Telling Stories

This semester, I was inspired by SchoolArts Magazine's Nov 2011 Article: Looking & Learning Telling Stories. I introduced my 8th grade students to artists, Radcliffe Bailey, Tom Joyce, Charles LaBelle, and Audrey Flack via a power point presentation based on the article.

Looking & learning - telling stories from cdpenamtz

The project; The students were asked to use Audrey Flack's vanitas painting, "Queen," as an inspiration for the project.

Objective; To select a person, place, or event to portray in a still life. Create a three-dimensional still-life arrangement, attending to overall composition, as well as to color, texture, and contrast.  

Once you have an arrangement that suggests a story, photograph it from different view points.  

Audrey Flack, Queen, 1976, Meisel Family Collection, Courtesy Louis K. Meisel Gallery/New York, © Audrey Flack

Student Work: 

Happy Birthday, Roy DeCarava!

Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
Roy DeCarava 

Photographer (1919–2009)

Roy DeCarava started off painting but traded in his brushes for a camera. His images of African-American life—scenes in Harlem, the civil rights movement and jazz musicians—are now iconic. In 1952, DeCarava was the first black photographer to receive a Guggenheim grant. In 1996, the Museum of Modern Art put on a retrospective of his work. DeCarava was awarded a National Medal of Arts in 2006. He died in New York City on October 27, 2009.
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.

Roy DeCarava:  Coltrane and Elvin, New York.  1960.  Smithsonian American Art Musuem.

Roy DeCarava
Billie Holiday
1952/1991
ClampArt

                                         

JMS Art Club made some very fun loving robots during their Nov. 11th meeting!  *Remember to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!*

Happy Birthday, Alfred Sisley!

"Alfred Sisley." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Oct. Web 28 Oct. 2014.

Sisley was born in Paris, France, on October 30, 1839 to British citizens. His father was a wealthy businessman, and his mother was a music connoisseur. Although Sisley lived in France virtually all of his life, he never became a French citizen. Supposedly, his command of the English language was limited.

Sisley enjoyed painting landscapes and countryside scenes. He painted some beautiful winter pictures such as "Snow on the Road, Louveciennes". Some people criticized Sisley because they felt that he didn't try to diversify his style in the way that Monet and Renoir did.

Sisley had suffered from throat cancer for several years and died at the age of 59 in his beloved town of Moret-sur-Loing, France. He passed away shortly after the death of his wife Marie. It was only after Sisley's death that his reputation as a great painter was properly recognized.

"A Forgotten Artist." A Forgotten Artist. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

Alfred Sisley, Le pont de Moret, 1893, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Alfred Sisley, Villeneuve-la-Garenne on the Seine, 1872, Musée de l'Ermitage Saint-Pétersbourg

Chalk It Up - San Antonio!

Chalk It Up - Presented by ArtPace

October 11, 2014

10 am - 4 pm

Historic Houston St. - Downtown - San Antonio

Guest Curator: Nina Hassele

The community is encouraged to contribute to a Freestyle area and help complete a city block-sized mural.  A variety of hands-on educational activities will be offered in the Kid Zones (inviting spaces where imaginations will soar).  There will also be food, music, friends, and fun for the whole family!

This annual event is an opportunity for locals and tourists alike to appreciate and participate in San Antonio's creative resources.

Happy Birthday, Maya Lin!

Lin portrait, courtesy Maya Lin Studio

"Sometimes I think creativity is magic; it's not a matter of finding an idea, but allowing the idea to find you."      

                               - Maya Lin                           

Visit www.mayalin.com to find out more information about Maya Lin and her current Art Works.

Maya’s design turned into the polished, black granite wall with the names of over 58,000 individuals who were missing in action or killed in Vietnam. The memorial now sits in Washington D.C. It was dedicated in 1982 on Veteran’s Day, and is known to many as “the Wall.
psarts.org

"Don’t think about making art just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art."   – Andy Warhol




Love him or hate him, Andy Warhol was one of the most influential artists of our time; most famous for creating the avant-garde Pop Art movement.  Before Warhol's time, the visual arts movement was repressed in the feeling that it ignored modern and consumerism principles.  Pop Art is now one of the most recognized forms of art today. Thanks in part to Warhol's exploitation of celebrity culture and advertisement.

visit http://www.warholfoundation.org/  to find out more about Andy Warhol and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Happy Birthday, Jean Arp (Hans Arp)!

Jean Arp (also known as Hans Arp) was a German-born French sculptor, painter, collagist, printmaker and poet. Born in September 16, 1886, he studied at Kunstschule in Weimar and the Académie Julian in Paris. Arp was best known as a founding member of the Dada movement in Zurich. He was also a member of the surrealist group starting in 1925 and later founded the Abstraction-Création style.
via http://arthistory.about.com/cs/namesaa/p/arp.htm

Shirt Front and Fork, painted wood, 1922, National Gallery of Art

Hans Jean Arp, Torse-nombril, 1915, bois naturel, 25 x 17 x 4 cm, Fondation Arp, Clamart, photo : J. P. Constantini. © ADAGP Paris 2008