Art Smart is an after school program that I am teaching for “at risk” 1st and 2nd-graders. I have about 15 kids that gather in my classroom for 2 hours after school, and we do art projects together. Most recently we created cities with water color paints.
Teaching elementary art is very different than teaching high school Ceramics, and Kindergarten is probably the most challenging for me! There’s always at least one in the group crying for his mommy, half of them take their shoes off and can’t get them back on again, and the average attention span is about 3 minutes. Combine that with a class of 25, one adult (me), and messy paint!
Luckily I have my mom as a resource, and her good advice has rescued me several times already this year. Breaking up the time with books and songs, not to mention the actual art project, seems to work best. We’ve done school bus pictures inspired by Donald Crews SCHOOL BUS, and underwater fish paintings inspired by Marcus Pfister’s Rainbow Fish. Stay tuned for more elementary school art… next time I’ll post some images of 1st-5th grade projects.
For our final project in Ceramics, I collaborated with my students on two large circle paintings (details shown above). We did the same painting activity to start off the school year, so it seemed appropriate to end with a final group effort. I am really fortunate to have worked with such talented students at an amazing school. I sure will miss you La Serna High School!
I’m finally getting around to glazing some of my teapots. I like this one even better now that it’s colored… Anyone want to come to a tea party?
Here are the completed mask examples that I created. The fabric additions on the left mask were recycled headdress materials from my friend Lara. Mom, you may recognize a few items that are attached to the skull… I hope it’s not too creepy.
The new Geil kiln arrived at school over the spring break! We’re loading it up with projects and placing our kiln gods to watch over next week’s first firing.
Here’s a peek at the current project in class. My students continually astound me with their skill and creativity!
Currently my classes are learning about the work of Rodin, and studying their own hands through clay. They are either sculpting two hands interacting with one another, or one hand interacting with an object. Of course I had to join in the fun.
Gloria (La Serna secretary) was recently looking for a pot to fit her beautiful orchids. I made two, just in case one fit better. She now has one on her desk, and the other I donated to a school fundraiser where it was auctioned off.
These are the finished totem poles that will eventually be planted in our sculpture garden.
This is one section of a larger “totem pole” made from coils of clay and sculpted symbolic animals. I’m still working on this one as an example for my Ceramics students, who will be collaborating in groups to complete two finished 10′ poles.
This porcelain teapot isn’t fired yet, but I’m leaning towards a transparent shiny glaze on the inside, and raw unglazed porcelain outside. When finished, it will be an even brighter white than pictured here.
As I was working on this porcelain scull, I was thinking about some of Georgia O’Keefe’s southwest paintings. I’m still unsure of whether I will glaze all or part of this piece, and I’m playing with the idea of incorporating beaded patterns and feathers.
Julia