Art Exhibition Video

Here's a highlight video from the Art Exhibition in April:

"Add On"

Grade 5 got their creative juices flowing this week with an art game suggested by Dominik! The game is called: Add On.... Everyone started with their sketchbook and a pencil, ready to draw! But what to draw you might be wondering? Well... Each person came up with one part to add to our "Creative Creatures". One by one we went around the class and added in each idea to our drawing. They got pretty crazy and certainly creative! This is a fun game any group of artists can try anytime to warm up imaginations and stir up creativity!

Here's our complete list of Add Ons as well as some of the resulting drawings:

Broccoli body, humongous head, unicorn leg, vampire teeth, horse nose, penguin feet, lollipop eyes, hippo hands, cat's ear, robotic hand, human as a leg, paper wing, robotic teeth... Lizard tail, monster ears, bat's wing, lion's hair, elephant nose, curly moustache, Caterpillar eyebrows, cockroach glasses, salad shoes and a handlebar moustache! oofta!

   

At the end we even took some time to draw good friends for our crazy creatures.  What a fun day of wacky ideas, unusual combinations, and plenty of laughter :)  

How do you wake your creativity up after a long holiday or break from making?  

Crests Complete!

Grade three celebrated their successful completion of each class crest this week. You can see them hanging around ASB soon!  Well done grade three artists on an impressive show of collaborations and commitment to craftsmanship.

Here's a peak into the process: 

(3C Mural now on display at the ES Campus Entry!) 

The grade 3 students worked together to create this collaborative mural of the ASB Crest.  Each group started with a two-foot square image of the crest, and used a grid process to transfer and enlarge the image to create six-foot square murals of the crest.

They each worked on small sections (grid boxes) of the drawing to enlarge the image one piece at a time. Once all of the pieces were drawn out, the pieces were fit together like a puzzle and the mural went through a process of revision and refining. After the sketches were ready, the marker outline set the drawing in place. The last step was to add color.  Inspired by the use of the grid drawing process, small grid squares were drawn in the background and filled in with shades of colors determined by the class through a thoughtful reflection of color theory. 

Ultimately each student played an important role throughout each step of this process and they have created something as a group that would have been overwhelming as individuals. Collaboration was the key to this successful mural project. We are happy to share this process and beautiful product, which represents who we are at ASB.

Art from Ordinary Objects

Last week a group of 10 creative KG-Grade 2 students explored the art of Andy Goldsworthy. He is a well known sculpture artist who used mainly natural elements and nature itself to create stunning and simple yet interesting artwork. We talked about the patterns we noticed (simple shapes, using the thing such as rocks or leaves repeated over and over again, sometimes adding color but usually keeping the natural color of the natural object).  

We wondered:

What would it be like to find one of his artworks in nature? surprising, awesome, funny, weird

How does this art make us feel?...and Why? calm, peaceful, curious, excited, happy... the environment and music also help us feel this way

How could we get or give that same effect using materials we found naturally around us at school? naturally found objects at school might be markers, pencils, crayons etc...

How would it feel to make a piece of art that is temporary, or will not last forever? sometimes just making art can make us happy, it's ok to break or remove a piece of artwork after we have shared it with others, not all art has to be perfect and in place forever

Where would we choose to build pieces like this to inspire people around us? in our home, in our private room/bedroom, at lunch, in school where lots of people will see it...

Using the most natural objects we can round up in school (without harming any plants or living things), we assembled designs on the ground using office supplies, rocks, sea shells, pencils, rubber bands, gems, and assorted wood blocks.  While these elements were not the same as those Andy Goldsworthy would use, they are easily found, simple and common, and can be used to create surprising and interesting designs. As a group they created an amazing collage of items that really wowed the people passing by. We also tried using ordinary objects in drawings and in cards we could give to other people to inspire and surprise them with creative beauty. What a fun day using our imaginations and putting our creativity on display!

 

Art coming to life!

 We are very excited and proud to share out the results of our learning from the first unit this year in grade 3 art!   Have you ever looked at a portrait in a gallery or museum and wondered what the person was thinking or feeling?  Now you no longer have to wonder with our third grade artists!  Using Morfo and Aurasma, students have narrated stories to bring their portraits to life.  Here's how we did it:

1) Students explored a variety of materials and techniques (some new, some review) including markers, colored pencils, crayons, oil pastels, watercolors and tempera paints.  They selected the best materials for their needs to draw their own self-portrait using a mirror for guidance.

 2)  Using their personal narratives as inspiration, the grade 3 students practiced narrating a short story about a small moment in their life to add a layer of interest and understanding to their artwork.  The stories could only be 30 seconds so we carefully edited and re-worked parts of some stories if the original was a little long.

 3) Using an iPad app called Morfo, we recorded our 30 second self-portrait stories. The app transforms 2-dimensional images (photos or in our case drawings) into 3D animations with moving eyes, nose and mouth that match up with the reading.  It really brought our drawings to life!! Students worked in small groups or pairs to record and share their Morfos- some had fun playing with the emotions and decorative features such as wigs or make up! (though none of that made the final cut so we would look as much like ourselves as possible).

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(Mrs. Garrett couldn't help but try her own and join in the fun!)

 4) The final step came with Mrs. G linking the Morfo files to the artwork itself digitally using the scanning program Aurasma.  By creating auras for each student's work and video files, anyone can see and hear the artist's self-portrait come to life by using the Aurasma app on any smart phone or mobile device!  The app is free (available on both android and apple products) and as long as you are following the right channel (GARRETTAM) you will be able to scan and see the magic come to life!!

5) Grade 3 students enjoyed an Aurasma gallery walk with ipads and the opportunity to hear other students' stories using the app to scan and see.  What a fun way for artwork to come to life and tell a story!

*Remember, once the connection is created on Aurasma, any image of the artwork can be scanned and read... digital or print form... on paper, t-shirts... you name it!  Each student received 2 miniature Artist Trading cards of their artwork to be able to carry their artwork in their pocket and share with someone else.  You can find the links to their artwork images and morfo video files on the Grade 3 page of this blog. Feel free to email or print and share with ASB friends and family.  Follow the instructions provided to download the app andmorfo start scanning and seeing!  Portfolio books of the students work will be on display in the parent cafe for the next two weeks.  Leave any comments below for our awesome ASB artists!

Finding Art everywhere!

Mrs. G sitting in a funny stone egg sculpture

Dutch Delft Painted Ceramic Pieces in my childhood hometown of Pella, IA

My dear ASB artists- I hope you are enjoying your summer challenge of finding art everywhere you go! I'm looking forward to sharing my art adventures with you in just a few more weeks so enjoy your travels and don't forget to be collecting art experiences everywhere you go! Here's a sneak peak of some of the art I've found in the US! 

Colorful art installation in the Chicago Airport

Artist Studios at Balboa Park in San Diego, CA