Here are some of the celebrity portraits my 8th grade Studio in Art students (from Chittenango Middle School) finished back in March. I didn’t display them because I was saving them for the school fair, which never happened.
I allow students to pick almost anyone – meaning anyone “appropriate”, and this year you will see a variety from sports, performing arts, the art world and social media (and one grand-dad). Two Steve Harveys, lol. He wins as most popular this time.
A trip to Vince’s Gourmet Imports (440 N. Main Street, North Syracuse, New York 13212) inspired my new still life painting project. The Studio in Art students completed the course with these epic 16″ x 20″ acrylic paintings.
I have paired them here with their inspiration photograph. Students selected the picture then began with the contour line drawing. These were transferred to canvas with the magical help of graphite paper, placed onto gessoed and burnt sienna-stained canvas panels.
My main educational tip – begin with white in your mixing tray. Add raw sienna and whatever main color to the mix (blue, yellow, etc). This will insure that you don’t make too much of a color by starting too dark and adding crap-loads of white, lol. The other thing to keep in mind is to not homogenize the mixture so that you can utilize dark and light variations of the color while painting with one brush.
I am an advocate for students developing and maintaining their own styles as artists. We looked at the work of Alice Neel and Janet Fish. Some students went with the black outlines à la Neel. And Fish’s representation of glass was helpful to their decision making.
They took the paintings home today, but their images are on display in the counseling offices and will remain there throughout the summer months. I made 8″ x 10″ color copies of the paintings, mounted them to black construction paper and placed them in frames. I love this new gallery space!
I feel incredibly blessed to have shared this artistic adventure with these very talented fourteen-year-olds. Studio in Art is an accelerated high school level class that I teach to 8th graders at Chittenango Middle School in Chittenango, New York.
It takes my entire lunch period to prep for the class of twenty-three 5th graders – they are here every “A” day during 8th period. This was yesterday. Their clay slab/hand-built fish were ready to go home. I placed an empty Wegman’s bag, along with their sculptures, grade sheets and the packets for the invention project at their seats. It is organized mayhem, lol.
I say that in case you think the room is messy, because it is not really mayhem at all. They are a wonderful group of eleven-year-olds – smart, talented, happy people-pleasers. I love spending time with them. I give them a different assigned seat every class, so that they sit with different people each time. They have to hunt for their seat. It’s actually kind of fun.
I love how busy they all are in these pictures. Everyone is completely on task. The two students looking at the I-pad are checking the spelling of a word (above). Only three students did not finish their invention drawings, which I will eventually combine to be sent to the high school print department to be made into a coloring book – hopefully by the end of next class.
They recently finished a landscape illustration using Grant Wood and Grandma Moses as references, and a wood sculpture using Louise Nevelson and Yayoi Kusama as references, as well as theclay fish and the Leonardo daVinci-esque invention.
Next up is a mixed-media lesson referencing Faith Ringgold. We will add a quilted border to a dreamy drawing.
Students meet every other day for one semester, which is different than elementary school where students meet once every six day rotation for the entire school year.
Fifth graders started attending Chittenango Middle School (instead of the elementary schools) four years ago. I teach the seventh section of 5th grade (Mrs. Samsel’s class) while my colleague, Joyce Backus, teaches the other six sections (in her own classroom), in addition to teaching all of the Bridgeport Elementary School students.
Ashlee – winner in 1st period A dayOwen – winner in 8th period A day (the 5th grade class)
My clay lesson this semester was the fish sculpture. I decided to do it with every class. My 5th grade, the 8th grade art students and the 8th grade Studio in Art students. It is such a great lesson because everyone starts with the same amount of clay creating a slab first that rolls up then adding the hand built elements.
Paige – winner in 9th period A dayNathan – winner in 6th period Studio in ArtLauren – winner in 5th period B day
They are all so beautifully unique! I decided to have a fishing derby. I weighed and measured every fish. Each class had a winner. The prize was a small bag of Swedish Fish, lol. Abraham’s was the biggest fish. He won a giant bag of Swedish Fish! So fun!
Abraham – winner in 5th period A day and overall winner!Julia – winner in 1st period B dayAnthony – winner in 9th period B day
Here are the pictures from my art exhibition at Chittenango Middle School, Chittenango, New York. I’ve combined the Messages from the Other Voice series with the Pompano Revisited series to saturate the yellow walls of the school library with my personal narrative.
They will be up through April 2017.
The work looks better in person – the lighting is not great in the pics, but that is because the artwork is so high up on the walls. I do love the way the library looks soooo fresh and different with each show we install and everyone’s artwork ends up looking great. The captive audience thing always works for me, but it is funniest when I ask students if they have been to the library – if they have seen my art and they say something like I didn’t notice.
That actually doesn’t matter to me – no, not one bit – because I know that they have noticed it, if only in a smidgen of a subliminal fashion. It doesn’t take but a glance to place a positive aesthetic into someone’s visual cortex, lol. And then you can sit back and witness the processed results. It’s kind of amazing. And I really LOVE that. Art benefits people in so many ways in which they are not even remotely aware. It is everywhere. All around us. That’s me being subversive – in a good way.
I drive past Grover’s Table a lot, like almost every day, and every single time I say to myself, in my best Tina Fey voice, I want to go to there! Carthage native and Westhill High School art teacher Jamie Ashlaw is exhibiting his vintage sign-infused paintings in the Fayetteville, New York restaurant until the end of the month. Last night I attended his artist’s reception. So, that happened.
I met Jamie once before at the Art on Porches event last summer. I bought a note card print of his Palace Theater painting. I really admire his work! It has the ability to transport its viewer into the past evoking a sense of nostalgia for both local culture and national advertising. He uses Golden Artist acrylic glazes, which allow him the ability to create precise lines within the lettering. The canvases become veritable photographic replicas of their resource counterparts. Exquisite!
Grover’s Table is a gorgeous place and I would REALLY love the opportunity to exhibit there, but I have to say that Jamie’s artwork looks like it belongs on the walls of this beautifully renovated exposed-brick-ey space. They should consider buying the collection – at least to put up periodically in between other artist rotations. Meanwhile, he has agreed to display them in the Chittenango Middle School library as my final artist for the year! We will install his show around spring break.
Jamie donated this piece in the above photo. It hangs at the host stand by the front door. A vintage-like sign depicting Grover Cleveland, who actually once lived in the neighborhood, only a few blocks east. So cool!
According to their web-site Grover’s Table is open as follows:
Tues.-Thurs. 4:30-9:00pm
Fri.-Sat. 4:30-930pm
They do not serve lunch but luncheons are available for groups of 35 or more
Closed on Sunday & Monday
Grover’s Table is located at 104 Limestone Plaza Fayetteville, NY 13066. For reservations call (315) 632-4907.
On Tuesday, I gave each of my twelve Studio in Art students a valentine. I prepped 3″ x 5″ canvas panels with a few layers of beeswax. I carved in a heart stencil. I thought this would be a quick and fun way to introduce them to encaustic painting.
I took an encaustic course (graduate level) at Syracuse University in 2012 with free credits I’d earned for hosting a student teacher. Davana Robedee was my instructor. I love incorporating this relatively new-to-me media in the art classroom.
Students melted oil pastels on pancake griddles (all the windows in the room were open and the fans were on high) and went to town tackling their tiny canvases. The thing about wax is that when warm, it produces a luscious liquid color on the brush – but as soon as you remove it from the heat source, it solidifies, so…that brush stroke needs to be a quick thinking confident one – needs to count! They really loved the process. We decided to add a second day of it, which gave them time to process the process and make better decisions once they got the hang of it.
I painted 11″ x 14″ canvas panels with black acrylic paint for each of them and glued wooden plaques to the centers. Students carved into their encaustic paintings with clay tools to enhance the texture then added mixed media items to it and/or to the black frame. We brought the encaustics in for the landings with Elmer’s glue.
I am in love with the decisions they made and the fact that in three classes they all created these wonderful emotionally-charged finished products. So beautiful. I love heart energy! <3
Ken Nichols‘ mandala paintings have been on display in the Chittenango Middle School library since the end of November 2016. They are coming down on Monday. Ken is a painter and a potter, a Syracuse artist who believes in the passion of creation.
He uses Golden Artist acrylic paints. He begins by painting the surface of the canvas black then uses an intuitive process to shape the composition relying on color to forge a path of rhythm throughout. The result is vibrant and fun abstracts that keep the viewer hypnotized in his psychedelic vortex.
Ken spoke to students during a 10th period art reception in December. He had them mesmerized! I have a short video at the bottom of this post. It is always a win-win for students to meet artists. A mutual admiration society of positive energy that transcends age and time. Belief in yourself is always the message. Taking pride in what your hand can manufacture. Art for art’s sake and for peace of mind. Really good conversation.
Check out more about Ken Nichols by visiting his web-site here.
I am back to work and school! It is fun getting dressed up, not so fun going into a building with no air conditioning, but I adjusted to it within days. And today – it actually felt cold in here!
Trina Turk dress, BCBGeneration sandalsMichelle DaRin jewelry, Trina Turk top and skirt, BCBGeneration sandals
I spent the summer in exercise clothes, bikinis and shorts. I hiked seven miles a day and did pilates twice a week or so. Working on fitting teaching into my exercise schedule, lol.
Vintage necklace, Bailey 44 top and skirt, BCBGeneration sandalsBCBGMaxAzria top, Trina Turk skirt, BCBGeneration sandals
As for artwork, I took down my art show at the Sullivan Library in Chittenango, New York, and I plan to exhibit the Talisman paintings in October at the Half Moon Bakery and Bistro in Jamesville, New York. Eight paintings are still on display in the Lawrence Pavilion at Summit Medical Group in New Jersey. They will be there until January, I think, unless the show gets extended.
Penny Santy is showing her paintings in the Chittenango Middle School library! She will give a presentation about them on November 15, 2016. I am planning to do some projects based on her work. Four classes will be doing oil pastels or paintings of cows and bulls as part of my SLO tests.
In addition, I’m planning lessons on George Rodrigue, Jasper Johns, Keith Haring, Wolf Kahn, Japanese wood block prints and Greek mythology. So fun!
Bailey 44 top, BCBGMaxAzria skirt, Nine West sandalsBanana Republic top and skirt, Michelle DaRin jewelry, BCBGeneration booties
In about an hour, Chittenango High School opens its doors to the public/community for the annual school fair. It takes about three hours to install the middle school artwork on the walls in the halls between the two gyms. I will be back later tonight to take it all down.
Here are pictures of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade art – from my students and those of my colleagues Gina Fargnoli and Katy Conden.
Chittenango High School is located on Route 5 in Chittenango, NY. The school fair is a visual representation of our entire school’s curriculum with elementary school stuff in the large gym, middle school stuff in the small gym and high school stuff all around the two story building. It will take place from 5:30 – 8:00 pm tonight!
