More Tessellations!

Check these out!  Color has been added, hidden pictures have been found!  WOW!

"Shirts, Propellers, and Flowers"

"Stop Signs and Rabbits"

"Crosses in a Field of Black"

"Birds"

Tessellations in Progress

Here are some pieces that are currently "in progress".  Students are working a lot on symmetry, which is tough when you have some really interesting shapes with bizarre angles and curved lines.  I would say the artists are working quite well, showing tons of focus and concentration on keeping those lines and patterns straight.

Look for the finished piece next week.  It's amazing.  Picture pattern, color, BOLDNESS!

This artist's piece goes unfinished, but a great theme with dogs howling at the moon.  Was this artist attempting to find balance with the yin-yang symbol?

Look for the evolution of this piece next week.  The artist is creating a Phoenix that rises from it's own ashes.  He's also working to create value with the flames.  Look for an update soon!

This is one of those shapes that could really take a lot of work. 

I think we've see something from this artist before?  I see pattern of work emerging from this artist.

A detail of the artist's work:  Snakes.

This artist has found some hidden pictures already.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

Happy Valentine's Day (delayed)

Yep, it's the end of the week, but I thought I'd throw in a few updates.  This week was a flurry of action in The Art Class.  We had a short project involving some monotypes for Valentine's day, some portrait work and consistent work on the tessellations.  It's amazing how detailed the artists work.  There are some pretty detailed and intricate pieces at work.  Check out the pictures below and be amazed at the progress and thought processes.

 Valentine's comes once a year, but you can give out as many Valentine's as your little heart desires. Students experimented with the Valentine theme for a short practice in monotypes.

 This student is influenced by music, and it's no secret that this artist loves Bob Marley.  Working on shading and proportion.  Nice work!

Another portrait of a famous contemporary pop/hip-hop artist.  Can you Guess who?  That's right, the ever-changing chameleon Nicki Minaj.  Student used the grid method to work on proportion.  I think this artist has got it right!

Deciding to create mood can be a challenge for some artists.  But I think ths one knows exactly what he's trying to say.  Why so serious?

Can you tell this artist finds music at the center of his life?  A beautiful Mandala that focuses on the movement of music. Check back later, and see what this artist is working on next.

Works in Progress

Hopefully this site will be updated by my students rather than me in the very near future.  We, do however, have some current works in progress that are going on right now.  I know they're anxious to finish the pieces they have, but until then, here are a few in progress.

Please keep in mind that it really isn't the finished product that we're after here.  In some cases you  may never see the finished product because a student may leave.

Artists are currently working on Tessellations.  Their objective is to create repetitive pictures with positive and negative spaces.  Some spaces may reassemble something, others might be abstracted, or a design.  We looked at Escher, Islamic art, and Op Art to get ideas.

This student is creating dogs in the patterns.

This student is filling in the background with black, so that the positive shape grabs out attention later.

Fashion and Flowers!

Sometimes the images don't have to go together, you just see what you see.

It's sometimes useful to use a ruler to straighten out lines, and keep the images symmetrical.

A lot of the influences come from what we like to look at. This artist is working with a lot of geometrical shapes that we viewed in Islamic Art.

Sometimes we're just inspired by the month! Happy Valentine's Day!

Creative Minds

The challenge of teaching where I teach is that you have wide variety of skill levels, and also really incredible creative minds.  It's important to try to reach as many students as I can by providing open ended lessons and some parameters for those who need it.  It doesn't always work out.

Some students might see even one direction as boxing them in, while others might choose to look at one direction as a spring board.  Either way, I see a lot of courage.

It takes courage to create.  And things that are supposed to have some visual sense is extremely different.  I don't want my kids to feel judged for what they do, I want them to feel empowered by the choices they make.  After all, in their daily lives they may not be able to make any choices...or may not see any choices.

I hope my class can act as a catalyst for free thinking and choice making, even when they think they do not have any.

The student above is working on a piece called "Perseverance".  He's using 3 leaders who have influenced him to keep moving forward:  Gandhi, King, and Obama.  This student has worked hard on representing the 3 world leaders using pencil shading, and will add lettering and a quote.

Every year my students make a "tree".  We look at a variety of trees, how artists render them, and how they can create a tree based on their personality.  We discuss mood and how color can symbolize different types of moods.  Students are usually awed because of the complexity their own patterns make, and how the "tree" really does seem to symbolize them.

I can't post the whole picture, but students love to draw themselves.  This student is working on a self-portrait in pencil.  He has created a border above and below his face to create a "letterbox" effect. Is he copying a movie style?  What does that say about his own personality?  Students often face a lot of unanswered questions when working in art.  They come across a lot of unexpected results. 

I love when that happens.  I just have to get them to appreciate them.

Juggling

I know you were expecting pictures of my students art work today.  I took my camera, already to show progress on their tessellations.  BUT-- I forgot my memory card.  It happens.  Just look for it sometime this weekend.  Until then, here are a few pictures from the past to tide you over.

Be warm out there!

Sorry, long time no post

So I start this blog, and I stop making posts.  Right now my students are working on amazing tessellation projects.  I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow.  I guess I'm too glued to the current events in Egypt to take a moment and keep up with my blog.

My students aren't allowed to watch news, and I've been trying to talk about what is going on.  They're actually very interested.  They know that I've lived in Egypt, and that I taught there.  Some are asking  me everyday what's going on.  I guess tomorrow we'll talk about how it's just taken a turn. 

A revolution never moves a country backwards..... Here's hope for Egypt's Future!