the sky is the limit.

Another school year is in the books. A crazy, hectic year that was full of interesting stories and amazing student work and creativity.

To wrap up the year with our 5th graders that are moving on, we did another public art project with them on campus. Ms. Kathi and Miss Danielle came up with a sky's the limit theme a couple of years ago, so I created a drawing based on that theme. 

We got the go ahead from Principal King and last Monday I was drawing it out on a 24' wall on our north campus. Once it was drawn out 5th grade students rotated through for the next 6 days to add color and life to a beige wall. Each student was able to work for about 20 minutes on the wall. With over 200 5th graders we need to keep moving students through, so they all get an opportunity to help beautify the campus and leave a permanent positive mark on our school community.

The kids did an amazing job. Some were up on ladders, some were way down low. Some stayed clean, some got painted on. Some were chatty, some were quiet. 

I love doing these projects with our students. It feels so good to transform a space with color and design. I can't wait to do the next one. although I will enjoy my summer break first!

new lands with lindsay.

Lindsay Denehy is a designer living down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I met lindsay years ago while both of us were drawing outside the lines at LSU. I recently rediscovered some of her work online.

I enjoy how she abstracts and flattens natural forms in landscape images. You can see the influence of Dr. Seuss and Hundertwasser, but she definitely has a created a visual vocabulary that is all her own.

She has a great eye for composition and space. There is a great balance of pattern and open space in many of her images. She understands that their often needs to be some "breathing space" in a composition, so the viewer isn't overwhelmed when taking an image in.

I thought that her work would make for an interesting investigation into 3d space in art for my last go round with the 3rd graders this year.  When I shared her work with them I emphasized that even though an image is abstract it can still have 3d depth. It can still have implied volume in the shapes. Recalling a couple other projects this year, the students were able to identify 3d space in Lindsay's landscapes through overlapping and size change. They were also able to see how some shapes looked 3d because of the tints of colors used to show that one side of the object was receiving more light than the other.

The main images we viewed were a large mural and a small computer generated drawing.

After modeling how you can be inspired by an image and not copy it, I let the classes try it out for themselves. There were many interesting interpretations of Lindsay's style and visual vocabulary. Some stayed closer to her original images than others, but nobody copied one of hers exactly, which I was very excited about.

After drawing out their compostions in pencils, students traced their contour lines with black markers. Then they added color to the drawings with crayons. I emphasized and modeled  the use of tints to add visual variety and to make some, if not all of the shapes look 3d.

The classes were unable to finish the project in one hour, so it carried over into the next lesson. Most students need 2 full hours to complete the activity. Those that finished early were tasked with creating another abstract landscape, either by themselves on a smaller scale, or with a partner on a larger scale.

I really love the way so many of these turned out. 

a funky ride with rob d.

I have wanted to revisit the work of Rob Dunlavey with another grade since doing a project based on his work with 2nd graders earlier in the year. I finally actually did.

I gave the kindergarten students a peek into his imaginary world of pointy people and crystal cities today. They were immediately engaged by these inventive people and places. Rob creates these worlds with a lot of geometric shapes and patterns. There is a rich complexity to many of the buildings he makes, but he uses  a simple vocabulary of shape and line that even young kids can understand and experiment with.

After viewing some people, places, and machines, the kids and I got started making some of our own. We combined a couple images of vehicles Rob did with landscapes that used geometric shapes that were inspired by his crystal city drawings.

There was a fair bit of direct instruction in the vehicle drawing, but I did give students room for originality in shape choice. When we got to the landscape portion, I modeled some possibilities, but the students were free to include whatever they wished as long as it was small and used geometric shapes.

The landscape portion was a good re-emphasis on creating 3d space in art. We made things small so they looked far away. We the same thing with the Justion Skeesuck beach scenes last week.

When students finished drawing, they traced their lines and then added color "neatly and carefully" to their images.

skeesuck san diego sun.

A local San Diego designer, Justin Skeesuck, made this image almost a year ago. So calm and peaceful. The simplicity of the color and composition works wonders. I have kept returning to it time and time again over this past year.

Perfect for a summer art lesson with kinders. We talked about Justin's image being a landscape and how it showed 3d space through value and size change. They had previously investigated space by using size change in a project based on the work of Tracy Walker.

The students got to practice cutting, gluing, and placing paper in a "sensible" place. They added simple paper shapes to create most of the landscape. The students drew out the lifeguard tower and lifeguard at the end. They could choose multiple colors in the foreground as long as they were dark or bold to contrast against the lighter background colors.

I'd like to try this as all collage sometime.

Thanks for the inspiration, Justin!

making monkey bars.

3 more weeks of instruction with my kinders. What might I do to get them engaged (quietly:) in my room for an hour?

Aha... the monkey bars. I loved the monkey bars as a kid, still do as an adult! Then I needed to find an artist who had used these fun filled cages of steel and plastic as the subject of an artwork. Hello, Stephen Schildbach. Stephen is a web designer, illustrator, and painter living up in Seattle, Washington. The paintings that he makes often combine different layers or windows of information for the viewer to put together. I liked this aspect of his work because I do something similar in my personal drawings. His color palette is subdued. It reminds me of looking at aged postcards. Something about the faded quality always draws me in.

When I shared work from his website with the kids I pointed out his use of different frames and windows in the same image. I talked about how tv shows and cartoons often use this technique to show that people are not in the same room, but in different places. A couple students mentioned that they had seen it when characters make phone calls on tv. Great example!

I then showed the students his jungle gym painting. We talked about the multiple frames, his use of pattern, and his use of outlines to make details of the different "characters" more visible. 

The kinders then rolled up their sleeves and got to making their own monkey bars composition.

1.  A solid 9x12 color sheet of paper as the base

2.  A second piece that they cut in half with a type of line of their choosing- straight, wavy, zig-zag, etc.

3.  Glue 2nd sheet on

4.  On one half, draw a set of monkey bars- they can add any features they want

5.  Draw a person on the other half- it can be a them, a family member, or a friend. I model drawing a person standing or running. In the air or on the ground. I also model using double lines on body parts, so the person doesn't look like a stick figure.

6.  Add some sort of pattern to the drawing, using any shape.

7. Add color and outline parts of each section of the composition- monkey bars, person, and pattern.

The kinders definitely had fun with this and there were many unique playgrounds created in each of the classes.

2011 Celebration of Art

Last Thursday Zamorano had it's 24th annual student art exhibit. I think they have gotten better and better each year. Our art team put the exhibit together in one hectic week. Our classroom teachers hosted art activities all over campus the night of the main event as well. A big thanks to everyone who supported the event in some way.

The visual arts are indeed alive and kicking at our site. Our students are amazing artists and our teachers are  wonderful facilitators.

ZAMO! CREATE!

The work below is just a small sampling of the work created by our students with the guidance of our art team- myself, Miss Kathi, Miss Danielle, Mr. Eddie, Ms. Pothier, and Ms. Vance.