Kapaa Middle School students finished off the semester by turning in their ceramic masks. Now I just need to load the kiln, fire, and return 160 masks before we glaze them and fire again!

One observant student found a piece of plastic on the beach that distinctly resembles the African masks we studied in class. She brought it to share, and now it’s hanging on our classroom wall for inspiration. I haven’t even introduced them to readymade art… I think we have a Marcel Duchamp in the making!

I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists. -Marcel Duchamp

Check out Kapaa Middle School G.T. Media students’ final magazine cover project! Students learned graphic design skills including digital photography, page layout, and Adobe Photoshop editing. The final designs are as unique as the individuals who produced these creative and personal compositions!

This is the time of year when Chris and I launch into a frenzy of homemade crafty projects in preparation for the holidays. In an attempt to avoid the commercialism that can often feel overwhelmingly expensive and sometimes wasteful, I decided to use recycled materials as inspiration instead.

Handmade jewelry made from beach treasure might be a nice gift for some of the ladies I know, but now what can we do for the guys?

Note: Registration for next year is happening this month… please see the calendar for specific dates.

Kapaa Middle School Art students recently finished a two-part project featuring skeleton drawings that were cut out and mounted on a watercolor background. As an introduction, we studied the Hispanic holiday of Los Dias De Los Muertos and looked at skeleton artwork by the famous Jose Guatelupe Posada.

Students began with a small printed image of a skeleton and instructions to not only draw the image, but to enlarge it by 4 times! This was accomplished by measuring a grid that enabled them to draw the complex figure in small sections while maintaining the correct proportions.

While the process of measuring, drawing, shading and cutting of the bones was painstaking and meticulous, the background allowed students to be more expressive and free-form. Students were introduced to 6 different watercolor painting techniques which they practiced in their sketchbooks. The only requirement for the final background was to incorporate all 6 techniques.

“An artist will sooner and with more certainty, establish the character of skeletons, than the most learned anatomist, whose eye has not been accustomed to seize on every peculiarity.”
- Rembrandt Peale (American Artist & Naturalist)

One day in class I decided to share a short film called One Beach, that features artist/environmentalists who collect plastic garbage from their local beaches and turn it into art. Although created from trash, the variety of artwork that is illustrated in this film is both beautiful and meaningful. As a beach-lover myself, I found this film to be relevant and inspiring. Some of my students did too!

Currently my Art classes are collecting bits of colorful plastic and trash from the beach. I encourage them to do a quick beach clean-up every time they go fishing, surfing, or “cruzing” with family or friends. Once we have a good amount, we will collaborate to make one artwork per class. Some students can’t wait for the group project and have already gotten innovative on their own (sample student artwork above)!

Kapaa Middle School art students recently finished an oil pastel project after studying the artwork of famous Expressionist artists, including Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Franz Marc, and Wassily Kandinsky.

The main requirement for this assignment was to try to express an emotion using Expressionist techniques such as vibrant and intense color, simplified forms, and swirling directional lines.

Middle school years can be an extremely emotional time in one’s life, and our students really connected with the strong emotion and “drama” that is characteristic of the Expressionist style of art!

“We want more than a mere photograph of nature. We do not want to paint pretty pictures to be hung on drawing-room walls. We want to create, or at least lay the foundations of, an art that gives something to humanity. An art that arrests and engages. An art created of one’s innermost heart.” -Edvard Munch

Gifted and Talented students have been working hard on their digital portfolio cover assignment. They are starting with a digital self-portrait created in Adobe Photoshop (shown above) and will later add text to create a final magazine cover that is all about them!

1st year GT students are drawing digital contour portraits on the computer, that they will later fill in with color. Aukai’s drawing is a fantastic example of how students incorporated an element of technology (in this case the camera) in their portrait.

My 2nd-year students are creating their portraits using the influence of contemporary artists Chuck Close and Natalie Irish. Chuck Close creates large-scale portraits using a thumbprint as his paintbrush, while Natalie Irish renders life-like iconic portraits with her lipstick kisses. If you look closely at Kahiwa’s portrait, you will notice that it is created from kisses!

Thank you to our KMS News Crew, who produced the morning news program for Kapaa Middle School during the 1st quarter of our school year! The team is made up of the following important roles:

Director: Katie Spaethe-Peterson
Switcher: Braeden Jensen
Controller: Makayla Hirokane-Mundon
Sub: Justin Paleka
Teleprompter: Zoey Kaneakua
News Anchors: Violet Asuncion & Kahi Davis
Camera-Person: Chloe Matsuda

This news team did a fantastic job of running a reliable news show geared toward student interest, education, and entertainment. The students arrived early every morning and prepared for their program before most students were fully awake (and I was still sipping my coffee)!

Next week they will be training our 2nd Quarter news team to take over the job, and they can finally take a well-deserved break. Great job team!

The project I like to begin every Art class with is the making of a personal sketchbook. The sketchbooks will be used throughout the rest of the class to plan out art projects, take notes about artists, write reflections, and practice artistic techniques and skills. This time the assignment was to create a mandala design on the front cover that included symbols that represented something about the artist. I also asked that they find a way to creatively integrate their name into the radial design.

My current classes are a mix of 7th and 8th graders who come with varying artistic experience and abilities. The results of this 1st assignment were impressive and inspired high expectations for what is to come! I have a good feeling that this group is ready to take on some challenging art adventures!

Not only can Kapaa Middle School Art students create beautiful masterpieces, but they can articulate their thoughts on the process and explain their intentions through written artist statements! Click here to read a sample Artist Statement by 8th grader, Kahi Davis.