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