Keep'n it Real...

.. or at least we are always trying to.

Updating is a continual for blogging and it helps keep the order of things together and the work for the week at a 1-stop shop for class use.

I am always amazed at how much can be accomplished in the matter of an hour with K-2 vs 3-4!

Keeps me on my toes and gives me absolutely no time to allow myself to wander to another project without breaking it down... 

My experiments with each class had led to some awesome findings, keeps things interesting and allows the projects we do to continue to evolve.  

The only hard part: remembering as I look through their projects just where we left off and what they were doing that the others weren't...

BUT- art is nothing without some experimenting.. so experiment we will.

K- Monsters (book in class) and Mondrian

1- Piet Mondrian work with geometric shapes & Primary colors
Mondrian Video of stop motion & another video of Mondrian's Painting progression

2- Dale Chihuly 'Persian' Series : Through the Looking Glass

Chihuly- In Action  They are amazed at the transformation of Glass.

Students will be designing a pattern addressing color and watch the transformation of the plastic as the heat gun begins to mold the plastic; a correlation to glass as it is heated.

3- Landscapes - Foreground, Middle Ground, Background / Large, Medium, Small / Details & Distance

4- Portrait Completions and Creating Fonts Completion / We will then be doing a quick lesson on lettering and one-point perspective / Video

Composition of Red, Yellow, and Blue by P.Mondrian

 Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue (1921), a painting composed of primary colored rectangles on a grid of black lines. In the years that followed, he continued to eliminate "non-essentials", limiting his works to these "basic forms of beauty."

Round II

1st grade has now joined the portrait bandwagon.  The beginning project got them reminded and accustomed with the art room.  Now we are working on a watercolor portrait with Kandinsky inspired circles in our background.

2nd grade is jumping into clay....
An underwater theme of fish and turtles will get them going.  Two classes will be doing textured fish and two will be doing texture turtles!  Our focus will be to apply texture to the slabs and then score & slip their fins or legs on.
We are going to learn about the parts of the fish & turtle we need to have in order to make them look as they should.  But the texture- that is all up to the student!

3rd grade has ventured into landscapes with a focus on foreground, middle-ground, and background.  We are viewing many famous works of art and acknowledging their composition.
We will be working on creating our own landscapes together, they will sketch their own, and then we will be enlarging the image.  How this will all come together is still up in the air... the mystery behind the project.

4th grade- finishing their portraits: there are 3 levels to their portraits and this should be the end.  We will be moving into an abstract experience with music and color after!  (excited!)
The global read aloud is going on right now at HOWE and our 4th grade is reading:
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
Our focus is Chapter 2 when the main character describes how she can 'almost hear the colors and smell the images' when music is being played.

First Projects...

...of the year have been completed and we are OFF.
Getting the first portraits completed was a huge success for the kids.
It is pretty awesome to see the way they start analyzing their work and their portraits.
Portraits : Modigliani : Eric Carle : and some Contour Lines so far...

"There is something special about a Circle.  

It gives a sense of completeness, safety, & belonging.  

When I sit in a circle no one is 1st and no one is last.  And no one is left out.  

That is the work I want to do.  I want to help complete the circle."

Howe Elementary Art. Great 'Artists-in-Training'.