Looking Back 2013

It's snowing outside and I'm due to publish my spring and summer information. What better time than to take stock and look back! I'm grateful for the wonderful families I work with and the collaborations, inspirations, experiments and problem solving that happen in the studio every class. I struggle with the task of communicating great moments (my photos are usually underexposed and I'm to much of a Luddite to upload videos) A video would be the best medium for catching the countless decisions, experimentations and interactions that happen between child and material. Especially with young children, the souvenir of the process can often look like something that goes in your recycle bin. Conversely the products that please us as adults sometimes don't matter to the child. Anyway I didn't mean to start a process vs product discussion! What I want to do is give a brief recap of art in 2013 at a Room for Art!

Here goes:

Winter 2013
Projects: 3D!
fine art Inspiration: Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Jackson Pollock

Ideas: Bas relief is a form that is in between 2D and 3D in its flatness. It has depth. Sculpture can be viewed from all sides and is affected by the light that shines on it. There are lots of was to build- putting pieces together with glue (example of an additive process), carving out of a medium like clay(subtractive). Materials have their own set of properties that one gets to know well when building. White glue does not behave like a glue stick! Clay is very different than plaster. Different weights of paper cut and fold and rip differently. As artists, we are on that long (and intriguing) road of mastering media.

-cardboard bas relief
-paper bas relief
-clay/plaster cast
-cardboard, found materials and papier mache painted
-paper straw sculpture

Spring 2013

Projects: Painting!

fine art inspiration: quilts of Gee's Bend, Christopher Marley, 

Ideas: It's a tradition each spring when the weather gets warmer and we can be outside to paint as much as we can! Big and messy or small and careful it is always wet! We use tempera and watercolor, wax resist and sometimes acrylic. The last class of the session is the messiest, body painting allowed! (for those who look forward to this)

-monoprints with tempera on plexiglass

-cut paper with monoprints

-watercolor resist

-shadow drawings, painted into

-splatter painting and marble painting

Fall 2013

Projects: Printing!

inspiration: woodcuts form children's books, animal track images

Ideas: there are many kinds of prints- natural or manmade. When you are a printer you make a block out of some kind of material: wood, linoleum, rubber like synthetic, styrofoam or metal. A block always has 2 different levels so that one holds ink and the other doesn't. A print has crisp edges that are more difficult to draw or paint. A block can produce multiple prints. Like sculpture, a block can be made by adding layers (collograph) or by taking away(speedy cut). Blocks are inked with brayers(rollers) 

-monoprints with tempera paint

-tempera painting with masking and rollers (stencils made of cardstock)

-styrofoam block printing/ speedy cut printing (Gr3-5 only)

-collographs- mat board pieces glued to a base, then coated with acrylic medium inked and printed on paper