ArtRoom Update 1/13/2020

Kindergarteners finished their Penguin collages. In order to create a background, the students painted with watercolors and quickly drizzled salt on top while the paint was wet. The interaction of the watercolors and the salt crystals creates a textured background that looks like tiny bubbles. To finish, students learned to fold paper and cut shapes in order to create snowflakes.

First graders’ clay bowls in the Anasazi (Pueblo peoples’) style, are on display in the glass case across from the library. They look great! Most recently, the First graders learned how to weave for the first time, with warm or cool colored paper, and have moved on to a flower/leaf study after viewing the work of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Second grade has been super busy finishing creating 28 classroom post office boxes, which were delivered to classrooms this week. Next up: paper maché puppets!

Third grade learned a bit more about the history of weaving which has existed for thousands of years. We looked at various types of looms, and learned that the warp goes from top to bottom and that we weave with weft. Students were asked to think of an event that happened to them (a trip, a day at the beach, a birthday party, etc.), or they could create a story. They then assigned colors to each part of the story in order to create a color index. This had to have a title, and introductory sentence, and a color key for each stage of the story. Using their color index as a guide, they started to weave yarn in color order on a cardboard loom.

Fourth Grade are having fun creating their “Bad Hair Day” self portraits using lots on Zentangle patterns.

Fifth grade students are still working on their action figure sculptures. They are done with plastering, and are now painting the figures.
Sixth graders finished their onomatopoeia words, using Roy Lichtenstein’s color palette as well as Benday dots, and are now busy creating Tesselations after viewing the work of M.C. Escher.

Seventh grade has started a sneaker design unit. They are to create a sneaker company name, sneaker name, company logo and tagline, given their target audience. They have researched sneaker technology, pricing, and design trends in order to design their own sneaker. The final drawing will show 5 views of their sneaker, indicate any special technology features (real or imagined), their company name, logo, price and tagline.
Students were treated to a short talk by sneaker designer Mr. Kareem, who described the design process and showed some samples of his work.

Eighth grade  finished drawing skateboards in the style of Takashi Murakami (1962-), and have begun their full size grid self-portraits.

Fifth grade elective students are still sewing their pillows employing the back stitch and running stitch, while some students have progressed to creating pop-up cards.

Seventh grade Fine Arts Elective students looked at the micrography work of Michael Volpicelli, John Sokol, and Anatol Knotek, and are creating their self portraits entirely out of words.