K-12 Art Show

In Norfolk we are blessed to have an amazing art center that gives several weeks of time to us every year for our citywide school art show.  It is so amazing that we can show our students work in a professional gallery and that we can leave it up for longer than one weekend.  This year the show opened on March 8th and will run through March 27th.

Another teacher in our district created these video's from our show:

Video #1 = a 4 minute overview (click on picture to view)

Video #2 = a 15 minute look at the entire show...

Chair Challenge

So when I was in Dallas the Dallas Art Museum had a neat exhibit of "functional art," including a TON of chairs.  I considered having my 5th graders finish their perspective projects with a chair drawing (the seat would be in perspective) but decided instead to have my 6th graders take the Chair Challenge.

We started by looking at this image of some of the chairs I saw in Dallas.  We discussed how different each was and the different purposes they could serve.  

Next we talked about the show Shark Tank  and how the investors decide whether or not to support the inventors ideas.  They were informed that over Easter Break they would be creating a new "art chair" and that when they returned to class we would be voting on the top two chairs.  Since we don't have the money to create the chairs, their reward was a free clay project for the top two chairs in every class.  

We started with this worksheet (planning/grading sheet)

Now the challenging part was that they had to create a chair that meet specific requirements.  They had to write down their phone number on their planning sheet.  For each number there was an odd/even option.  

Number 1 ~ odd number = outside, even number = inside

Number 2 ~ odd number = woman, even number = man

Number 3 ~ odd number = new materials, even number = recycled materials

Number 4 ~ odd number = stationary, even number = portable.  

They could present their chair idea in any manner.  Online drawing, PowerPoint, hand drawn visual, tri-fold brochure, model etc.... Yesterday was my first day and I was BLOWN AWAY!  They did so awesome! Here are the chairs that made their way to my room before school even started.  

They totally exceeded my expectations.  

**Disclaimer:  Of course I had some students who simply created a pencil drawing, but even they put a lot of thought into what was happening with their chair so it would "meet the requirements." ** 

Celebrating Creativity - Keith Jacobshagen

This month we looked at the inspiring paintings of Keith Jacobshagen.  Here is one of his pictures from the Joslyn Art Museum.

We started our project looking at his "big sky" paintings.  We discussed his use of horizon line and how beautiful the sky was.  We all agreed we had seen something like that in Nebraska.  

For the project, we started by giving each student 2 pieces of watercolor paper.  One of the paintings was to be inspired by Keith's work and the world we live in.  The other was inspired by the beautiful watercolor paintings created by Mrs. Impey's students. 

The kids got right to work... it wasn't quiet but it was fun!

Here are some of their finished winter birch tree paintings 

Here are some their finished "big sky" paintings.  

Many of the students chose to use a black tree silhouette.

(as inspired by this type of image)

I even had a student who just wanted the "big sky."

Happy January everyone... Hopefully we get some good things finished soon to share with you!

Celebrating Creativity ... Chuck Close Style

As I mentioned in this earlier post  the Celebrating Creativity students were able to see one of Chuck Close's amazing portraits at the Joslyn.  Therefore he was the focus of this months celebrating creativity.

We started by watching this video of him reading "a letter to my 11 year old self."  It is REALLY GOOD stuff!

With only 40 minutes to have "class" we couldn't do a whole painting so we logged onto the computers and did "Chuck Close Inspired Self Portraits" using Picasa.   Each student had to hand in one plain portrait, one pixelated portrait and two of their choosing.  They turned out AWESOME!  Here is a sampling....

Celebrating Creativity at the Joslyn

This year we did another trip to the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha for their celebrating creativity day (see last year's post here).  Once again it did not disappoint!  We started the morning with some really fun classes... collagraph printing, drumming, special effect makeup, photography, stencil printing, dancing and more.  They also did a tour of a least one section of the museum.  I loved the students who toured "European Art" just so they could see Degas' Little Dancer.

photo courtesy

I also loved that the current exhibit is "Under Pressure:  Contemporary Prints from the Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation."  The students who toured it were able to see Chuck Close, Red Grooms, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Ellen Gallagher and so many more.  I have so many ideas for our Celebrating Creativity Classes.  

Here is a small collage from our day of fun!