What I've been up to lately...

Hello everyone! I realize it's been a while since I last posted.  During the school year, my blogging can become less frequent while I am involved in teaching.  The school year has been busy, but wonderful.  My students have completed several great assignments this year.

Just to give you a little glimpse into some of what I do during the day, here's a look into a recent assignment from my classroom.  Studio Art students, which is mostly (but not all) 9th graders, and Advanced Studio students, which is the next level after Studio Art, recently completed artwork inspired by the pop art movement.  Classes looked at artwork by Andy Warhol, especially his Campbell's Soup Cans.  They also were introduced to Wayne Thiebaud's paintings of food.

Students in both class levels were asked to bring in non-perishable food items to paint pictures of, so that they could work from observation instead of photographs.  In today's digital age, students are all too familiar with just turning to Google for pictures, so it is always good to practice drawing and painting from observation.

Studio Art students painted on approximately 8"x10" pieces of scrap mat board, while Advanced Studio students worked much larger, with the option of painting on canvas if they brought one in.  The result was a variety of very colorful paintings of cans, boxes and tins of food.  Below you can see a few photos by some of my Advanced Studio students.  In total, between all of the classes, my students created 71 paintings of food items.

At the completion of the assignment, the classes then donated all of the food items that we collected to the local food pantry.  Not only did the students get to practice valuable art skills, but they were also able to contribute to their community.