| Busy Busy | |
So it’s been awhile…I know. But I have good excuses. This summer has been the busiest summer ever! I got married in June, went to Yellowstone for the honeymoon, taught What's Your Story at RIT’s Kids on Campus in July, and am now in the process of buying our first house. I’m also trying to get motivated to plan for the upcoming school year where I will be teaching a new class called Digital Art.This is all very exciting stuff but it left me little time to work on my art. I’ve been craving creativity and I'm dreaming of my new studio space! There are a couple of mini-projects that I want to share: - I made my wedding bouquet and my husband’s boutonniere out of hens and chickens. I kept the roots intact and then transplanted them into a pot the day after the wedding. I can’t wait to plant them in my new garden! Hens and chicks were also the little gifts we gave to family and friends. - Yellowstone's landscapes were amazing. We took so many great pictures. - I entered a back-to-school-inspired-centerpiece contest for the EveryDay with Rachael Ray Magazine and I won! Above is the photo I entered and below is what was published. Check it out in the September issue. 
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| Topic(s): 2009 craft contest photography middle school lessons | |
| By Gogh on August 13, 2009 at 1:54pm EDT | Add/View Comments (1) |
| Happy Halloween Everyone! | |
Recycled...Origami...Dia de los Muertos...Skull a Day...Inspired SkullI was approached by my principal to create a Halloween inspired project for our 7th grade advisement group. I struggled with an idea for a while because I didn't want just a meaningless "craft". Thankfully, I'm surrounded by creative people and my sister was a lifesaver with an idea! She was very excited to tell me about this interesting artist, Noah Scalin, that she saw on TV. He introduced his new book called "Skulls" that was assembled from all of the creative skulls he posted on his award winning blog called SkullADay. As the site suggests, he created a skull every day for a year out of every imaginable material! As an artist, I'm completely drawn to the repetitions of the subject as it's transformed by its medium. So now I had my inspiration! After flipping through the pages, I noticed all of the organic produce and recycled objects that were used as mediums, so I decided on a recycled theme as well. We used cast-off copy paper and made simple origami skulls. Then we stuck them to a skull that was glued with torn copy paper, to help fill in the gaps. It’s quite large so you get a different perspective depending on whether you stand up close or far away. We also touched on the fact that Dia de los Muertos is coming up (Nov. 1 & 2) and that skulls don’t have to be morbid, but rather symbols of remembrance. They embellished the skulls with color and patterns, similar to Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skulls. 40 minutes is not very long to teach all of those things and do a project, but all in all, I think it was pretty successful. I mean, you can't go wrong with letting boys make freakish skulls! 
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| Topic(s): middle school lessons | |
| By Gogh on October 30, 2008 at 1:10pm EDT | Add Comment |
| Summer Workshop | |
Well I've had about a week to recover...The lack of posts has been because during the month of July, I was instructing kids how to make web comics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It's a really fun summer program that keeps kids from going completely vegetable and keeps me busy as well. So instead of running my blog, I organized a blog for a wonderfully goofy group. KOC 2008 looks very similar to my site (Thanks Pale!). Check out the blog and the students' websites! We used traditional drawing techniques, Photoshop, a digital camera, and Dreamweaver to make everything...oh and don't forget our whacky imaginations. |
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| Topic(s): webcomics photoshop middle school lessons summer | |
| By Gogh on August 9, 2008 at 9:08pm EDT | Add Comment |
| Fingerprint Portraits | |
Contemporary American painter Chuck Close is one of my favorite artists. He created amazing massive portraits using a grid in unconventional ways. I saw his work at the Albright Knox in Buffalo, NY (Fall of 2006). The Show was a “Survey of Self-Portraits” and was amazing to experience with my family. If you have never seen his work, you better go Google some now! What’s even more remarkable is that he was suddenly paralyzed half way through his career and he continued to work. I was inspired by his art to create a lesson for my 8th graders. He made these very fun portraits using his fingerprints rather than a brush. I presented his work and taught them how to use the grid to blow up their photograph. Painting with fingerprints is not easy. Since we used only black acrylic, you have to rely on pressure for lights and darks. Flaws are a natural part of this process and learning how to accept them and work with them is one reason I like this project. I loved creating my class example, my Self-Portrait. I loved it so much, that I created another for Pale as a goofy gift (above). My first portrait of Pale! What’s wrong with me! He’s great and I’ll have to pay tribute to him again, maybe in oil paint next time. :P Below are students' pieces. 
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| Topic(s): acrylic painting portrait self-portraits middle school lessons student art work 2007 | |
| By Gogh on January 17, 2008 at 12:25pm EST | Add/View Comments (5) |
| Kids On Campus | |
I just signed up for another year at RIT’s Kids on Campus summer program. Since it’s on my mind for the moment, I thought I would post my students' websites from the past two years. They are a lot of goofy fun! I teach the Ultimate Web Comics workshop using Photoshop and Dreamweaver. The students' ideas are wild. I try to change it up every year so if anyone has any fun suggestions let me know. The first year (2006) we just made a comic using traditional and non-traditional techniques and then made a site. My second year (2007), I had them make a cartoon of themselves to learn Photoshop, make a "traditional" web comic, and then create an experimental comic using something other than drawing cartoons, such as photos or clay. The students' skills range from never taken an art class or played with Photoshop before too extremely talented and knowledgable. Sometimes this is a challenge to be able teach the basics while keeping it interesting for those who already know their stuff, hence the reason for so many added activities my second year. I can’t wait for summer!! KOC 2006 KOC 2007 |
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| Topic(s): middle school lessons student art work | |
| By Gogh on January 16, 2008 at 1:30pm EST | Add Comment |
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