The Spring Art Show was a smash hit. I received many compliments from parents, teachers, and administrators. Even with all the positive feedback, it was hard not to be too critical of myself. This changed when the Robertsons asked to come see the show. While giving them a tour, I was filled with great pride in the quality and quantity of my student's work as I showed it off to someone who had no association to the school. It was really fun.
As a reminder, the grant that funds my job requires that I integrate the academic core with the art core, meaning all the art projects are inspired by what the students are learning in their regular classes (this is something I actually really love about the grant).
The coolest part about the show was the inclusion of the newly finished art gallery created by an eagle scout project. I coordinated with the scout and his parents to design it. Throughout the school year, this gallery will feature the best student work from each grade.
I experimented a lot this year and Kindergarten was no exception. First we practiced drawing a couple animals together. Then they chose from ten different native Utah animals to practice on their own. They chose their favorite for a final artwork. Typically kindergarten projects are pretty cookie cutter and there is hardly any choice.
(graphite, chalk pastel, marker on paper)
First graders learn about soil levels. Here is a multimedia collage representing those levels.
(paper, yarn, beans, sand, salt dough, tempera on cardboard)
Second Graders learn about the night time sky. What better artwork to use to learn about the night time sky than The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. Each student created their own constellation for the sky. The constellation in the frame is a book.
(oil pastel on black construction paper)
Third Graders learn about their own city of Provo. For this project, students chose their favorite place in Provo and sculpted it in these clay landscapes.
(fired clay, acrylic paint)
This was one of my favorite projects. Third grade was reading a story about African proverbs. The illustrations of the story were wood-cut and reminded me of scratch art. The teachers and I decided to use fortune cookies for the "proverb" and after having to explain almost every fortune to students, they came up with some really cool imagery.
(wax crayon, tempera paint on paper)
Fourth graders learn about fossils which is how we know so much about dinosaurs and prehistoric people. Students carved modern day fossils, thinking about what they might leave behind, telling the future who they are.
(tempera on dry-wall)
Along with fossils, the fourth grade also learns about rocks. In these one-point perspective rooms (a task typically learned in secondary schools), students included Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic rock textures on to the various parts of their rooms.
(colored pencil, wax crayon, marker on paper)
U.S. history is the the main topic for social studies in fifth grade. This project began with just a painting, but kept growing and becoming more and more awesome. We started with learning and practicing photography and painting techniques. This was followed by designing and creating marshmallow "projectiles." These were used to reenact battles from the Revolutionary war. While half the class performed, the other half photographed. The students chose their favorite photo, practiced drawing it and finally painted it.
(acrylic on masonite)
This Sixth grade project was another high achievement for me. I'm really trying to grant more autonomy to my students while still having parameters and also showing many examples of what other artists are doing with the same theme. This project is based off the phases of the moon. The only requirement was to carve the phases out of drywall. They could present that however they wanted and you can see these sixth graders took full advantage.
This an underwater mural from my after school class.
(Tempera on paper)
