Chalk Art Festival 2013!

May 22 was the 2nd Annual WJMS Chalk Art Festival. I had a chalk art festival last year for my advanced students because I was really not up for going on a field trip while pregnant. The students liked it so much that I decided to do it again this year and hopefully every year from now on.

This year the theme was Latin American Art and I expanded it to include all of my classes and the Ceramics 2 class. My Drawing 2 and the Ceramics 2 kids participated all day by completing large scale reproductions of paintings by Latin American artists. My other students participated for the period that they had me by doing various Mexican folk art designs that we have been learning about in class for the last couple weeks.

 

It was A LOT of work to get everything ready but every minute of work was completely worth it. The end result was AMAZING.

 

Get ready for a whole lot of pictures of the 2nd Annual WJMS Chalk Art Festival! 

Early in the day. Some Mexican folk art style drawings by my 7th graders on the left. The all-day participants on the right.

My Drawing 1 class has been working on a Mexican folk art style project called "Tree of Life". So, I drew a huge tree on the pavement and had my students fill the tree with the different Mexican folk art symbols. They did a pretty good job.

Tree of Life project example.

If you look closely you can see the outline of the tree along with things my students added.

Look at that beautiful day!

Break-dancing breaks were necessary for some students.

 The tree at the end of the day. I wish I would have had more time to work on making the outline thicker.

I have a student who tries to work Adventure Time into every project I assign, so he did this picture of Jake in Mexican folk art style- well done.

Now, for the main event, the advanced art students:

The first 3 hours of the day are easy. The kids are excited and full of energy. As the day drags on they need more breaks and a lot of motivation to keep going.

Some students were multitasking (drawing and tanning).

 

 

Here are the finished products:

Carlos Mérida

They did pretty good, but got a little sloppy toward the end of the day. 

Frida Kahlo

This group had an amazing start but completely gave up after about four hours. They ended up helping other groups. 8th graders. What are you gonna do?

Omar D'León

Amazing job!

Miguel de la Espriella

Absolutely beautiful!

Benito Quinquela Martín

Great work!

Diego Rivera

Probably the best one of the day. Definitely the most accurate and most attention to detail.

Pablo Marcano García

This one fell a little flat. Thy got frustrated with the faces.

Benito Quinquela Martín

Really amazing!

Amelia Peláez

This group didn't finish but what they did was really well done.

I survived the day! I burned the backs of my legs pretty bad,  every muscle in my body is sore, and I am so tired I could put my head down on my desk and go to sleep, but it was a GREAT day! I will eagerly look forward to doing this again next year.