January 9 -17, 2012 Grade 8

Grade 8 students will celebrate the Year of the Mayan. We will research the images and design motifs found in the work at Copan and other locations. Students will then compose their own authentic Mayan design and render it in a papier-mache relief sculpture. This process will keep us busy for several weeks.

January 9 - 17, 2012 Grade 6 - 7

Monkey Business - That is what we will be up to in grades 6 and 7. We will learn to use our sumi-e brush skills in expanded ways. Students have looked at the work of Wang Yani, a child prodigy in art making. We watched the video clip of her working at the age of 4 and learned from her technique and work.

We will research photo images of a variety of apes from National Geographic magazines. Students will use the photos as models as they review the sumi-e brush strokes and apply them to compositions of apes.

January 4, 2012 Grade 6-7-8

On my United/Continental return flight to Tegucigalpa Sunday morning I was browsing through the January 2012 issue of their“in-flight” Hemisphere magazine and saw an article titled “Next Big Things”about six innovators “who promise to change the way we live”. There I met José Gomez-Marquez / age 35 / from Tegucigalpa, Honduras / lives in Boston. He is a 2011
TED fellow and program director of MITs Innovations in International Health
lab.

I read the article and later “googled” him. As I read about him and his work these words and phrases kept leaping out at me – experiment, explore, investigate, innovation, love of design, multi disciplinary research.

I am always trying to find ways of explaining to our high school students why we study art. Here before me was my answer – Jose Gomez-Marquez! Is he a great artist in the fine arts sense of the word – no! Is he a great creative thinker and a creative problem solver – YES! And what will our young people be called on to do? Right – experiment, explore, investigate, innovate, design, and research.

This semester our visual arts high school and middle school students will be doing just that. AP students will be exploring and solving a variety of visual problems. Grade 10 students will delve further into the 20th Century Modern and investigate and experiment with art making techniques that changed the way we define art. Grade 9 students will research and create designs based oncenturies old spiritual traditions.

In the middle school grade six students will look around the world for “curiosities” and build curiosity cabinets. Grade 7 students will explore art through a microscope. And grade 8 students will investigate pattern and design.

Six words to describe Discovery visual arts in 2012 - experiment, explore,
investigate, innovate, design, and research.

December 12, 2011 Grade 6,7 and 8

This week students will be looking at designs found in nature. We will discuss and look at, branching, axials, clusters, and radials. We will create "explosion" designs based on radiolaria. We will use white pencils on black paper and white paper with scissors. Snow flakes are radial/or explosion designs. Students can practice their design skills by making virtual snowflakes at this site. http://snowdays.popularfront.com/

December 5, 2011 Grade 8

Eight Graders completed their landscapes last week. This week they are looking at designs in nature, meanders, explosions, axials and branches, clusters and cross sections. They will focus on radial designs and create one based on one found in nature.

December 5, 2011 Grade 6 - 7

Grades 6 and 7 painted their "Honduran Hillsides" last week and began adding the details of houses and buildings and landscaping, all with painted papers in the style of Eric Carle. This week we will finish the compositions.

November 14, 2011 Grade 8

Look-Think-Draw! The View from the Art Room Window

We will continue drawing the landscape in pen. Our next step will be to translate the pen and ink drawing into a complex color composition. We will be looking at the landscapes of David Hockney and Vincent Van Gogh for inspiration.

November 14, 2011 Grade 7

This week in class we will continue working on the “Hockney Houses” project. Be sure to open your eyes as you ride about the city and be ready to draw some good thumbnails in your sketch book.

November 14, 2011 Grade 6

HELP! Grade six students! We need your masks and mummies!
This Friday and Saturday November 18 and 19 Mr. Warren and I will be presenting a workshop about some of the great things you have done in art class. If you still have your mummy and mummy case (sarcophagus) and/or your Greek mask, please bring it to the art room this week. We will return them the following week. You did great work and we want to share it!

This week in class we will continue working on the “Hockney Houses” project. Be sure to open your eyes as you ride about the city and be ready to draw some good thumbnails in your sketch book.

October 31, 2011 Grade 8 - Congratulations on Your UN Day Carpet!

What a great job you all did in constructing the sawdust carpet for UN Day. Everyone participated and worked together to accomplish this work of art. And this year we were able to share the process with PreK and Kindergarden students. Those of you who were teachers and helpers in the process did a wonderful job guiding the little ones through the experience.

Thank you for all of your hard work, smiles and laughter.

This week, PAINT!

We will be looking at David Hockney's latest works done in rural England. His landscapes are rich in color and that is just what we want to experiment with. We will look at landscapes from the 19th century, Constable, Turner, Van Gogh and then we will turn our eyes to the art room window. We will make and use a view finder to find the part of the landscape we want to focus on. We will be exploring color, tints, shades and intensities. We will be using tempera paints.

October 31, 2011 Grade 6 - 7

Grades 6 and 7 will be exploring David Hockney's California period of 1960-70. They will select a California palette for their painting in the style of David Hockney. They will be using tints and shades in their compositions. We will look at scenes from Edward Scissorshands and listen to music describing the "little houses on the hillside made of ticky tacky".

October 26, 2011 Grade 8 AB

October 2009

October 2010
This week grade eight students will be executing their UN sawdust carpet design. Above are designs from the previous two years. This project is on its way to becoming a Discovery 8th grade tradition. Students will be using their block letter skills to make the stencils for the words in the design. They used their graphic design skills to create thumbnail designs to communicate the values of the United Nations.

October 25, 2011 Grade 6 - 7

In this short week students will begin recording some color experiments in their sketchbook. They will refer to these in future projects.

October 18, 2011 Grade 6 - 7 and 8

Color! Students will learn or review procedures for painting and then conduct a variety of color experiments, based on Josef Albers “squares”. They will create a color palette and use it a complex composition.

October 10, 2011 Grade 6 - 7 and 8

This week we will finish our still life compositions of marshmallows and cones. We will begin to explore the element of color by looking at the work of Josef Albers. Students will complete several color experiements based on his work.

October 4, 2011 Grade 8

Grade 8 students are continuing to develop their foundation skills for drawing. They are translating shapes to forms and making them look three dimensional. Then they will complete a still life of ice cream cones…the cones - not the ice cream.

October 4, 2011 Grade 6 and 7

Grade 6 and 7 students are completing their still life of marshmallows this week. This is a complex arrangement of soft cylinders. Students are using smudge, accent line and kneaded eraser techniques in this composition.

September 26, 2011 Grade 8

We will review all of the design ideas for the sawdust carpet and as a group select three from each class to be considered for the final design. The second class period of the week we will begin working with basic shapes and forms to create a still life composition in graphite.

September 26, 2011 Grade 6 and 7

Students will complete a still composition of irregular cylinders - marshmallows. They will use graphite and kneaded erasers to practice tonal rendering techniques. Then they will eat their models.

OPERA SEASON IS BACK IN TOWN

This year, The Honduran Musical Foundation will stage the Opera Buffa "The Secret Marriage" by Domenico Cimarosa.

Students from grades 6 - 12 will attend the presentation on OCT. 7 at Manuel Bonilla Theater. Tickets already on sale at the music room with Ms. Norma López (L. 225) We will leave the school campus at 8:30 a.m. Students from grades 6-8 will returned to the school at 1:00 p.m.

Students from grades 9 -12 will stop by the Identity Museum to observe the Picasso Art Exhibit (they will need to pay Ms. Campbell, L.30.00 extra to enter the Museum) and will come back to school around 1:45 p.m.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:
Students MUST wear formal clothes. (No tennis shoes or jeans). Students must have a very good breakfast because we won't be allowed to eat at the theatre or museum.

Parents Please Note

STARTING TODAY SEPTEMBER 19TH, OUR MONDAY MEMO FOR PARENTS WILL NOT BE EMAILED TO OUR PARENTS. IT WILL BE POSTED AS ALWAYS ON THE ADMINISTRATION BLOG BY NOON.

September 19, 2011 Grade 8

All students will review the principles of one point perspective and complete their one point perspective compositions. Then they will begin developing a graphic design to be used as a design for the UN Day celebration saw dust carpet October 28.

September 19, 2011 Grade 6 and 7

Students will continue to build foundation skills for making art. This week we will answer the essential question – how do we make shapes appear as forms? Using their knowledge of the structures and functions of the elements and principles of art students will be able to draw the cube, cone and sphere using pencil to apply tonal rendering to the forms. Thus they will make shapes appear three dimensionally as forms.

September 12, 2011 Grade 8

The illuminated letter designs have been successfully completed. Students demonstrated their creativity and craftsmanship in this exercise. Well done.

This is a short week and not all of you will have art this week. I will see grade 8A on Monday. You will be able to use this time to complete or add finishing touches to your projects.

September 12, 2011 Grade 6 and 7

This is a short week and not all of you will have art this week. I will see grade 7 on Monday. You will be able to use this time to complete or add finishing touches to your projects.

September 5, 2011 Grade 8

Above students are working together to solve the mystery of drawing the celtic knot. Student will complete their illuminated letter. In our next exercise we will be working with the concept of perspective. Students will develop a working ability to put simple forms in one point perspective. Students will understand the role renaissance artists played in developing the science of mathematical/linear perspective. We will look at the work of Brunelleschi (1377-1446).

September 5, 2011 Grade 6 and 7

Six and seventh grade students will look at Islamic art and the art of M.C. Escher. Then they will develop a tessellated pattern design of their own. They will use tempera paint and develop a color pattern to complete their designs.

August 29, 2011 Grade 8

Students will continue their unit on proportion and pattern. They will create an illuminated letter design based on one of their initials and using the block letter as the core form for their desing. They have looked at images from the Book of Kells and may base their illumination on some of those designs.

You will find a demonstration of how to draw a Celtic Knot design at the following web site. You may want to include a design like this in your illuminated letter design.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O_0yegDdIw

August 29, 2011 Grades 6 andc 7

Students will complete their Ndebele designs and will begin looking at the element of pattern in Islamic art. What is the connection between art, religion and geometry in this art form?

August 22, 2011 - Grade 8

Grade 8 students were introduced to the five perceptual skills for drawing. They have focused on the skill of seeing “relational angles and proportions” by drawing block letter forms. This week we will use this basic form to design an illuminated letter. We will take a close look at the Book of Kells to inspire our designs.

Students who do not complete their block letters in class may complete them at home. The completed block letter alphabet is due Monday August 22 (8A) or Tuesday August 23 (8B).

August 22, 2011 - Grade 7

Seventh graders had fun exploring line, texture and pattern, using black finger paint. They “painted” on glossy paper then placed colored construction paper on top and “pulled” a print. We have a great collection of textures and patterns…I wonder what we will do with them.

August 22, 2011 Grade 6 and 7

We are taking a close look at the Ndebele people and their art work. This is a relatively young or new art form, beginning in the 18th century. Why did these people begin decorating their houses this way? We will find out and then use their ideas to make some interesting Ndebele inspired paintings of our own.

August 15, 2011 Grade 6

Last week we had a busy first day, getting acquainted with new students and getting reacquainted with returning students. We reviewed the course description together, and started our sketchbook/research workbook. Each student expressed themselves with their own personal letter form design on their name plate and on the cover of their sketch books.

This week we will begin our unit on discovering a "world of art". We will take a close look at the art of the South African Ndebele people and use some of their ideas and techniques to create some of our own art.

August 15, 2011 Grade 7

Last week we had a busy first day, getting acquainted with new students and getting reacquainted with returning students. We reviewed the course description together, and started our sketchbook/research workbook. Each student expressed themselves with their own personal letter form design on their name plate and on the cover of their sketch books.

This week we will review the elements of art and the principles of design and experiment with line, shape, texture and pattern.

August 15, 2011 Grade 8A and 8B

Last week we had a busy first day, getting aquainted with new students and getting reaquainted with returning students. We reviewed the course description together, and started our sketchbook/research workbook. Each student expressed themselves with their own personal letter form design on their name plate and on the cover of their sketch books.

This week we will begin a unit on letter form designs. A good #2 pencil and six or twelve inch ruler will be helpful. However there are plenty to share in the art room.

August 10, 2011 Welcome to Visual Arts Grade 6,7 and 8

I am happy to be working with 6, 7 and 8 graders this year. Students will be exploring art from cultures around the world. They will begin a more in depth study of the visual arts and will be developing skills that will prepare them for higher level work in high school. The course is guided by the National Visual Arts Standards developed by the National Art Education Association (US).

Students will:
Understand and apply a variety of media, techniques and processes of art making.
Explore the elements of art and the principles of design.
Explore the visual arts in relation to history and cultures and other academic disciplines
Reflect on and assess the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others
Begin to develop a personal philosophy on the nature of beauty and the nature and value of art.

Assessment
A grading rubric is developed for most projects. Self-assessment is an important skill and students are frequently given the opportunity to participate in the process of evaluating their studio projects. Students are expected to demonstrate a high degree of respect and responsibility to themselves and to all others. This is also reflected in assessment.

During the first class this week students will get aquainted with the art room. We will start the sketchbook/journal.

The art studio door is always open (right next to the computer lab). Please feel welcome to stop by any time to see what we are up to.