Eye See You

We're getting ready to move. We've lived in this house a little over 6 years and there is a lot of stuff to go through. One item I came across that I was happy to find was a little 4" x 6" sketchbook I used when I was in my first year of college. I sketched in class during lectures which often helps me concentrate. For some reason I focused on eye-themed sketches. I don't really know why. They are either creepy, charming, or a little of both, but either way they're kind of interesting. A few examples:

Unic-eye-cle

Eyenosaur

Eye Sea You

Chalk Art Festival 2011

The chalk art festival, held annually at Gateway Mall, benefits the Utah Foster Care Foundation. One thing I love about the chalk art festival, that is really unique, is that you get to see artists in action. It's pretty uncommon to have this level of access to a working artist and it is always fascinating to watch them create.

Here are a few from the adult/ professional section that I really liked:

The suggested theme of the year was "foster parents are magic". While most artists come and do whatever they want some choose to do something within the theme. I know that the above drawing isn't exactly stellar (some of the faces are more than a little off) but I thought that the concept was really quite sweet. It reminded me of my friends Amber and Dustin who were at one time magical foster parents.

As an art teacher I always receive information about sign-ups a couple months before the festival and I always try to get students to sign up. This year I had some of last year's 9th graders participating for the 2nd year and some of this year's 9th graders participating for the first time:

These are my girls from last year. They did an amazing job on their "Up" drawing.

Unfortunately the girls who did this one had already left by the time I got there, but for a first attempt I thought it turned out really great. I also love that they thought to bring real shells to put on their beach. The girls on this team got together to practice every weekend for a month. Two of the girls on this team received awards for Outstanding Achievement In Art this year, so this just confirms my decision to award them one of the top honors in the school.

I had a great time at the festival and am so proud of my dedicated students!

The Wild Beasts

I am both happy and sad that this will be my last time posting about the work of my middle school students until September. Happy that the school year is over. Sad because I really will miss a lot of them- especially the 9th graders who are moving on to high school.

One of the last projects I assigned my painting class was a landscape painting in the style of the Fauvists using acrylic paint.

Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. (Wikipedia)

Following is an example of a Fauvist painting:

Boats by Andre Derain, 1905

Below you will see a few examples of how my students interpreted what I taught them into their own Fauvist style painting:


I think they did an amazing job. I'm happy to have a break but am looking forward to a new school year full of talented little artists in just a few short months.