Tag: Art Studio

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Art Class Most Popular Wine and Painting Party

Facilitating Creativity

A lot has happened in the past month, so much I haven’t had time to keep up with writing about it all!

I taught two faculty paint nights as team building workshops! Both went extremely well and everyone left feeling like an artist! First we painted a lighthouse, because Ridgely is a Baltimore County Lighthouse School, we each hung our paintings up in our classrooms. The second party we painted cherry blossom trees, which were more for our houses.

 

I also taught a dream catcher workshop at my friends yoga studio Life in Balance. There were 12 people in attendance and each created their own unique dream catcher!

 

There was also a birthday painting party! Lots of middle school girls painting circle designs, or any designs they desired! Each piece turned out awesome, and the girls had a blast!

 

There has been lots of painting going on!

<3

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Art Class Existence Most Popular Revealing Treasures in your Own Backyard

Painting with Paul session 1

A few teachers attended the first ever teacher workshop at Hampton National Historic Site. At this workshop, teachers were given a tour of the mansion and grounds, an adaptable lesson plan, as well as a presentation from our first ever artist in residence, Paul Moscatt. After the workshop we decided as an extra bonus, teachers would have two sessions with our artist in residence, to learn some techniques as artists which we can inturn share with our students.

The first painting day with Paul was on January 31st, 2016. Three of the teachers were in attendance, and created three beautiful paintings of a costume model in order to help us with our narrative ideas for our Hampton inspired paintings. These paintings will be submitted into the HHI juried student/teacher art exhibit in April!

When we first arrived at Paul’s studio it was like I was in a movie. The elevator in this older warehouse transformed into an amazing LLC. Cork Building that artists of multiple styles call home.

Paul is gracious host, providing us with coffee and coconut chocolate bars in the morning when we arrived.  We talked for a little while about his studio space, and his ambitious and artistic daughter. He even had prosciutto ham bread with olives for lunch!

Painting model Deviana was such a pleasure. The atmosphere of the studio, along with Paul’s ability to teach new techniques in a manner that gets an artist excited about painting. He has a genuine enthusiasm for the act of painting that is contagious.

Thank you, Paul, for a wonderful day of learning and painting! Looking forward to our next paint session on February 28th, 2016.

 

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Art Class Existence Most Popular

Halfway through…

The second quarter has come to an end, that means we are halfway through the school year already. It’s hard to believe!

Second quarter was full of fun! Students created so many amazing things, using their skills and imagination.

8th grade gt students completed their mantle of the expert art presentations which were amazing.

 

They also created many amazing sketchbook assignments, practicing their drawing skills. Student chose at least 3 personal objects to draw from observation, realistically using shading to create form. Then they were able to create a background for their work.

 

8th, 7th, and 6th grade art students worked on Letting their Imaginations fly, for the PTA Reflections contest. Looking forward to finding out if any of them won awards for their work!

 

 

After flying around for a while, students landed to focus on shading and observational drawing in order to assist them in their upcoming still life drawing.

 

The art department hung a student show at the Towson Deli, like we do every December. It is so wonderful being out in our community, sharing the amazing things our students are doing.

 

Students also created Anti-Drug Posters for the State’s Attorney’s office contest. The task was to create posters to share the affects of drug and alcohol abuse. We will found in February if anyone received an award!

 

Outside of the Art studio, a lot happened at RMS! Teachers and students got together for an amazing canned food drive before thanksgiving, raising over 5,000lbs of food for those in need in our local community! In doing so two teachers got pied in the face as a result of a contest to see which homeroom could bring in the most food!

 

There was American Education Week, where students Raised their hands for SUCCESS! Each student created a hand that represented 3 goals they wanted to be successful at this year. Students and parents both created hands that were displayed in the halls.

 

And last but definitely not last, students at Ridgely teamed up to bring christmas to younger less fortunate students in our school system. Every year the SGA holds a Holiday Benefit party for about 25 kids from one elementary school in Baltimore County. It’s a beautiful thing seeing our students give so much of their love and time to these children. Seeing their faces light up when they arrive and are greeted by 100+ middle school students who are all there for them. There were stations for the students to rotate through… craft making, face painting, snacks and story time (with me!), Santa visit, and dance time. After each station, students then went back to their groups and opened their gifts!

 

So far the year has been amazing, I am really looking forward to the second half of the year!

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First quarter down…

What an eventful first quarter it has been!

My student artists have completed a variety of projects, focusing on the Elements and Principles of Art along with other techniques. They have had multiple opportunities to be Ceeqers and to really personalize their learning.

Our first big project was our locker name tags. It was a group decision by our faculty to hang plastic sleeves on every locker with the first installation being a name tag for each student. So in art class, every student created their own personalized name tag that focused on an element and principle of design.  The results were fantastic! Our halls went from dull grey lockers to a personalized space that the students truly feel is theirs.

The 8th grade GT Artists created puzzles to represent the Elements and Principles of Design, using multiple materials and techniques!

Student artists in my studio created Zentangle masterpieces next! We did contour line drawings of objects, then artists chose any object or image they wanted, and zentangled it in with patterns and designs. After creating their zentangle objects, artists experimented with watercolor to create a fun background.

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We have had a lot of fun so far, I am looking forward to more fun!! The 8th grade GT artists are working on their Mantle of the Expert presentations where they have to create an art materials sales persona and will present their art material at an art expo. Half of the class will perform and present their materials and activities while the other half are the artists looking for art materials to work with. Each art material salesperson has to create a vendor table with at least 5 techniques, 2 art examples, a 5 minute art activity, and business cards.

6th and 7th grade artists went outside today and created nature art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy! Each group took photos of their work in progress to create a stop motion video of their art coming to life. Some artists decided that they would like to create a time-lapse video on their phones!

I hope you enjoyed our projects as much as we did creating them!!

<3

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Existence

MAEA Conference 2015

The 2015 MAEA conference was definitely a nice experience for me. When I arrived at Centennial High School, in Ellicott City, I was happy that there was plenty of parking available because there were a LOT of teachers attending the conference. Teaching artists lined the halls with their own personal art for sale, and there were a decent amount if businesses with information and free gifts.

Julia McTighe was one of the teachers vending her creations. She makes the most unique and fun earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Along with hairpins other great art! Her shop is called A Marvelous Spark, and she is definitely that! You can follow her shop on Instagram. Julia is an art educator for Baltimore County Public Schools.

Dick Blick had a nice pencil case that included a small sketchbook, a tube of paint, and coupon for 20% off of orders of $49 or more, and free shipping. Sargent Art had a gift pack of acrylic and tempera paint samples, Sculpt-it! clay, a pencil, and lesson plans. Sax school art supplies had a small pencil case with Crayola construction paper crayon sample, a colored pencil, metalic Sharpie, Prang classic marker, and Faber-Castell gel stick sample.

Our Visual Arts Office Coordinator – Linda Popp

There were a few schools vending like Virgina Tech, Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville, and The Art Institutes. The programs at CCBC Catonsville look fantastic! I took a lot of my art classes at Harford Community College and my teachers were also professors at MICA and Towson. My years at HCC were definitely valuable, and I learned a lot from the professors.

Art with a heart had a table, as well as The Phillips Collection, Walters Art Museum, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Phillips collection had a great lesson for Arts Integration called Prism.K12. It is awesome! Check it out for resources for arts integrated lessons!

The keynote speaker  was Cindy Foley, an art educator who started changing the minds of people everywhere about what art education actually is… Teaching thinking. She works at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio. Cindy spoke on TED talks about the importance of teaching students thinking. Her vision lined up nicely with the CEEQER model!

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Art Class

Be a CEEQER … Resources

A few resources for teaching and learning with the C.E.E.Q.E.R. model

MAEA CEEQER resources

ARTFUL THINKING routine

CEEQER presentation on PowToon

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Art Class Southern York Wine and Painting Party

Learning to Paint…

Ive decided to go at the paint nights from a little different angle. Instead of covering up our mistakes with wine, we will learn to paint and then create our own masterpiece using the techniques! My most recent endeavor is “Learn to paint: Tree edition”.  I created multiple examples of how we can blend colors to create different skies, and use dark values to create silhouettes in the foreground.

The next Learn to Paint session is on October 11th, 2015 from 2-5 at The Stone Mill 1792. We will be exploring blending colors, and making trees. I hope those attending will bring ideas for their piece so I can assist them in creating something they’ve always wanted.

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Art Class Existence Most Popular Southern York Wine and Painting Party

Celebrate your Achievements…

What is Labor Day?

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. – U.S. Department of Labor

I can honestly say that I didn’t fully grasp, or appreciate Labor day until this year; Having a summer full of many social and economic achievements towards my goal of having my own art school.  I used to take this holiday at base level…I saw it as another day off.  I realize now that its not just about having an extra day to rest, its also about celebrating the fruits of my labor! I will be taking this day to celebrate all I’ve accomplished, and to be excited about all the possibilities for the future!

Celebrate all you have achieved this year, and take a moment to set your intent for the up coming months to promote your continued success.

Appreciate all the work you’ve put into who you are and what you dream to accomplish.

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Most Popular Wine and Painting Party

Lotus Flower and Dragon Fly

So our next painting party is June 13th…Friday the 13th….and there is a full moon! I thought this was a perfect day to paint something that could have positive meaning for all of us.  I wanted to share the meanings of our next painting which will be a lotus flower and a dragon fly.

PINK LOTUS FLOWER

The Lotus flower is generally associated with purity of the body, speech, and mind.

In Buddhist symbolism the lotus is very sacred. While rooted in the mud, its flowers blossom on long stalks as if floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. It is also symbolic of detachment as drops of water easily slide off its petals.

One of the reasons that lotus flowers are considered so sacred is due to their daily cycle. They emerge slowly from dirty, muddy ponds over a period of a few days, and open fully in the morning, and close their petals in the late afternoon. Despite, emerging from such a muddy and dirty environment, the lotus flower remains clean. Some cultures see it as a sign of rebirth due to the fact that it returns to the muddy waters, only to reemerge for a new day.

The state that the pink lotus flower is in is also representative of the state that a person is going through and the flower represents ones heart; when the flower is a just a bud it is synonymous with a closed in person who has yet to expand their understanding of spirituality. As a flower blooms it comes to represent a person opening up to all that is around them. The fully opened pink lotus flower represents a full sense of enlightenment and someone who has reached Nirvana.

 

DRAGON FLY

The dragonfly is generally associated with the symbolic meaning of transformation. Here are common meanings:

  • Change and transformation
  • Adaptability
  • Joy, lightness of being
  • Symbol of the realm of emotions, invitation to dive deeper into your feelings

The dragonfly is characterized by amazing flight patterns as it appears to be able to change direction swiftly, gliding through the air with no apparent effort. Its lightness inspires people to use their ability to be flexible and highly adaptable in any situation.

Dragonflies start to grow in water and then move into the air and fly. When they show up in your life you may be called to transform and evolve. Symbol of metamorphosis and transformation, it inspires to bring about the changes needed in your life in order to go to reach your full potential.

When dragonflies show up in your life, it’s an indication that it’s time for change. Just like the dragonfly changes colors as it matures, you may be called to live and experience yourself differently. Stay open to the unfolding of your personal journey.

 

Come out and join us…to bring about a fresh start, and transformation.

 

Here are a few trial runs before my final painting example for the event! The first is in paint and the second oil pastel

dragonfly1

 

dragonfly