Islamic Tile Design- Printmaking by 6th Grade

For the Muslim artist, reality begins with and centers around Allah (Arabic for God). Since only Allah can create life, the artist does not try to imitate nature, but concentrates instead on conveying what nature represents. So, almost all Islamic art is made up of complex abstract patterns that create a sense of unending repetition- another reminder that Allah's world is infinite.

Sixth graders are currently studying Islam in History/Geography. In the project, art students were inspired by Islamic art to create tile design prints. For Muslims, geometry reflects the language of the universe and all geometric patterns are developed within a circle, the symbol of unity. Sixth graders were challenged to create a radially symmetrical pattern on graph paper, which they transfered to a small printing block and printed with their choice of ink/paper color.

Here are a few photos of students in the process of printing their block:

Last LS Art Club :-(

Yesterday was the last meeting of my Fall/Winter Lower School Art Club. We spent 15 weeks together creating paintings, sculptures, prints and more and I will miss my little guys! Here's a picture I snapped right at the end of club yesterday before walking to the LS (four are missing... two were home sick and two left already to watch their big brothers' basketball game)- the kids are holding their completed rainsticks which they had a great time decorating!

The new session of LS Art Club begins February 12th- stay tuned!

Sweet Still Life

American painter Wayne Thiebaud is best known for his paintings of cakes, pies and other commonplace objects arranged as they might be seen in a bakery or cafeteria. Thiebaud uses thick brushstrokes to suggest the swirling textures of cake frosting and he often outlined his objects with lines of contrasting color; a technique which intensifies color, creating a vibrating "halo" effect. Thiebaud considered composition and point of view to be very important and he liked the simple geometric shapes of pies and cakes; he set them in precise arrangements in blank, open space. In this project, eighth graders were challenged to take familiar sweet treats and put them together in a visually pleasing composition. Inspired by Thiebaud, students emphasized the arrangement of objects, texture of paint, neutral or constrasting negative space, contrasting areas of light and shadow and the use of cast shadow to create mood and depth in their work. The results are simply sweet! (see art exhibit info in previous post)...

8th Grade Art Opening Feb. 4!!!

Eighth graders' paintings of cakes, pastries and other sweets inspired by my personal favorite artist, Wayne Thiebaud (his work at right), will be on display in the community January 28-February 18. I will post photos of the paintings as soon as possible, but wanted to invite everyone to the opening reception which will be held:

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 5:00pm (postponed one week due to snow) at Stone Mill Bakery at Greenspring Station.

Cupcakes, cookies and sodas will be served! Hope to see you there!

Making a Mess and Loving It!

Here are a few pictures of my LS art clubbers in the process of applying paper mache on their rainsticks last Thursday... they had a great time with the ooey gooey stuff! The week before, they carefully poked dozens of nails into the sides of paper towel tubes before filling them with beans and beads and sealing off the ends. After the paper mache dries, we'll be painting the rainsticks this Thursday!

Clay Canopic Jars

Canopic Jars were used by Ancient Egyptians during the mummification process to store organs for the after life. Each organ was stored in its own jar: The human head represented Imsety, who guarded the liver. The falcon head represented Qebehsenuef, who guarded the intestines. The jackal head represented Duamutef, who guarded the stomach. The baboon head represented Hapi, who guarded the lungs. Canopic jars were commonly made of limestone, pottery, wood or bronze and were normally placed together but kept separate from the mummified body.

Inspired by the canopic jars they saw on their field trip to the Walter’s Art Gallery, the fifth grade girls created their own canopic jars out of clay. Open at your own risk!

Warm Glass Dishes

"Warm" Glass, also known as "Fused" Glass, is the oldest method of glass-working techniques, dating back over 4000 years to the Egyptian and Persian and cultures. This process lies between the extremes of glass blowing ("hot" glass) and stained glass ("cold" glass).
The methods used to heat and reshape glass in an oven pre-date glassblowing by many centuries.

For the eighth graders, the process involved layering pieces of cut glass, glass "noodles and stringers" and powdered glass frit onto a chosen background piece of glass in an interesting compostion. The glass was loaded into the kiln and fired to temperatures between 1450 - 1600 degrees, fusing the pieces together. It then has to be cooled slowly to complete the annealing process. The typical cycle takes between 10 to 12 hours to fuse, with another 10 to12 hours to cool. Once fused, the pieces undergo a second firing in order to "slump" the pieces into a mold- this time it is fired it at lower temperature, usually 1200 - 1300 degrees. The entire process can take several days to complete a single work.

Layered glass pre-fuse and post-fuse:

Fused glass on a mold pre-slump and post-slump:

Finished piece in it's "dish" shape:

The eighth graders' completed pieces: