VASE

It's VASE time, the craziest time of the year. I haven't had a chance to photograph any new work, or respond to some e-mails. As soon as this week is over I will be able to photograph and post some of the pieces, including the papier-mache pieces.

Sculpture

My Art 2 students have been working on papier-mache insects for the past two weeks. The first thing they had to do was to look up images of different insects, at least four. They then had to create several different sketches combining the insects. They chose their favorite combination and created a more detailed sketch.
I gave them a quick demo on how to construct papier-mache without wire. They were not allowed to use any wire for this project. Contrary to popular belief it is not necessary to use wire for papier-mache sculpture, at least not with art paste
I do allow my Art 3 & 4 students to use wire but it should be part of the design and not part of the building.

Hopefully these pieces will come out good, the kids tend to go a bit hay wire when it comes to painting them. The pictures feature work from Art 2 and Adv.

Color

Prior to the cold weather and the closing of school my students were working with colored pencils. I had intended to do several small projects and one larger project but the powers that be changed my plans. I could've continued with colored pencils when we returned but it felt as if we had been doing them for a long time and I think we were all ready to move on. So, no colored pencil project this year, we have moved on to painting. Now I need to come up with a new painting project, something not to big but something that will grab their attention.

Back to Work

Back to work after being out for a week. It started to snow last Tues. and school was cancelled for Wed. I thought "Great, a day off!" That day off turned into a week. The temperature dropped to below zero and before we knew it our water pipes were frozen, electricity failed and gas was out in parts of the city. This city is known as the "Sun City", the city was ill prepared for the freeze. When the pipes began to thaw on Fri. there were burst water pipes all over the city. By Sunday night the water pressure was so low that there were still water shortages around the city.

We had a hard time here at home, we went without water and electricity which meant no heat for a while. We were freezing cold. I spent the time off creating new jewelry pieces and stocking up the shops where my jewelry sells. I'm finding it hard to prepare my mind to return to work and to top it off, I'm hearing that many schools have major damage and some of my art teacher friends have damage in their art rooms. I hope my room is ok. Guess I'll know by tomorrow.

The picture above was an entry for Black History Month. I havn't heard if my student placed or not in the competition, but either way I think it is a great piece. I'm having a hard time getting this student to take some risks, its obvious that he can draw, now I just want him to "play" and take chances with his work. Hopefully I can get him to experiment before the end of the year.

So, how many weeks till Spring Break?