Monthly Archives: September 2012

Another Year, and the Art Keeps Comin’

We are swinging into another year in the Art Room and beyond.  Woot! Explorations in Cubism, close observations of guitars and music genre, drawing and painting are all underway.  We’ve had our first Art Challenge, another to come, and the … Continue reading

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The P.O. Art Challenges of 2011-12

  Every few weeks of the year, I have run an Art Challenge with the students of Parliament Oak Elementary School.  It is completely voluntary, and is not connected with their schoolwork.  The entries are judged by myself and an … Continue reading

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More Op Art Cubes

Grade 7/8:  Op Art Cube Sculptures There was a distinct ‘Op Art Buzz’ going on, so I took the ideas and lesson I did for Op Art cubes with the grade 6’s at the other school, and added a pedestal … Continue reading

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Op Art Cubes

Grade 5:  Exploring Op Art and Cubing It   Op Art Explored This fall saw several of the classes learning abut Op Art (Op is for Optical), and some of the artists who developed it.  Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley … Continue reading

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Tooled Foil Reliefs

Grade 7/8:  A Musical Interpretation Set in Aluminum Foil Session 1: It began with brushes and pots of black washes of paint, LOTS of big sheets of paper, and music.  I should say I mentioned some things like Dadaism, automatic … Continue reading

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Enter, Notan.

Grade 5:  Flipping the Positive and Negative With Notan I recently purchased this book, Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design and even though I have so far only taken a rather cursory look at it – I found the images … Continue reading

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More Zendalas, Please

Grade 5:  Exploring Pattern with Zendalas This was a quick lesson to fill in with the grade 5’s as the 4’s were working on their Medieval castles.  There was less instruction on my part than the last time I taught … Continue reading

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Dabbling in Surrealism

Grade 5:  Learning Surrealism, Constructing Pictures Session 1 I came to the class with an example of a picture I had created using magazine cutouts in the style drawing from an art and cultural movement known as Surrealism, that began … Continue reading

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Pattern & Communication: Wampum Belts

Grade 6:  Designing Their Own Wampum Belts   The teacher asked me to do an art project that would connect with the class’s work on Canadian indigenous cultures.  It had to be a relatively simple and quick lesson, as the … Continue reading

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