Friday Fun: DONATIONS!

This last week our visual arts program received a generous donation from Eagle Associates! This company has become a patron to our art room and we are so thankful! They have definitely helped keep us going with lots of paper, paint, yarn and looms oh my! 

Have you ever had anyone donate to your art program? How do you compensate for materials when your budget isn't as big as you thought it was?

Thursday Think Tank: Gang Prevention Poster Contest

These were the top 10 picks for our annual Gang Prevention Poster contest! 

This is a poster contest that our district does every year and I am so excited that TWO of our entries are in the top three spots! 

First place goes to this entry!

And second place to this entry!

Do you have any contests that your school participates with? Let me know!

ICE AWARD!!!!!

Last year I submitted our Mini DaVinci's present Art After Hours for an ICE award and last Thursday we found out that WE WON! 1st place in the elementary fine arts division which means that my old school will receive a gift of $1,000 dollars AND the principal there said it would go completely to the VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM! I'm so happy for the art teacher there, she's gonna be VERY HAPPY!

I got a little certificate! 

Mrs. Peragine the new Principal at Elliott and Andrea Keller my awesome partner in crime!

One of my Mini DaVinci's from last year and our trophy! She and her Mom and sister were able to come and see the award ceremony!

It feels so awesome to be rewarded for your handwork and appreciated for the time you take to invest in your students! Such a proud moment for me as an educator and a wonderful birthday present!

Have you ever won any awards for your program? Go ahead and brag a little!

Friday Feature: Mr. DeJesus & Friends!

Speaker Series invited Eric Trich who works with Augmented reality and art! Eric Trich is an artist that incorporates augmented reality with his art to create interactive and visually stimulating work.  He even created an app that works together with his art and the viewer, so awesome! Some of the other augmented reality apps we looked at were Aurasma and AR Basketball. I really enjoyed hearing him speak about the history of Virtual Reality vs. Augmented reality, which are completely different things, I felt like I was back in college at an art history lecture!

Here are some images from our fun time together.

Do you ever have artists visit the school? What types of technology do you incorporate into your teaching? Let me know below!

Thursday Think Tank: Principles of Design

Interactive sketchbook work for the Principles of Design! Folding the paper in half and writing definitions/examples. I love how each student created different lettering for their own interpretation of the principles!

Does your class keep a sketchbook? How do you use them? How do you grade them? What are your requirements? I'd love to hear all your ideas and suggestions! Leave a link or a comment!

Monday Mayhem: Clay work inspired by artist James DeRosso!

This was my first time working with clay for multiple days in class, well only two, but it was still a really big deal for me! I have so many students and not as much space so organizing everything was really hard for me but worth it!

I found this artist named James DeRosso who creates these AMAZING clay monsters! Here is a video that is great to introduce him to your class here. The process was really easy, using slabs to create the cylinder and then attaching pieces using score & slip.  

My teacher examples.

Student work!

Student work starting to dry.

More student work!

Table set up!

Storing over 200 pieces of clay takes WORK.

Lots of WORK, and no I did not stand on a chair to
get those bags up there. SAFETY FIRST!

What is the clay project that you enjoy teaching most? Any suggestions on storage solutions?