts

This years Celebration of the Arts was a huge success. We had more visitors than other years and the work that the artists had created was fantastic. Here is a sample:

 
We had lots of help on the rolled paper tower.

The handmade book table.


First grade space creations.

Hundertwasser.

This is our community based artwork that mirrors Candy Chang's work.



Second grade house prints.

Sign language words.

Award winning ideas.

Wooden houses from the second grade Home unit.


Collaborative canvas mural.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Candy Chang

 This year in the art room the students have been learning a lot about themselves, what things they want to do with thier lives and what is important to them as individuals. This has been the subject of many of our activites in the studio in the form of handmade books, silkscreen prints and drawings. Our motavation for this came from the artist Candy Chang whose Ted Talk we viewed. Next fall we are planing our own big board called Before I Leave Shamrock I Will.......We will have several of these walls around the school for the students and staff to write on. Since the olderst students here are in the fourth grade, using the theme Before I Die is a little to heavy so we have decided on alternative themes for the walls. During the Celebrations of the Arts the students and parents answered the questions:  I want to learn..and When I make art I feel.....I have posted some of the answers below.
 
Candy Chang


Candy Chang


Candy Chang


Candy Chang


   Candy Chang
   Candy Chang


    At Shamrock
   At Shamrock

   At Shamrock


    At Shamrock

   At Shamrock

   I will accordion books



    A Maping Me booklet

Thursday, May 23, 2013

First Grade Spiders

The first graders arrived in my classroom after starting a lesson on spiders. They were so excited about what they were learning that we decided to make some spider paintings. The artists added all the important parts of the spider to their somewhat scientific paintings. 



The Third Grade is for the Birds

The third grade artists started this bird unit looking at John Audubon's work.  We also used the iPads to look up birds online at the Cornell University Orinthology Lab. We studied the work of Charley Harper, a nice contrast to Audubon's realism. We tied in poetry with the poem of Emily Dickinson.
The artists had many materials to choose from to create their work; paint, color sticks, sticky backed vinyl and ceramics. They could also create a book with bird images in them.













The Printed Word

The fourth grade artists have been using the silk screens. We focused on using words that might be considered a mantra for motivation. We love the artist Anthony Burrell, a few years ago while studying his work he sent our class 4 of his prints!  Thanks Mr. Burrell. See his work here.

We made two prints of each word. One on printed paper and one on solid paper.

Our work horse screens get the job done.