Linocuts and Tortillas

On the last post I showed you a peek into what the 7/8 Academy students were creating for this years Veteran's Day Assembly and Reception and now I want to show what the 6th graders have been working on. We looked at Americana styled quilts and talked about how quilting is not only a hobby but also an art. We used some of the patterns, designs, and colors to create our own "quilt square" via linoleum cuts. The students sketched their ideas, and upon selection they then drew and cut their design out of the linoleum. Luckily the only injury from this project was my own as I was demonstrating how to carefully cut the linoleum (do as I say kids, not as I do!) I'll just let everyone believe I did it on purpose to make a point :)

Seeing how we are well adjusted into the year we thought it was time to have the students get to know the teachers from the Grand Prairie High Fine Arts Academy so Ms. Cavazos, Academy Art 1 teacher, came to give a mini workshop on tortilla painting made famous by artist Joe Bravo. Ms. Cavazos was one of the first (if not the first) art teachers to teach the same technique as the artist himself. She reached out to him years ago and he was gracious to share his tips and experience. He is even sending us high quality images of his work so we can use them for our presentation at this years TAEA conference in San Antonio. 

We invited the academy mariachi students to join us and used the opportunity to introduce Dia de Los Muertos. Many of the 6th graders have learned about it in social studies this year and it's a great way to teach them about the significance of the popular imagery we see a lot in our culture and art, especially recently. The students were free to make their paintings of anything they chose but examples of calaveras (skulls), cactus, and portraits were shown . It was great to take a break from the current projects and work with a completely different group of students. Surprisingly enough, a few of these mariachi students held their own quite well with a paintbrush. Mr. Diaz should be careful, they could make great additions to our art room. We'll see if they can do as well on the soccer field when we play them! :)

A big thank you to Ms. Cavazos, Grand Prairie High Fine Arts Academy, Mr. Diaz and the Mariachi program for your help and company! To learn more about tortilla painting and Joe Bravo, please visit his website here.

Mrs. Rodriguez

P.S. The clay pieces have been through the first round of firing, we will glaze sometime this week and should have finished projects around this time next week!

Peace and Soccer

 The 7/8 Academy artists are week two into a competition piece that is our most intricate yet.  We were graciously sponsored in the Lion's Club International Annual Peace Poster Project from an area Lion's Club. Thank you Lion's Club International District 2-X1! The students are enjoying the project and the ideas they generated for the highly conceptual project are stellar.  Here is a peek into what they are doing :)

In the afternoons the students come back for studio and continue to work on the Veteran's Day pieces.

The 6th graders are still working on perspective which has proved to be challenging but it means they are truly learning something new. I was never a fan of anything that technical myself but it's definitely a skill that will come useful to them. They are also working on linocuts which has also been a challenge so sometimes we just need to take a break and take in this awesome Fall weather.

6th Graders Gain Relief and Perspective

The 6th grade academy artists just spent two solid weeks knuckles deep in clay. Every student was assigned a coil pot, slab pot and relief. In just a week or two we should have fired and glazed pieces to display.

Today they started gaining "perspective" with some one and two point perspective practice. I rarely give out packets or worksheets but there are some technical skills that can be improved with simple practice. Thanks to Dawn's Brain for providing some great practice worksheets.

Non-Objective Mandalas, Soap and Veterans Day Preparations

Last week my non-academy artists finished their soap sculptures pictured below. This was a first for me and although it wasn't the easiest product to manipulate the end results were cute and the classroom smelled AMAZING.

 We then started on our non-objective mandala project found here. The goal is to view a smaller portion of a larger image in a totally different, non-objecitve light and recreate it with colored pencil. I urged the artists to layer their colored pencil to achieve correct values and colors and they have definitely stepped up to the challenge.

 In our academy 7/8 class we were introduced to our Veteran's Day project where the artists will work in teams to create a piece of art for display at the annual Veteran's Day assembly and reception. I have a soft spot for military and all things Veteran's not only because of our family and friends who have served and still serve but because of a dear family friend who lost his life four years ago this month serving our country. The anniversary of his death was the perfect introduction to this project which is not about us a class, program, teacher or individual artist but rather about service to those that are still here for us to thank. We started by watching a quick video about my friend Marcus, then project teams and assignments were distributed. The students responded wonderfully and quickly began to work. I can't wait to see the final product.

 To learn more about my friend Marcus, feel free to check out the links below

Memorial Video
Fort Hood Sentinel article
Big Country Homepage article
Texas Soldiers' Angels

Display Away!

Here's a peek into our first display of the year! Pictured are detail shots of Paola, Paislee and Rosa's sculptural paintings. The idea was to create an interesting design using either organic or geometric shapes or a combination of both. They used mat board and balsa wood.

The regular and advanced classes used just mat board but instead of painting their pieces they used chalk pastel and did quite a good job keeping it neat (which is not easy with pastel!)

Also pictured are some Sharpie line designs/doodles with a spotlight color focus.

Great job!!!!

What we've done so far...

The 7/8 Academy Artists hit the ground running in art history, so far we covered Stone Age/Mesopotamia, Greek/Hellenistic, Egyptian, Japanese/Chinese/Indian, Middle Ages, and just completed Renaissance art. We've worked on some faux cave paintings using plaster on canvas board and it produced some great effects. Painting with sticks on such a rough texture wasn't so easy but you couldn't tell by the end results.

The 6th grade Academy artists started with competition the first week but soon started on an abstract piece that paid homage the the great Wassily Kandinsky. I found the project here on the Blick website.