Culture Masks 7th and 8th

After looking through the internet at a wide variety of cultures' masks, students choose their favorite culture. They researched why their culture wore masks, the history, and many other facts. Students brainstormed their own mask designs using the culture they studied as inspiration. These masks took us quite awhile since clay takes up to a month to dry before it can be fired in the kiln. This is our last day to paint, add details, and last minute embellishments to our culture masks.

Emotion Landscapes 7th and 8th

We started off this lesson by learning about my very favorite artist, Vincent Van Gogh! Van Gogh, a post impressionist painter, was a genius at expressing emotion in art. He didn't always want to be an artist in fact he started his career as a preacher, then a missionary, an art dealer, and finally started his art career in his late 20's.  Van Gogh suffered from high anxiety and depression. He loved to paint images of hard working people and express suffering through color, line, and expression.

We brainstormed many emotions and match them with a variety of landscapes. Some examples: Joyful Meadow, Angry Ocean, Insane Waterfall, Mad Mountains, Crazy Storm, Happy Sunset, etc. After brainstorming 4 different layouts We started drawing our best design onto gray paper.

Using oil pastels we started to add color with the same technique as Van Gogh! The key was matching colors to our chosen emotions and making sure not to use solid color but different line just like Van Gogh did in his paintings. The emotion, movement, and variety was so amazing to see.

5th Optical Illusions

Students learned about the master of illusions, artist E.C. Esher. The students were pretty overwhelmed when I showed them the illusions that they would be creating. After demonstrating the steps it takes to create an illusion like E.C. Esher they were pretty excited to get started! The next week I even had student tell me about illusions they had researched on their computers at home!

Kindergarten Mittens

Its getting cold out there! In art class kindergarten used their mittens as inspiration for art! The tricky part was trying to make sure that both mittens were the same, semiotical.  While helping the students match their mittens I noticed some went their own direction and appeared to be scribbling. To my surprise they were able to match both mittens with the same crazy lines and colors! I even saw a pair of mittens with a matching girl on both!

2nd Surreal Clowns

Students learned about the artist Salvador Dali and his very famous painting, "Melting Clocks". In this artwork students described that the clocks appeared to be made out of rubber, some saw a ghost, others a spider.

Then we started to make our own surreal dream clowns using our five senses! Check out how crazy and unique each clown turned out....

hair tastes like ice cream, eyes smell like pickles, nose look like the sun, smile sounds like Tom and Jerry

Hat that feels like a cat, nose that feels like ants, make-up that tastes like ice cream, and a smile that sounds like kittens

eyes sound like birds, hair tastes like ice cream, smile looks like butterflies, ears that smell like pizza, and clothes that feel like skittles

hair that tastes like pizza, smile that sounds like a bird, nose that looks like the sun, make-up that feels like dog fur, and a hat that smells like cotton candy!

 hair tastes like ice cream, eyes smell like popcorn, nose looks like the sun, smile sounds like music

hair that looks like the sun, a smile that sounds like music, and really im not sure what else is going on..but i just love this one. hehe!

7th 1point Perceptive

7th graders learned how you can recreate the illusion of space. Lots of artists use what is known as 1 point perspective drawing to show space in an artwork. Some of my very favorites the students took home too early before I could photograph. Some rooms had deer heads mounted on the walls, fireplaces, chimney, bear rug, disco floor, a basketball court, and even a swimming pool!

K and 2nd Snowmen

Kindergarten have had lots of practice with scissors. But did you know that you can make shapes out of paper just by tearing?? At first kindergarden was very worried about making a circle without scissors!  Soon Kindergarten discovered that shapes don't have to be perfect. We made sure that each snowman was looking in a different direction (left, right, and up) and each snowman was a different size (small, medium, and large).

2nd grade learned how to mix shades and tints to form Snowmen and women. Do you know what hue means? Most people do not know that hue is just another word for color. Students learned how to start with a hue and then add white to make a tint and blake to make a shade.  I was amazed how creative my second graders became with their snowmen and women!!