Catching Snowflakes

After so much talk about lines Kindergarten students learned how when lines get together they create shapes!  We explored the shapes we see in portraits and used shapes to create our own snowy art!

Futurism

Futurism is an artistic movement begun in Italy in 1909  to celebrate and incorporate into art the energy and dynamism of modern technology.  It focused on representing dynamic motion through the use of repetitive shapes.  Fifth graders studied this movement along with the concept of creating rhythm with repeating shapes sand lines.  We used paper figures to trace a path of motion on their paper and added force lines radiating out of the figures hands and feet.  Final touches were added by adding water to their marker lines to create watercolor effects

Rio Masks

This past summer, all eyes were on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the summer Olympics.  Rio is home to one of the largest Carnaval celebrations in the world.  Considered to be one of the biggest parties of the year, over half a million people travel to Rio each year to join in the fun. With a parade tradition dating back to the 1930s Rio is home to over 70 Samba schools.  The largest and most creative schools end up competing for cash and fame during a 2 night bonanza at Rios one of a kind carnival stadium- the sambadrome.  One of the important aspects of the celebration is the amazing costumes the samba school dancers wear.  If you watched the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics you would have noticed how the tradition of samba and carnaval were highlighted.  Fourth grade took inspiration from the amazing carnaval costumes to design their own Rio inspired masks, using collage and painted paper.

Eggcubism

Second grade students began the year by discussing Cubism.  Cubism is a style of art where artists try to show things from many different angles all in one picture.  Students examined works by Picasso to understand how cubists create their work.  Next students shifted their attention to artist Enno de Kroon.  Enno de Kroon is also interested in showing the viewer many different angles but approaches his work differently; because instead of painting on a regular canvas, he creates his art on egg crates!  He calls this new experience of painting and viewing art Eggcubism.  Unlike traditional cubism where there’s just one right angle to view an artwork Eggcubism has various viewing options, that turn a beautiful smiling lady into a five eyed monster.  The bumps on the egg crate make the images painted on them appear differently depending on which angle you look at them from.

Students created their own Eggcubism self portraits by painting on recycled fruit cartons we collected from the cafeteria at school!