Vol. 3, No. 120, April 30, 2018

3120 - Art Explorers.

Today was the first day of my last session of art club for the year at the Winsted Arts Council. I decided that this session I wanted to do some printmaking and to make it more fun, I wanted to print on painted papers. So for today’s project we explored watercolors, discovering different techniques that can be used. I gave the students lots of materials to paint with including cotton balls, q-tips, paintbrushes with stiff bristles, salt, plastic wrap, droppers and string. There may have been some finger painting involved as well. With a rainbow of colors at their finger tips, rather than just the standard primary colors, some of the paintings got a little muddy in parts, but they will all look great with our mono prints next week. I started my first painting as an example in class, showing students some of what they could do. I had an older student who finished her project early, so I asked her to finish mine for me. Yay collaboration! Then I knew I had a student gone, so I painted 2 more papers (one large paper that I will cut in half when it is dry) so she will have options to choose from next week.

Vol. 3, No. 119, April 29, 2018

3119 - Ducks In A Row.

Today was so nice that I kept putting off my project. All of a sudden I was 9 pm and I needed something. I decided I would do another distorted photograph; the hard part was finding something to photograph. I came across a cup of small rubber ducks on my counter and deemed them the perfect subject. I put some into a vase with some water, and put that vase in another vase with more water. I added a couple ducks behind the vase and another one floating on the water in a third vase.

Vol. 3, No. 118, April 28, 2018

3118 - Pistachio Party.

Today, I headed to my first Twins game of the season. My sister brought along a bag of pistachios. Pistachios are addicting, so we ate a lot of them. About halfway through the game, I decided to get creative. I scooped up a pile of shells and started to make pictures. I ended up with a bat, a baseball, and the Twins Logo. Of course I left it behind for workers to find when they clean.

Vol. 3, No. 117, April 27, 2018

3117 - Delicious Doggy.

Today my family is celebrating my brother’s 31st birthday and his dog, Ziva’s 1st birthday. Yes they really do share a birthday. I had some time after school, before birthday dinner, so I decided to make some homemade dog treats. Ziva loves fruit and vegetables, so I was certain that she would enjoy these Banana Carrot Treats. With only Banana, Carrot, Parsley, Flour, Oatmeal, Egg and Oil, they were easy to make and actually taste pretty good.

I tried cutting the treats out with a butterfly cookie cutter, but they didn’t look great so I switched to just rectangles. Of course I also made a birthday cake complete with icing and a candle.

Ziva absolutely loved the treats and couldn’t get enough of them!

Vol. 3, No. 116, April 26, 2018

3116 - On Display.

Tomorrow is Arts and Academics, my school’s annual art show. Each student has a piece of artwork on display. As the art teacher, it is my job to set up the displays. This meant hanging 150 Picasso Portraits and laying out 140 paper mache masks on tables that I had to cover. While this really wouldn’t be a huge undertaking if I had been able to stay late at school multiple days and do a little each day, that wasn’t an option for me. So today was the day after working my normal hours in the morning I spent 4.5 hours setting up the display and grading all of the masks so it would all be ready when parents arrive at 7:30 am tomorrow.

Vol. 3, No. 115, April 25, 2018

3115 - Warm-Up Week 4.

This week’s Creative Sprint Warm-up prompt is to create something inspired by or using only the color green.  After school today, I went to my parent’s house to do laundry. When I walked in the door I saw my mom’s flowers from the play sitting on the counter, still wrapped in the plastic they came in. I decided to help her out and do a little flower arranging. When I got done, I had a large pile of green leaves sitting in front of me and decided to use them as my medium today. I carefully chose and ripped leaves to create parts for a frog. After pressing them for an hour or so, I assembled all of the leaves on the seat of a green chair.

Vol. 3, No. 114, April 24, 2018

3114 - Lines, Lines, LINES.

Lines are all around you and me, at least that’s how the song goes. My kindergarteners, first graders and second graders are learning about lines this week. We watched a cheesy, yet catchy, video on YouTube that talked about different kinds of lines and then practiced drawing 10 famous lines. They chose their favorite lines to draw on a paper that will be used as a blanket in an upcoming project. After drawing their lines with crayon, they painted their blankets with watercolors. I painted mine standing at the white board, thus the dripping paint.

Vol. 3, No. 113, April 23, 2018

3113 - Sketchy.

Today it was sunny and 70 degrees; there was no way I was going to stay inside. So I gathered up drawing boards, pencils, and paper and took my art club to the beach. I gave them specific instructions that they were to go no where near the water as there is still ice on the lake. We spent about 20 minutes doing a follow along sketch. We also folded paper airplanes and spent some time on the playground. One of the kids told me it was the best art day so far.

Vol. 3, No. 112, April 22, 2018

3112 - Last Rose.

Yesterday the show's Prima Ballerina's tutu got snagged and I had to cut off the loose piece. I saved the scrap to make her a small rose as a keepsake.

Vol. 3, No. 111, April 21, 2018

3111 - Last Minute.

It’s become a tradition that I create flowers for all of the kids participating in the Youth Theatre show.  Usually these flowers relate to the show in some way, like dandelions for Lion King and “wooden” flowers for Pinocchio. This year, I was stumped and couldn’t think of any kind of flower that matched the show, so I decided I was going to skip the flowers this year. Then today, during intermission of the matinee, I was trying to figure out what to do for my project. I saw a roll of tape on a table and decided to make a tape flower. Why stop at one when I can make 40 and give one to each kid. By intermission of the evening show, I had 40 small flowers and 1 large flower made. Most of the kids were very excited to get their flower.

Vol. 3, No. 110, April 20, 2018

3110 - Glittery.

In the last week and half, I have seen 10 groups of 3rd and 4th graders who were all working on Picasso Portraits. At this school, I didn't have glitter glue, so we did it the old fashioned way with white glue covered with glitter. Needless to say, my rooms are covered in glitter and probably will be for the rest of the year. When I finish with my last of the 10 classes today I swept up a pile of glitter off of the floor and used it as my drawing canvas. I drew in Drama Masks as this weekend is Dear Edwina. With my project out of the way, I am off to the show!

Vol. 3, No. 109, April 19, 2018

3109 - Waterfalls.

For the past two months, my fourth graders have been working on paper mache masks. Their masks were inspired by something in nature, an animal, plant or place. I decided to think a little outside of the box and make a waterfall for my example. Since they were finishing up this week, I decided to finish mine as well. This meant quickly painting and decorating my mask during class, in between dashes around the room to refill paint.

Vol. 3, No. 108, April 18, 2018

3108 - Broken.

Today, I ran around like crazy at school, then headed to the theater for an even crazier after-school performance. During the performance, the queen came to me to tell me that her crown had broken. So at the end of the show, I brought it home to fix it during my night off. However as I was heading home, I got invited over for Miller Time, which included pizza and their current family favorite movie, The Greatest Showman. While the company, pizza, and movie were great, it was after 9 by time I got home. So I quickly got out the hot glue gun to fix the crown and then decided to keep it simple and take a distorted picture of the crown and the queen’s jewelry. I used the flash and love how the picture has an ultrasound-like quality to it.

Vol. 3, No. 107, April 17, 2018

3107 - Final Flags.

Today I finished my last two flag beads. My countries of choice were Guyana and Ethiopia. They aren't my favorite beads, nor do they come with any interesting stories, but sometimes you just have to keep it simple.

Vol. 3, No. 106, April 16, 2018

3106 - Squished.

Today at art club, we did abstract, impressionist style paintings. We used droppers to put paint on to paper, then covered it with plastic wrap and squished the paint, mixing the colors together. It was an interesting experience, feeling the paint move under the plastic. I haven’t decided, but I might give the kids markers next time to create pictures in their paintings.

Vol. 3, No. 105, April 15, 2018

3105 - Warm-Up Week 3.

This week’s Creative Sprint Warm-Up Challenge was “Create Something inspired by what is above you.” This weekend in Minnesota, we had a blizzard, so when I went outside this morning in the hopes of making it to church, what was above me, below me, and all around me was snow. Yes, as I cleared the driveway, it continued to snow. When I was finally finished, I checked the clock only to realize I missed church. So, after a break, during which time the snow had slowed, almost stopping, I headed back out to play in the snow. Playing in the snow is a lot more fun when you have someone to share it with, so I got bored and thus only created a subpar sculpture. I was going to make a hand holding a street sign, but I switched halfway through to a snake. When I was looking at the picture of the finished product, I decided I should have stuck with the hand. However, at this point, my snow gear was soaked, so I had no intention of heading out again. Plus, the snow has picked up once more.

Vol. 3, No. 104, April 14, 2018

3104 - All Wrapped Up.

I was all wrapped up in a cozy blanket watching the snow fall when I remembered I had 10 presents that needed to be wrapped and bowed by Monday. The presents are the last of the props that I needed to prep for Dear Edwina. The show opens on Thursday and I didn’t want the wrapping to get wrecked before then, so we’ve just been practicing with plain boxes. The kids are anxiously awaiting the gift wrapped ones! This activity was a great way to use up odd scraps of wrapping paper that have gathered over the years.

Vol. 3, No. 103, April 13, 2018

3103 - Michaelangelo.

As I was doing my head demonstration today, a student piped up, "hey that looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!" Another said "Yeah, it looks like Michaelangelo!" Today's flag was from Burundi but I have to agree the bead does have a TMNT feel, more so before the white was added. Fun fact: Did you know each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is named after an Italian artist of the Renaissance?

Vol. 3, No. 102, April 12, 2018

3102 - More Fun With Flags.

Since I have to demo how to make a flag bead with each of my Third Grade classes, and it is hard to separate polymer clay once it has been stuck together, I decided to showcase my beads for the next 3 days. I had two third grade classes today, thus 2 new beads. The bead on the left is based off of the flag from Kenya and the bead on the right is from the Marshall Islands flag.

Vol. 3, No. 101, April 11, 2018

3101 - Fun With Flags.

My grade 3 students are making polymer clay pendant/bead this week. Each student was given a different flag. They had to look at their flag, observing the art elements including Line, Shape, Color, Value, and Space. They took parts from their observations and designed a bead. I designed this pendant based on the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Vol. 3, No. 100, April 10, 2018

3100 - Another Letter!

Some may call it cheating, I call it keeping it simple. I spent a large chunk of my time on Saturday and Sunday making envelopes and writing letters to use as props for Dear Edwina. The show is made up of different vignettes, each giving a solution to a problem that someone wrote to Edwina about. I needed 6 letters, each with a different envelope to make it easier to identify.

Vol. 3, No. 99, April 9, 2018

3099 - Warm-up Week 2.

This week's Creative Sprint Warm-up is "Create Something in the style of one of your favorite artists." As an art teacher, I have multiple favorite artists and I was having trouble deciding which one to focus on, and then I went to art club. Last week at art club, the kids started coloring transparency papers, and today we were cutting them into spirals to make chandeliers inspired by Dale Chihuly. After realizing that this project fit the warm-up challenge, I made sure to snap a picture before I left.

Vol. 3, No. 98, April 8, 2018

3098 - Pretty Plates.

I went back to the theater today to finish the plate so that it would be ready for rehearsal tomorrow. The show takes place in the 90’s, so I decided to use the pattern that was on the plates my family had growing up. When It was finished, I realized that the pattern should have been closer to the edge of the plate, but there wasn’t much I could do about that now, other than restart.

I finished the silverware yesterday, but I decided to include them in the picture as they complete the set.

Vol. 3, No. 97, April 7, 2018

3097 - White Out.

I had a project lined up for today, and had even started it, when I got a text saying that my final set/prop pieces for Dear Edwina were ready to be painted. Rather than putting it off like I wanted to, I went into school to paint. I was painting silverware and a plate for “Fork, Knife, Spoon”.  I. Got the two coats of black on everything and then left for a supper and tax break. It was about 9:45 pm when I returned. I had to spray the silverware silver, and then paint the front fo the plate. I checked the paints that I had available, a variety of random bright and dark colors. The only light neutrals were two small cans of white. Rather than dirty a paintbrush to clean out the cans, I used my gloved hands. The first can I poured on only to realize that it needed some mixing. So I got in there and did some finger painting, mixing and spreading as I went. It was a very odd feeling. I felt like Jackson Pollock as I poured on the second can of paint. I poured, shook, flicked and dripped paint around the plate. I wasn’t intending it to be my project, but when I was done applying the paint, it looked too cool not to take a picture and post it. After the picture, I used a roller to spread the paint out and then proceeded to accidentally get some silver spray paint on one edge. It looks neat, so I may just leave it.

Vol. 3, No. 96, April 6, 2018

3096 - Tulip Time.

Despite the cold temperature of 16 Degrees, I decided to take to the snow for my project again today. Inspired by a post I saw on Facebook earlier this week, when I got to work in Winsted this afternoon, I used watercolors to “Paint” the snow with some bright tulips. If it had been warmer I maybe would have done more, as it would have been neat to see the flowers lining the entire length of the school.

Vol. 3, No. 95, April 5, 2018

3095 - Think Spring!

It was a long day at school and an even longer night at play practice. I didn't have a chance to even think about making art for myself all day. When I finally  got home a little after 9, I saw the white canvas of snow to my right and my left, shining under my outside lights. I couldn't not stop and draw a picture. I chose a flower in the hopes of spring.

Vol. 3, No. 94, April 4, 2018

3094 - Warm-Up Week 1.

As a warm-up to the next Creative Sprint, which will be happening in May, I will be posting one project a week following weekly Creative sprint prompt. This week is: What does the cover of your autobiography look like?

I wasn’t sure what to do, but when I was dumping out leftover paints into the sink after art club on Monday, I was struck by the beauty of the splattered colors. Sometimes the clean-up mess after a project is better than the project itself. I quickly snapped a picture before the colors got too muddled. Then I began to ponder a title.

Today I decided was the day to complete my autobiography cover. After much pondering, aka staring at the picture, I discovered that it was complementary colors and where they mixed together, brown was made. This is one of the lessons I teach my students. Complementary colors are really pretty cool. When placed next to each other, they pop out; when mixed together, they are neutralized. It’s like life, sometimes you stand out and other times you blend in. The key to life is finding the balance between the two.

Vol. 3, No. 93, April 3, 2018

3093 - Finding Rainbows.

On this snowy spring day, we celebrate National Find A Rainbow Day. Knowing this day was coming up, I saved my art club project from yesterday to post today. Some may call this cheating, I call it keeping it simple. Anyways, at art club yesterday, we dropped liquid watercolors on our salt/glue drawings that I posted a few weeks ago. The students were given red, yellow, and blue paint so that when the colors bled together, they would form the secondary colors, thus creating rainbows. I started dropping colors on my cow for the demonstration and it was looking really good. Then a student asked to trade projects with me, because she didn’t like hers. She had struggled with the glue part and I could tell why she didn’t like it; however, always try to stay positive and convince students that their art is good. She wasn’t buying it, so I gave in and let her finish my project. The finished project is still pretty cool and has some nice rainbows; being in first grade though she didn’t have great control over the materials and got a little more color on the salt that I would have, causing darker, less rainbow like colors in some spots. The was happy with it, so that’s all that matters.

Vol. 3, No. 92, April 2, 2018

3092 - Talking Rocks.

Because we like to give our students a well-rounded art education, each year they get to make one clay project. In third grade that project is Talking Rocks. We talk about different types of rock art focusing on petroglyphs and pictographs. Then students form a rattle out of clay and create petroglyphs by carving their own symbols into the rock. Once it is fired, students add more unique symbols using pictographs, painted pictures on their rocks. Assuming they followed directions during the planning stage and created their own symbols inspired by their interests, the rock should tell the story of the artist.

My rock includes my symbols for Theater, Constalations, Art and Family.

Vol. 3, No. 91.1, April 1, 2018

3091.1 - April Fools.

While Easter is actually at my parent’s house and I do really have to set the table, I drew that picture yesterday and just saved it to post today. I am keeping it simple after all. But I couldn’t do nothing today. Inspired by something I saw on Instagram, I took an Easter staples, jellybeans and chocolate eggs, and used them as the bodies of little chicks, drawing in feet and beaks.

Vol. 3, No. 91, April 1, 2018

3091 - Setting The Table.

Happy Easter everyone! I thought about doing something Eastery again today, but I really wanted to get my drawings for Dear Edwina finished. Today’s drawing does fit what I am doing today as my parents are hosting the Hansen Family Easter Brunch at their house this year. This means that I get to help set the table and thanks to my involvement in the show and the song “Fork, Knife, Spoon” I know how to correctly set a table.