My Last RES Art Night

   Yup, it's true.  Yesterday was my last Art Night at RES. After five years here at RES, September will find me teaching art full-time in Burlington at Edmunds Elementary.

Our artists are amazing. Our twice-annual Art Nights are incredibly well-attended, and this one did not disappoint!  Masses of people came to support this community's young artists.  Whole entourages of grandparents, siblings, and friends followed our youngsters as they proudly toured their artwork.  Every artist has three artworks in each art show, which means that in total there were around three hundred works by third and fourth graders on display last night!

Leaving RES was a difficult decision to say the least, as it remains true that I have never loved a job more than working here as Richmond's art teacher, and it is not innate to even consider leaving a job that you love.  Most of all, I love our students. Your students.  Their passion, curiosity, and excitement to learn new skills charges me up to teach each day.  Thank you for the privilege to work with them.

 I am humbled to work with such an excellent staff and supportive families.  It truly makes me sad to be thinking of leaving those things, for as you know, they are not a given in all schools.  This choice will be closer to home for me.

Here is the video compilation of the grade 3 puppet shows, which you may have seen last night in the art room.  Artists created their own characters then worked in groups to write and perform original stories.

Parents and families, thank you very much to all of you for supporting arts in this building.  I believe firmly that the arts program here is in a very excellent place, and whoever has the chance to carry it forward will be in a great position to work with your amazing young artists.  It stands without saying that I will miss RES very much, and hope, when my new schedule allows, to visit you here.

Mmm! Wayne Thiebaud-inspired Desserts! RES

There are few artists who inspire the sense of urgent longing in the viewer like the phenomenal Wayne Thiebaud.  His work makes the viewer drool, sometimes literally, for the things we want.

Wayne Thiebaud, "Four Ice Cream Cones," 1964, oil on canvas via www.acquavellagalleries.com

His work often seems to comment on our consumerist culture and drive to have more all of the time, but when you look at this work with third graders, that's not what most of them see- they see YUM.

Wayne Thiebaud, "Ten Candies," 2000, pastel on paper via www.acquavellagalleries.com

Which is fine.  Because I want some too.  That's what's so amazing about Thiebaud- if it is the mark of a good artist to create an intense emotional reaction in the viewer, then Thiebaud is a genius.

3rd grade painted paper collage

That was one focus of this project with third grade artists here at RES- Can you design an artwork that makes people really want something?  How can you use color, details, textures, and design elements to create that feeling in your viewer?

Lick, quick!

 Those marvelously watery backgrounds behind the collages were done with a partner. Each pair had a very wet piece of paper on top of which they collaged tissue paper pieces. After that, the tissue papers were doused in water, and another piece of paper was sandwiched on top of the tissue paper.

Toasting marshmallows?!  Take me to your s'mores!

The next part was very silly and fun. Partners put their artwork on the floor, and took off their socks and shoes to step all over their soggy paper/tissue/paper sandwiches. They stepped gently, no twisting (wet paper is fragile!) to transfer the colors to each paper.

You had me at eclairs

The two papers were carefully peeled apart, and the tissue paper, mostly relieved of its dye, was discarded.  The result is a pair of mirror image backgrounds, one for each partner. From there, the work goes in independent directions.

Those cones.

 If you try this project, buy the cheapest, crummiest tissue paper you can. If it is too well made, the color doesn't bleed and the results will be wholly disappointing.

Popsicle, doughnut, cupcake, cotton candy

After brainstorming a list of possible subjects as a class, students made painted community papers to be shared by not only the whole class, but the whole third grade.  We experimented with color mixing, textures, and patterns that can be achieved in painted papers, and the way that a paper one person envisions being perfect for a strawberry might be just as perfect for someone else's cupcake.

One out of five people is crying about their ice cream right now.

Students could choose to draw on the back of the painted papers if they needed to plan and size an object to cut, but the challenge was for the end product to not show any pencil.

Salted french fries. Who said these had to be sweet?

These have really come out pretty marvelously. 

 All of the tiny details make all of the difference. 

Life is short- now that you are drooling, go ahead and make yourself a treat!

Families and Creative Behavior (Happy Mother's Day!)

A shout out to my mom, who let me make make a mess, and who let me mess up a lot.

A five-year-old Kindergarten me.

You are your child's most important teacher.  I am a firm believer that if creative areas of school (offered to students by teachers) are going to have any effect on the child, they must be supported at home by families.  The article cited here states that “Families of creative children allow their children to make their own mistakes, with the apparent understanding that through flexibility and freedom the child can learn to correct and overcome mistakes.”

Flexible thinking is an enormous part of creativity, and creative growth is the reason that I often insist upon permanent materials and only one piece of paper for a project, asking students to build creativity through flexible thinking about their mistakes. But students see me for only forty minutes per week, and they see you much more.

Creativity is difficult to measure or prove. It is a tough skill to teach. Steve Jobs said  that "creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things."

Which is where moms (and other parenting figures too!) come in.
Go ahead and let your child lose track of time in a daydream.
Foster inquiry and let your child try new experiences.
Allow them to take risks, fail, and work out their own solutions.


Keep on growing confident and creative kids!  Happy Mother's Day!

A Playful Playground

A few posts ago I mentioned having been very productive over my Spring vacation.  My big personal project dates back to December, when my city felled several large trees near our home.  It was my birthday. It was sleeting off and on. So, naturally, I borrowed a chain saw and worked with my family to haul home my treasures.

I am sure I looked ridiculous rolling two enormous hollow logs down the sidewalk, but I had a vision, and it involved tunnels. Unfortunately, that vision had to wait all winter for the ground to thaw to come to fruition. 

A little playground!

It was a serendipitous day, the Friday of my April vacation.  My kids and I had no plans for the day, a local tree company had a truck around corner full of wood chips they were willing to drop off right then when I called, and the ground was warm. 

Balance beam

 So, with lots of shoveling, cutting, raking, and around seventy wheelbarrows full of wood chips, I created a playground for my kids.

Steps, tunnels, and teeter-totter

Being a person who loves color, I couldn't help but add other touches that made the playground a little more fun aesthetically.

Bumblebee v. ladybug tic-tac-toe

Using wood carving tools, I removed enough space from this log internally to store all of the game pieces, plus a few extra.  The bugs are little pieces of painted driftwood.  There are two little seats for the players, and the game is in the shade of a large lilac.

Instant flower planter

Adding garden compost + soil to a couple hollow log slices made instant planters for flowers.

Teeter-totter physics

My son spent quite a while the first day checking to see where he could stand perfectly in balance with varying numbers of bricks. Because for this boy, life is a science experiment waiting to happen.

Isn't that little yellow slide sort of, well, ugly bright compared to the rest of the space? The kids love it, so to integrate it a little better I added lots more color.

Painted teeter totter + painted steps + a little colorful birdhouse really brightened things up.  

And just today, I finally put in some flowers.

So there it is, one of the loveliest products of my time off. 

Arguably, however, the loveliest product of all is seeing the kids playing on it. 

(They are currently working on figuring out how to bike over the teeter-totter.  Wish me luck.)

Springtime at the Sewing Table- RES

Back in March, I created a sewing table for the art room. Each month, we are working in different themes that allow artists across all of the school's grade levels to all participate in the activity. April's sewing table theme was "Springtime."

Flowers, grass, and a big ol' sun.

Artists had a terrific time meshing their ideas, adding to or finishing the work of others, and trying new stitches.  We have ended up with this fantastic screen that has no single "right way" from which to view it.

Each month the screen will be removed, and a backing/edging will be added so that it can be displayed in the art room or the hallway. New screen will be added to the table.

Two very different flowers

It has been wonderful to watch these artists help one another thread needles, tie knots, undo tangles, and teach one another sewing basics.  The results are lovely- some artists used tiny, tight stitches while others used long loose lines. Barns, streams, flowers, leaves, and grass come together in the project to showcase the season.

In May, we will focus on architecture, and will attempt to sew a city!  Stay tuned.

Landscape Magic- RES

Okay, let's get this out of the way: 

Why are these landscapes magical? 

 Because my first graders understand, and can paint, light on an object. What?!

Ka-pow! Look at that light.

 I have been on a mission to work backwards from my own assumptions about age, skill, and capacity to understand complex techniques and concepts in art. Every time I dare to think to myself maybe that's a bit old for them... I cut myself off with So why not try it? What are you afraid of?

Hello. I am a first grader. And I just painted this.

It's a complex thing to ask myself- how can I create a lesson that is simultaneously accessible for all, challenges all levels, builds room for creativity, and teaches something, well, sort of brave.

That mountain range.  I want to be standing in this picture, right now. Like Mary Poppins.

This lesson began with talking about the sky, and light. How can you tell what time of day it is in the sky by just the light and colors?  No stars, no sun, no moon.  And how can you show the weather, or the temperature, without props like clouds and rain?

Deep stormy colors, darkest towards the top.

 Students began by thinking about how to show a specific time of day by considering where the light would be coming from and what that light might do to colors.  On the first day of this project, students used masking tape to retain white paper for a few trees to come later, while they watercolor painted a sky without stars, suns, or moons.

Deep dark night

In the second class, we looked at how light is cast on objects, and using their bodies to look at light and shadow, first graders determined that whichever side is closest to the light is brightest.  They noted that the same was true of objects around the art room- the darker side was not facing the light source.

Painting the trunks

See the brightness in the sky at the lower right of the picture above? Therefore the right sides of her tree trunks are a lighter tint than the left sides, which are facing away from her suggested light source.

Bright blue afternoon

Students learned to blend tints and shade for the tree trunks, and, using a different brush, to stipple for the leaves or needles of the tree. They considered where their light source would be, without showing it- and creating a painting where the trees show us the light, instead of the moon/sun/stars.

That deep dark night, now with cool moonlit trees.

By the end of the second class, students had accomplished what might seem (okay, to me) like a ridiculous feat- suggesting a light source within their landscape. In the nighttime picture above, we can see that the artist is showing that the trees are lit from a light source to the right of the frame.

Adding mountains, wind, vines, etc.

 During the third class, first grade artists used oil pastels to add details to the landscape, focusing on elements of nature in the world around us in Vermont- mountains (which are still snow-capped), flowers, water, animals, etc. 

"Look,  I added a fallen tree!"

This project offered plenty of space for students to create work at their own level, and adding whatever details in a landscape they found most appealing.

"It's the start of sunset when the sky is still a little blue.

It's very clear that these are Vermont artists. 

How many first graders have seen the Northern Lights? 

"I made the Northern Lights!" Aurora Borealis as viewed from that little cabin on the right.

Just remember for a second- these are painted by six and seven-year-olds. These artists continue to surprise and amaze me with their grasp of concepts and ability to execute a vision.

Trees and flowers awash with sunset glow.

Just one more.  It has a bunny, so I think you'll love it, too.

Those are some ears. And that wind! Love.

Leather Cuff Bracelets- RES

A few weeks ago, a parent asked me if she could donate some fabric.  As an art teacher, I get tons of fabric donations, but rarely the type on offer- dense, strong upholstery fabric in consistent sizes. But the real stunner of the donation was a giant pile of beautiful leather samples from a furniture store.  Now, the RES art room does not actually have any leather working tools, but that's not going to stop me.

Project materials and samples

No awl? No leather punch? 

Okay, we have hammers and nails. And we have scissors.  

And we have both time and persistence. 

It's always a good time to use real tools.

Now, the holes are a mite small, even with large nails, and we do wish we had real tools for leather working, but unless a donation comes down from the art gods, it isn't going to happen this year. 

Finished beauties

But look at what students made!   Leather tools or not, these hip leather cuff bracelets are pretty rad.

Making them was a fairly simple process. I needed a one-period project that would allow a handful of students to finish up their tessellations from before vacation, and making leather cuffs fit perfectly into our time frame.

Students used paint pens (like DecoColor or Sharpie Paint) to draw designs on the smooth side of the leather.  

 A hole was punched at each end to insert leather cording. The cording I made just by cutting very thin strips from the leather samples, but you can buy it on a roll also.

On the ends of the cord we put a bead to keep it from pulling back through the hole, and then tied a knot to hold the bead.  This technique makes the cuffs highly adjustable in size.  To wear it, you just tie the two ends together.

Looks amazing with that henna!

Most students created a pattern, but there were no specifics given about what or how the artist should design the cuff. The long narrow form, however, lent itself well to repetition.

The metallic sheen is a silver paint pen.

Students really enjoyed making these, and have asked to have the opportunity to do them again if we have time at the end of the year. If you have any leather-working tools collecting dust in your basement, please consider donating them to these excited artists!

So cool, right?  I want an armful.

What could we do with real leather lunches and awls that we cannot do with nails?  Most leather working projects require the holes be pre-punched to be able to sew an edge, like for a leather pouch, as a standard sewing needle stands no chance of going through tough hide, so tools meant for this job would make it much easier for whole classes to accomplish.

Check out that long double-wrap cuff.

It's so satisfying to make artwork that is tangible, wearable, and cool.  

If you have any great ideas for leather projects RES artists might enjoy, please share them!