Careers in Art

The last three weeks of school, we explored different careers in the arts and students again had a choice of projects:

Interior Designer

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Pop Up Drawing

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Corona Maison

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Miniature Model

For the first week, we explored Interior Design. Students had the choice to 1) create a pop up room design drawing, 2) create a drawing of their ideal quarantine space (part of a worldwide collaborative drawing project) or 3) create a 3D miniature model. You can see further project details here.

Graphic Designer

Quaranzine

Fashion Designer

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Wearable Art

Photographer

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Covid Portraits inspired by Gregg Segal

For week two of Careers in Art, students had the choice to take on the role of either a graphic designer, a fashion designer or a photographer. As a graphic designer, the task was to write and illustrate a self published zine, or Quaranzine; including both images and text in a handmade book made from one sheet of paper. To explore fashion design, students were challenged to create a piece of wearable art. This could be an accessory, such as a bag or watch, or an entire outfit. The only limitation was that it should be made from recycled materials such as paper or cardboard. To explore photography, we took inspiration from photographer Gregg Segal and his portrait series called Daily Bread. The task was to first collect items that have been important to students during quarantine and at home learning, to arrange these items around themselves and have their photograph taken. See further project details here.

Curator

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The final project was first to create a collection of miniature artworks that showed unity, and secondly, to organize and present this collection for display to an audience. The details for this project can be found here.

I am so proud of all of the work my students achieved during at home learning! I learned new ways to incorporate technology into my art curriculum and my students stayed engaged and participatory throughout each new weekly challenge, learning many new techniques and processes. I really enjoyed seeing the work they turned in each week, though I missed watching the creative process at work in the classroom.

Here’s to the end of the year, and the end of a season. A job well done, for everyone!

Choose Your Own Adventure: Sculpture

We managed to do TWO sculpture projects this semester! I am so glad that my students can have the experience of 3D creating, even with my limited knowledge- we learn together and they always LOVE it!

Just before we moved to online learning for the remainder of the year, my students had finished (but yet to be painted) pop art clay sculptures- here is the same project from a few years ago.

As part of our art processes exploration, I decided to give them an abstract sculpture challenge using recycled materials. Like always, they had the choice based on whatever they had around the house, and I included several artists for inspiration. See the project details here.

Cardboard • Alexander Calder

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Cardboard was by far the most popular choice, likely because it is the easiest material to work with! As you can see, we had a variety of different results, from abstract to more representational.

Plastic • Dale Chihuly

Plastic is a difficult material to work with- I have always wanted to try a Chihuly inspired project but it felt to craft-like for my classroom. I was excited to see a few students attempt it, despite my pitiful results in the demo video. I would like one day to try a version of this using Shrinky Dinks!

Styrofoam • Jules Vitali

Styrofoam is also tricky to work with (I am having flashbacks to yet another undergrad sculpture project!) There are many artists who have found inspiration in the form of styrofoam cups, either drawing on them or, like Jules Vitali, creating intricate 3D works cut from one piece. I am proud of this one student’s effort in trying it!