Ben Heine

USA Today had a upcoming artist spotlighted on their website a while back and another teacher had to share them with me... I fell in Love!  If you haven't done so, check out Ben Heine

and the cool drawings he does in his Pencil vs. Camera artwork. 

Today my 6th graders started a lesson based on his artwork.  We talked about how cameras capture the world "just the way it is" and how our pencils can capture the world "how we want it to be."  Before they could start their work they had to complete a worksheet where they practiced their pencil skills.  

So far so good.... can't wait to see what happens next week when we start the actual project.  I am also excited to use up a stack of calendars I have had for years as the backgrounds.

 



Celebrating Creativity - Dale Chihuly

The Joslyn in Omaha has an awesome Dale Chihuly sculpture that definitely made an impact on the kids.  Today they were super excited to do their Chihuly inspired projects. 

In honor of Mr. Chihuly's Macchia Bowl series we created coffee filter bowls.

Dale Chihuly's Macchia Bowls

Original coffee filter

use watercolor to paint, spray with spray starch, put over a bottle to dry...

our Macchia Bowls...

and the leftover from the painting... can you say happy accident!

In honor of Dale Chihuly's Sea forms we made melted plate sculptures

Dale Chihuly's Sea Forms

cur plastic plates colored with permanent marker... color solid (not like this one)

melt plastic plates with a heat gun... round and round we went

our sea forms hanging suspended on an old piece of plexiglass.

And in honor of the big sculpture at the Joslyn we made melted pop bottles... that Mrs. Carlisle still has to put together into the sculpture.   

pop bottle with the end cut off and the inside painted.

after adding heat!

It was a fun day... and I learned a few things.  Use big coffee filters for bigger bowls.  Non-Sharpie permanent markers work best as the kids get a more solid color.  Paint when left to dry overnight falls off the pop bottles as they are heated.  Plexiglass is not fun to hang from a tiled ceiling.

*photo credits are linked but I have to say thank you to all the bloggers who had Chihuly inspired lessons.  I learned a little from each of you to come up with all these ideas. 

Time Flies...

I have been hard at work simplifying my life.  This process has involved MANY trips to the dumpster, a few to goodwill and the re-purposing of selected things (spiral weavings on my old cd's anyone...).  One of my motto's has been... re-organizing stuff I don't need or use feels good for a little while.  De-owning the stuff I don't need or use feels good forever.   

But as for our classroom.  We have been busy finishing up our perspective drawings.  5th graders used one point perspective to draw a castle or a city.  We worked on the main part of the drawing together and then they finished them on their own... think "what is happening across from your castle?"  "what is happening in your town?"

6th grade has been working on 2 point perspective drawing.  We spent some time talking about all the "stuff" we collect in America and how different it is from the rest of the world. Think "do you have enough shirts to wear a different one each day this week?  "Do you have enough to eat that you complain about what is put in front of you?"  We talked about how coming back from break there are people who feel great because they got a bunch of stuff (that will break or wear out) and there are others who don't feel that way. 

The first 2 classes created gift boxes (thanks minimatisse for the great idea) filled with TRUE GIFTS... those things that can't be bought, won't break or wear out and can be given at anytime.  Things like friendship, smiles, help, joy, etc.  The other 2 classes created a 2 point perspective city drawing where all the store sold only "true gifts."  I can't wait to shop at "Hugs R Us!"

and my "so far" favorite... just because it is the end of the day and chocolate chip cookies sound YUMMY!

Finished Clay Faces...

Some of these were just too cute not to share.  The students really did a neat job on them.  I wish our school budget allotted for glaze but maybe someday it will...

Merry Christmas!  I pray everyone enjoys their break and comes back refreshed and ready for second semester.

Inspiration...

I try really hard to convey to my students that inspiration for your artwork is all around you.  This project was inspired by one of my student's shoes.  Devin had the COOLEST shoes on at the beginning of the school year and I told him I just HAD to have a picture of them.  Of course he thought I was weird.

This last quarter I finally put them to use when we created our contour line drawings.  The students did shoes.  The tricks was that they had to add watercolor animal prints to the drawing... in honor of Devin's shoes.

They were pretty fun... some I would even consider buying!

Mrs. Sunderman

My son is currently a kindergartner and I was bummed to find out that they wouldn't have art class with a certified art teacher.  Rather their classroom teacher would handle all art projects. (No offense to Kindergarten teachers but)  My fear was that he would only learn how to glue cotton balls onto Santa's beard....

A while back he asked if I knew that red and yellow make orange, that blue and red make purple and that yellow and blue make green.  They had been learning about mixing colors in school... YEAH!

Yesterday while he was hanging out in my room he drew this...

Jarrett's Flowers

Picasso's Flowers

When I asked him about it, he shared that it was a famous painting by a guy named Picasso.

Oh how I love his kindergarten teacher even more now.  Thank you Mrs. Sunderman for knowing that your students aren't too young to learn about art!  We are blessed to have you as a teacher for Jarrett.

Celebrate Creativity Night #1

So a while back I wrote about going to Omaha for Celebrate Creativity at the Joslyn Art Museum.  Today was our first meeting for "Celebrating Creativity Art."  Since challenge art was cut from our district, I thought this might be a good fill in.  We started by looking at Keith Jacobshagen's work as he had a painting at the Joslyn. 

Next we looked at Karen Krull Robart's work as she is currently showing at our local art center.

Next we looked at the work of Catherine Meier (my personal fav... and not just because she is my cousin).

 We discussed how all three of them used the wide open spaces of Nebraska for their inspiration.  We also discussed where/how they placed their horizon lines.  The students then created some large (18x24) wet-in-wet watercolor paintings of the open spaces.  We played with salt and saran wrap to get neat textures in our skies. 

While we were working on these paintings and waiting for them to dry, we looked at the artwork of Darryl Norem.  We worked on creating some collage pieces that also reflected the open spaces we live in by again altered the size of the project.  The kids really enjoyed playing with paint to create these images.