Irvington's 7th graders recently learned about Color Psychology and are gearing up to use this knowledge on their next project! They'll be using their photography skills to take expressive portraits, which convey a certain emotion. They'll also want to use photo editors (like the app Photo Editor Pro, or the website www.ribbet.com) to enhance their photos. Students, please revisit the powerpoint above for useful information! Make sure you e-mail me your photos by Nov. 16th!! [email protected]
Sorry it's been so quiet on the art blog, folks! A couple weekends ago, I had the great pleasure of visiting Chicago for the first time! And the weekend immediately after, I bought my first home and moved in!! I've been busy busy, to say the least. I wanted to share some of my favorite moments from Chicago with you. I was absolutely blown away by how artsy that city is!! I couldn't wait to come back and show my students pictures of me standing next to famous artwork they've learned about :] It's always neat to see the sense of scale, how big or small these artworks are in real life. If only I could've brought those Chicago museums back to Portland with me!!
Japanese designers have created paint sets that don't have labeled names, but instead a visual equation of color mixing! How cool! This will get children more familiar with with how to use the PRIMARY COLORS (red, yellow, and blue) to create a variety of new colors. It also teaches that there isn't just one type of color. For example, ORANGE could could be reddish, yellowish, light, or dark. These would be great for expanding anyone's knowledge about Color Theory! To learn more about these Nameless Paints, click here.
Irvington's 8th graders are getting to know Alexander Calder and his amazing sculptures! We looked at many pictures of his mobiles and wire portraits, gaining inspiration for the students' own contour portrait wire sculptures. While Calder's parents were both artists, he actually studied mechanical engineering and mathematics when he was in college. After working as a hydraulic engineer for a short while, he went back to college to study art. His first big sculpture was "Cirque Calder", which was a collection of miniature circus-themed sculptures, made from wire, cork, rubber, and other found objects. So cool! He would even keep the set in a couple suitcases, so he could set it up anywhere he wanted. Later on, he became famous for his mobiles, wire portraits, and large-scale sculptures. Watch the video below to see the process for making wire sculptures!
With the buzz from the beginning of the school year starting to wear off, I wanted introduce you to (or remind you of) Kid President! He has some of the best feel-good videos on YouTube and is wise beyond his years. So if you're having a difficult time rolling out of bed and dragging yourself to school, maybe this video is for you! It's like author John Green says, "The whole pleasure of being a human is being stupid, but learning to be less stupid together!" School is a wonderful place where that happens :] Now go learn something!
The middle schoolers at Irvington have kicked off the year discussing their personal definitions of art. I know when I was in middle school, when I pictured an "artist" in my head, I imagined something similar to this silly drawing. In reality, there are so many varieties of "artist" - architects, fashion designers, filmmakers, animators, illustrators, jewelry-makers, interior designers, graphic designers, and more! After sharing our opinions on a variety of artworks, students filled the outlines of their hands with their own definitions of art. Some students used words, some drew symbols, and some artists created abstract patterns and designs. Just like in the art world, no two looked the same! Check out these beautiful artworks on display in the upstairs hallway!
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