celebration 2016!

We recently held the 29th addition of our annual Celebration of Art at Zamorano and it was a wonderful event as always! It's always a treat to see so many of our kids with their families touring the exhibit and participating in a variety of hands on art activities.

It also so interesting to see how the work done with our the different members of our art team comes together. Even though we have different styles and approaches and it is really cool to see how the groups of work complement and play off of one another when mixed together throughout our auditorium.

Our classroom teachers rocked their class displays like they always do and they led our school community through a great assortment of hands on activities during the Celebration.

Our music department shined bright by opening the night with performances from both our band and orchestra.

We had the honor of hosting a variety of VIPS including a couple members of the SDUSD school board, descendants of Agustin Zamorano (who our school is named after), directors of the Arts 4 Learning team, and the editor of Arts and Activities.

We even had, for the first time in my 15 years at Zamo, media coverage of our event, as 2 local news stations broadcasted from the event and interviewed members of our school community.

I say it a lot, and I'll say it again- I am so fortunate to teach at a school where everyone recognizes the importance of arts education. Zamo is such a special place! Big thanks to everyone that made this night the success it was, with a special shout out to our Karen Reyes and our PTF, parent volunteers, and Chris Bess for doing so much prep work leading up to the event.

Go Zamo!

 Repurposed Libs Elliott paper quilt project and the cubes that held our digital animation monitor.

I ran into some technical difficulties with showcasing our students' digital animations, but it was on display. Now I have a whole year to work out the kinks:)

I printed out some QR codes for projects at each grade level. If someone scanned the code with their phone it would take them to the blog post I wrote about the project.

 One of my favorite projects of the year! Done by Kathi Arinduque with a 5th grade class.

Albums, VHS tapes, and cassettes!

 Relief clay flowers done with Kathi and Danielle Guimond.

 Traditional & digital photos done with Danielle.

A variety of portraits, including digital self portraits done with computer teacher Susana Martinez.

 Delicious burgers done with Melony Vance.

 Paper mache birds done by Kathy Crawford and her class!

 Upcycled fashion items by 5th graders done with Danielle.

Arts integration work done by 2nd graders & 3rd graders that was co-taught by Brandie Maddalena and Danielle Guimond with our grade level teachers. This was the first year of our involvement with SDUSD's art integration grant. Our 2nd & 3rd grade teams worked with teaching artists Brandie and Danielle every week to integration art and ELA content. Next year our 4th grade students will be involved as well!

 Each teacher did a class display on our south campus, so that each student was represented. We had a wide variety of fabulous teacher led projects!

 Our exhibit is up for open for 3 days, so all classes come down to tour the exhibit 

with their teachers. 

This provides a quieter time to look at the work and to pick a favorite 

and write the responsible artist a fan letter!

TK students taking a tour with their teacher.

NBC San Diego interviewing one of our 5th grade artists.

A link to the coverage is right here:)
 

 Getting Cubist like Picasso.

 Making shrinky dink jewelry.

 The magic of relief prints!

 Collaborating on a mural with Ms. Vance!

 The longest line of the night, as usual, goes to button making! (we need to get 1 or 2 more of those makers, for real:)

 Spin art!

Old man Masse and Maryellen, the editor of Arts & Activities

moving lights.

 A couple weeks ago, the 3rd graders continued exploring motion, while also touching on symmetry and 3d space.

We started the lesson by looking at a commercial for adidas soccer cleats starring Leo Messi. Students had created a print that showed implied motion earlier, and we all agreed that the commercial was an example of actual motion in art. We also looked at how the ball looked 3d, even when only outlined in lights, because of the curved lines inside it.

After this I mentioned that the only pencil and paper work they would be doing was to put their name, room number... and ipad number on their ID paper. A moment of quiet was soon followed by giddy excitement:)

I explained that they would be using an app called Forge of Neon to build a short animation that showed movement. I shared a couple examples I put together and we looked at how the figures showed symmetry and that they looked 3d.

We also discussed that in order to make something look 3d, an artist needs to address height (y axis), width (x axis), and depth (z axis). I put together a how-to video that I shared in chunks, and once the ipads were passed out and they were sitting with their partners, we got down to playing.

As we went through the steps, I emphasized that they were to PLAY and experiment with the different features. Partners took turns drawing and then erasing their work, so they could see the many different visual possibilities.

The project has 2 requirements- a minimum of 3 colors and a minimum of 2 axis used. They kids had so much fun with this one. They exported at least one file to their camera roll and thsi aloowed me to upload to my computer and email them to their teachers.

At our Celebration of Art in a couple of weeks, we will have some of these and other digital projects shown on a smartboard in a classroom.

This is the first year that I've had the opportunity to include digital art in my curriculum and it's been a blast for both my students and myself!

It's almost showtime!

We are a mere 19 days away from our 29th annual Celebration of Art at Zamorano Fine Arts Academy!

If you are in the neighborhood and want to come out and support our amazing students, head over to Zamo on Wednesday June 22 from 5-7 pm. Thousands of works will be on display all over campus and there will be hands on activities for students and families to experiment with. Most of these activities will be ticketed at $1 or $2 to help raise funds to keep the arts alive.

mirroring.

Since the 4th graders worked collaboratively to create digital luchadors that showed symmetry and movement last week, I thought it would be interesting for them to continue, but with a partner process that was a lot different than those, yet shared certain commonalities.

We started by reviewing our process from last week and then I shared a video of Heather Hansen at work. She uses her whole body to create gorgeous large scale drawings that show symmetry. While viewing it, we looked at how her hands/arms create the same types of marks on both sides of her body as she works. We looked at the physical nature of her work and how it was both a physical and visual dance on her drawing support.

We then looked at part of a short video about students at the Shekou International School in China, who have created works inspired by Heather's process. (their amazing teacher, Miss Morgan is on instagram- @morganstudentart) I wanted my kids to see how other kids their age of worked within Heather's framework and I wanted them to hear Heather speak about her work.

Finally, I shared a video of my son and I doing what they would be doing in class. Breaking down the work one more time, so they could see it done by one of their peers and a teacher.

I emphasized that this process is an experiment with symmetry and centering their body and mind. The communication between partners should be as nonverbal as possible. (This was a big shift from their previous collab process, where I encouraged them to talk and discuss through the making of their luchadors as they navigated a couple apps for the first time.) This was an experiment in close looking (reading) and responding or mirroring the actions of your partner. Partners would take turns leading each other- if they noticed their partner was confused with a movement, they could repeat it in the drawing to reinforce it. On the opposite side, if they were the one not understanding, they should take the time to think and visualize their partner's movement. They do not need to feel rushed.

When all the teams got in place, were kneeling across from each other, and the music came on, they could begin. As they drew, I emphasized drawing with both hands at the same time. (I think that was the most common deviation from the activity and it is totally understandable. How many times do we encourage kids or adults for that matter, to use both limbs simultaneously?) After about 5 minutes, I gave the groups a second color, followed by a 3rd after another 5 minutes. The final drawing step was to use a finger from each hand and make marks by smearing chalk that had already been applied.

When the drawings are done, we wash up, and come back together to reflect on the processes of the past 2 projects. They answer 4 questions for me, and then we take a few minutes to share out.