I Wanna Be Like Mike(langelo)

We completed several art activities this week related to our study of Michelangelo in Art History class that were a lot of fun! On Tuesday, students laid on their backs under their tables to understand the challenges Michelangelo faced while he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (bending, reaching, aching neck, strained eyes, paint splattering down on him)... I think they really appreciate how TALENTED these artists were:

On Wednesday, students got to see how heavy and bulky real marble carving tools are (Ms. Marlowe has a set) and then did a small carving of their own with small modeling tools and a bar of Ivory soap. Again, it's not as easy as it seems to make a sculpture (like Michelangelo's David) from a block of something, even soft soap!

How did Renaissance sculptors create such magnificent forms from raw hunks of stone? Here is one technique they used:

1. Make skteches to see how the figures will be placed

2. Carve small wax or clay models of the sculpture to see how it looks in 3 dimensions

3. Lay the wax or clay figure lengthwise in a long vat of water that completely covers the model

4. Lower the water level little by little. The parts of the model that appear first are the parts you carve first on the stone. Eventually, the form seems to release itself from the marble...

Portraits in Pencil After M.C. Escher (1943)

Seventh graders completed their M.C. Escher inspired self portraits this week and they are the first project on display in the MS! To create thier portraits, students used the grid method to draw the contour lines of their portrait from a digital photograph. After erasing their grid lines, students used drawing pencils to shade their portraits- impressive!







Here a few of those "before" portraits (pre-instruction)... the girls have come a LONG way!

"Whirled Peace"

Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation project started in 2005 by two Florida art teachers as a way for students to express their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives. The project was quickly embraced by their students and the entire school community and by millions of art teachers, teachers, parents, children and adults who desire peace in our world. In 2008, over 2 million pinwheels were spinning in over 3,000 locations around the world!

In advisory this year, all middle school art students created pinwheels for the project. On one side, students wrote their thoughts about peace / tolerance/ living in harmony with others, and on the other, they drew to visually express their feelings. This past Monday, Septeember 21, was International Day of Peace, so we installed the pinwheels (about 175 of them) outside as a public statement and art exhibit/installation. The spinning of the pinwheels in the wind spread thoughts and feelings about peace throughout the country, the world!

Discovering Da Vinci & Mona Madness

This week, 6th graders are learning about Leonardo Da Vinci (check out their Mirror Handwriting activity posted on Wednesday). We learned about how in his lifetime, Leonardo produced thousands of pages of notes, ideas and sketches of plants, animals, the human body, people, canals, contact lenses, bridges, parachutes, inventions, war machines and more. He was particularly interested in the way things worked. In class yesterday, 6th graders created sketches of 'gadgets' in the style of DaVinci. They carefully observed how the items (a pasta maker, cheese mill, hand mixer and clay press) operate, drew them and took notes (backwards or course) about how they work: Today, we read more about some of Leonardo's most famous paintings- the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. Did you know that Da Vinci carried the Mona Lisa with him until his death, working on it the whole time? Did you know that a single whispy brush stroke makes up her eyebrow (or lack thereof)? Did you know that the painting was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and was missing for two years until the thief tried to sell it in Italy? After reading all about it, students stepped into the role of Mona herself, using my Halloween costume from last year! Check out these "enigmatic smiles"...

Prints, Prints and More Prints

Fifth graders spent the day Thursday making their first series of prints and they had a BLAST! Today (Friday), we'll be creating handmade dyed papers to print on next week.


I installed a laundry line across the art room this year just for the purpose of hanging smaller wet artwork. Last year, we laid the prints on the floor in the back of the room, but this is working MUCH better!

The ladies are proud of their prints!

First Critique of the Year

We had a critique yesterday in 7th grade art class, which means we all walked down to the dance studio (a pretty, empty space with big walls and nice light), put our works in progress on the wall and talked about them. Critiques are really helpful for middle schoolers (well, all artists really) because they have the opportunity to take a step back from their work and see it from a new perspective. Students receive praise from their peers as well as suggestions on how to improve their work. Often, they get ideas from looking at the successful parts of others' work too, or notice things that they overlooked before.

After we discussed all of the work, we had about 15 minutes to go back to the art room to work. You can see how some of the portraits are coming along- impressive, huh?!?

This Week's Happenings

Here's a picture from each of my classes this week so you can see what we're up to (except 7th grade- stay tuned for a post on their project tomorrow)...

Fifth graders are just finishing their relief carvings of stylized animals. Today they learned how to create a print from their carved plate, and tomorrow most of them will be on the printing step. This student is working on her carving:

Sixth graders are working on the two part "pop portrait" project. While they work on painting their tesselation backgrounds, I have been calling them up one at a time to trace the light and dark areas of a projected digital picture of themselves. Here's one student at work on her tracing:

Sixth grade Art Historians were introduced to the "Renaissance Man" himself, Leonardo Da Vinci. We learned that Da Vinci wrote all of his notes, questions and ideas in his notebooks using backward handwriting. Leonardo wrote from right to left, so you need a mirror to read his writing (and you need to know Italian!). We tried writing in mirror handwriting ourselves in class:

In eighth grade this week, the last of the students had their faces preserved for all eternity in plaster. Here's a goofy picture of the four shower-capped subjects beforehand: