Happy Spring (flowers)!

Spring is such a cheery season for students to try to recreate. We have so many early blossoms in our little beach town that inspiration is around every corner!!

 

And then there was last week when we had gusty winds whipping the palm trees into a frenzy!!

Think I will need to work on a lesson to exemplify the wind, but for those looking for quick (or semi-quick) spring flower lessons, I do have these former flower lessons here,  here , here , here and here!! 
The flowers below take a bit longer, but the lesson can be found here. 

Hope you all are enjoying your Spring Break!

Art in Our School

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post, but I had a good reason. I now have a brand new hip, have recuperated nicely, and am ready to start back with students this week!!! Anyway, I do have a few things to share. First, a little bit about the last project 3rd graders worked on . . .

Around 80 years ago, when our school was built, a frieze depicting Theodore Roosevelt's life was installed outside the door of the main office. That area is now located inside the office, the result of remodeling. We believe the frieze was carved by sculptor, Robert Merrell Gage, who was responsible for quite a few local public works of art, as well as a few national treasures, as well. From 1928 to 1958 when he retired, Gage was the Chairman of  USC's Fine Arts Department.

Third graders explored the frieze, discussing all the details that they found. 

 They helped each other and used crayon to trace over the indentations of the carving, making replicas of some of the items. 

 Then, using centimeter rulers they measured parts of their own drawings and then other parts of the frieze.

I love when students can become actively involved with their surroundings both as artists and researchers. In this case, our research generated a LOT of mathematical comparisons!!

I am thrilled that our students have the opportunity to study and appreciate authentic art in their school environment. We have quite a few murals on campus as well as this frieze, so I am planning to have students explore these, too. More later on this . . .

Painted Spheres - Community Art

Imagine this:  you are driving down Wilshire Blvd.,a major east-west artery in Los Angeles, wending your way through a dense mixture of commercial service stores and higher rise office buildings. As you round a slight bend in the road and glance to the right, the space opens up and you are greeted by an explosion of floating color. 

Well, that is exactly what happened to me last week. The surrounding area looks kind of like this:

The lake at Macarthur Park is filled with hundreds (one paper reported there were up to 3,000) large inflated floating spheres that have been painted with riotous color. 

The spheres range from 3’ to 6’ in diameter. This temporary public art was installed by a group called Portraits of Hope and will be available for viewing for another couple of weeks. 

This link will give you an idea of the size of the spheres and the painting process:  http://tbrnews.com/lifestyle/portraits-of-hope-public-art-project-in-el-segundo/article_27139988-fa7c-11e4-9d78-3b6dcd01779a.html

Portraits of Hope has been in existence since 1995 and has organized many of these exhibits, including painted panels on the outside of a local oil derrick at Beverly Hills High School, painted life-guard stations at the beach and even painted blimps!! The organization serves youth facing socio-economic, physical and mental challenges and has developed special brushes so that adults and children with physical limitations can participate in the team painting projects.

When a friend and I went to check out a new shopping center near us in El Segundo a week or so ago I spotted these panels that reminded me of the spheres. 

Sure enough, a quick Google search revealed that they were painted by Portraits of Hope, too!!!

Now, every time I see one of these installations, I smile!

If you live in the area, and haven't seen the spheres yet, I recommend taking a little drive so that you can experience the happy feeling, too!!  It might be a perfect Labor Day drive:)) And then, of course, try drawing/painting  some of these spheres when you get home!!

Art in the Hallway

The main hallway in our school leads from the school entry to the office to the cafeteria and then out to the main playground. In other words, it gets LOTS of foot traffic.

 This part of our school was built in the late 1930s and all corridors are outdoors (but covered), so when they added these display boards much later, they put glass on them to protect the contents. The lesson for these still lifes can be found here.

This recent lesson can be found here. The mat board frames come from the recycle bin of our local frame store (thank you LA Art Exchange for saving us your scraps!!)

I love that kids (as well as parents, teachers, etc) often stop to view and discuss the art. I have often thought, "Wouldn't it be great to have a way to listen in on all the conversation that student art generates?!" I get to hear a little bit of it as I am putting up or taking down displays, but I would so love to capture all the spontaneous comments and share them, too!!!

A Year of Red, White and Blue

Happy Flag Day to you!!
I thought it would be fun to go back over the year and find some red, white and blue images (starting with these Memorial Day flags):

I haven't done this art project at school yet -- maybe next year...

Part of this exercise was like going on vacation again, revisiting fun places. Here is artist, Nic, painting in front of his gallery in Carmel, CA and another view of the Pacific Ocean (also in Carmel).

And then there was visiting Balboa Island, where EVERY house has a cute mailbox out front!!

Here is another art project that I intended to do with the kids this year.

Summers in Victor, Montana have such special memories!!! The 4th of July there is great fun!!

Speaking of Victor, Mt, I got this little kid's antique chair near there years ago. (The Mondrian Art books didn't come with the chair though!)

Last November I got in the mood to paint some needlepoint Christmas ornaments. I used to do a lot of that -- not so much anymore. But it was fun to work on them for a few weeks.

I found this little door ornament at Joann's last week. Getting ready for the 4th, I guess:)

 I've had this little guy for almost my whole adult life. He's always just sittin' there on my desk.

And, finally, one of our favorite art projects for 1st graders...

I think I will spend some time between now and the 4th of July collecting a few more red, white and blue photos. Hopefully I'll be able to find some images near our school so they will be familiar to the students. I can use them for a Smartboard presentation for a red, white and blue art project next year!!

Art Teacher Inspirations

While I am sure we all spend our share of time surfing other blogs and Pinterest, I'll bet we get as many, if not more ideas for our classrooms from the world around us. The school where I teach is in an urban area, in fact, on a "shopping destination" street. Our nearest sights are not scenic vistas (except the ocean) or animals (although we can find some of these if we look hard enough), but rather, store windows.

I find that some of my best ideas are born when I am driving or walking alone. Once I see something interesting it will generally "percolate" for awhile as I work out the details (materials to use, Art Standards to incorporate, artists that might have related works, etc). Occasionally the art idea will occur to me immediately; more often it will lay dormant for days or weeks before becoming fully formed. Sometimes I use the photos I take in Smartboard lessons for kids to talk about and other times they just provide inspiration for me.

Since we all live in such varied regions and I enjoy seeing others' photos, I thought it might be fun to share what I see around me. Here are a few inspirations that I found today as I walked up the street from school:

I liked the patterns in this window display.

More patterns here, but I also like how they made their trees from old pieces of wood (or picket fence slats) just lashed together.

Love these stacked cube frames. Kids could make these out of painted papers  and stack their own sculptural works.

I'm not sure how I might use this polar bear, but I sure loved the window!!!