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Week Eight

3/16/2018

National Medalists

It is awesome to announce that we have two BCWMS National Scholastic Medalists for the 2018 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Congratulations to Sophia Bentley for her Silver Medal in Jewelry and Tara Rood for her Gold Medal in Sculpture. Tara's work will be shipped to New York City for the traveling show and we will get to celebrate her accomplishment as a Gold Medalist at the National Awards Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in June!

Awards were made on March 13th and students were thrilled to see their works made the cut. It is an incredible accomplishment to make it into the top 1% of all entries! I am also excited for the opportunity to take another student to NYC for the awards and celebrate the 10th anniversary of my first National Scholastic Medalist who received a Silver Medal in Photography in 2008!

Our high school also had a National Silver Medalist. It is always great to see my former students continue their success at the high school level. Harrison Kosack earned a Silver Medal for his Future New piece shown below.

BCHS Jr. Harrison Kosak, received a silver medal from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for his sculpture, Avian of Pollution. With nearly 350,000 works submitted by students grades 7-12, this award puts Harrison in the top 1% of all submissions! Amazing!!! #bchspride

A post shared by Byron Center-High (@byroncenterhigh) on Mar 19, 2018 at 5:05pm PDT

Working on Spaces

Students worked on their Spaces and Places themed projects this week. I am very excited about some of the work I am seeing and already thinking about Scholastic for next year. It has been a real delight to see how many students have opened up their options with new media like 3D printing. We will continue to work on these next week along with a Perspective Drawing Bootcamp to help students gain skills with perspective drawing concepts.

3D At Work

Last week, students worked on their final collaborative by making the camera you see above. It was fun to see them recreate an enlarged version of one of the many vintage cameras you can find in the high school art room.

This week, we continued to manipulate size with the start of the Alter Ego project. For this assignment, students have the option to either create a mini version of their alternative self or a wearable that helps them transform into that self. Most of the students are electing to create the miniature version. We will continue to work on this project for the next couple of weeks then then finish the term with a project designed by each student.

Getting Ready for #NAEA18

I am very excited for the opportunity to present at and attend the 2018 National Art Education Association Conference in Seattle, WA! It is going to be a super fun time that will help me further push myself as an artist and teacher and I cannot wait to meet up with all of my colleagues from across the country to share ideas and art supplies!

I am presenting as a part of TEAM middle for the fourth year in a row. We are going to combine our efforts on Thursday, March 22nd at 2 p.m. to share our work with Technology, Environment, Assessment, and Management in our classrooms. I love presenting with these teachers and even better, I love our custom shirts we wear when we present together! Last year, I presented virtually so I am excited to actually be there this time.

I hope to connect with many teachers while I am there and bring back the best of what I learn to my classroom right away!

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Week Six

3/3/2018

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Happy Youth Arts Month!

March is Youth Arts Month! I am very excited about all of the things we have in store for Youth Arts Month, including the start of our ArtPrize10 piece. To kick off the month of artful festivities, we finished up some major projects, celebrated our Regional Scholastic Awards, and I even got to participate in an art show!

If you would like to help us celebrate Youth Arts Month, consider donating to our latest DonorsChoose.org project that is getting matching funds from AT&T for digital storytelling or voting for our student-made videos for the Meijer Great Choices Film Festival about Celebrating Diversity and Healthy Choices (you can vote once per day until March 23rd).

You, Me, Everybody

7th and 8th grade students finished their first major projects this week that focused on the theme "You, Me, Everybody." This is the first time that students got a chance to decide their materials and overall compositions for this semester to explore the theme. What is so awesome about this project is seeing the choices students make and reading what aspect of the theme they want to explore.

What is even better is how they use the tools they have been empowered with through the skill-builders we have done earlier leading up to this project. It is always a little hectic not knowing exactly what students will make in my class, but it is so rewarding to see them make choices and reflect on the outcome of those choices in their artists statements.

I am so thankful I adapted this teaching practice and built in a variety of ways to for students to find success. I am not saying that it is 100% perfect, but we are going to keep working on it until it is.

Allison: I choose to use Photoshop because I felt personally the end product would look better using the program. My technique consisted of separation, having nothing in common with the other side. Separation assisted me in communicating the difference between adult hood and childhood. It connects to the theme you because all the people that I meet are either embracing their child side or attempting to cover it up, like in the picture when the adult had is trying to cover the child's hand.

Jared: I used pencil shading and I used a variety of pencils.I darkened areas so that it looks like shadow.I did this for the me part of the project and I like nature so I wanted to employ that into my art work.The sun is setting because I like to read at night as in the picture.I'm reading under the tree.

Alex: For this piece I used the printmaking technique, for this I started out by taking a picture and then tracing onto a paper which I then applied to a carving block. From there, I then carved out the pieces I didn't want to have printed and started the actual printing process. I took different inks and painted them on a bench hook with a brayer and also used it to put on the carving block. I repeated this process five times to make the five prints on the piece. This connects to the, "You, Me, Everybody" theme because this is expressing myself just like the artist Frida Kahlo and I only focused on myself through this project.

Avery: For the you, me, everybody project I chose to focus on child soldiers. After learning about child soldiers in English class, I realized that the topic deserved more recognition that it was receiving. By using chalk pastels, I created flames inside two faces. The flames represent children's identities being erased when they are forced to become soldiers. I also incorporated shredded paper into the background to add texture and to create the illusion of the paper being signed I added water color. This shredded paper symbolizes the destruction that the child soldiers are forced to witness and participate in. Relating back to the theme of the project, this piece connects to the "everybody" category. Everyone should be knowledgeable about child soldiers and everybody should do there part to help.

Chelsea: My earrings are related to the “You” part of the you me and everything project. It connects with you because there is one person hanging from the earrings and in the necklace the theme is everybody because there are other people hold each other up to make one piece of art. They are made of gold and colorful wire to show the detail in the arms legs and body. The colorful wire represents a bunch of different people that come together. The colorful wire was easy to turn and move but the little people took a lot of mistakes because it is so small.

Hunter: For you, me, everybody, I chose to do me, this represents me because this is something I am interested in doing and I like making different intricate designs. This consists of circles and like and weird shapes together making it into a big collage of shapes and lines.

Olivia: This artwork connects to the topic because the mug is a very simple person showing that in the end everyone looks the same without the small details. This kind of goes with the theme of everybody because our faces are all the same after you take off the freckles, hair, and more. To make this I used the techniques we learned about clay, like armatures. The materials I used to create this project were clay and glaze, and it made a beautiful mug in the theme of everybody!

Ceramic Forms

In my 3D class this week, students continued work on their miniature hideaways and were also able to upload their ceramic forms from earlier in the term. Not everyone's work has been glaze fired, but it was great to see these completed. It was also interesting to see what reactions were to the glaze choices students. made when completing their forms. I am so pleased with the work from this group so far this semester.

Scholastic Awards

The BCPS Visual Arts program had another strong showing at this year's West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art Awards. With over 50 works recognized and one American Vision Nominee, we were able to celebrate this success on March 3rd with our students.

Kendall College of Art and Design hosts our regional show and they did a great job of recognizing students and displaying the creative works of the 2018 Gold Key winners.

It will be exciting to check back on the Scholastic Art and Writing website on March 13th to see if any of our Gold Key winners received National Medals. Good luck to WMS Gold Key winners Sophia, Bryanna, and Tara!

It was also very exciting to see past students soar, like Emma McCloud (pictured above with our high school Visual Arts teacher Greg Reinstein). She received her first Scholastic Awards as one of my students and she is now an American Vision Nominee for our region as a high school student. I can't wait to see what she does next with her work!

The show was a great one! I am so proud of our students and thankful I get to be a part of their art journey. These students are so inspiring and their work makes me want to be a better teacher and better artist.

Art Show

To cap of this first week of Youth Arts Month, I got to see my own work on display as a part of the CAMPUS show at The Urban Institute of Contemporary Art. This is a group show featuring faculty members of Ferris State University and Kendall College of Art and Design. Thanks to my work with KCAD as a Dual Enrollment instructor, I was able to apply to be in the show.

I feel pretty proud and overwhelmed to have been able to submit a work and have it on the same space as artists like Kehinde Whiley and Nick Cave (just last year)! One of my personal goals this year is to push myself to make more art and show my work more this year. This show was a great step forward in doing just that.

ArtPrize10

We had a half day with students on Friday, which meant we had PD in the afternoon. I am so lucky I got to spend part of that PD with my fellow Visual Arts teachers to plan out our ArtPrize10 student collaboration.

Before our meeting, we had a basic idea about what we were planning to make. Now it is much more clear and specific. I don't want to give to much away, but I am so excited to see how it all turns out in the end. I am so lucky I work with an awesome team!

This is what hard work looks like.

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2016 National Medalists

3/15/2016

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ModernHome2 by Ethan Pipe, National Silver Medal

Modular Necklace by Cam Schuelke, National Gold Medal

BCWMS had two National Scholastic Medalists for this year's competition. Nearly 320,000 works of art and writing were submitted this year and only the top 1% earned this acclaim at the national level.

Cam has been invited to be a part of the National Awards Celebration and Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in NYC June 1st-2nd and his work will be a part of a two year Art and Writing exhibition that will travel the country.

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2016 WCM Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

3/6/2016

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My favorite part of programs like this is seeing parents celebrate the creative accomplishments of their children.

Fountain Street Church was packed this year as they hosted the awards program again this year.

It was a great Saturday as I watched some of the most creative Michigan teens be recognized for their work in the 2016 West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. It was one of the most packed ceremonies I can remember as the speakers took a moment and framed the accomplishment for those in attendance.

Dr. Schuitema gave great perspective on how taking creative risks and sharing your work takes courage.

The featured speaker, Dr. Adam Schuitema (Associate Professor of English at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University), helped frame the accomplishment for this year's winners as he invoked the names of Scholastic alumni like Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Lena Dunham, Robert Redford, Andy Warhol, and more. He praised students for taking the risk in sharing their work and competing in this prestigious competition which has a 94 year tradition. In his talk to students, Dr. Schuitema made note of the courage creativity takes and how much hope it brings to all of us to see these students share their talents as they look to find new solutions for the future.

In addition, he shared the statistics from this year's Awards:

1,667 individual Art entries received
428 individual Writing entries received
45 Art portfolios received
22 Writing portfolios received

859 Awards granted:
5 American Vision
5 American Voices
179 Gold Key
262 Silver Key
408 Honorable Mention

In addition to sharing the names of notable alumni, this year's award ceremony also had a former Scholastic Writing winner, Ken Burns, share encouragement and words of wisdom via video. He ended his video welcoming this year's winners into the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards family.

It was inspiring to hear Ken Burns explain how winning the Scholastic Award as a student positively impacted him and his future.

It was exciting to see some of the winning work be displayed as winners were announced and to know that of them, many are from BCPS. Not all of our students were able to attend the ceremony, but here are some images from those that were. It was especially fun to see my past students Emma McCloud, Tommy Sadler, Krista Bartholomy, and Kennedy VanLeirop continue their Scholastic success and win as high school students.

This is always a special day for me and my students. It is a time to celebrate accomplishments and recognize the hard work it took to earn their awards. It is also a great time to view the accomplishments of others and be inspired to think about what is possible next.

I had such a great time talking with parents and meeting extended family members as we admired the creative courage so many students shared for this year's awards.

Some of our 7-12th grade winners pose as a group during the reception at KCAD.

I am very excited to find out if any of our Gold Key winners have National Medals in their future when we find out those results on March 15! Until then we will be still smiling from the great accomplishment achieved this year and may even start planning for next.

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Happy Scholastics!

1/8/2016

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Today was a day students have been working towards since the start of school (and some even earlier than that). We found out whose work was recognized for the West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art Awards.

Our Byron Center 7-12th grade Visual Arts program had a stellar year, breaking our previous record of award-winning works! You can see the full list of winners here.

The following are pieces from my 7-12th grade students that will be honored at the celebration March 5th. The thing that makes me most proud of these works is that all were imagined, designed, and executed by my students through their hard work and willingness to push further with materials and ideas.

I am so thankful to the TAB community for encouraging this type of teaching in all classrooms. I feel so fortunate to have finally adapted a more open model in my classroom so that works like the ones below could come to life.

American Vision Nominee

Ana Ha, 8th grade: A Fading Dream

Gold Keys

Jason Kent, 12th grade: Torn Between Light & Dark

Leah Fan, 8th grade: Perfect Imperfections

Riley DeJong, Jewel Richardson, Abby Boyle, and Abbie Clum
What is Beauty?

Sarah Koenes, 8th grade: Penelope & Piccolo

Denver Lahay, 8th grade: My Fire

Kasey Lee, 8th grade: Key to Identity

Ethan Pipe, 8th grade: ModernHome

Ethan Pipe, 8th grade: ModernHome2

Jewel Richardson and Gabby Vitali
The Little Crayon

Jewel Richardson, 8th grade: Fixing the Good Things (artist trading cards)

Cameron Schulke, 8th grade: Modular Necklace

Corrinne Wayman; 7th grade: Duct Tape Dress

Silver Keys

Jason Kent, 12th grade: Rebirth

Jason Kent, 12th grade: Hollan Horizon

Jason Kent, 12th grade: Payful

Caiden Bazuin, 8th grade: On a rainy day

Lily Bloye, 8th grade: Bouquet Bandit

Ana Ha, 8th grade: The Special Necklace

Lexi Brummel, Cameron Rabideau, Austin VanderMarkt, and Alexis Wierenga
Be the Sun

Gracie Keiser, 8th grade: The Koi Watcher

Sarah Koenes, 8th grade: Peace

Clay Lake, 7th grade: Greenscale

Ethan Pipe, 8th grade: Surreal Mountain Scape

Ethan Pipe, 8th grade: Skyscraper1

Jewel Richardson, 8th grade: We Can Be Persuasive

Gabby Vitali, 8th grade: One Tenth

Alexis Wierenga; 8th grade: Sitting on Clouds

Honorable Mention

Jason Kent, 12th grade: Happy Home

Jason Kent, 12th grade: Photography

Jason Kent, 12th grade: Work

Dalton VanderArk, 9th grade: Throwing Color

Maddison Denning, 7th grade: The Springs Of Life

Jessica DeRidder, Katie Hauch, and Sarah Koenes
What if?

Cheyenne Jensen, 8th grade: The Sapling Saviors

Gracie Keiser, 8th grade: Puppy Paradise

Sarah Koenes, 8th grade: Fire

Denver Lahay, 8th grade: Choose to be Good

Gwenneth Paulson, 8th grade: Rust

Gwenneth Paulson, 8th grade: Perspective

Colton Summers, 7th grade: 3D Tree House

All Gold Key winning works will now move onto the next phase at the national level and we will be notified of outcomes by early Spring.

If you have any students awarded, please share the work and celebrate the success with us! This is a great competition with an over 90 years of honoring students' creative ideas and skills in the classroom!

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2015 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

6/13/2015

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This past Thursday was the 92nd Annual Scholastic Awards celebrating young Artists and Writers from across the country. I had two National Medalists this year and was thrilled that one of them was able to attend the ceremony at Carnegie Hall! I was also able to attend due to funding from DonorsChoose. In addition to the ceremony, which featured special guest speakers Whoopi Goldberg, Chelsea Clinton, Tom Otterness, and David Lipski, we were able to spend a few days in NYC to tour museums and the city! Here is a highlight reel of the awards ceremony:

Anna and I had a chance to pose for one more photo after the celebration at Carnegie Hall!

I was also excited to see both of my students' works on display in the gallery at Parson's. It is still a little mind-boggling to think that I have student work in an NYC gallery that will also be going on a two-year tour. It was SO inspiring to see the work representing the best of the best our country has to offer and I am so excited to bring back the images from the show in hopes of inspiring my students and sparking new ideas!

One of the highlights of the event was seeing student work on display at the Parson's gallery.

This is the first time I have had student work on display in the National Show. They only display the Gold Medalist work and I was so proud to see both Anna and Jordan's pieces in the same space!

Another awesome moment from this trip was our time spent at the MET, Chelsea Market, and the High Line trail. Each offered a different view of the city and I am so thankful I will be able to take the inspiration from this event back to my classroom in hopes we will make it back here again next year with another winner! Thank you again to DonorsChoose and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for helping make this happen!

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And the Winners Are...

3/16/2015

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Been There, Done That - Photography by Jordan Cooper

The Necknib - Jewelry by Anna Pavlak

It is with great pride that I share our two winners from BCWMS for the 2015 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. This is the first year we have had multiple winners from our school and the first year that any medal has been GOLD, which both students earned!

If you would like to learn more about what it means to win, please check on this post from last year when we celebrated our Silver medalist, Makenzie Reid.

We will find out on March 30th if students are able to attend the event and then will begin the fast and furious fundraising it takes to get there. I am incredibly proud of this accomplishment and look forward to celebrating this success! This would not have been made possible without the strength of our Visual Arts team, support of Administration and the larger community, as well as the support of our Fine Arts Boosters who helped pay for the admission fees of this competition.

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Snow Day and Scholastic Winners

1/9/2015

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Gold Keys

Today was a snow day, but students still were able to find the results for the 2015 West Central Michigan Scholastic Art Awards.

Work will be on display at Kendall College of Art and Design through the month of February and the awards ceremony will occur on February 28th. Gold Keys will move onto the next level of competition and national winners will be announced this Spring.

Congratulations to all of the students who participated! I have submitted work to this competition for the last eight years and this was by far our most successful one. With 23 winning pieces, our Middle School was the most decorated from all Middle Schools in the region. With 41 winning works, BCPS was the most recognized district in Kent Country and third most in the region.

I would like to extend a special thank you to The Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters who helped sponsor student entries as well as the students, parents, and BCPS educational team who foster such a creative environment for our students to explore and enact ideas like the winning works below.

Been There, Done That - Photography, Jordan Cooper

You Decide - Film and Animation, Bre Coval and Jordan Cooper

Step in the Right Direction - Drawing and Illustration, Lauren Doyle

Things I Worry About - Comic Art, Lauren Doyle

Candy Dress for Nerds - Sculpture, Sara Fan

Me "Cut Out" - Mixed Media, Olivia Lee

Gee Way - Drawing and Illustration, Emma McCloud

The Necknib - Jewelry, Anna Pavlak

Silver Keys

Folded - Fashion, Emma McCloud

Stellar - Drawing and Illustration, Emma McCloud

Arms to Arms - Sculpture, Salvo Tocco

Curious - Photography, Emily Buijink

Felted Thoughts - Mixed Media, Lauren Doyle

Robinson Family Treehouse - Photography, Gwen Paulson

Honorable Mentions

The Room - Sculpture, Kollan Davio

A Wire House - Sculpture, Blake Pekel

Fall - Photography, Austin Wagner

Skyscraper Dress - Fashion, Emma McCloud

Enigma - Drawing and Illustration, Emily Halverson

The "real" world - Digital Art, Hunter Flores

The Lego Adventure - Film and Animation, Harrison Kosak and Noah VanderMyde

Wicked Willow - Sculpture, Jon Zandstra

Dino Rider - Digital Art, Reese Wrench

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Surrounded by Scholastics

10/7/2014

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Students moved from their sketchbooks and into the Scholastic Art Magazine Archives to research and interpret work cataloged there for their viewing pleasure. I cannot fully express how thankful I am for this resource as a result of the funding from our last DonorsChoose project! It was great to share the online content with students today and watch them search through the archives to find artists that spoke to their interests and then share that with the class via our Artist of the Week Schoology Discussion board. I am so thankful to those who helped make this resource available to my students! Students are also starting to think about The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and seeing past winners showcased in the magazines is very inspiring to those hoping to achieve winning works this year.

Check out the progress of Emma's Cootie Catcher Dress that she is working on for this year's Scholastic Art Award's competition. I think she has a great chance of achieving recognition in the Fashion Design category. This will be the first time I have ever entered student work in this category during the 8 years of entering this competition!

7th grade students also worked on their Artist of the Week posts using Scholastic Art Magazine. Once done, they completed their knots by turning their designs into a symmetrical image after transferring the first quadrant onto the other three across the horizontal and vertical lines of symmetry. We will use these papers to transfer the image onto a heavier weighted paper and add color starting tomorrow!

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A Weekend to Remember

6/8/2014

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It was so great to spend some time with Kenzie and her mom before the big celebration at Carnegie Hall. We both sported our Scholastic National Medals for a photo before heading to dress rehearsal on Friday.

You can see the full Carnegie Celebration through the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Webcast.

The project I taught that lead to Kenzie's Silver Medal Winning work, Copper Head, was inspired by Alexander Calder's wire portraits.

This past weekend has been a whirlwind of activities. From meeting with award-winning students and teachers from across the country, to hearing inspiring speeches delivered by notable creatives in the industry of design, literature, and film, I had an amazing time in New York City for the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

It was such an honor and thrill to see Makenzie get recognized by this organization that has a 91 year history of saluting outstanding student talents in Art and Writing, fostering many to become standouts in creative industries. In addition to seeing the work, learning with teachers, and enjoying the celebration, I also had a chance to explore and be inspired by the city. Some of my favorite moments include walking from Central Park to Battery Park, passing through Rockefeller Center, Times Square on the way to Parsons to pick up our tickets, and proceeding onto the 9/11 Memorial and then Battery Park. I was excited to be invited to The Pratt Institute gallery and hear from leaders in the field as we discussed how to best prepare students for their next experiences. I also enjoyed exploring the High Line Park and viewing the work on display at Whitney Museum of American Art (who is moving location in 2015).

I want to give a special thanks to everyone who donated and helped Kenzie make it to this celebration. I want to give a special thanks to the Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters, who foster so many creative experiences for our students in Byron Center, as well as BCPS Superintendent Dan Takens, Fine Arts Director Marc Townley, and BCWMS Principal John Krajewski whose support helped make all of this possible. I work in an amazing district that helps students develop and reach goals, bringing them closer to their dreams.

It was a great celebration of creativity and hard work. I am proud to have had this opportunity and invite my students to start thinking over the summer about what works they might start to land them in NYC next year.

It was fitting to end the trip by seeing this work from artist, Alexander Calder. Notice the similarity in style and subject from our winning work? Thanks, Alexander, for the inspiration!

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Week Eight

National Medalists

Working on Spaces

3D At Work

Getting Ready for #NAEA18

Week Six

Happy Youth Arts Month!

You, Me, Everybody

Ceramic Forms

Scholastic Awards

Art Show

ArtPrize10

2016 National Medalists

2016 WCM Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Happy Scholastics!

American Vision Nominee

Gold Keys

Silver Keys

Honorable Mention

2015 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

And the Winners Are...

Snow Day and Scholastic Winners

Gold Keys

Silver Keys

Honorable Mentions

Surrounded by Scholastics

A Weekend to Remember

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Janine Campbell

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