Two Sarah's in Art Two: Student Spotlight

This post was stolen from Sarah's Blog

 Unwilling Administrators, Angry Custodians, and Herds of Wild High Schoolers

You could probably say that working with perspective was my limitation and therefore say I was solving a material problem, however I feel my project solves a design problem. "The Fun Theory" videos feature people making everyday boring task more entertaining by using art. Here at Apex hundreds of students roam around the school while going from one death trap, sorry i mean class, to the next. I figured seeing a piece of art in between the journey may make the walk more fun or at the very least more bearable. 

As mentioned before, this project was the epitome of bumps and mishaps. We, Sarah and I, had to face unwilling administrators, angry custodians, and herds of wild high schoolers. Before starting the project, we had to get permission from administration. They at first shot our idea down, but we compromised and used chalk instead of paint. After getting our idea approve we went to tape the stairs and mark the outline of the A, but the next day the tape was gone. The custodial staff took it down and yelled at us. However, we explained to them that we got permission and we continued on. Lastly, we had people constantly going up the stairs, but we just worked around that.

This project was a collaboration with my friend Sarah. Working with Sarah made the process much more efficient. We were able to get more done in a shorter amount of time. Having another person to work with also came in handy when trying to put the tape down on the stairs. One of us would stand at the bottom of the stairs and direct the other where to place the tape. I imagine this would be 10000x harder to do alone. It would also probably take ages.

Artists Solve Problems - What They Learned

Blog post stolen from Melissa Purtee's Blog --> http://purteeart1.weebly.com/ 

I pay close attention to what my kids work on in class but I always wonder what they actually take away from our lessons. One of the many things I love about the reflective blog posts I have students complete at the end of each unit is the window into their thinking that opens when I grade. I don't always see exactly what I planned on them learning reflected in their writing - sometimes I get more that I hoped for, sometimes less.

For our Artists Solve Problems unit that ended on Friday I wanted them to shift their thinking about problems and begin to view them as learning opportunities. I was pleased to see that many students "got" this concept. I was surprised to see that many kids wrote about seeing professional artists as people who make no mistakes.  Read on to see what they learned, in their own words.



 Marilyn stencil tinted with coffee and coffee grounds.

Manili, Art 1 "During this unit, my perspective on limitations have really changed. I used to think that limitations were something that held you back, and that your quality of work would be reduced knowing you had a setback. However, after going through this unit i realized that the limitations helped us in coming up with ideas. I found when we were brainstorming how to get around the limitation, my group came up with so many creative ideas that would have never even crossed our minds without the limitation in place; it promoted creative thinking and inspired us to try something new. "

Maggie decided to limit herself buy only using directional lines.

Part of a series of ink prints

  
Eduardo, Art 1- "Throughout the unit my thinking about solving problems as an artist changed, mainly because at the beginning of the unit I had a different perspective, I thought that artists were so talented that they were accurate when they do art and they could just make a perfect piece without really having any problems , but in this unit I actually experience what is it like to have challenges and limitations when doing art, and I learned that every artist at some point along their path will have challenges, limitations, and difficult decisions that could either affect their work in a positive or negative way."

 Kearstyn, Art 2 - "I filled up the balloons and started throwing them. I realized that the paint was too light, this means I didn't add enough paint to the water mixture. I fixed this by adding more paint. It worked out but I had a major problem after that... The rubber cement did not work and it was impossible to see the words or people. This was the point where I had to change my idea completely and go back to the drawing board. I ended up throwing dark blue and purple paint balloons on the paper making it look like tie dye. When that dried I took masking tape and spelled out the quote in big letters. I was going to keep the tape but I wanted to splatter white around it, to add on to the texture. When I took the tape off though the letters were really hard to see. Since I still couldn't use paint brushes, I used a credit card to outline the letters in black. After climbing over all those difficult hills, I am proud of what I accomplished with this artwork and I am proud of getting the message out there to people about bullying. This unit has taught me a lot about patience and overcoming problems."

 

Ashley, Art 1 - "Throughout the artists solve unit I learned how to better solve problems or encounter tasks that I am frustrated with. I started off by scrapping what I would be working on, and starting over from scratch, but then I realised I was wasting a lot of art, and that there was more to be done to it or to "fix" it. I often discovered how using different materials could improve to look or quality, and that all it might take is a line, and the entire picture has a fresh, bold, or new meaning. 

The limitation I chose for the final project was working only in materials that could not be erased, such as pen or sharpie. I did a bit of work in the area of pointillism, which is creating a picture out of small dots, but also stippling, which is shading a picture with the use of dots. they are very similar, but not the same. I started of with something very generic, a flower, but as each day went by, I decided to work more with eyes, as they are more complex and the shading in them can be ridiculous at times. I, in time, moved to anime eyes, because each one is unique and no other can look the same. but also, the way you shade them is more unique than any other style of eye.
 
The reason I chose things that couldn't be erased as my limitation was because that meant that I then had no choice but to role with what happened. If I were to sneeze, and scratch a blue line through my purple eye, I would have to work around it. It caused me to appreciate what I could to with my art work without constantly erasing every "mistake" that I made. It has given my a good lesson on how to better solve problems, than pretend there was never a problem in the first place."

The paint for this piece was applied with only with dandelions .

Hot glue layered, then tinted with watercolor paint.

Artists Solve Problems: Part 7

Blog post stolen from Melissa Purtee's Blog --> http://purteeart1.weebly.com/ 

During the last week my darling artlings have been hard at work applying what they've learned in our current unit " Artists Solve Problems." We started the unit with the newspaper challenge, where I gave them the problem of making art out of a very unfamiliar material. They did all the thinking and planning for the work over the course of three class periods. Then we had a TASK party. To keep challenging them the next short project involved them foraging for materials in the context of earth art and found object art.

For the unit's summative assessment I had the kids select their own problem, in the form of a physical limitation or supply restriction, and use it as the jumping off point for artwork. It's been incredibly freeing for them to have play and experimentation be required. In fact, for the last few days I overhear multiple conversations where students talk about wishing they could spend the day in art - and they aren't students who I'd classify as "art kids". A great by-product of a project where no one knows how to use the materials starting out is that they all feel like art kids - right at home and successful.

The most interesting thing about the production component of this project for me has been the sort of organic loosening of style and the inclination to work abstractly - not forced like projects in the past where I've required abstract work. Check out some in progress pics below. :)

Ashley is creating art from the color that transfers when wet tissue paper is pressed to paper. 

Eduardo is finger painting on a canvas after spending a few days experimenting with technique.

Megan is experimenting blowing ink with a straw.

Alec picked the limitation of taping drawing media to his hand.

Paint brush hands, because it had to happen.

Artists Solve Problems: Part 6

Here is a look at a few on the final pieces from the unit Artists Solve Problems.  These photos show the work in progress and the final version.

Challenge: how to create a self portrait using only paint swatches

Challenge: Creating a cityscape using light photography.

Challenge: Creating a portrait of your friend in skittles

Challenge: Creating a Monopoly Man stencil.

Challenge: Creating a fingerprint using fingerprints

Artists Solve Problems: Part 5

Blog post stolen from Melissa Purtee's Blog --> http://purteeart1.weebly.com/

So, new unit "Artists Solve Problems". I'm in love. We kicked it off with this awesome TED Talk (are there un-awesome TED Talks?). The goal here is to teach my students to understand that sometimes the things that limit us can inspire our greatest work. BIG stuff! We're also working on the idea of identifying problems, then finding solutions. So, because I care, I gave my little artlings a problem. Art 1 students had to figure out how to make art out of newspaper. And, because I'm crazy, I didn't give them any examples - we reviewed some ways they've learned to plan but they had to find their own ideas.  Here's some of what they did - and this was just a three day assignment!

Watercolor, cut newspaper flowers and coffee are all part of this work.

This DNA strand was a collaborative effort.

Newspaper Blackout inspired this collaborative work. 

News paper cat! 

  

This collage involved experimenting to get the desired effect in the background.

Artists Collaboarte: Part One

We are staring our new unit here at Apex high .. the title is Artists Collaborate. We will be exploring the different ways artists collaborate from the most basic type, like when an artist asks you to add something to their work.. to full blown collaborative projects where several artists work in a group activity. 

To kick off the unit, it just so happened that this week's Art Assignment was one of the basic types of collaborative projects. This week they presented English artist Oliver Blank who explores our sense of time and place through public installations. The assignment was about making an artwork together.

 

Oliver is asking people to participate by calling this number (718)395-7556 and leaving a message about: THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY INSTRUCTIONS.

We couldn't help but join in the fun. here are a few of our phone calls.... 

When Netflix give out...

Darn bugs!

Baby come back..  the harmonies!

 Vincent asking Rachel if she wouldn't mind giving him back his ear

Artists Solve Problems: Part 4

(Above, using only Skittles to create a work of art)

Our latest unit is Artists Solve Problems. Previously, we've looked at problems artists face due to circumstances that out of their control. Like Phil Hansen and the TED Talk, Embrace the Shake.

Recently, we looked at limitations artists place on themselves in order to create art. These include material limitations, physical limitations and conceptual limitation.

 Each Apex artists was asked to create a work of art that contained a limitation of their choosing. here are a few of the pieces currently in works...

Material limitation, creating art using Cheerios

Creating art using only circles.

Creating art on the stairs.. localized perspective can only be viewed from one angle.

Drawing things that scare you in the dark without being able to see.

Etching in wax.

Painting using finger prints.

Creating with hockey sticks.

Hey, Where did all the Art Teachers Go? NCAEA14

Wondering where your art teacher was on Friday? At the NC Art Education Association Conference in New Bern, NC. And not just hanging out but presenting as well!

Above, Ms Sudkamp giving this presentation -->

The Art Portal: Everything Art Students Need In One Place
Click Here to view the Portal!

Imagine if your students had access to hundreds of inspiring artworks, organized by categories, that they could view to ignite their creativity. Imagine if they had 24/7 access to a wide variety of easy to follow online tutorials they could watch over and over again. Imagine if they had everything they needed to self-assess their art making from a personal context. Imagine if all this was one click away. We will tell you everything you need to know in order to design, develop and implement an Art Web Portal.

Ms. Purtee giving this presentation -->

The Open Art Room: Choice Teaching for Upper Level Classes
Click here to view the presentation online

Have you considered incorporating TAB or Choice in your middle or high school class but weren't sure how to implement? Study after study shows a positive correlation between student choice and engagement. With the Open Art Room we will look at different strategies for incorporating choice in your classroom. We will explore practical, real class examples of theme based lessons. We’ll discuss classroom management strategies and tackle questions about assessments.

Here we see Mr Sands in an empty room pretending he is giving a presentation, lol! He wants to fit in.

Artists Solve Problems: Part 3

For this one day assignment, our artists needed to first create the problem and then work backwards to solve the problem. Their problem.... create a working Rube Goldberg machine using only junk... oh, and you only have 40 minutes... Go!

And now for a few machines in action!