hello there

Welcome back to the art room! It has been a great start to the new school year already and I'm looking forward to sharing the creativity of our young artists with you.

what I did on my summer vacation

I am so excited to share what I have been working on over the summer with my students and can't wait to hear what they have been up to! I started making a new body of art inspired by a snowy landscape photograph of my great grandfather's. While it was 110 degrees outside, my mind was in the deep of German winters. I also sent a few cabinet of curiosities inspired textile pieces to a gallery exhibition in Berlin. You could say that I had worked with my naturalist intelligence just as much as spatial intelligence this summer!



My family also hiked up a mountain (3800ft) in Virginia along the Appalachian Trail. While the view at the top was stunning, I also enjoyed the tiny wonders along the way, like this miniature forest of moss sporophytes.



We went to Virginia for a week so that I could participate in a philosophy workshop called Little Big Minds. I explored some wonderful ways to use philosophy in the classroom using art, music, poetry, and discussion from the author of Little Big Minds, Marietta McCarty and am so excited to bring this to the art room this year. The philosophy workshop and our mountain hike inspired me to reread a few naturalist books from my bookshelf when I got back. I highly suggest reading these together!





Please share your summer adventures!

art and diversity

You probably have noticed school supplies on sale everywhere and it's nearly time for me to order supplies for the art room! This reminded me of something surprising I came across with the last batch of art supplies that still resonates with me. I ordered Sax Paint for our 6th grade diversity project and discovered that unfortunately the paint labeled flesh wasn't the flesh color for many of my students.



We discussed this quite a bit and decided to write the manufacturer/seller a letter and document the process. You can read a portion of our letter and the response we got below. Meanwhile, the students became expert skin tone paint mixers!

I bought the Sax acrylic paint sets this year for my students to use for self portraits. Included in the set is a paint tube color labeled flesh. The problem is that it's not actually the flesh color for all of our students. We enjoy a diverse population of students at our school and my students were curious why this would be labeled as a flesh color when it isn't the flesh color for so many of us. The students thought that perhaps a more appropriate name for the paint might be peach!

Thank you for your consideration. I know my students would love to get a response back soon before the school year ends.

Response:
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I can promise you we meant no disrespect. I am contacting our supplier to see if we can have the name changed on our next production run and I will be updating our digitized catalog and website.

This upcoming year we are very fortunate to be working with some high quality Golden Open acrylic paint (love this stuff!) generously donated by Artmart, a Saint Louis art supply store. Check them out if you haven't made a visit yet, they do wonderful community work and shopping there will make you feel like a kid in a candy store!

second grade fireworks

We had a lovely time at our neighborhood 4th of July celebration last night and it reminded me of a fireworks inspired project from our second grade artists earlier in the year.



We took a look at the art of Cai Guo-Qiang, a contemporary artist from China. His signature art is based on “explosion events” that use gun powder as a drawing tool. The second graders observed that he is interested in things that are both beautiful and ugly/dangerous at the same time.



Cai is the artist that choreographed the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony fireworks show. His art inspired the second grade artists to make their own fireworks using the design elements of line and color. They made a mark of their choice and then repeated it concentrically while overlapping designs. I always enjoy watching them approach this algorithm in their own unique way. Enjoy the fireworks!

fifth grade photography

The fifth grade sponsored an art sale featuring their photography on some beautifully printed post cards from MOO at the school picnic. Our first art sale was such a success we nearly sold out of art post cards! The money raised from the sale of over 400 art cards will go to help offset the cost of printing but most importantly this sale helped our young photographers see that their art is valued and appreciated. Thank you to everyone who came by to support the fifth grade artists!



The fifth grade artists were asked how they might use photography to reflect their place in the world. Photography relates in many ways to the 5th grade theme of Perspectives and was used to help them observe, reflect, and communicate, with a focus on visual literacy. This was the first year I taught digital photography to fifth grade and I couldn't be more impressed with their work but what I loved seeing most was the intimacy and respect fostered through the use photography.













Special thanks to NCS parent and artist Jen Schmidt for her book recommendation that set me on the right path: I Wanna Take Me a Picture by Wendy Ewald.