Week 22... Love all around!

1st and 2nd periods Ceramics classes began the week by researching the idea of Love in Art and History. Students looked at different artists, approaches, meanings, styles, and techniques all portraying this universal theme. The rest of the week is dedicated to students producing their own piece of sculpture or pottery from clay based on the theme of Love, due Mon (1/31/11).


3rd period Art 3/4/AP students spent the week working on their Love-themed projects. Students were challenged to find a way to represent their idea of Love without being too obvious, cutesy, or typical. Students were instead asked to think of a sophisticated, fresh approach to portraying this theme. PIeces need to be finished by the beginning of week (1/31/11).


4th period Photo students began the week by finishing their altered "mugshot" portraits and turning them in. Students must print, email, post to facebook, or find another way to turn in their photos on time. No excuses for malfunctioning cameras, printers, or missing cards will be accepted at this point in the course. Students had several months during 1st semester to work out issues and make arrangements! Next students began work on their Love projects, a series of 3-5 images based on the student's interpretation of the Love theme. Pics and IW are due Tuesday (2/1/11)!

6th period Art 2 students finished their Word Line drawings by cutting out the negative spaces and mounting the images to black paper. The results are astonishingly clever and quite beautiful! After students finished their line drawings, they bean their LOVE themes project. As my other Art classes, students have been given the task of interpreting and illustrating the theme of love and/or hearts in a fresh, sophisticated, intriguing way. This is a challenge for many, but I am excited to see the different approaches and materials the students choose!

Week 21... Back in the Swing of Things

It seems as if we've been out of school forever! Students returned from their snow week to begin their latest art projects and investigations.

1st and 2nd periods Ceramics classes worked on mass-producing slab molded bowls to use for our Fundraising Soup Bowl night in March. Each bowl will be unique and a product of a team of student ceramicists. Students learned a lot about process and working together to produce a large quantity of pieces. We will continue our bowl making eery few weeks until March!

3rd period Art 3/4/AP students spent the week researching the idea of Love in Art, Literature, Sciences, and History. Students looked at different approaches, meanings, styles, and techniques all portraying this universal theme. Students watched a PBS video about the science behind Human Emotions and their role in our relationships to help feed ideas to explore. Students were challenged to find a way to represent their idea of Love without being too obvious, cutesy, or typical. Students were instead asked to think of a sophisticated, fresh approach to portraying this theme.

4th period Photo students used the first days of class to finish their 30 Day critiques. Students who did not complete the 30 day project over break will receive a zero. Students who did not write their peer critiques will also receive a zero. The last part of the week was spent taking 10 head-and-shoulder portraits (mugshots) of students around school and manipulating each one. By taking the relatively uninteresting shot and adding 5 layers of Digital effects on Picnik.com, students will create interesting new portraits.

6th period Art 2 students spent the week creating a drawing from words. Students first created a realistic contour drawing based on a photographic image. After creating the entire image from contours students then began to replace each line with a line of words chosen from a poem, song, book, or quote of their choice. The resulting images are fantastic; each image is formed entirely out of lines of words!

Week 20... Snow week

Because of our snow storm, school was cancelled for the entire week. Be safe, have fun, and make snow art!

Week 19... 2nd Semester, here we go!

To start our new semester, each class took the time to reflect on 1st semester. By creating a list of what students learned 1st semester and their accomplishments in the course until now, students were able to better understand where they are and where they want to be by the end of the course. Students then wrote goals they created in their workbooks for 2nd semester.