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.