Week Seven

Finished Work

Students finished their work for the challenge "You, Me, Everybody" project. In this challenge students were asked to create a work that was either about someone else, themselves, or a larger community/culture. We looked at the work of Julian Opie, Frida Kahlo, and Do Ho Suh as examples of artists who use a variety of methods and media to tackle this prompt. Before students started their final works, they created a series of sketches to work out ideas and we also went through various materials and how they could be applied to their final works.

It was fun to see students work with different media, try new ideas, and change their pieces based on experience and feedback. I am always amazed when students are able to put feedback to good use and apply the concepts and ideas taught.

Application of ideas and methods to achieving those ideas is something I am striving to teach throughout the term. It always starts a little slow, but as you can see with the examples below, students are able to use the skills we have build to achieve their desired effects and create one-of-a-kind results that both meet the standards set as well as their own artistic vision. 

Kalynn: In my piece I am representing the idea of everybody. I have showed everybody be drawing different hands gripping a rope. This shows that we are all holding onto the same thing and are doing so together. In my art I used color for the rope to try to make it the center of focus, and add depth. Overall I have learned several new techniques and enjoyed overcoming the challenges to create my piece of art.

Serenity: I wanted to make this clay piece because I am not very good at drawing faces so I thought that I could make a face better using clay. I focused on the you part of the theme you, me, everybody. I didn't completely base it on a specific person, but it is not a drawing of me so I consider it a you part of the theme. I used different clay tools to make different textures in the parts that have hair so that it would become more realistic and look like a person. I left the lips in a neutral face to make the face look like the person was having an average day. I chose to do red hair and purple eyes because when I was a little kid that was who I pictured my self to be in our house games.

Cheyenne: First, I drew my own portrait and then I traced it with a permanent marker and put printmaking all over it. Then when I was done with the printmaking which took me about 4 to 5 days, I traced my portrait with chalk pastels and then it made it look 3D like the image is popping out. This connects to the theme "me" because I like to do artwork based on me what I like and what I like to look like.

Dylan: i got the idea to do this when i thought about how different me and my family are, but how we are all the same. so i went for a broken mirror effect on the many photos that i have to show how differences between us, but how we are alike.

Mary: In this piece, I did something very similar to a self portrait.In the middle is an artist persona of myself, and around is some fictional characters from some of my favorite franchises, except the two at the bottom, which are two characters of my own with their own stories.

Sophia: I originally was going to do the backs of peoples heads for my project, and when I was coloring the hair, I just started to doodle in my sketch book. After trying my head pictures twice, I decided I wanted a different picture instead, and I decided this picture was the one I wanted to use. I had a lot of fun with this project, I went out of my comfort zone with picking my own project with a very broad outline. It took a while for me to pick my final project, but I think I picked a good one. I learned about a paint that is water color, but it starts as a liquid! I thought that was really amazing, so I used it on my background! I also leaned a new technique form my art teacher Mrs. Campbell called feathering. I personally love this technique, and hope to use it in the future!

Kennedy: For my project, "you, me, everybody" I did more than one piece of art and i seemed to like this one the most. The project is focused of everybody, and the eyes represent everyone's eyes. i used a piece of Gelli plate to put on the background colors and mix them together, the colors i had used were pink and blue and the colors mixed together to make a purple color too. I used a black sharpie marker to draw the eyes and i used chalk to help the eyes stand out.

The Problem with Due Dates

Due dates are necessary. They help hold students accountable and set pacing of content for the term. With that being said, I really find them to be hard to follow with students who decide to go above and beyond with assignments. I do not count this against the final grade if work is late because of this. I do not think it is fair to punish students who want to take more time on their work because they are doing something special. 

I do have an issue with students who misuse their time and turn in work late or rush through projects without using their skills and understanding to show what they know. That is why I think due dates should be set, but be flexible. For the students who are unable to meet the deadline because their work is more complicated or in-depth, they have to find the time to finish outside of the set class time and that is usually not an issue. If you care about your work so much that you are willing to spend more time on it, chances are you want to see it to completion. 

Here are some works I am excited to see come to completion soon: