Student Spotlight: Jonathan

   One of the most rewarding things as an art teacher is to have a student who takes art and runs with it.  I have had the pleasure of teaching Jonathan.  He is currently going into 8th grade and has a passion for “junk" art, experimenting and assemblages.  I have been so impressed by his work, I just had to share.  He has been updating me over the summer with his creations.  I hope you appreciate them as much as I do.

Above is one of his most recent pieces and my personal favorite!





Last summer at art camp students created junk assemblages. Above is one of Jonathan’s examples.  This is when I learned about his love for creating out of junk.

Below is a picture of Jonathan’s studio space in his basement…

Another great thing I love, is Jonathan documents his art on YouTube.  Check out/subscribe to his channel….
http://www.youtube.com/user/theartzyboy/videos

We did ATC’s in art club this year, check out some of his awesome creations…

Some of Jonathan’s Artist Trading Cards

Great work Jonathan, keep it up!

More fun with "Ugly Dolls"

    My last group of 7th grade students had fun taking pictures with their felt dolls inspired by  popular "Ugly Dolls. "  Check out my school blog for more pictures.... http://dundeeart.blogspot.com/2011/06/fun-with-ugly-dolls7th-grade.html

 

“Ugly Dolls” Photo-Shoot Take 2

Last month I shared some of the photos my 7th graders took of their plush friends.  Here are some more photos of their creatures shenanigans….

 

Hanging out in the gym

Supporting education

Reading periodicals

     Chilling with friends
     Getting a drink

Terrorizing poor Santa and his reindeer

Our “Ugly Dolls” photo-shoot

My new group of 7th graders have been busy creating “Ugly Doll” inspired monsters.  I recently found these 2011 calendars on Amazon and was inspired. 

 

Yesterday a few of my students took their dolls around the school and took photos.  Below are a few of the results…

Ahhhh….Dinosaurs!

Enjoying a Christmas book.

Surfing the net.

Feeling festive!

Half the gang hanging around…. more to come!

Paper Molas in Elementary and Middle School..

This year is 3rd grade we are studying the art of different cultures. Each student has a Passport (which I will share soon), and they fill it out every time we study a new culture. We recently learned about fabric Molas, and the Kuna people who create them. The Kuna people live off the coast of Panama on the San Blas Island.

When teaching about Molas, I like to use the video “Paper Molas” with Peggy Flores. This video demonstrates how to create two types of Paper Molas. The first method involves an x-acto knife (I used razor blades wrapped in tape) and is subtractive. The second method uses scissors and is additive. This year my 3rd graders used the scissors method. As seen in the pictures above. Below are examples from my 7th graders who used the subtractive method.

Candy Boxes in 2-Point Perspective

In 7th grade I teach my students perspective. I found this candy box lesson on Artsonia and thought it would be fun to try. We started by practicing one-point perspective, then I introduced 2-point. When stundets showed understanding, we drew 2-point perspective boxes. Then we decorated them to match the real thing. I was able to talk briefly about shadows and shading too. This was a fairly quick project which accomplished my objectives. The students seemed to enjoy it as well.

Fun...with Ugly Dolls

I was looking for a project that would keep my 7th graders engaged, and creating their own "Ugly Dolls" was just the ticket. Ugly Dolls were created by David Horvath and his wife Sun-Min Kim. Check out the cute story of how they originated at: www.uglydolls.com/#/about/

Here are a few close-ups of my students' work. They also created an environmet for their dolls and filled out a worksheet that described their dolls name and charateristics. This project was a big hit!