Our trip to Frederick Meijer Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids was a great way for students to experience three dimensional works of art outside of the classroom. The trip was supported by Michigan Youth Arts and the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs. A grant was awarded for the transportation of students to the park and an educational scholarship grant was also awarded for an admission discount. The many fundraisers and events that are hosted through the art department made this trip free of charge to all students who wished to participate. Students who wanted to attend were asked to write a one page research essay about the park and they included why they wanted to attend. As you can see from the photos below, it was a beautiful day for the trip! This year I presented a service learning project to all art students. Service learning is defined as a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Each art student was asked to create an original coloring page to be added to a full size coloring book. Twenty-five of these awesome books will be donated to the Oasis Women's Shelter in Cadillac. I am hoping to get local businesses to donate colored pencils and sharpeners for the donation as well There are over 100 pages included in the book. Artists who wanted a copy of the book were asked to pay fifty cents which went toward the binding of the donated books. Check out the clip below of the finished product! The end of the school year is close to an end, but that doesn't mean the art room is slowing down! We are still as busy as ever and I can't wait to share some end of the year projects with you soon. Below are some stand out works of art that students have recently turned in.
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Spring is here and that means the art room is full of energy! This is the time of year where days start blurring together with art exhibits, assemblies and field trips filling our days. Here is a glimpse at what we have been up to in the art room as well as some exciting upcoming events. This year eighth grade artists used a new technology tool in the art room to create their own stop motion animation videos. Students worked in groups and used a free app called PicPac or Stop Motion Video to create their own projects. Stop motion animation is animation that is captured one frame at time, with physical objects that are moved between frames. When you play back the sequence of images rapidly, it creates the illusion of movement. Some groups created scenery and used objects for their videos while others used themselves to create the movement. I loved seeing the creativity that came from this project. Ask your students to share their videos with you! I have included two fun examples below: Sixth and Seventh grade artists have been learning about fiber arts, artwork created with materials such as fabric or yarn. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labor on the part of the artist as part of the works' significance. Seventh graders learned how to sew felt creatures together and sixth graders created string art designs. Nine of our high school artists have their work on display at the Oliver Art Center in Frankfort! With close to 500 pieces of art, this is the biggest turnout the art center has have ever had for the Annual Regional Student Exhibition! Participating schools include: Frankfort, Benzie Central, Mesick, Onekama, Bear Lake, Interlochen, Traverse City Central and West. The opening Reception is Friday, April 14 from 5:00pm-7:00pm and the show will run through May 12th. Congratulations to the following artists who have work displayed at the show: Gracie Wheeler, Tanner Ford, Cora Sprick, Hannah Barnes, Elizabeth Hamilton, Stella Fiorini, Chris Manley, Joey Stewart and McKensey Kendall. One of my favorite events this time of year is our annual Trashion Show assembly. High school students (and a few adventurous middle school students!) have been creating outfits to be modeled down the runway during a school assembly. This may be the most creative year yet! Students are using old fur coats, umbrellas, balloons, cooking tins, cardboard, toilet paper, food wrappers, and numerous other unconventional materials to create their outfits. This is going to be a show you won't want to miss! Parents may sign in to the office and watch students hit the runway during the assembly next Friday April 21st. The show will be seventh hour so plan to be here at 2 pm to watch. If you can't make it, one of our Career Tech students in digital media will be creating a video and I will be sure to share the link with you when it's complete. Below are some images of the winning designs from 2016. Please mark your calendars for the 2017 Spring Arts Festival featuring the band collage concert, silent auction and art show. The event will be Thursday, April 27th from 6-8pm. The band silent auction will begin at 6:15 the concert starts at 7:00. Art students have been encouraged to display their favorite work of art from the year. This is a wonderful event to see our artists and musicians showcase their talent and I hope to see you there!
The annual Youth Art Show at Crooked Tree Art Gallery in Traverse City is currently on display through March 25th. We have eleven Mesick students with artwork exhibited and last Saturday Colin Cook was awarded an Honorable Mention for his photograph 'Loneliness'. Thank you to the families who were able to attend the opening reception and awards ceremony- it was so nice to see students getting inspired by the other artwork on display. The following students also have artwork on display at the show: Autumn Valentine, Jimmy Wall, Gracie Wheeler, Stella Fiorini, McKensey Kendall, Ella Harp, Gabe Parrish, Evan Brown, Alyia Carnahan, and Kaimen Bliss Last week, Gracie Wheeler and McKensey Kendall had artwork submitted to States. Artwork selected at States is chosen from over 500 pieces of art from students throughout the state of Michigan who have art teachers that are members of the Michigan Art Education Association. I am so excited to announce that McKensey's artwork titled 'Numinous' was chosen at State as a Top 100 high school work of art! We have been experimenting with a lot of different media, techniques and themes in the art room lately. Ninth graders just learned some fun techniques on how to draw a realistic human eye and eighth grade is currently working with clay. I am really impressed with the artwork that is being produced in the art room lately, enjoy the slideshow of some favorites below. Have a great spring break! With semester 2 starting, I have new groups of junior high students and new additions in the high school classes as well. We are already off and running with new projects. Last week I had seventh and eighth grades students experiment with interactive drawings. They had to create a simple drawing that interacted with the human world in a photograph. The results below are so much fun! Upcoming Pop Up Art Show and Fundraiser!I had a student express interest in a pop up art show so we have planned a fun event and fundraiser for Valentine's Day. On February 14th during the girls JV and Varsity Basketball game against Onekama, the art department will be hosting a Pop Up Art Show. Students in grades 6-12 are submitting artwork that falls in to the theme of 'LOVE'. The artwork will be on display in the commons during the game and we will also be having a fundraiser table with carnations, candy and heart magnets for sale. Each purchase will get you a ticket to vote for your favorite work of art that is on display. Winning artists will receive a prized. Please keep an eye on Facebook for more details! Many of you may have noticed or participated in the art supply drive at Family Dollar. I want to thank everyone who participated in the event. We received a very large donation from the store last week!
I can't believe that next Friday will be the end of first semester already! These past few months have flown by for me. We have been busy in the art room finishing up semester projects and focusing on our digital portfolios. Final exams include an artist statement and gallery of artwork on each student's portfolio so be sure to check out their websites after the semester ends to read about their self-reflections. As part of our Olweus Anti-Bullying program, eighth graders have been participating in weekly class meetings. Before break, our meeting focused on team building and group work. Students worked in a group to complete a challenge: each group had five pipe cleaners and one piece of foil. They had ten minutes to create something with the materials and I chose the groups who created the most creative, tallest and sturdiest structure. I think students had fun with the challenge and it was nice to see them work together in groups. Seventh hour students recently requested a boot camp on figure drawing. I don't think any of us realized just how much fun we were going to have with the activity. We spent three days on different types of figure drawing activities including drawing from models. Students enjoyed it so much they didn't want to clean up and stop! I Below are a few images of the activity.
We have been very busy in the art room during the past few weeks! Students have been working on projects, updating their blogs, critiquing artwork and getting ready for winter break. Below are the themes and artist connections we have been focusing on in class: 6th Grade: illustrated idioms, sculpture, Alberto Giacometti 7th Grade: architecture, printmaking, Frank Lloyd Wright 8th Grade: appropriation, colored pencil layering, Marcel DuChamp, Charles DeMuth Fundamentals: ceramics, street art, Adam Frew, graffiti history Exploring Art: history, guerrilla art, Mary Reid Kelley, Joshua Allen Harris Below are some highlights from class: As third hour students study Guerrilla art, they are working on a fun project called #mesickoutbreak. The goal of the project is to spread a little happiness throughout school by leaving anonymous, positive artwork and messages for students to find. See the flyer below or check out the class Facebook and Instagram page for details. With the success of the realistic hand turkey competition before break, I will be hosting an ugly Christmas sweater design competition this Friday for students to participate in. Classes will be voting for their favorite next Wednesday before break, be sure to check out the class Facebook page for the announcement of the winner!
Just a reminder that open studio will continue this week and then pick up again after break. Students are welcome to stay after school on Thursdays from 3-4:00 to work independently in the art room. Have a great winter break! I can't believe that December is already here! Time has been flying by in the art room. Before Thanksgiving break, high school students in third hour worked on a community art project by touching up the painted designs on the garage doors of the Mesick Rescue Squad. They did a great job sprucing up the colors to make the logos more visible. A special thank you to students who participated: Britney Nelson, Alyssa VanNatter, Jenny Deeren, Elizabeth Terry, Mitchell Johnson, Alyia Carnahan, Jimmy Wall, Gina Jasper-Pearson and Dakota Fick This year I started a new competition before Thanksgiving break by having students create a realistic hand turkey drawing. The results were hilarious and it will definitely become a tradition! The winner of the contest was Gracie Wheeler and Gina Jasper-Pearson came in second. I have had many students ask for additional time to work in the art room after school. Beginning December 1st, students will have the opportunity to drop into open studio time in the art room on Thursdays from 3-4pm. I am excited for this time as well because I am going to be working on my own personal artwork during the open studio time! This week students updated their blogs and below are the themes and artist connections we have been focusing on in class: 6th Grade: surrealism, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo 7th Grade: contour drawing, wire sculptures 8th Grade: abstract art, Picasso style characters Fundamentals: future, doodle for Google Exploring Art: future, doodle for Google Below are some highlights from class: Sometimes you just need to take a quick break and go viral. Mannequin challenges are everywhere lately so we jumped in on the trend. Enjoy the videos below, now it's your turn to take on the challenge! Wow! The past few weeks have been VERY BUSY! Between professional development, parent teacher conferences and the day off yesterday I feel like this month flew by. I want to thank everyone who was able to stop by during conferences and I want to give a special thank you to those who were able to donate classroom supplies, your generosity is greatly appreciated. Below is a fun video clip and gallery from seventh hour. Earlier this week we talked about portraits. Sometimes students cringe when they hear the word because they are not confident in their drawing ability. We did a fun warm up exercise with some blind contour partner drawing. A contour drawing is a continuous line drawing of an outline. For example, a contour drawing of a face would mean that the artist followed the outline of the face and features and drew the face without lifting their pencil from the paper. This is fun way to introduce the concept of drawing what you see versus what you think you see. We took it one step further and practiced some blind contour drawings, meaning the artist could not look at their paper while they drew. As you can see from the laughter in the video below, it was a really fun way to introduce the concept. I also want to congratulate Lyric Ervin on her winning entry to the Lion's Club Peace Poster Contest. The contest was open to art students in sixth or seventh grade. The theme was a 'Celebration of Peace'. Students had to create their artwork without using any words. The following students were awarded certificates at the school board meeting Monday night and Lyric's artwork will now travel to compete against other winning entries from our district: Evan Brown, Emma Blach, Emily Pike, Seth Maynard, Megan Manley, Aleena Bennett, Kaylee Carson, Shannyn Spencer, Emily Sabo, Owen Rogers, Keiana Bliss, Alex Jensen, Katelynn Sexton, Aaliyah McIlroy, Erin Sprick, Mia Roby, Kelsey Quiggin and Autumn Valentine. Below are the themes and artist connections we have been focusing on in class: 6th Grade: typography, focal points, Jake Weidmann, Keith Haring 7th Grade: perspective, folk art, Julian Beever, Grandma Moses 8th Grade: Op Art, pointillism, Bridget Riley, Georges Seurat Fundamentals: seven deadly sins, portraits, blind contour, selfies Exploring Art: reflections, notans, symbolism, Edvard Munch Below are some highlights from student work: This year a new fundraiser idea was put into action: a color party! Students collaborated with me to plan a fun after school event to raise money for the art room. The event was a big success! We had a photo booth station, face painting, custom t-shirt stenciling table, chalk art station, music and of course a COLOR WAR! Cups of colored powder were sold for $5 each to raise money for the art activity fund. This fund helps pay for field trip admission and transportation as well as art supplies that need to be purchased outside of the classroom budget. Thank you to everyone who helped volunteer and participate in this fun event! I have a feeling we will be planning another color party to celebrate the end of the year. Check out the video and photos below. Earlier this week in the classroom, we focused on the following themes and artist connections: 6th Grade: printmaking, collagraphs 7th Grade: portraits, half and half portrait drawing 8th Grade: emphasis, onomatopoeia art, Roy Lichtenstein Fundamentals: toy design, Jeff Koons Exploring Art: retro art design, pumpkin carving Below are some highlights from student work: |
Mrs. DeKett6-12 Art Teacher in Northern Michigan Archives
May 2017
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