Clay Creatures II

I was finally brave enough to take a venture in clay with my middle schoolers.

In the past, I had made these with my high school classes over a two-week time period. As I thought through how I would do the same in middle school, several hurdles kept me from trying it… until now that is.

I was finally brave enough to take a venture in clay with the middle schoolers. In the past, I had made these with my high school classes over a two-week time period. As I thought through how I would do the same in middle school, several hurdles kept me from trying it… until now that is.

We do not have a kiln, so I had to settle for the air-dry clay. The one we worked with was great for our purposes, I was amazed at how moist it stayed over the week between classes. This was my first potential for worry. The amount of clay residue in my classroom was and still is, horrific. I purchased placemats in an attempt to keep the tables clean, but clay still got everywhere and sponging down the surfaces at the end of class only resulted in red terra-cotta coloured mud… delightful.

I wanted to teach my students the proper procedures for clay, even though we were not working with the typical material. So this required rules and procedures, a safety quiz and proper vocabulary teaching. I had no idea how long this initial set up would take. When I had thought of doing a clay project other years, it was usually nearing the end of a school quarter- and I feared I would run out of time for all I wanted to teach.

This year I knew that if I was going to give clay a try, it would have to be right at the start of the year. Surprisingly, the project did not take as long as I thought and I had around 70 completed sculptures to show off at parent teacher conferences this past Friday.

Instead of painting our creatures, we added colour with oil pastel. Once the students had coloured as much as they could, I had them brush overtop of the pastel with a black acrylic wash. The pastel acted as a resist and the black went into the small crevices that were hard to reach. I realized this faux batik effect made some creatures look even more zombie-like.

 

Lines of Explosion and Colour

Yesterday was a good day in the art room. I got to watch and assist the third grade class in making explosive volcanoes with charcoal and paint. Nothing like a good bit of creative mess to start out the day- a few of these kiddos are bound to be artists! I received some confidence boosting words of encouragement from fellow staff that I am doing good work with the students, which I doubt at times. I also finished a few projects with classes and had to find new spaces to hang them.

It is a problem to run out of gallery space as an art teacher!

I attempted wire drawing with high school again, as I think it is a great beginning exercise for using line to create space. This time, I decided to hang the pieces instead of having them stand as sculptures. They may look like ordinary line drawings, but this way we can see the beautiful shadows behind!

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The sixth graders have been learning about colour and painted some very expressive, abstract paintings using a variety of lines, organic and geometric shapes.

Investigating Natural Pattern and Texture: Camouflage

I am always trying to expose my students to new and exciting experiences in art class. The class asked a while back if we could do body painting. I love when students make suggestions and my brain has already been thinking through several different ways of introducing the subject. As it turned out, I had planned on trying out this camouflage project. We spent one day mixing colours and using various brushes to replicate a chosen texture. The second day, I showed a clip from the Hunger Games where Katniss finds Peeta camouflaged and hidden among the rocks, and then I showed hand paintings by an artist named Daniel Guido. I had the students place their hands overtop of yesterday’s painting and camouflage themselves into the work. I think they mostly enjoyed it. Once they finished, I photographed each piece and played Goodbye Art as they cleaned up. Art is not always about the end result. In some cases, more emphasis is placed on the idea and the process of art making.

 

Clay Monsters

Kinder+Senior Collaboration

I was able to teach kindergarten once this quarter. I had the little ones draw the scariest monster that they could imagine, though some of the monsters turned out to be more cute than anything… I showed the drawings to my senior high school students and had them choose one to recreate in clay. They turned out really great, I  made one too!