Calvert Artwork at AIMS Conference!

The kids didn't have school today so that all Calvert teachers could attend the AIMS (Association of Independent Maryland Schools) Annual Conference downtown at the Convention Center. Each year, I reserve a space to display artwork from Calvert and this year was no exception! I noticed that there were far fewer schools who took the opportunity to exhibit this year, so I was extra proud to have Calvert's beautiful work up for all to see! Work is highlighted from both the Lower and Middle Schools and I always get a ton of compliments from other teachers about how impressive the work is... Here are some photos of our boards: 

 

 

Food Drive Success!

Thank you to all who participated by donating food this week to the Fall Fresh Food Drive! Erin Strom and I were the faculty leaders in the Lower and Middle Schools and we are so proud that we were able to collect and donate the amount of food we did in just a week's time. The Middle School collected 563.6 pounds and the Lower School collected 1,035 pounds, bringing Calvert's grand total to 1,598.6 pounds!!! INCREDIBLE!

As many of you know, this year we collected FRESH food for the first time. Food was delivered each day by parent volunteers (thank you!) to area schools designated as serving populations who live in our area's "food deserts" (neighborhoods that do not have access to affordable, fresh, healthy food; in most of these areas, large supermarkets have moved out, leaving only corner stores that focus on the sale of cheap, processed, packaged foods). The schools served as "pantries" for students, who excitedly brought the delicious fresh foods home to their families to enjoy. Below are some pictures from the week of students dressed as veggies and fruits to help promote the drive, and some of the boxes of fresh food prior to delivery. Thank you to everyone again for a VERY successful drive!

 

 

 

 

Glassblowing Field Trip!

My 8th grade class just returned from a field trip to McFadden Art Glass in Baltimore where we had an amazing time making blown glass pumpkins. The kids were involved in every step of the creation process and they had a terrific experience... We will most definitely be going back! We will be able to pickup the cooled pieces later (check back for pictures!), but here are some pics of the process- enjoy!

After molten glass was collected on the blow pipe from a giant furnace, the pipe was cooled in this nifty fountain to make handling it a little more comfortable:

 After a second gathering of glass, students gently rolled the glass onto colored glass frit of their choice (the pipe has to be turning the entire time so the glass doesn't plop off the end like dripping honey!):

 The glass is heated again so that the color can melt into the glass...:

and then Tim, the owner of the studio helped blow the first bit of air into the piece, before we rolled against this metal table to get it to a nice even shape:

 Then the glass is dropped into this star-shaped mold and blown into again, creating the textured pumpkin-like ribs:

Students then worked at the bench to shape the piece further and pinch it with these big tweezers to create the top (Tim is helping guide the tweezers as well as shielding some of the heat with the wooden paddle- it's HOT working so close to the glass!):

 Meanwhile, a friend is helping out at the end of the pipe by blowing additional air into it to make the pumpkin larger (also not as easy as it looks- you have to blow pretty hard and move from side to side while blowing since the pipe is constantly twirling):

  

At the same time, a new bit of glass has been gathered, rolled in colored frit and is heated by a friend- this small gather will become the stem of the pumpkin:

 The pumpkin is detached from the pipe and the stem is attached and twirled around:

The last step is to use a blowtorch to soften the sharp end of the stem and attach it to the pumpkin body! The pieces are put in an annealing oven overnight so they can slowly cool (cooling too fast = shattering glass!)

 Here we are before getting back on the bus to come back to school- no one wanted to leave!!!

Warm and Cool Portraits with Tesselations

In this “classic” Calvert project, sixth graders first created the backgrounds of their paintings by making tessellations- a special kind of design made from different patterns of repeating shapes called polygons (closed shapes that have three or more sides). In tessellation designs, congruent polygons fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces that repeat again and again- they could go on forever! Students painted their tessellation designs using either a warm or cool color scheme.

To create the portrait, students traced the light and dark areas of their faces using a projected digital photograph. Using the opposite warm or cool color scheme from their background, they painted their portrait, making sure their light and dark areas were highly contrasting:

 

Hockey Pics!

Here are a few photos from our home game against Park School yesterday. Park has a small team of mixed grades (6-8), so we had to split our 45 (!!!!) girls from both the A and B teams into four teams to each play a quarter of the game... It was chaotic but really fun, and we came out with a win. We have two more games this week- Tomorrow (Wed) at NDP and Thursday at home again vs. Bryn Mawr. Come out and show your support!

An Amazing Feat...

This week in Art History, we read about the genius Renaissance sculptor and painter, Michelangelo Buonarroti. After sketching a portion of the Creation of Adam from Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, students were challenged to lay on their backs under their tables to paint their piece. The point was so that students could begin to understand the challenges Michelangelo faced while he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel high up on a scaffolding (bending, reaching, aching neck, strained eyes, paint splattering down on him)... I think they really appreciate how TALENTED and patient he was. It took Michelangelo four and a half years- plus he had the added challenges of making his own paints, applying fresh plaster and painting the entire ceiling using the fresco technique, and a screaming angry Pope Julius to contend with down below!! Students were able to see some clips of the 1965 film "The Agony and the Ecstasy" to see the dynamics of the relationship between the artist and the "warrior Pope" as well.

Special Guest!

Today in 5th grade art class, Senora Menefee came to introduce the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday. The celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.

Senora Menefee explained that the origins of the modern Mexican holiday stem from indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl. In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures.

Skeletons and skulls ("calavera" in Spanish) are popular symbols of Dia de los Muertos, and are the inspiration of our next 5th grade art project. The girls are busy creating stylized skull designs of their own which will eventually be transferred to a printing plate and carved out!

Projects in Progress

Sixth Grade has been away at Echo Hill this entire week, so nothing to report for their Art and Art History classes... However, exciting things are happening in the other grades! No finished projects to share, but a lot of creativity is going on in the art room!

Fifth graders spent the week sculpting pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns from clay. They used plastic bowls as forms, filling them with coils of clay and then smoothing them out to create two matching half spheres. They scored the tops of the bowl shapes and put them together to create a round pumpkin shape. Now they are going to town cutting out faces, adding stems and accessories (yes, these pumpkins have accessories!!).

Seventh graders are knee deep in magazine clippings, tissue paper and other collage materials. After creating a line drawing of a still life, students divided the work into four sections. One section has been rendered in pencil, one in oil pastel and now students are using collage on the third (the fourth will be watercolor paint).

Eighth graders are still working on their Audubon inspired bird drawings and watercolor prints. Some students have begun the process of printing. More details to come when I post the final work, but here is a student pulling her print off the press...