Bitue

In this project we got the chance to make our own piece of fabric with a design on it. In order to have the designs we had to make a mixture of water flour and another cooking ingredient then squeeze the mixture onto our piece of cloth and let it dry. After it dried we then put paint on top of the mixture and let that dry. Once it had all dried we then rinsed our piece of cloth and the stain and design were left behind, this was a very fun project to do.

Wire

This was the assignment we had to do that dealt with having children in your class that may have a disabilty. For this lesson I was a second language learner so I had to just basically guess what we were doing and the assignment was to make an animal out of wire and i decided to do a fish. It was impossible to try and get the directions in sign language so i just had to look at what other kids were doing.

Stamp

This is one of the stamps I made for my pot. I was trying to make it into a shape of a heart but the glue was hard to control. We took a piece of yarn and glued it to a cardboard and let it dry. The next time we met for class we were able to use these stamps to stamp our pots that we had made. I found  that often i had to retrace the lines.

Pots

This was the first time I had ever made a pot in an art class. I just assumed we didnt do it in school because it was too complex and hard to but after making these pots I found that it is quit simple and that you could do this with children as young as in the elementary grade. You just need to make sure you have a kiln to fire them in. We did two different kinds of pots one of them being a pinch pot and the other a coil pot. My favorite was the coil pot.

Scratch Board

This project was one of my favorites. We first had to color a piece of regular white paper with a whole bunch of different crayon colors, after that we painted over it with this black special type of paint and then let it dry. After we let it dry we scratched out the Abc's over and over again all connected and then filled in all of the negative space with techniques of texture. I tried to use a couple different techniques of texure and I was really happy with my final result.

Google Sketch up

This project was done on the computer. Often times we dont think of art work as being done on the computer but with the change in time technological art is becomming more and more popular. We went onto a program called google sketch up and had to creat a building with different aspects, the ones I put into mine were colums and triangles. This was a great way to broaden the spectrum of art.

Water color resist

This project was done after the popular artist Van Goghs painting of starry starry night. We had to first draw what we saw outside of our window at night with pastels. I drew a bunch of branches and one little light. After we had drawn with pastels we then had to go over the pastels with water color. We saw the resist of the water color against the oil based pastel. This was a new technique I had never learned before.

Water Color Techniques

By doing this project we got to see a lot of different techniques used with water colors. We had to eat foods that were all different tastes and then paint what we were tasting. We were taught that items such as salt, saren wrap, and alcohol make the water colors disperse and have different texture then that of just painting them.

African Masks

This was the mask that I created in class. Before making the masks we had to research the kind of masks used and what kind of techniques were used. In class we made ours out of milk cartons and we put tape over them and then covered them in shoe polish to give the brown color. I liked to crinkle the tape to add some texture. After the polish dried we painted designs on top and then added hair if we wished. Though I did not see many girl masks I thought it would be fun to modernize the mask making and add in a female mask.

While researching African Masks I have found that there are several different kinds and with those different kinds come different names.I never knew that masks were all different shapes and sizes I always thought they were generally pretty big a little larger than a head and always the same colors brown white and red. Finding all of these masks have given me an idea of how I want to do my own mask in class.

Baule Mask

Biombo Mask

Bwa Mask

Dan Mask

Goma Mask

Kota Mask

Kwele Mask

Ligbi Mask

Lulua Mask

Lwalwa Mask

Pende Mask

Punu Mask

Senufo Mask

Teke Mask

Woyo Mask

Yohure Mask

http://www.artyfactory.com/africanmasks/

Technology and art

The definition of art is, "the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science."In art, as in life at large, technology has changed everything – or, more precisely, almost everything. (e-school news). Art technoloy is growing more and more rapidly and art teachers are including technology more and more into their classrooms."Technology and teachers - hands-on projects using Power Point and PhotoShop" (Mail artist) Technology in the classrooms is becomming more popular and im thinking im not realizing it because they are using things like power points. You never think of that as technology and art but it is. Even in the definition of technology there is the word art. even though it is industrial arts it is still a form of art. Like i have said before in previous blogs and assignments i think anything is a form of art do it does not surprise me at all that technology is growing more and more in the classrooms.

Art VS. Craft

Many times we hear the term arts and crafts but should they be categorized into the same sentence? The Definition of a Craft is as follows :–noun an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill, esp. manual skill: the craft of a mason.(Dictionary.com) The definition of art is:skill acquired by experience, study, or observation. (Merrium-Webster.com) In both of the definitions there is the statment of a spceial skill so are they the same thing? I think pretty much anything can be called art. If there is someone who only makes crafts then that is a form of art. "She takes pride in her yarn for the yarn’s sake, without necessarily thinking ahead to what she might make out of it. In fact she often doesn’t like me asking her what she’ll make out of it. That’s not the point. The process of taking fiber to yarn is thrilling enough in and of itself.
She is crafting for a craft, something I only realized last week. The same thing happens in other media as well when a guy thinks about it though. A ceramic artist can make tiles for someone laying tile or creating a mosaic, for instance. "(the aestheticelevator.com) The lady who was making this argument has a good point who is to say if art cant be crafts. I think there really is no art vs craft because crafts can be a form of art.

What motivates me

What motivates me as a learner is having a teacher who is passionate about what they are doing. I could tell the teachers who really truly had a love for what they were teaching and those that were thrown into the position they had. When the teacher was passionate about what they were teaching it made me more eager to learn. When I had a teacher who was passionate it made me want to get as much out of that class as I could. My goal when I am a teacher is to really show through my teaching that this is really what I love to do. I think even kids in elementary can tell if you are passionate. It motivates me so much to do my best when the teacher is so passionate about what they were doing. Motivation always stems soley from the student. As teachers we need to inspire them to be motivated and I feel like the best way to do that is to show your passion through your teachings.

How to teach artist statments.

The defintiton of an artist statment is  It is a text composed by an artist and intended to explain, justify, and contextualize his or her body of work. Artists often have a short (50-100 word) and/or a long (500-1000 word) version of the same statement, and they may maintain and revise these statements throughout their careers.(ebsqart) We had to write artist staments on all of our pieces that we posted on our blog. I would say that the easiest way to teach artist staments would simply be by telling the kids to just write what ever their piece of art that they have created makes them feel. After you have had your students do this Molly Gordon an artist has these tips to help a students artist statement make more sense. "Read your statement out loud. Listen to the way the sounds and rhythms seem to invite pauses. Notice places where you'd like the sound or rhythm to be different. Experiment with sounding out the beats of words that seem to be missing until they come to mind. Do this several times until you have a sense of the musical potential of your statement. As you read your statement, some phrases will ring true and others false." By reading these things out loud you get to hear what they sound like. Often times when we are writing what we feel it sounds good to us in our head but by reading it aloud they can better their artist statment. "There is great satisfaction in witnessing the students’ growing independence. Watching them learn about themselves, develop skills, make historical and cultural connections and emerge as young artists with unique visions ultimately invigorates my own search." This statment said by Joseph Mannino shows the importance in really helping your students grow and by teaching them to write artist statments you are really helping your students grow as artists.

Everyday art

In this project we were supposed to pick something that you see in your everyday life. When we all brought pictures into class the things ranged from tv shows to toys like a ferby. What I ended up decideing to do was an alarm clock. No matter who you are everyone needs an alarm clock of some sort even if its on your phone you know the purpose of that alarm clock and how important it is. These things were thought of like how Andy Warhol did his art work. He used simple everyday things to make a piece of art. We did this by stamping much like the bugs we did but this time we did it with styrofoam. We then rolled paint onto the styrofoam then stamped it on different colors of paper.

Artist Statment

I did not know what an artist statement was at first and this was a definition I found,  a formal and concise statement of the meaning of a word, phrase, etc.  the act of defining a word, phrase, etc.  the act of making clear or definite. the state or condition of being clearly defined or definite. a measure of the clarity of an optical, photographic, or television image as characterised by its sharpness and contrast.(photo space) This definition was more of a text book one but I also found how to write an artist stament which helped me understand what it is.1. Take five minutes and think about why you do what you do. How did you get into this work? How do you feel when work is going well? What are your favorite things about your work? Jot down short phrases that capture your thoughts. Don't worry about making sense or connections. The more you stir up at this point, the richer the stew.
2. Make a list of words and phrases that communicate your feelings about your work and your values. Include words you like, words that make you feel good, words that communicate your values or fascinations. Be loose. Be happy. Be real. Think of these as potential seasonings for your stew. You don't have to choose which ones to use just yet, so get them all out of the cupboard.
3. Answer these questions as simply as you can. Your answers are the meat and potatoes of your stew. Let them be raw and uncut for now.

1. What is your favorite tool? Why?
2. What is your favorite material? Why?
3. What do you like best about what you do?
4. What do you mean when you say that a piece has turned out really well?
5. What patterns emerge in your work? Is there a pattern in the way you select materials? In the way you use color, texture or light?
6. What do you do differently from the way you were taught? Why?
7. What is your favorite color? List three qualities of the color. Consider that these qualities apply to your work.
8. 4. Look at your word list. Add new words suggested by your answers to the questions above.

5. Choose two key words from your word list. They can be related or entirely different. Look them up in a dictionary. Read all the definitions listed for your words. Copy the definitions, thinking about what notions they have in common. Look your words up in a Thesaurus. Read the entries related to your words. Are there any new words that should be added to your word list?
6. Write five sentences that tell the truth about your connection to your work. If you are stuck, start by filling in the blanks below. (Molly Gordon)
These steps really do help you see what an artist statment is. You must talk about texture and light and color and within all these things give your opinion on the piece. I reasearched online and actually found an example of someones artist statment. This statment is by an artist named Leslie Holt. "My recent work includes several series of paintings that weave inter-related experiences – including growing up with a mentally ill family member, pop culture and famous works of art. My work often displays an unsettling intersection of childhood and the adult world." As you can see in her statment she gives a description of her pieces and what  she liked about them and what inspired them. In my posts under my art work I tried to do this and convey how the art pieces made me feel and talk about the color and also what inspired them.

View finder drawing

For this project we got a view finder with a square cut out so that when held up to a room you can see it in a certain perspective. When you hold it up to your room or a part of your desk you can see only a few select things and it is cool to not draw everthing it its full entirety. I really liked this project because it makes you look at things in a certain way you usually wouldnt.

Bug

Last class we had to cut out pieces of card stock paper and then make a bug out of the shapes overlaping the pieces then glueing them onto a piece of regular paper. After we did this
we put a piece of regular white paper over the card stock and took a crayon that didnt have any paper on it and rubbed it over the card stock. By rubbing the crayon over the paper it created the shape of the bug. After we practicing with crayon we got to use paint and role it onto are but then put it onto the paper. I thought this project was really cool. I think it was my favorite because I enjoy arts and crafts type projects.

These two pictures were part of the lesson we did with the special types of brushes and the water colors. we learned different techniques to make the leaves and trunks look like the do. We also learned how to write are name in an abstract way so when read from left to right and top to bottom you can see the name but if not it looks like chinese writing. Also in the corner or sides of are bamboo we made a stamp with are name.

Assesment

Three different forms of assement you could have would be to critque the students drawing after they have already done it. This would allow you to assess the overall product  the summative assessment and then afterwards you could tell the student your thoughts on their piece. Also you could have them take a picture of their final project and then critque that. Another form would be to have a peer assess their art work after they have completed it. If you wanted to critque during the process you could even do the same type of things. Walk around and critque, have them take pictures of their work through the process, or have them talk with a peer through the process of critqueing. "I have students display their work so every participant has a work up for discussion. I give some display guidelines for them to follow so the presentation looks good and work can be seen easily by all participants. Students who are not finished might use the time to keep working to finish. It is sometimes found that students without work on display are not as interested and they are more apt to offer negative comments. " ( An Art Teacher Guide) This could be one assesment that could go along with peer reviews. " There are rich possiblities in art and for students it is exciting and creative and is hard to critque." This quote was something said by an art teacher i had and it is true it is hard to critque a students work. " The why question is for the teacher" This quote from are book shows us that we really need to ask why a student was doing this even if we dont think it is their best work we need to critque fairly.

Self portrait

Attempt one

Attempt Two

Attempt Three

When i first heard about the assignment of a self portrait i will admit i was a little bit scared to do them but as we did each different sketch i became a little bit more comfortable with it. By the third one when we made a grid i was surprised at how well it turned out i have never drawn something this good before. Though it may not look like the best work to other people it is for me because i think i have no artistic talent at all. Many people have told me i cant draw so this is a big improvment for me! I was surprised by just doing simple things like going by a grid how much better a picture can come out. Overall i was pleased with all of my drawings.

Picasso Piece

 

We did the eight pieces art work with different textures and put them all into different parts of our picasso head.  This was kind of hard for me because we had to draw the picasso head without looking and i dont think i am very good at drawing when i look at the paper so i really am not good at it when i cant look at the paper. I thought it was a fun assignment though and i learned alot about textures and different ways you can use a colored pencil so that the patterns all look different over all i think it turned out pretty good.

Art criticism methods

One thing I think is very important is to teach your kids how to criticize the art work that they see and the art work that they do for themselves. "Art criticism involves a specific way of looking at a work of art. You can make discernment about art without being a professional artist, all you need to do is learn to look (see) and think about what you are seeing.Learning how to criticize artwork properly will allow you to better understand works of art and why they have become important. The process of art criticism involves 4 actions. They are: describe, analyze, interpret and decide." (Betsy Larson) I think this is a great way to start out explaining to your students what art criticism is. You cannot just base it off of it you like there art work or not I don't think. Also you have to know their skill level because personally I have really bad penminship and I also cannot draw very well so things I try very hard on may not come through just because as I have been told before I write like a boy. Another very interesting lesson plan I found was this one...

How to Criticize a Work of Art

Doing art criticism is like playing detective. You must assume that the artist has a secret

message hidden inside the work. Your job is to solve the mystery and find the message.

The following four steps, which must be taken in order, are description, analysis,

interpretation, and judgment. By taking these steps you will be able to answer the

following questions:

1. "What do I see?" (description)

2. "How is the work organized?" (analysis)

3. "What is happening?" and "What is the artist trying to say?" (interpretation)

4. "What do I think of the work?" (judgment)

First you will collect facts and clues. Then you will make guesses. You will decide what

you think.( Art talk by Rosalind Ragans)
By making the lesson of criticizing art something more familar with people like playing dectective I think it puts it into a whole other perspective. This way it is easier for the kids to really dig deep when looking at a piece of art work. You also get to analize from 4 different perspectives.
"The purpose of art criticism in schools is to develop students appriciation and  understanding of how visual culture reflects the larger culture. Calling for reflection on the stuents part, and bringing together the students knowledge base, diposition, and seeking strategies, art criticism is a tool for the pursuit of meaning and value in art." ( Emphasis Art) All of these I think are great examples of art criticism methods. It is very hard to give someone a grade on a piece of art because it may be something they are very proud of and you just dont see it. I think all these things should be kept in mind when critcizing someones piece of art whether it be your own or someone elses.

Why teach art?

While a lot of schools are cutting budgets and the first things to go are programs like art and music I think these are essential things to teach children. Kids need a break from school work to be able to express themselves and create a piece of art work that though while working on it they may get frustrated but when they are finished they can have something to be proud of.  " In a curriculum crowded with academic subjects and factual learning, art is a welcome means of learning about oneself and the world. " (Emphasis Art) This quote from the book is really true though most people when they get older think that art was a waste of time they did not think that back when they were in school. Art was always something that me and my class mates looked forward too I think it is necessary to be taught. " One important feature of the arts is that they provide not only permission but also encouragment to use one's imagination as a source of content. Unlike in the sciences, where imagination is also of fundemental importance in the arts there is a tradtion that does not hold the artist responsible for" telling it like it it". In the arts children, like adult artists, can pursue whimsy if they wish the man's hair can be blue, they can tell it how they want it to be." (The Arts and the Creation of the Mind) All of these quotes from the book prove even further why we should teach art. Schools would not be the same without art programs, they are an opportunity for the student to really express themself. I think it is extremly important to teach art and I think that when budgets are getting cut schools should not just automatically turn to the arts to cut. "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." (Pablo Picasso)

My definition of Art.

The definition of art that I have is art can be anything. I think you can view every aspect of life as a some form of art. Whether it be actual paintings, sculptures,drawings or things like music, dance,food, all of these things that people dont usually think art to be. I personally love to cook and when I make a dish that has a lot of different vibrant colors and textures I see that plate as a form of art. I really think art is up to the interpreter.To me art really has no form of definition because how can you define something that differs from person to person.

First Art Project-Mandala

This is my first art project for Art 3700. I'm not the greatest artist but this class seems like a lot of fun. I'm excited to see everyone else's art!