After the Sugar Rush of Halloween, students have a great week ahead working with our student teacher. Ms. Loudermilk, an Art Education student teacher from UTC, has been with us a few weeks observing and working individually with students, and will now be heading the class for a couple of weeks. Although Mrs. Mulloy will be around, Ms. Loudermilk is learning the ropes by taking over of the Art room! The students and I are excited about the fresh ideas and enthusiasm she brings to us!
1st and 2nd periods
Ceramics classes begin work on their Cultural Research Projects on Monday. It is a large project that will consume a couple of weeks and count as test (pottery & presentation) and daily grades (IW & group work grade) and should be treated as such! After separating into 6 groups, each group studying a different culture (Chinese, Egyptian, Grecian, Native America, Mayan, and Japanese), students spent time in the Mac lab completing research, assigning duties and making plans for their projects. The remainder of this week and part of next will be devoted to researching the assigned culture and finding specific shapes, forms, colors, textures, and characteristics of ceramics from that culture. Once research is complete, students from each group will create ceramic pieces using the characteristics of the country they researched. After creating several pieces as a group representative of that country, students will present their work to the class. Ms. Loudermilk's PowerPoint with examples and requirements can be found
here. An IW for the project is
due Mon (11/15).
3rd period
Art 3/4/AP class continued excitedly working on the 12 Layer Canvas project. So far, students have created new layers from the following instructions:
1. Draw a 2" grid over the entire canvas.
2. Paint in the squares.
3. Add tissue paper.
4. Add tape.
5. Add a white wash.
6. Write words.
The IW for this project should be about process, exploration, ideas for further media exploration or ideas for new projects, and a reflection on the finished piece as well.
4th period
Photography students continue this week working on their wiki pages. Although I asked students to have the past assignment pages finished by Monday (11/1), only a few students had completed the work (due to a lack of work in class Thursday and no class on Friday with the half-day). Students were assigned the task this week of completing those pages of past assignments as well as the new assignment of adding critiques for 12 of their classmates. Each student must post a
thoughtful critical response in the form of a comment on 2 different pages for 12 different peers. A total of 24 comments in addition to the finished pages displaying all previous Photography class assignments are
due by Monday (11/1).
6th period
Art 2 students are busy reproducing Masterworks in paper collages this week! After completing an investigation about a well-known work of art by a master artist, students chose one masterwork to reproduce. First students make a contour (outline) drawing of the major lines and shapes in the work, then they scour magazines for close matches to the colors within their masterwork. Depending on the effect students choose, they can cut, tear, or punch out their colored papers to act as "paint" to add the "brushstrokes" of color to fill the shapes. Students were encouraged to do a lot of accurate sketching using one of several methods (grid drawing, pencil proportions, "blind" drawing) learned previously in class to get a realistic drawing of the painting. Students were then reminded to collect a bounty of color to ensure they had all areas planned for before assembling and glueing the collage. I'm excited to see the final results! Students who previously completed this projects produced results like
this!
