Blog Archives

End of 3rd Marking Period

3/30/2017

District Art Show

I am incredibly thankful that I get to work with the talented students and staff at BCPS and each year at our k-12 show, I that feeling is magnified. It was great to showcase the works of our students in this show that will run into the end of next month at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center and close out Youth Arts Month with a reception that honored those student-artists on display.

STEAM Collaboration: Artist Rooms

We finished out our 3rd collaborative project this year, just as we close out 3rd marking period and leave for Spring Break. I had my doubts about whether or not we were going to keep these kids engaged so close to break and how well they were going to pull off the work required with only 8 working class days to get it done. As usual, students did not disappoint and really turned out some of the most creative and interesting interpretations of artists works as various rooms.

To cap off the project, students presented their slide show and work to other members of the class and then placed them on display in the library. With the help of our LMC specialist, we got out the Scholastic Art Magazines students used and placed them between the maquettes. It is a great display and one that we plan to keep up for the rest of the year. Another great way to close out Youth Arts Month as well as March is Reading Month.

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The Real Week Nine

3/23/2017

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STEAM Collaboration #3: Artist Rooms

STEM and Art students joined forces once again this year for a new challenge: take an artist from Scholastic Art Magazine and create a room that demonstrates his/her style. I wish I could take full credit for this idea, but as with most things, I came across @QEHSArtDept posts on Twitter showing off bedrooms created by students that looked like artists' rooms and some lovely cultural rooms at the 2015 National Art Education Association conference in New Orleans that sparked this collaborative unit.

In order to get students in the mindset, we showed them this video from the artist duo Nix and Gerber. It was a great introduction to how artists plan, collaborate, and repurpose materials and the fact that they create replicas (which is what we were asking of students) was perfect! Once students got into groups of three, they selected rooms using a Google sign up (so there were not more than one repeat of room), students began searching through Scholastic Art Magazines, finding an artist to use to design their rooms.

After signing up for an artist (there could not be duplicates), students then broke their groups into three roles: The Project Manager, The Blueprint designer, and The Sketch Up Artist. All three students were in charge of creating a model of their design based on the blueprint and sketch up.

By the end of the week, students have a pretty good start on their models, using their plans to help guide them. They will be bringing all of this together next week and present their finished works. In addition, these works will go on display in our library and also be featured in our Arts a la mode/Fine Arts night on May 23rd.

It has been really fun see students struggle towards solutions and grow in the process. There have been interesting design choices and thoughtful narratives to support their decisions as artists and a lot of problem solving as they try to engineer the final product. We have also been putting the 3D printer to work this week as students used Tinkercad to make furniture, accessories, and other objects to go into their models.

Here are some process images from the week:

Student Show

Being able to join my colleagues in the BCPS Visual Arts team to do so brings me a lot of joy and pride. At least once each school year our students are able to display their works at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center and represent the excellence of Visual Arts in each of our six buildings and across each grade level. Selecting which works to display from WMS 7th and 8th graders were tough, but that is a good kind of problem to have.

For this year's show, I tried to select student work that reflected a variety of media, demonstrated skill or inventiveness of media, and work whose artist statements were demonstrative of the learning and thought process that took place of the artist who created it.

Because I have adapted a model of teaching that asks students to choose the ways in which they interpret themes (via the media, subject, etc.), the variety in the works on display are both exciting and interesting to view. I look forward to celebrating these works and the rest of our student artists at the opening reception on Monday, March 27th at 5:30 p.m.

DOF

Dual Enrollment students finished up another assignment last week that focused on Depth of Field. This term is used to describe what is in focus in an image. Students were encouraged to capture a wide range of subjects and use a shallow, mid, and wide DOF in their images.

Here are some examples of their work:

Anna

Ellise

Emma

Kathy

Krista

There is only one more week until Spring Break. As you can see by my repeat of week nine (since it looks like I missed a week six or seven this go around), I am in need of it. I wish all teachers and students the best as they finish out this week and marking period STRONG!

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Week Nine

3/17/2017

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National Silver Medals!

Since 2008, I have been proud to enter student work in the Scholastic Art Awards. During these past nine years, we have had numerous regional winners and now nine National Medalists with the recent addition of this year's winners! Congratulations to Lindsey Peters, Magnus Smith, and Clay Brown for earning National Silver Medals! I am very excited to add your names to the list of Cam Schuelke, Ethan Pipe, Anna Pavlak, Jordan Cooper, Mackenzie Reid, and Amanda Strayhorn as previous BCWMS winners!

What is even more exciting than winning this recognition is the conversations from each of this years' winners already planning what to make for next year. I can't wait to see it made!

Where are you going? Where have you been?

Students finished their second major challenge this week and explored various ideas about where they have been and where they would like to go. Some students took the prompt literally, while others more figuratively. It was fun to see them go through various materials of their choosing and draw on the artists we studied for this project as inspiration.

Here are some of the results:

Kenzie: I chose to do this place out of all my thumbnail sketches, because I thought it was different. In most of my sketches I had chose a place that was tropical area with a sunset or a city. I decided to incorporate both in my finished product of Cuba. I responsibly used water color, sharpies, and metallic colored pencils. I used principles and visual characteristics in my artwork effectively, and I fully understand how to use them. My final artwork shows craftsmanship and many techniques such as mainly shading. The materials I used appropriately fit my artwork. I used media to get an idea of how to correctly draw buildings in Cuba. My artwork is similar to Red Grooms, because I used buildings in a busy area which is most likely to be similar to Red Grooms.

Samantha: The theme of this challenge was to create an art piece following "Where are you going, where have you been?". For my interpretation I created a piece about places all over the world that are very popular for tourism. I used pencil shavings to create individual places such as cities, beaches, and even amusement parks. I drew a big long road and everyplace connects there. I also have a big globe with red drop pins on certain places. This art piece follows the theme because it talks about all the places in the world but it also shows that all the places are connected through the roads on the globe. I used a lot of different materials including watercolor and chalk to create different textures and colors on the art. My art reminds me of the artist Eugina Loli because she uses a lot of different places in one image and this is exactly what I did. I created a lot of different backgrounds and connected them all through the globe and a road. My art is significant to me because it talks about places all over the world and a lot of these places I would love to go someday.

Arianna: My choice in materials represents my trip to Hawaii and shows a distorted effect to it. The puzzle effect shows that there are two sides to every environment. One can be dull, and one can be bright and flourished. I have been to Hawaii and saw different and unique landscapes and photographed them. This shows my interpretation of the theme by the materials I use. I connect to this artwork because I have been to Hawaii and everywhere I go there is different in many ways. The flourished image is the ocean and rocks. The duller image is when we visited the Big Island’s main volcano. This shows two extremely different landscapes even though it’s the same environment/land. This artwork is similar to the artwork created by Eugina Loli because we both use a distorted and abstract effect.

Katelyn: My artwork shows a space landscape. From the bottom left to the top right the planets get smaller. While it necessarily doesn't getter smaller as it get closer to the background, as usually used in composition, I chose to present it at a vertical angle and put my vanishing point in the top right corner. I started by drawing the planets and taping then, then I painted the picture plane black added purple accents to create an outer space appearance. Next, I sprinkled white paint over the plane with a paintbrush, adding stars. When I removed the tape from the planets I colored them in using water color pencils and blended them using water. Finally to add a more dramatic effect to the planets I shaded the left sides with black chalk pastel and tinted the right side with white chalk pastel. On some of the planets, I drew people standing on top of them. I have traveled to a lot of places in my life and met so many different people. I personally think that when we go places it is all about the people we encounter who influence us the most. The world is full of different unique people and personalities, and each one we meet, influences us, even if it is in a small way. So, looking out from where we are from, you never know who you might find, and who might just change your life.

Ethan: I choose clay to make the piece of art out of because clay is my favorite material to work with. The reason I made yellow stone is that me and my family have spent a lot of time there and now we cant.

Tess: For this piece, I first used pencil to draw the coral onto the carving block, then I used a carving tool to carve out the design. I chose black paper for my picture plane because I wanted the printing ink to really stand out. A couple of years ago, in fifth grade, my family went to Hawaii, and my favorite thing was all of the coral that we saw. Unfortunately, I later learned that a lot of the coral in all of our oceans is becoming subject to coral bleaching, and I wanted my piece of artwork to highlight this issue. My work is similar to Andy Goldsworthy's because it involves nature, but while he directly uses his environment, creating pieces out of snow, leaves, stone, and other things, and then photographs it, I simply created a picture of nature.

Ella: My art for this section was created from an old pair of jeans, using fabric as my main media. With this piece I cut each piece of felt to create every patch on my jeans also created roads from the paint that made roads connecting my life. I thought jeans would be a good media for they will always be part of my life I have grown up making whole in my jeans from falling down in the side walk to falling off my bike. They are worn, torn and lived in no matter what the age. I could go on and on about the jeans and each path but for easy means something new. I added a sun and clouds for that is my favorite weather when I sun just peaks out from the clouds and makes the perfect temperature. I also created a diploma for when I graduate high school and hope to be high in my class. The mittens represent the state I live in, Michigan, with the great lakes. With this art work I have branched out into several pieces of my life and also used parts from Faith Ringold and made a piece using fabric as I looked at her piece it made it easier to make mine looking at the parts and small additions she added to her quilt help me make mine.

Kheim: I this art I thought of book ad some other thing I do in English which is write something and I usually write in first point of view. So I came up with the idea for this. I usually I just get to the final art but this time I realize that I have try this out before but it doesn't work so I sketch out ton of perspective and more. I took some idea of some other art like a draw of the forest, room and much more so I use the room idea. I thought of my room so I draw my room. I use shading pencil just like my other art. It's about your teen life like how teen have more freedom than a children and more. In the end, I think my work is pretty similar to Georges Seurat art because my art use perspective to show how far the object and shading to show is 3d. The different is that my don't use a ton of don't Georges.

Hannah: This a cardboard collage with magazine objects overlaid on cardboard to create a 3D effect, there is also a watercolor flower and 2 drawn objects. I call this "Dream Objects" because I have a little artist in me, my dad is in the military, and I was born in oklahoma. Throughout all the trials I face I can always come back to my dreams wherever I go.

Isaac: The composition and materials that I used for this artwork are supposed to show a quiet nighttime setting, but with vibrancy as well. I also tried to use texture to give a feel of depth to the art. I can connect to this art personally when looking at how it portrays a vibrant, even exciting feel, and I can also connect this artwork to Red Grooms by thinking of how we both used a 3D effect, along with depth, to give a sense of reality in our work.

Next week we will continue this investigation of how place can shape people and the way they use it with our STEAM collaborative.

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Week Eight

3/10/2017

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Celebrating Scholastic Winners

Last weekend students were celebrated in the West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. We will find out next Tuesday if any of our Gold Key winners received National recognition. If we do, it will be the 5th year in a row that a BCPS student has!

It was pretty amazing to celebrate the success of BCPS Visual Artists and the other winners from around our region.

Here is a list of the winners from our 7-12th grade program:

High School (45 awards):
Krista Bartholomy (Gold Key, Drawing; Silver Key, Drawing)
Abigail Brouwer (Honorable Mention, Painting)
Leah Cook (Gold Key, Drawing)
Emmaleigh Crumback (Honorable Mention, Photography)
Lauren Daly (Silver Key, Ceramics)
Lauren Doyle (Silver Key, Jewelry)
Kennedy Emmons (Honorable Mention, Ceramics)
Alyssa Jones (2 Silver Keys and 4 Honorable Mentions, Ceramics; Honorable Mention Art Portfolio)
Emma McCloud (Honorable Mention, Digital Art)
Alexis Perdock (Honorable Mention, Ceramics)
Ethan Pipe (4 Gold Keys, Digital Art; 1 Silver Key, Architecture)
Thomas Sadler (Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention in Photography)
Tristan Sharp (2 Gold Keys, 3 Silver Keys, 1 Honorable Mention in Ceramics; Silver Key in Art Portfolio)
Tian Ruoxi (Silver Key, Digital Art)
Anna VanderLaan (Silver Key, Photography; Honorable Mention, Digital Art)
Kennedy VanLierop (American Vision Nominee, Digital Art; Gold Key Art Portfolio, Gold Key, Photography; Gold Key, Digital Art; 2 Silver Keys, Photography; 3 Honorable Mentions, Photography; 2 Honorable Mentions, Digital Art)

West Middle School (30 awards):
Damien Afienko (Honorable Mention, Painting)
Alayna Arms (Honorable Mention, Jewelry)
Hannah Barney (2 Honorable Mentions, Fashion and Painting)
Brandt Bobeldyke (Silver Key, Film and Animation)
Abby Boyle (Silver Key, Film and Animation)
Clayton Brown (Gold Key, Film and Animation)
Carmen Davidson (Silver Key, Mixed Media)
Kenzi Feuerstein (Honorable Mention, Film and Animation)
Matthew Garbarino (2 Honorable Mentions, Digital Art)
Avery Heron (Honorable Mention, Jewelry)
Samantha Kitchen (Silver Key, Film and Animation)
Maddie Lange (Honorable Mention, Film and Animation)
Shelby Lubbers (Silver Key, Film and Animation)
Sophie Millhouse (Honorable Mention, Architecture)
Ella Perry (Silver Key, Film and Animation)
Lindsey Peters (Gold Key, Fashion; Silver Key, Photography)
Ella Petit (Silver Key, Sculpture)
Jenny Phung (Honorable Mention, Film and Animation)
Magnus Smith (Gold Key, Film and Animation)
Colton Sommers (Silver Key, Comic; Honorable Mention, Mixed Media)
Merrick Susan (Honorable Mention, printmaking)
My Tran (2 Honorable Mentions, Photography and Jewelry)
Justin Walter (Honorable Mention, Architecture)
Corinne Wayman (2 Silver Keys, Mixed Media and Drawing/Illustration)

#WIP

Students are working on a new theme this week that deals with the questions: Where are you going? Where have you been? After taking some notes about landscapes and working through sketches, students settled on ideas and began to get to work. It was fun to see students easily dive into this project now that they have one already under their feet.

Help Our Classroom

If you find these posts of mind helpful, I would kindly ask you to help us in a couple of ways - don't worry some are simply a click of the button.

First, we have three student films up for competition in the Meijer Great Choices Film Festival. Unfortunately, I got my dates mixed up and missed the whole first week of voting, so we are VERY behind. Please take a moment and help us catch up by voting daily until the 24th. Videos with the most votes can earn grants for their classrooms. To vote, you will need to login through Facebook and then use the links below to vote by clicking on the vote button.

Here are links to the three videos:

Snacking Nightmare:
http://k8.meijergreatchoices.com/gallery?entry_id=224827

What is Character?
http://k8.meijergreatchoices.com/gallery?entry_id=224803

Stronger:
http://k8.meijergreatchoices.com/gallery?entry_id=292501

The other way you can help is by donating to our current DonorsChoose project that is acquiring resources for our upcoming Fine Arts Night. Donations made were being matched by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and now there is only about $375 left to go. Any amount will help, so please give what you can!

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Week Seven

3/1/2017

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Challenges and Bootcamps

This week was all about building skills as students tackled two challenges/bootcamps that they may or may not use in their upcoming work. I like weeks like this because it allows students to take a step back from worrying about a perfect finished work and instead work through tutorials that help them gain skills and understanding of how certain materials work.

The first challenge this week was with Photoshop. Students were given a choice between beginner, intermediate, and advanced options before selecting which they would do. Each had some kind of video guide to help them, which was good since this was a first experience with Photoshop for many.

Here are some of the outcomes:

Beginner

Ethan

Sarah

Intermediate

Sophia

Nate

Advanced

Drew

After finishing up with Photoshop, students went through a similar practice with small drawings using perspective. Again, they got to chose from a wide variety of resources. I have begun to call this one a bootcamp because students struggle with the challenge that can come from using perspective. Somehow referring to it as a bootcamp gets them to look beyond the struggle and come out the other side trying their best to make the work happen.

Here are some results:

These works will be a nice transition into our next theme which deals with answering the question: "Where are you going? Where have you been?"

The Power of Art Conference

I am so thrilled to have this opportunity next month to learn and share with teachers from across the country in our Nation's capitol. I will make sure to share what I learn on here and elsewhere online. I have to give a huge shout out to my students who helped me earn this spot.

As a part of the application, I had to share a lesson with students examples. Because of the amazing creative and hard-working students I have, I was able to select many samples of how my lesson worked with students. I am pretty sure this is why I was selected and I am so thankful to the great work my students have done and continue to do.

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End of 3rd Marking Period

District Art Show

STEAM Collaboration: Artist Rooms

The Real Week Nine

STEAM Collaboration #3: Artist Rooms

Student Show

DOF

Week Nine

National Silver Medals!

Where are you going? Where have you been?

Week Eight

Celebrating Scholastic Winners

#WIP

Help Our Classroom

Week Seven

Challenges and Bootcamps

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

The Power of Art Conference

Archives

Janine Campbell

Categories

End of 3rd Marking Period

District Art Show

STEAM Collaboration: Artist Rooms

The Real Week Nine

STEAM Collaboration #3: Artist Rooms

Student Show

​DOF

Week Nine

National Silver Medals!

Where are you going? Where have you been?

Week Eight

Celebrating Scholastic Winners

#WIP

Help Our Classroom

Week Seven

Challenges and Bootcamps

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

The Power of Art Conference

Archives

Janine Campbell

Categories

DOF