The two amazing graphite drawings above were completed by 8th graders Hao Li (left), and Sydney Morgan (right). I am loving this new project! Typically, I never do the same project with my students more than once...but this will be an exception. These sculptures combine Fired Clay and basket-making to create these interesting Sculptures. Currently, I am trying to figure out a way to add sea shell embellishments to the banding and within the weaving.
The student works pictured were completed by Rose Cabrera (left), and Kate Chaplin (right). This past semester, students in my classes really loved a project we worked on revolving around the television series “Street Art Throwdown” from the Oxygen network. Students were so excited about the show that they were binge watching the series at home before we could finish it in class. Several students even asked for the series as Christmas presents! The other day I reached out to one of the artists from the show and after a conversation via social media about his newfound celebrity status among my students, what it was like being on TV, our perils with color blindness, and our own art...he sent me the video below. What a super-cool guy! 2014 marks the centennial anniversary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon. To help remember this extinct bird, we are folding origami pigeons to symbolically recreate the great flocks of 100 years ago. The origami patterns we used are courtesy of the Lost Bird Project’s "Fold the Flock" initiative (an arts-based environmental non-profit). At the time of European arrival, Passenger Pigeons accounted for up to forty percent of the land birds of North America. Passenger Pigeons flew in vast flocks, numbering in the billions, sometimes eclipsing the sun from noon until nightfall. Flying sixty miles an hour, they migrated across their geographic range, which stretched from the northeastern and mid-western states and into Canada to the southern states. By creating these origami paper birds, we are contributing to the virtual flock of origami birds being made all over the United States. Several art classes, as well as the help of Mrs. Henderson and Mrs. Clark’s enrichment classes contributed 283 origami birds to the flock! To learn more about the Lost Bird Project or the passenger pigeon click here. In Japan, the arrival of May is heralded by the appearance of flying fish: carp-shaped windsocks known as Koinobori flown in honor of Children’s Day or “Tango no Sekku” on May 5th. The carp is considered the strongest and most spirited of fish, because it fights its way upstream against strong currents. The tradition of flying Koinobori outside homes began as a way to honor the sons living within so they would grow up healthy and courageous like a carp. Modern Koinobori are often available in sets that represent the entire family.
Block printing, specifically wood block, also has deep roots in Japanese art. The script style of Japanese lettering was better suited to this printing method that that of movable-type presses, so books and illustrations retained a certain artistic quality even when mass-produced. In this lesson, students designed a “scale-like” shaped block from soft block printing material and apply it repetitively to outdoor safe fabric that has been cut in the shape of a fish. |