Week Seventeen

Finishing up the Semester

As we near the end of the semester, students were asked to go through their portfolios on Artsonia and select a piece they would like to revisit in ways that would help them show growth over the term. This is a variation on a project I ask students to engage in annually as a way to pause, reflect, and react to the learning that has happened during their time in the art classroom. 

It is very exciting for me to see students use this project to show what they have learned. It is also interesting to learn why students select the works they want to revisit. For some, it is because it was their favorite thing; for others, it was something they struggled with at the time and this is their chance to do something better. Regardless of the reason, I am thankful that students had a chance to do this and I really enjoyed reading their statements that went with the work. 

Ashlynn: I did this flower because in fifth grade I did a water color flower, and for something old something new I decided to take the techniques from the fifth grade art work and make it better. So I colored my flower and used water color paint, just like I did in fifth grade.

Kennedy: For this projects I decided to re-make a shoes drawing i did with pastels in 5th grade. I started out by looking at my shoe and drawing out the outsides and the lines, then i colored it in. I did the same thing with the other shoes, only using pencils instead of colored pencils. For my background I used water color to make a splash pattern by blowing on it.

Serenity: I decided to recreate my watercolor flower painting from 5th grade. In the original I didn't make it look like a flower very well. The flower was too zoomed in. However, in this piece I zoomed out and made it look more like a flower. I made a new work that focused more on the content of the painting. The original also had colors that were not blended and causing the work to have poor craft. In this piece the colors that I used were blended together more, causing the work to have good craft. This art work helped me personally by helping me show the improvement I have made not only as a artist, but as a person. I wanted to revisit this project because I honestly thought it looked bad when I original created it in 5th grade. I wanted to take this opportunity to recreate it and make it look better.

Finn: My new project shows improvement in creativity because before I just grabbed a bunch of images off of google and placed them inside my profile, and in this project I made the background inside my face, made the planet, and I made the stars. I also improved my craft. I did this by spending more time on the quality of the components in this project, and in the other project my background was just made out of a bunch of random colors and scribbles. I made this piece the way it is because I love the way galaxy or space things look and also how greens, purples, reds, and blues look together.

Jackson: In the old water color abstract I had diferent clear sections which looking back on I didn't like so with this one its more non objective. Also in the old one I had random scribbles through out it making it worse. I feel like this one was a lot more crafty because in the old one it was just crappy and scribbly but with this one it actually took time. The composition on this one was a lot better too because it used a wider variety of color. I don't really have a personal connection to this artwork because it was "Non objective". I wanted to revisit this because in my last one it was awful and I didn't like it so I thought of this as a retry.

Evie: I remade a piece I made in 5th grade, the year I came to Byron Center. It was a portrait of what I looked like back then and it was supposed to be realistic. Remaking it, I took everything I've learned and made it in a style I draw with more. I decided since this was a remake from an old drawing, instead of keeping the drawing of me in 5th grade, I'd make it how me and my friends draw me currently. I'ts like a persona in a way, it's something my friends have helped me with and I am very grateful for their help. I also made it digital instead of traditional. I took the circles in the background from the last drawing and made it a ball type thing with words my friends have called me and use to describe me. The art remake is very important to me, it shows how much I've grown with people and especially with art. I used far more shading and took aspects from the last drawing (circles and words) and made them into something new and even combined them! I'm far more content with this piece and I hope to learn more in art.

Khiem: This art is the continue of the last art in 7th grade challenge 3 treasure or trash. Some of the thing that I change is the way I chose to color it. In the old art I use the different color but in this one I chose to use My old fashion way, pencil. Something new that I do is the point of view. The first one is up looking down but in this one I chose to look from a wall. The first C is creativity is that I use shading pencil instead of markers. Another C that's different is the content I chose to take a different point of view from the original. This my room that change a little by using my imagination like the fish tank.

Mary: In the revision of the autobiography I did last year, I wanted to re-do my attempt at 'anime' and wanted to improve. I was honestly horrified at the older version, so I just had to redo it.I am also remaking this character; putting in more depth and such.I hope you enjoyed this piece, I cannot wait to make more like it!

3Doodler Fun

This was an exciting end of the week in our classroom as our latest funded project from DonorsChoose arrived! Thanks to generous donors and the matching funds from 3Doodler, we were able to get 6 3Doodler pens for our classroom!

Students spent today experimenting with the pens, even completing some of the projects from the booklet. I am so excited to be able to use these in the classroom and cannot wait to see what students make next with them. 

Week One of DE

For the past seven years I have been able to reconnect with my former middle school students as high schoolers in the Kendall College of Art and Design Dual Enrollment program. Each Spiring, I teach a course in either Color, Photo, or 3D. It has been an awesome experience and one that I look forward to each year. 

This week, we had our first class in 3D Design. It was fun to see students I once had years ago and meet new students, too. We started out this week with collaborative work, creating sculptures on the first day out of styrofoam cups and some drawing exercises on the second day to prep for some relief paper sculptures based on the work of Heather Hansen. 

From what I have seen so far in this short period of time, I know we are going to have some stellar work made by some stellar students over the remaining 14 weeks of class. 

Next week, these drawings will be translated into paper relief sculptures (one symmetrical and one asymmetrical). It will be interesting to see how students use 2D images to inform the 3D work they make. This is my first time approaching this project in this way and it was amazing to see how engaged students were throughout the drawing process (one commented that they would like to do more of this kind of work on their own). 

Part of my job as an art teacher is to teach the fundamentals of seeing and making art; the other part is to instill the idea that there are multiple ways to make art and that anyone can do it. 

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