Perspective Playtime

Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of two-point perspective by drawing a variety of toys in perspective. 

JMS 7th grade art students spent three classes learning the basics of perspective drawing.  
Then they spent three classes creating an original composition in pencil that demonstrated correct perspective, overlapping forms, and creative use of toys.  

The students were assessed on the technical accuracy of their perspective drawing, the creative interpretation of the theme, and level of artistry. 

Lesson adapted from Mary Coy, art teacher at Spry Middle School in Webster, New York, and SchoolArts editorial advisory board member.

JMS Student Work:

Fall 2014

Fall 2014

Happy Birthday, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith!

"CLARA." CLARA. N.p.,n.d. Web 12 Jan 2015

Born in 1940 on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Indian Reservation, Montana, Jaune Quick–to–See Smith is an internationally renowned painter, printmaker and artist.

She earned a BA in Art Education from Framingham State College, Massachusetts, and an MA in Art from the University of New Mexico.  Smith has been awarded four honorary doctorates from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and the University of New Mexico.

Smith has been creating complicated abstract paintings and lithographs since the 1970s. She employs a wide variety of media, working in painting, printmaking and richly textured mixed media pieces. Such images and collage elements as commercial slogans, sign-like petroglyphs, rough drawing, and the inclusion and layering of text are unusually intersected into a complex vision created out of the artist’s personal experience. Her works contain strong, insistent socio-political commentary that speaks to past and present cultural appropriation and abuse, while identifying the continued significance of the Native American peoples.

"Jaune Quick–to–See Smith." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2015.

Go Fish!

Fish or other Sea Creatures from Recycled Materials

JMS - 6th Grade - Fall Semester

Materials: Cardboard
                   Masking Tape
                   Newspaper
                   Paper Mache' Glue (Glue All + Water)
                   Acrylic Paint
                   Googlie Eyes

Examples of JMS Student Work:

 

 

 

 

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