Welcome back to the Bulldog Art Room!

We have hit the school year off with a wonderful bang! Thanks to a new and improved schedule, young Flatonia artists have been able to spend more time in the art room, allowing more opportunities to develop ideas, skills and create. This is a great supplement to your student's academic growth.

Let's talk about our theme: this year students are being encouraged to DISCOVER, EXPLORE, THINK 

and CREATE.

To DISCOVER, I feel it is important to introduce children to art made by a diverse range of artists. We first took a look at a whimsical circus painting by Marc Chagall. The next class session we discussed the painting titled “The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali. Following these discussions, students brainstormed and started creating illustrations of happy memories and dreamscapes. They created these inside their process visual journals (aka their sketchbooks).

With this activity students were allowed to EXPLORE a pretty wide range of art medium and techniques. Some included

- watercolor paint

- wet and dry pastel

- oil pastel

- wax relief rubbings

- graphite (our fancy-pants word for pencil)

- permanent marker

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After experimenting with all those mediums to create dreamscapes, students went on to EXPLORE the beautifully woven textiles of Michelle Chesson. After talking about Michelle Chesson and her business Roving Textiles, the students gave it a go at weaving paper. Using paper magnifies the ins and outs of weaving, allowing the kids to really see and understand the process. Some children asked why we were learning weaving? Weaving has been used by most cultures all over the world throughout time, from making textiles (aka clothes, fabric) to making baskets to carry and hold things. Learning this helps the students connect to other cultures. Plus weaving helps our kiddos better understand pattern, process and working within a three dimensional space. Here are some pictures from the days that we tackled weaving paper. 

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If students were not weaving, they were still practicing using a ruler to make straight lines and using scissors to develop their fine motor skills. We have been DISCOVERING all kinds of ways to use our rulers, from going outside making patterns with sidewalk chalk, to creating paper strips to build paper sculpture. You can see more pictures of this below. Overall, the students have been getting good practice at handling these trickier tools. In doing these activities they are also learning how bend, crease, fold and curl paper in creative ways. Oh, and I almost forgot: students are learning to use glue effectively. No more messy glue puddles in my room! 😉

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The last thing we really celebrated this cycle was Dot Day, inspired by the book The Dot by author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds. This is an encouraging story by an author/illustrator about not giving up.

To celebrate Dot Day, activities varied over the course of about a week. Some students painted BIG, BOLD dot paintings like the main character Vashti in the story The Dot. 

Other students collaged “dot-ISH dots” inspired by Reynold’s other story, Ish. Some students created big circle dots using dot markers or bingo daubers mixed with other fun medium, like waxy crayon and rubbings to create a wax resist. Older students created illustrations on dots that show people helping others from their daily lives, creating positive impacts.

Now that we are done with Dot Day (and I really think we should do this every year - it was such a success) we are moving on to other new and exciting things. Next cycle we will be creating portraits of our favorite toys and stuffed animals, monotyping and taking a stab at Gyotaku printmaking. Below is a sneak peak at what monotyping looks like in the art room. Warning: it has the potential to get MESSY. 😏 Thank goodness my young artists are so helpful during clean up! Do you see those sparkling tables????

Until the next post, over and out!

Sincerely, Your Dear Art Teacher

Have an ARTful Summer!

Wowwwwww! It has been quite a while since I posted to the art blog, AKA Flatonia ISD Art Newsletter. My sincere apologies. I will blame this on our very full, very engaging spring schedule here at school. 😉

As we close the school year, first, I want to say how much I love working with all your young artists. The creativity that flies out of these kiddos astounds me. Trust me, if you could be a fly on the wall, you would be amazed, too.

Now, let's cut to the chase: what did we DO the last two cycles???

Let's start off with the mural contest. As many of you know, the Central Texas Rail History Center sponsored a contest for a mural design that will be installed at their downtown Flatonia location. I want to give another big congratulations to senior Kaeli Karber, the overall winner of the contest. Plans are now underway to start turning her design into the beautiful mural that it was always meant to be. If you or any of your friends or family are interested in helping create the mural, then please send me an email. This is a community project, so anyone is welcome, from the artistic guru to the artistically-impaired. The best email to reach me at to get details is cdemel@flatonia.txed.net.




For the rest of the school year, most of our art that was created stemmed from the culture and art of ancient Egypt. The kids seemed to really enjoy looking at Egyptian art, from the Great Pyramids of Giza, to the elaborate, gold sarcophagus of King Tut. After looking at a diverse selection of images in this style, the students and I practiced drawing a cartouche in hieroglyphics. A cartouche is basically a name tag. The kiddos and I practiced drawing the traditional Egyptian cartouche design together in pencil. After, we took a stab at writing our names in hieroglyphics. Some ambitious students did whole names, but most of us stuck with our basic initials to keep things short and simple. I mean, we have pretty limited time in the art room, so we work with what we've got, right?

The following session, we traced our pencil in rich, black permanent marker to create emphasis, a principle of design. Then we used warm colors from various types of media and applied them to our art. Kids used anything from crayon, to dot markers, to soft or oil pastels to watercolor paint. The students seemed to really enjoy the freedom to choose their media, and a lot of learning seemed to go on as they experimented with each.

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For my sanity, I decided to keep things fairly consistent across grade levels (did I mention we have a crazy, full schedule in the spring?). The secondary students started out with a similar project, but since I am able to see most of them daily, they had more time and freedom to take their cartouches to the next level. Some students created two dimensional cartouches, where as others constructed three dimensional forms. The materials these students used were diverse, from pencil, to metallic markers, to using found objects and paint.

Once the secondary students completed their cartouches, we moved on to create some ancient Egyptian inspired sculptures using clay. During these next few weeks the students practiced forming pinch pots for the base of a jar, coils for the walls of the body, and then a few more students tackled lids. These pieces of pottery were inspired from the canopic jars of the Egyptians, and then we added a little twist. The students were encouraged to incorporate the design of a spirit animal, an animal that helps guide them in life (according to some cultures). You will be blown away by some of the designs. The last thing students were encouraged to do were to create or place a symbolic item inside of the jar, something that they would like to carry with them throughout life. One example provided were a friendship bracelet for friendship.

Because the end of the school year and testing approached (all too quickly, as usual), some of the students did not get a chance to fully paint their pottery, but we decided to take pictures of the works-in-progress anyway. We worked too hard and too long on these precious little sculptures to not want to share.

If you would like to see a digital exhibit of the elementary and secondary cartouches, along with the finished and in-progress sculptures, click at any of these following links. You can also explore and see a few hundred more images of art create by our Flatonia students.

Elementary Cartouches

Secondary Cartouches

Secondary Clay Sculpture

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As I close, I want to thank you and your children for bringing so much joy into the art room this past year. It is always a pleasure seeing them discover something new as they are creating. I encourage you to help them find some fun and creative art activities to experience this summer. Staying active by creating will help them appreciate beauty of all sorts, build their confidence and be ready to jump right into art in the Fall. Creating art over the summer is also one of my personal goals. Often, when I am creating, all kinds of cool project ideas materialize for the kids. With that, I am all kinds of ready when August hits.

In art we are constantly learning, young and old, so have some fun and make some art with your kids this summer. You will not regret it. (Plus you can keep an eye on things and make sure they do not destroy your house. I speak from experience.)

If you are unsure of different art activities, need no fear. Here is a list. I will also try to send this list home to inspire you and your children to create.

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Summer Art Activity List:

1. Make nature art, and photograph it.
2. Draw a squiggle, and turn it into something.
3. Create a unique self-portrait using the sidewalk and some chalk.
4. Find a book about art at the library.
5. Design your own cartoon character.
6. Use your cartoon from number 5 to create a comic strip.
7. Read about an artist, then use their style in a new way.
8. Make your own art technique, and teach it to someone else.
9. Make a sand or mud sculpture.
10. Make a homemade dough recipe, and try it out.
11. Make a drawing about your future dreams.
12. Research an art technique with books or YouTube and try something new.
13. Create art based on a poem.
14. Draw your favorite space in your home.
15. Paint some rocks to look like animals. Voila! Pet rocks!
16. Create a robot with recyclables.
17. Make a collage using found objects.
18. Make a print by stamping sliced vegetables that you pressed in paint. Try celery, carrots or a potato.
19. Learn the art of origami.
20. Start up a sketchbook or visual journal. Draw pictures of all the cool things you did or saw over summer vacation.

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Have a very HAPPY summer, my Bulldog friends!

CTRHC Mural Design Contest Winners

Congratulations to FISD senior Kaeli Karber, the winner of the Central Texas Rail History Center Mural Design Contest! Kaeli's design will be recreated into a mural that will be installed at the CTRHC in Downtown Flatonia. Other students that the CTRHC committee would like to recognize with honorable mentions are Jose M. Manzano, Kaylan Aguillon and Jaylen Gomez.

For the contest, each entrant was asked to creatively design a landscape that displays FISD school pride and a love for our community of Flatonia. The winners are featured below, but to see more contest entries, visit either of these galleries at the Artsonia website:

Secondary CTRHC Contest Entries: 

www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=1756012

Elementary CTRHC Entries: 

www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=1756009

Winner: 

Kaeli Karber

Title: "A Journey of Opportunities"

Description of the piece by the artist:

"In this piece below, I chose to show the journey from the first day of school to the very last. Since this community revolves so much around the school, I thought it to be fitting to show all that is available to the students."

Honorable Mention: 

Jose M. Manzano

Title: "The Amazing Flatonia"

Description of the piece by the artist:

"Flatonia has many cool things. This mural is to show that we love our Flatonia community!"

Honorable Mention: 

Kaylan Aguillon

Title: "Flatonia Community Pride"

Description of the piece by the artist:

"I chose these things to creatively express our pride because it represents the community of Flatonia and our Bulldog pride."

Honorable Mention: 

Jaylen Gomez

Title: "Flatonia School Spirit"

Description of the piece by the artist:

"I picked these things to show what we do in Flatonia and what we have at Flatonia School."

“School and Community Pride”

Mural Design Competition

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Sponsored by the Central Texas Rail History Center

About this Art Contest: The Central Texas Rail History Center (CTRHC) is sponsoring the School Pride Mural Design Competition. This competition has been created to encourage Flatonia Independent School District (FISD) students to use their creativity to create a two-dimensional design that displays pride in our Flatonia schools and in the Flatonia community. This contest is open to any enrolled FISD student grades pre-kindergarten - 12th grade. The grand prize winner will have the chance to collaborate with the FISD Art Department and CTRHC to have their design recreated and featured as a mural piece at the CTRHC.

To Enter:

• Entrant must be an enrolled student at FISD, Pre-K through 12th grade.
• The entrant must create a design using the attached contest entry form while following the contest rules below. A student is allowed to create as many design entries as he or she sees fit.
• Besides a design, the entrant must have the remainder of the entry form filled out and signed with the approval of a parent or legal guardian. Any missing information will disqualify the entrant’s design.
• All completed entries need to be turned into either of the FISD front offices (elementary or secondary campus) before 3:35 PM on Friday, April 12th.
• Note that contest entries might not be returned to the student.

Contest Rules:

1. Using the official contest entry form, creatively design a landscape that displays FISD school pride and a love for our community of Flatonia.
2. Design must be created by hand using two-dimensional media (i.e. paint, colored pencils, crayons, pastels). Please do not submit any collage or three-dimensional work.
3. Design must fit within the rectangle on the entry sheet.
4. Content must be school appropriate.
5. Designs must be original to the student submitting. Do not trace or use another person or organization’s intellectual property, with the acception of any FISD logos, typography or FISD graphic design.

Privacy:  Entrants, parents and guardians agree that any personal data collected on the entry form may be used by FISD and CTRHC in relation to the contest and normal contest procedures.

Publicity:  Once an entry is submitted, the entrant and the parent or legal guardian agree to waive any intellectual property rights of the design and is transferred over to the property of FISD and CTRHC. FISD and CTRHC are allowed to use and display the entry design in anyway they deem fit.  

By entering the contest, entrants, parents and guardians also agree to participate in any media or promotional activities resulting from the contest, but not at the entrant’s monetary expense.

Notification of Winner:  The winner of the contest will be notified using the contact information provided on the entry form. He or she will be notified the week of April 15th, 2019.

Prize: The winner will get the chance to collaborate with the FISD Art Department and CTRHC to have their design recreated and featured as a mural piece at the CTRHC. The winner will also gain artistic recognition by having their design publicly displayed on different FISD school affiliated media sites and through local media outlets.

Click here to access the contest entry form.

Drawn to Art during the 4th Cycle

Hey there, Bulldog community! Today is a good day to look back on the amazing things our young artists did last cycle, especially because it is the beginning of Youth Art Month, aka YAM. When reflecting, I noticed an overall theme developing in our art. It seems that in all things we did, our art always tied back to generating a deeper understanding of the world around us. Young artists have been observing and creating from what they see around our world, both in nature and within our communities. They also have been taking a closer look at some of the other cultures that are found on the globe and how they compare to our own. Last, students have been developing art in a way that leaves little waste in the wake, if any, while thinking about how their art could make our world a healthier and more beautiful place. Below is a recap on most of these projects that students, Pre-K through 12th, participated in.

I would say that our biggest success last cycle was the 5th grade art field trip, and the fact that fifth grade work is being exhibited at the esteemed Texas Quilt Museum of La Grange, TX. Thank you to all involved in helping create this opportunity. I wrote about the event a few weeks back. You are more than welcome to search it out on the blog.

Our other great success was the fact that the art department had Science-based art to feature at this year’s Science Night. I thank all the students who were involved in the creation of these pieces, installations and break downs. Featured art were as follows:

Pre-K Collage: Pre-K collaborated to create a collage of Staghorn Coral, a species that is on the top ten endangered species list for North America. To use little resources, the piece was created by reusing old paper, and then painting it and collaging it in a way to show an image of coral. You can see more of our elementary students' collages at the digital gallery Artsonia.

Third Grade Cells Inside Cells Installation: For this work of art, third graders drew and painted images that were taken from inside a transmission electron microscope. To see individual work visit this link. Later, these works of art were cut and folded into the shape of another type of cell - the hexagonal cell of a honeybee comb. Once the hexagonal cells were completed we were able to install them into a pattern of a tessellation.

4th and 5th Grade Assemblage: For this project students used found objects and recyclables to build and dream big. The sculptures themselves were intended to be robots, computers and machines. If these objects were to actually function, they would have different jobs that help keep the world a healthy and beautiful place. Artists who inspired the students were sculptors Louise Nevelson and Angela Hazeltine Pozzi. Before students take these sculptures home, we would also like to exhibit them a little longer at school. More information on that will be coming soon.

Secondary Artist Books: Secondary art students also had a hand in Science Night. Last semester they spent time drawing from observation to create scientific studies like naturalist John James Audubon. Later they created prints that were mounted into three large, handmade books, mimicking the Birds of America a magnificent compendium created by Audubon and the science community in the early 1800’s. To check out students’ preliminary studies, visit this page at Artsonia.

Moving back to three-dimensional form, secondary art students took a stab at sculpting with papier mache during the fourth cycle. It was a messy project (a BIG THANK YOU to our custodian Zenaida Castillo!!!) but the end results were amazing. If you have not visited the secondary library, I encourage you to go check it out. On display are the sculptures of personified food made by 8th - 12th graders. It is evident that these young people have a lot of creativity to work with.

As for contest art, 8th-12th grade also participated in the 2019 Doodle 4 Google contest. A lot of thought and work went into these creative drawings of the Google logo, designed around the theme “When I grow up, I hope…” You can see some designs below. Again - beautiful minds.

Students also observed and drew around local traditions within our community. For example, we always have fun walking out to the Auction Barn  during the annual Livestock Show to take a closer look at the animals and their owners as they put them on display for competition. Students used their well-practiced drawing skills and created visual representations of the going-ons of the show. Below are some of the beautiful pencil drawings created that day.

Third graders also got a chance to draw from observation. Students tried to artistically document the QU Wedding, a Pre-K community tradition that creatively explores relationships within phonics. Below are images of students creating during and after the event. They will be finishing these works this week with splashes of watercolor.

Last we ventured away from our own culture to take a look at another across our globe: that of Australia and the Australian Aborigine. Kids especially had fun learning about the animals of Australia and comparing them to the animals we have here in Texas. We observed how Australian animals are artistically represented in Australia, and then we tried our own hand at the Western Desert Aboriginal style but with Texas state mammals. The end results were lovely, and each child’s art has been photo-documented and added to our page on the Artsonia digital art gallery (click to see 1st/2nd grade armadillos here and kinder bats here).

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Expanding beyond the Island Shore:

This year a big goal of mine was to reach out to parents and the community. We need to increase the visibility of the art created by students at the FISD Art Department, plus we need to create more opportunities where students and the community can artistically work together. The gallery at Artsonia, social media (aka the Twitter feed) and this blog are great tools to reach this goal. Let’s face it, physically hanging artwork on walls around the campus takes time and resources, access for viewing is extremely limited and, honestly, Ms. Demel only has 24 hours in a day.

If you would like to keep up with what your child is creating in the art room, you can do any of these three things: 

• Follow our Twitter feed: CaitlinE.Demel@DemelFineArt
• Follow this blog :)
• Activate your child's account at Artsonia. You can email me if you lost the parent code that was sent home for your child. My email is cdemel@flatonia.txed.net

Currently we only have 21% of our students’ artwork viewable on Artsonia due to low parent permission rates. Help us raise this rate. Let’s get to 100%. Every child deserves to have their artwork seen. What they create in the art room is extraordinary. Also, fun fact: the gallery will keep documentation of your child’s art pieces during all of their years at FISD, so you will be able see their artistic development take place, all in one place, under one click in the years to come.

In closing, I wish you a wonderful March - the month when we celebrate the art created by our youth! Happy YAM!