As I start my 14th year of teaching middle school students in the Visual Art and Design classroom, I can say this with confidence because every new year is always better than the one before. There are always new goals to tackle and achievements to gain and I know this year we are in store of breaking all kinds of records for awesomeness because of these five fun factors:
Guess what? This year is going to be the best one ever. As I start my 14th year of teaching middle school students in the Visual Art and Design classroom, I can say this with confidence because every new year is always better than the one before. There are always new goals to tackle and achievements to gain and I know this year we are in store of breaking all kinds of records for awesomeness because of these five fun factors: Right out of the gate, we have a major opportunity for students to showcase their talents and potentially win our classroom $5000 in funds. I am so proud of our students for creating the collaboration "Painting Under Paper Cuts," that is in the Youth Collaboration Award category for ArtPrize 9. You can view and vote for the work at Monroe Community Church starting September 20th. I am still looking for volunteers to help transport the piece; if any parents are willing, please contact me. I am also very excited to be planning a field trip to ArtPrize again during the 19 day competition. This is the 8th time I have taken students to this event! I am so thankful to DonorsChoose, 3M, and all of the donors who helped fund two projects in the last month that will bring robotics opportunities to my students. I cannot wait to receive these resources and get students going with them to build and create new methods of communicating visually and connecting their learning in art to other subjects and content areas. The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is one of my favorite competitions to enter student work in during the school year. This year will mark our 10th year participating! I am hoping to mark this 10 year anniversary with a record number of student entries, placements, and hopefully another chance to celebrate our National winners at Carnegie Hall in NYC. It is such a great opportunity for students to grow as artists when they participate in these programs and push their learning and skill to the next level. Sign up starts on September 13th! I love collaborative projects. I am very excited to try two new ones this year based on some great ideas from other teachers. They are both going to be early on in the school year and I look forward to getting them out into the public spaces of our school so others can enjoy the visual expression of each student coming together to make something as a whole! I am leaving this one as a wild card - an open space for anything to happen. There is always something that sneaks up on me out of nowhere and takes me by surprise each year. Last year it was the collaborative work we created for ArtPrize, the year before was having a student win a National Scholastic Gold Medal for making a gorgeous piece of jewelry out of paper, the year before it was being named National Art Education Association Middle Level Educator of the Year... I am not sure what crazy, exciting, new, scary, lovely surprise is going to show itself to me and my students this year, but that is okay. I know it will be amazing and that we will be excited and ready to greet it with open arms!
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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. 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.
Celebrating Scholastic WinnersLast 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) #WIPStudents 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 ClassroomIf 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! Learning NamesFor our second week of class, it is important for me to start to learn about my students - and that often is starting with their names. I am a visual person and using their portfolio design, students crafted names that represent their interests. What is nice about this opening activity is how students are able to help me learn what interests them as well as actually learn the name. Because the names are large and on the front of their portfolios, I am able to easily see them and start to learn them. Here are some of the results: Sarah W.: For my portfolio name I based all of the letters off of my favorite sport, volleyball. For my “S” I made a Nike headband because I wear those a lot especially to volleyball. For my first “a” I combined a volleyball passing sleeve and an ankle brace to form the “a” shape. For my “r” decided to draw a volleyball shoe. To represent my second “a” I made a volleyball on a side line. Lastly, to make my “h” I used a Under Armour water bottle and the FarOut logo. Combined they made the shape of an “h”. All of these objects are important to me because I use them daily for volleyball and if I didn’t have volleyball I don’t think that I would be me. Avery Z.: I created this art piece to express me and my personality. The basketball was used to form an 'a' because basketball is my favorite sport and I love to play. Another letter that expressed me was the 'r'. The 'r' is in the shape of a book because I love to read. I also tried to incorporate new techniques that we learned in class. Those techniques are shown in the 'a' and the 'v' as the colors are fading. Braylon B.: I chose all of these letters for a certain reason. I chose them because these things represent me as a person. The only exception is the letter B, I chose this because it looked really cool and I really like the fancy letter. I did the dot method with the marker inside the letter. I chose an upside down hockey stick for the R because I love hockey even though I don't play it. For the letter A, I chose to do the at sign in an email. I chose this because I would be a totally different person if I couldn't text anybody. I chose earbuds for the Y because I love to listen to music. The L in my name is a pencil. It represents me because I go to school Monday through Friday and if this wasn't in my life, it would change me. The O represents me because I love donuts so much, they are my favorite type of breakfast food. I chose to do a regular letter N with an American flag inside of it because I live in America and if I didn't, everything about me would change. I chose every single letter because each one represents something about me. MAEA Region 9 Highlight ShowTo finish out the week, I had the opportunity to enter student work into the Michigan Art Education Association Region 9 Highlight show. This is an adjudicated show that is juried by local artists and art professionals. It was great fun to see all of the winners and share in the success with my friends and colleagues. It was also a wonderful time to take in extra PD time with my fellow Art teachers as we viewed work on display at the GRAM, KCAD, and discussed all aspects of Art education. Thirty-three works were selected Saturday to represent Byron Center Public School students from 1st-12th grades. The work will be on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum through February 23rd. All of the works selected will move onto the State adjudication next month. MAEA WinnersGAP that PortfolioComing back from a break can be hard. I need just as much easing into it as my students. Instead of starting out with a new project right away, I decided that I would use that first day back as a way for students to reflect on all they have accomplished by GAP-ing their portfolios. I also wrote this activity for the MAEIA project and you can find the more detailed step-by-step instructions on their website. What is GAP? It stands for Good, Average Poor. Students simply empty the contents of their portfolios (which is also great because I get things returned to me that have been hiding away in there) and sort their work into piles based on their assessment of the work. Before we GAP, students write down the 4 C's (Creativity, Craftsmanship, Content, and Composition) in their sketchbooks and how we use the 4 C's to evaluate work. Here is a great video, too. Once we discuss how we determine what is "good" art, with an understanding that everyone has a different idea of "good" and that is okay, students start to sort. After about five minutes of sorting, they determine which work was the most successful and which was the least and then put all works, other than those two, away. Afterwards, students wrote down characteristics of their works using a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast and then we did a gallery walk before putting them away. This was also the time where I selected several works for upcoming shows and displays. This activity is one that I have done with students since I learned it from my mentor teacher, Jean TerMeer, at Corunna Middle School back in 2004. It is great for getting students to think critically about what they have made in the hopes they will use that thinking again as they continue to make future work. Everything is a RemixFor our last challenge of the semester and of the class, students are being asked to use the idea of remixing and apply it to their work. Students watched the video above and viewed work by Kehinde Whiley before planning out remixes from their own portfolios, using Artsonia Classroom mode to look back years and years ago. Student work will be finished just in time to start reviewing for exams next week! View some progress below. 2017 Regional Scholastic WinnersKendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University announced the 2017 West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art winners this week. Once again, BCPS Visual Arts students were able to shine and earn the recognition in the various categories offered in the competition. I am excited that WMS had 30 winners across 12 different categories this year. It was also exciting that two of the works that won were printed on the 3D printer! The high school had 47 works that earned recognition, with one placing as an American Vision Nominee! Here are the winning works from WMS students below (good luck to the Gold Key winners, whose works will now go onto the national competition): Gold KeyClayton Brown and Magnus Smith, Film and Animation Silver KeyAbby Boyle, Ella Perry, Samatha Kitchen, and Shelby Lubbers, Film and Animation Brandt Bobeldyke, Film and Animation Honorable MentionMaddie Lange, Jenny Phung, and Kenzi Feuerstein, Film and Animation
Game OnThe second STEAM collaborative started at the end of last week. Even though we had a snow day and a two-hour delay this week, students stormed full force into their projects and worked to make playable games. As a part of the design, students needed to work in pairs and come up with a concept that linked to education and create all of their original art for the game. Students used Scratch to create their games and many used Piskel App to create sprites and even some backgrounds. Games will be playable next week and we will be having a mini Game Con so that students can experience each other's creations. Students took a break from programming to hear from Ben Lambert, an iPhone Developer and Designer at (i)collective idea out of Holland, MI. Ben got his start in 2D animation and graphics and began programming games after teaching himself. His game, Hungry Munchers, is available on the App Store and he is currently working on a game that should be available within the next year. He shared a lot of tips on how to get started with developing games and students enjoyed the time he spent working with them on their games. Scholastic SubmissionsThis week was the FINAL week for students to create and upload work for the 2017 Scholastic Art Awards. Here are some of the worsk we hope to do well this season. Good luck to everyone who submitted work this year!
This is the fourth time I have had the pleasure to experience the National Scholastic Awards with a student.
Each time is different. Each time is inspiring. I am so thankful for the opportunity these awards have given to my students and me; I am also excited about what next year might bring and how my students may raise to the challenge to keep our three-year winning streak going. My favorite moment from the event was listening to the words of Tim Gunn, who encouraged us to embrace our fear - he said that if we are feeling fearful of failure, it means we are probably doing something important; harness that energy to complete each new idea with a freshness that pushes the work forward. Congratulations again to our Gold Medalist, Cam Shuelke, who attended the awards, as well as Silver Medalist, Ethan Pipe. Their hard work and creativity will keep inspiring students for years to come! If you would like more information about these awards, check out the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards website and our local Regional Affiliate. Images from the show and a video of the celebration at Carnegie are below. Sooper Art 2016 celebrations did not disappoint. It was great to celebrate all of the Michigan student artists from across the state and see their efforts be rewarded with recognition and prizes.
BCWMS had two winners this year, continuing the tradition that started six years ago. This annual competition has been a great tool to get students thinking about the environment and to showcase their ideas and skills. I am very proud of Ana and Sarah and look forward to seeing which students enter work again next year. I am super excited to announce that two BCWMS artist received top 15 placement in their age group for Sooper Art 2016!
This environmental art competition is hosted by the GRAM every year and this is the third year in a row we have had multiple BCWMS students awarded the honor of having their work on display at the GRAM and a $100 prize! Considering we are currently finishing up projects on a variety of issues, it is always nice to see how students interpret the environment each year this competition arrives. We will find out who receives the special top prize in each age group during the awards ceremony on May 22nd! Congratulations to all of the winners! Michigan Student Film FestivalThis is our second year participating in the Michigan Student Film Festival that is organized by DAFT. It is a great opportunity for students to receive feedback on their work from an outside audience as they compete with students from across the state. This year, we had two student groups receive Best of Show and one receive an award of Excellence. The Best of Show videos were celebrated at The Detroit Film Theater at the Detroit Institute of Arts and it gave students, teachers, and parents the chance to see the work on a bigger screen. Here are some highlights below: MAEA Top 15It was with much glee that I learned two of my students would be celebrated at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit on the same day as the state film festival. It was a great day to view and celebrate art and I have to thank all of the teachers that organize this event for our students. Both students' works will now go on a tour, including a stop at the Fall MAEA Conference in Traverse City! It was a beautiful day to explore art and Detroit, and I am thankful my husband was able to get this picture of me with "The Thinker" before we left for home!
I know my students and I are excited to get started on videos and other works for both competitions again next year. |
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August 2018
Janine CampbellTeaching Visual Arts since 2004 and making images since picking up a crayon. Categories
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