celebration!

This Wednesday Zamorano will put on it's annual Celebration of Art. The auditorium will be packed with original student work made throughout the year with our art team. The campus will be covered with art that was made under the guidance of our classroom teachers. Our teachers will be leading a bunch of different art activities for kids and families to try out.

But before all that happens, we need to actually set it up. Display panels and cubes were set up in the auditorium on Wednesday and we started putting work up on Thursday.

It's a lot of work, but it's also really cool to see how it all comes together:)

stained glass water towers

Tom Fruin creates stained glass structures all over. What I like about these is, of course, the play of light through them during the day and night, but what is also very cool is that he builds the whole structure with the colored glass or plexi. He doesn't limit himself to window shapes. Tom also uses reclaimed pieces of colored glass to create his structures, so he has the whole earth friendly thing going for him too:)

The 2nd grade students and I looked at this recent piece that was just installed in Brooklyn.

We talked about how he transforms ordinary structures into art by changing the materials they are built out of and how both 2d and 3d geometric shapes are present in his work.

Students and I then drew our own water towers inspired by Tom's. We drew out our pictures with a big cylinder and cone, as well as rectangles and squares. We then traced the legs of the tower with marker and filled in the front of the building closest to us. Color was added to the buildings- dark in the front and light on the ones far away.

Then I gave everyone a sheet of clear plastic, in this case old overhead projector sheets, and we traced just the cylinder and cone of the water tower. We then flipped the plastic over and added color with sharpie markers. I had them flip it to keep the markers clean.

We then cut out the "stained glass" tower and glued it in place. The kids got a kick out of the textural difference between the tower and the rest of their image.

zamo reception at viva!

25 3^rd grade students from Zamorano Fine Arts Academy had an opening reception for their art show at Viva Pops in the Normal Heights neighborhood of San Diego on June 8. Students, families, teachers, and friends were streaming in and out of the shop on Friday night. There were plenty of smiles, hugs, and fist bumps going around throughout the reception. 

The students received a free popsicle from the store owner Lisa Altmann for their hard work and creativity. A portion of sales from the opening reception will be donated to the school’s PTF to help Keep the Arts Alive!

 The project was inspired by an image by artist Lisa Congdon and the delicious pops that Lisa makes. Students focused on pattern making and creating symmetry in their designs. They also applied tints and shades to their cut paper pops to make them look 3d against the decorative pattern background of their projects.

more taggin.

The 5th graders have been completing their graffiti projects. They added color to their lettering and to the setting. Emphasis in the setting was to use light and dark colors to create 3d volume on the shapes included.

The results have been interesting. A lot of the students have realized that making cool looking tags or graffiti is harder than it looks:)

Zamo at Viva!

Tomorrow, June 8th from 5 to 7 pm there will be an opening reception at Viva Pops for our 3rd grade art show at the store.

Come out and support the creativity of the 3rd graders selected for this exhibit! The students created wonderful artworks inspired by the work of artist Lisa Congdon and the delicious popsicles of Lisa Altmann.

Each student exhibiting will receive a free popsicle and a portion of all sales during the event will be donated to Zamorano!

By the way, this is a cash only event. The store does not accept credit/debit cards for purchase.

Viva Pops

3330 Adams Avenue

San Diego Ca  92116

619 795 1080

lift off...

with Justin Mezzell.

I have had a few of Justin's images saved on my desktop for a while. There's a real strong retro feel to his work. I like the types of shapes he uses, very clean and sharp. I also like the mystery that surrounds the subject and settings in some of his work.

I met with a second grade class today that I didn't meet with last week, so they had not done the roadrunner desert landscape. With one of Justin's images we were able to investigate similar elements about 3d space and volume.

We looked at a few of Justin's images from his website and the kids thought his stuff was pretty neat. They were really digging the outer space stuff, so when I told them we would be focusing on the piece called Lift Off, they were very enthusiastic:)

We looked at how Justin creates 3d space through value and color changes. The shapes in the front are very light and the shapes in the back are dark. Students noticed that some shapes like the rocket and rocks looked 3d because of his use of light and dark.

I also introduced the concept of symmetry in art by pointing out that a number of shapes are mirror images of each other from left to right.

Students drew out their designs in pencil and then selected 3 colors plus white to add color to their drawings. In order to create a change in color value, students had to adjust how hard they pressed the crayon to the paper. I asked that they use white for the smoke in the front, but then they could put the other colors where they wanted.

The examples below are from just the one class. Mrs. Tooley's students did an excellent job with the project. I'm looking forward to doing it with a couple more classes tomorrow.

a little tagging.

The 5th graders started a graffiti project last week. They will finish them next week. The lesson was inspired by two projects by Natalie at elementaryartfun and Amy at Artful Artsy Amy.

The reactions to the project introduction were pretty entertaining. I got a lot of "graffiti? Mr. Masse's kidding." There were also many heads that were not previously engaged that snapped to attention once I mentioned the word graffiti.

I emphasized that graffiti itself isn't bad- when done with skill it is quite beautiful, it's when it's done without permission of the property owner that you run into legal trouble. We looked at how graffiti artists use color and line to give their work a 3d quality.

To start we created a 3d looking setting using perspective for a bench. Students were required to add at least one other setting element. I modeled how to draw numerous items you could see in the city.

Then we practiced taking a word and giving it more character. After they practiced students added their word to the setting.

This week they will add color to the text and the setting. I can't wait to see what they look like when finished!