Category Archives: art education

8th grade art, acrylic, art education, Karen Tashkovski, painting, still life

Italian Foodie

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Here are some of the thirty-six paintings created by my 2023-2024 8th grade Studio in Art students. They used my images taken at Vince’s Gourmet Imports, an Italian grocery store and deli in North Syracuse, New York.

These are acrylic paintings. Students were graded separately for drawing and composition versus paint application due to the timing of the lesson – half was in first quarter and the other half was in the second quarter of the school year.

My trick, as always, is to mix raw sienna into each color. White first, then raw sienna, and then whatever mix will get them the desired color. I first put a raw sienna wash on each of these 16″ x 20″ canvas panels. This helps students with darks and lights, helps them to maintain a good contrast.

It was also encouraged to mix a color’s complement to it to get a darker hue rather than adding black, which is something that confuses students due to early lessons of tints and shades.

They did a really great job this time around. I think this is the third time I used Vince’s photos for the still life painting. These past few days waiting for the last stragglers to finish the project and steering the others into the next project were rather challenging, but we got through it.

Monday marks the debut of second semester. On deck: India Ink, clay and possibly papier-mache. 

art education, art exhibition, art in libraries, Karen Tashkovski

Comic Art

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I love artist books. These beauties are comic art. Students in my 8th grade Studio in Art classes created accordion-style comics by first designing three characters then placing them in a positive situation. Three characters, three drawings. They used metallic paints on the covers.

I purchased ready-made art book kits for this lesson. You can find them here.

The books are on display in our school library.

abstract, art, art education, art exhibition, Karen Tashkovski, painting

Generations

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Central New York artists are currently exhibiting artwork at Munson (formerly known as the Munson-Williams-Proctor) Museum of Art, 310 Genesee Street, Utica, New York 13502.

Anita Welych (b. 1958) – The former Cazenovia College art professor has created an installation with a focus on printmaking – a study of birds/migration/nature.

Carlie Miller Sherry (b. 1990) – The artist is a visiting professor of art at Pratt Munson. She uses an indigo palette to express a futurism concept – movement that conveys a sense of agitation/unrest.

Lynette Stephenson (b. 1959) – She teaches studio art at Colgate University. Stephenson’s paintings are large scale florals that speak of vibrant color and textural intensity.

Mary Gaylord Loy (b. 1930) – An established painter with seventy years of expertise under her belt, this artist allows herself to unravel the mysteries of mark making. These immense pieces are all new and I am truly inspired – to contemplate such longevity as an artist for myself; to continue to create art and go big – that is the dream of dreams.

Gregory Lawler (b. 1963) – Pratt Munson students can learn from their master – their professor has created puzzles of wisdom juxtaposed as allegory in these visual college oil paintings.

John Loy (b. 1930) – The retired professor is fascinated by the visual language of the elements of art creating tangled paths of line, shape and color to create exciting visual textures.

Ken Marchione (b. 1962) – This Yale graduate and Pratt Munson drawing professor has recently created combines that reflect a sabbatical journey to European cities/museums. There he was exposed to figurative statues and incorporated nameless faces of people he encountered (other tourists and locals) into his assemblages. They are in-progress works as he continues to reflect and digest his time out of the classroom.

Me (b. 1963) – I contributed a work of art to the museum. Bobbi and I had so much fun investigating the nooks and crannies of this amazing place! I drew her portrait in an art activity room.

We stumbled upon a private room with an on-loan from somewhere else Mark Rothko painting. There were also works by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollack and so much more!

Thank you, Munson, for inviting us to your Art Educators night out. We loved it.

Generations – Artists of Central New York continues through January 7, 2024. View hours of operation on their web-site and other information such as art classes, museum memberships and other opportunities.

8th grade art, art education, colored pencil, illustration, Karen Tashkovski

Lions Den

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My Studio in Art 8th graders created these illustrations for the annual Lions Club Peace Poster contest. The theme this year is “Dare to Dream”. I added a component – lions. I wanted lions somewhere in the posters. And I got lions. Beautiful lions! I am amazed at the quality of this artwork. This represents six or seven weeks of work from idea to rendering, to colored pencil application.

Posters will be on display at the Sullivan Library Community Room, Chittenango, New York during November and December 2023. The winning entry will move on to the Regional competition, followed by a State contest and the chance to win the $5,000 International prize.

Can you guess which poster is our winner?

8th grade art, animals in art, art education, art teacher, drawing, Karen Tashkovski

Bears Craft Lions

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My Studio in Art students spent three days drawing lions in anticipation of the annual Lions Club peace poster contest. They will be incorporating lions in their posters, which they will begin working on next week.

These lions are pencil only on 8″ x 8″ white tagboard. Students are 8th graders at Chittenango Middle School, Chittenango, New York.

8th grade art, art, art education, art exhibition, art museum, art resources, Karen Tashkovski, painting

Let’s Be Frank

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Of all the art exhibits I have ever viewed, this one is the one I think my students would like the most. It is so easy to understand the complex clarity of this man as he visualizes it all on the page.

Frank Buffalo Hyde was born in 1974. His artwork reflects a Native American heritage with the modern twist of American popular culture imagery to include the ever-evolving role of modern technology as it relates to his 1980s childhood.

Primary colors, bold brushstrokes juxtaposed with more nuanced ones, figures emerging from the canvases as if they’ve been removed from a photo album of memories and planted here – all offering a sense of pride and joy.

I don’t see social (in)justice, like in the work of Jaune “Quick-to-See” Smith. Her retrospective exhibition is currently on view at the Whitney in New York City. For an art lesson, I used her paintings as reference to create mixed-media paintings using collage to link images of horses with personal message text.

Instead, Frank Buffalo Hyde’s work is autobiographical. The paintings are personal and yet, we can identify with them. I admire him for this – that he can tell this intimate story through a visual language that me and eighth graders can understand. I mean, I think we can. There is always that bit of mystery in everyone.

I want to be like Frank.

Native Americana is currently on view in galleries A and B at The Everson Museum of Art. You have plenty of time to see it. The show is up until September 10th, 2023.

401 Harrison Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
(315) 474 6064

Museum Hours
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: 11:00am – 5:00pm
Thursday: 11:00am – 8:00pm
Friday: 11:00am – 5:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am – 5:00pm

art, art education, art exhibition, Karen Tashkovski, student artwork

Gala for the Arts

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On Wednesday, June 21, 2023, I attended Gala for the Arts at the Everson. I blondified for the occasion. Thank you, Amanda LoSecco!

The event was organized by CITI Arts in Education and was intended as a celebration of art education honoring students, teachers, administrators and friends of the arts.

We dressed in formal attire as we viewed student artwork, listened to student musical medleys and noshed on light hors d’oeuvres from The Red Sun Fire Roasting Company.

LeMoyne College has started a Visual & Performing Arts program. They were both sponsors and honorees.

I believe this was a first-timey event. Not sure if it will become an annual thingy. Would be nice!

So fun! <3

#ullajohnson #tashkovski #coach #stuartweitzman
8th grade art, art, art education, art teacher, found object, Karen Tashkovski, sculpture

The “Humanoids”

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My friend Joyce introduced me to Ithaca brand hummus. I also take various vitamins and eat cottage cheese on occasion. The recycling began to accumulate and I thought, if we add styrofoam balls, we could make humanoid sculptures.

I kept thinking about the sculptures from Sharif Bey’s retrospective at the Everson Museum. His work represented his heritage.

It is so fun to create something new. A derivative of a contemporary artist based on found object materials that reflects cohesive themes. My sample was an angel (not pictured). I added the Ithaca hummus container lids for wings. It, sort of, resembled a Golden Globe award, so I added that concept. It would be the Angel on Earth award.

Students assembled their armature, used paper towels and Mod Podge for papier mache then used at least three different materials for texture and design. They considered themes based on personal interests and/or were inspired by classroom materials.

I had patterned papers with animal motifs and packages of fabric papers, Origami paper, African designs and Navajo-inspired designs. I also had actual fabric donated by the Home Ec. teacher last year and wallpaper sample books that someone recently shared with me.

In addition, I have a backroom stocked with old Barbie dolls that we harvested for parts. I brought a few things in from my personal art supplies (antique flag toothpicks, an extra lion head cat costume, assorted buttons, twine, peacock feathers).

Students were graded on construction, use of materials, theme and quality of papier mache application. Can you guess what award each sculpture represents?

P.S. Artists are 8th graders who have art class every other day for one semester. Chittenango Middle School, Chittenango, NY 13037

8th grade art, abstract, acrylic, art, art education, art resources, art teacher, Chittenango Middle School, education, Karen Tashkovski, oil pastels, painting

Kline-Dine Tash Mash

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I call this project the Kline-Dine Tash Mash.

First I shared information about Franz Kline. He created large scale black and white paintings. These paintings resembled Chinese Calligraphy.

My students looked at Chinese Calligraphy resource pictures. They used black oil pastels to draw lines on a 12′ x 12″ canvas that were influenced by the Chinese characters.

Next, they added white acrylic paint using sweeping brushstrokes with a 1″ flat brush. They were encouraged to occasionally crash into the oil pastel to create some gray areas.

In the following class, they placed black acrylic paint over the black lines allowing some of the texture of the oil pastel to remain on the surface.

Jim Dine was next. We looked at his heart paintings. I gave them another canvas – a 4″ x 4″ one. They created heart stencils, traced them onto this smaller canvas then painted the canvas – either white heart with black background or black heart on white background.

Students then used colorful oil pastels on the heart and its background.

I had them choose a wood block, glue it to the back of the smaller canvas then adhere it to the center of the larger one.

I call it a Tash Mash because it is a mash-up of Kline and Dine but I use the heart motif in many of my own paintings as well, and I utilize the wood riser technique when mounting my encaustic paintings onto chalkboard painted masonite boards. And I invented the lesson.

I’m thinking about doing a series of encaustics in this style. Thank you, Franz Kline and Jim Dine for your contributions to Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, respectively, and for having names that rhyme.