Thank you Ed Hoy Glass

In January I won a classroom glass makeover.  The glass arrived in March, my incredibly busy time of year, but we managed to get a few glass projects done before the end of the year.  I love how they turned out. Some of the students did small pieces of jewelry and others did large plates.  I didn't have any slump molds for the large pieces so we had to make our own.  That alone was an adventure, but I think they turned out great in the end.  #edhoys #glassmakeover

Alli H.

Demi H.

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Jozlynn P.

Kelsey C.

Marcelle W.

Finish 'em up and move 'em out

I wanted to show everyone what Art 3 has been doing to finish out their year.  As you will see they have been very busy.  One of the projects is an oil pastel transfer, which I refer to as a cheating project, but the kids loved it.  Basically you print a picture off of the computer as large as you can, cover the back with oil pastels and then trace over the image with a pen and it transfers to a clean sheet of paper.  I know it is basically a carbon copy, but as you can see it did take some focus to figure out their shading and how hard to press with both the pen and the oil pastels.  Some of them even figured out how to apply multiple colors to add other effects.

Brooke  B.

Sydney Hag.

Jozlynn P.

Maggie H.

Sammy K.

Another project was a large clay vessel that had to either have cut outs, coils or texture.  Actually they had to have two of those requirements.  Which is really easy to do if you have ever worked with clay.

Sydney Hag.

Kelsey C.

They also had to put a scene inside of a silhoutte.   These were really fun because they had to think and plan out what they were going to do.  It took some focus but they looked great.

Kamber L.

Malary M.

They also needed to draw a reflection or foreshortening.  Most of them chose to do the reflection, but I think they did a great job and I think I will keep this project for next year.

Kenzie R.

Malary M.

And they had to create a mask that was an inner reflection of themselves.  It had to come outside of just the mask and it needed to let us see something about them that nobody else knows.

Kelsey C.

Yeva S.

Most of these works were created by seniors.  I am very sad to see them finish their high school careers.

Eat your heart out 2015

So how do you end your school year?  Do you do something wild and crazy or do you just let it happen.  I usually just let it happen, but this year i wanted to do something different.  I wanted them to do something fun and creative on their last day, something that would leave a good impression especially after we had been working on a large final project for two weeks and most of them were getting burnt out.

So I searched for some ideas and remembered that I had done a post on oreo art.  So I bought generic sandwich cookies (I'm a teacher I can't afford that many oreos) and I gave each student 2 cookies and a toothpick.  Actually the cheap ones worked better because the frosting came off on both sides and gave us not only 2 extra canvases, but the way it often broken was the start of our inspirations.  I then told them to carve away.

Here are some of their tasty creations.

So this is mine.  The students said it was cheating to show you, but I am doing it anyways.  I was inspired by the way the frosting was left behind to sculpt and eagle head.

Show it off!!

Like any good art teacher I too have a show at the end of the year.  This is half of the semester test for my Art 2 and Art 3 classes.  Each student has to submit their 5 best works of art, and create tags with their name and the works' title.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you have 50 advanced students, 250 works add up really fast.  We had some amazing works and tons of people who gave us great feed back.

Save the best for last

For about the last 4 or 5 years I have had Art 1 end the year with an artist collage that they have to create.  They have to do a collage of artwork from 12 different artists and make it into 1 cohesive piece.  Basically they are creating a surrealistic piece with famous artwork.  I give them a list of artists and there are two blanks on there so that they can find some artists on their own.  I give them a couple of days to research and find the artwork that they want to use.  I then let them free draw it on an 18x 24 sheet of paper, or I give them the option of planning it in photoshop first and then griding it.

They also have to write paragraphs about each of the artists that they chose, and tell me what they used from that famous painting and in what medium they used.  It really is an extensive project and it takes the full two weeks.  That is why most of them try to do it in about 3 days.  You know as a teacher who has done this project before, I really don't know what I am talking about. (Please sense the sarcasm).

Below are probably the two best pieces I have ever received for this project.  So I thought I would show them off.

Hannah S.

Drea B.

Large Oldenburg

Our last pop artist that we studied in Art 1 is Claes Oldenburg.  I have always been amazed by the large scale of his sculptures of such simple items.  So I challenged my art 1 classes to work in groups to create large scale sculptures.  Most used cardboard, hot glue, and paper mâché, but some used other materials.  It was also a great way to use up left over chicken wire from prom.

Brandon and Drea's large cup of hot cocoa.

Giant coke and soup.

Giant iPod and docking station, a giant Eiffel Tower key chain.

Out done o'Keefe

We'll the best way to study Georgia O'Keefe is to draw giant chalk flowers.  We use 18 x24 tag board and chalk asters to create these beautiful close ups of flowers.  This is a favorite spring project of mine.

Devin W.

Nikole K.