A Peek inside the Art room

This is a picture of my Art room today. We are looking at the idea of story telling and students are telling their stories!

The students love to tell their stories and the Kindergarten students are quite detailed in their art work!

This is where I put all my samples for the students to see...

Today we looked at the Painting "Christ in the Carpenter's Shop" and talked about the story in the artwork, it was a lot of fun!

Metaphoric Self Portrait Collage

This artwork is from a class project. The goal was to create a metaphoric self-portrait. We also had to use symbolism to tell about ourselves. 

Metaphoric Self-Portrait
Danica Papali

            I thought a lot about making a traditional collage but then decided to base the piece primarily on a painting style that I feel depicts me. The main theme is a struggle a between structure and divergence. I have chosen warm colored energetic and loose frenetic brushstrokes move about in many different directions as the background of my work it symbolize my disorganized and vibrant past. I wanted to show the layers of personality so I used thick brush strokes and color to indicate multiple layers. I have a tendency to move about in many different directions and get excited about many different ideas. Creative excitement can become very consuming and I often find that I am going in so many directions that I am unable to reach the place where I can have the freedom to fully enjoy creativity. The curve of the work the drastic turn in my artistic life when I realized I found my life calling. The cool blue section of the work shows the efforts I am making to move upward with a calm singular focus. My ideal is that will be able to use my talents and abilities to be an encouragement to others while doing what I love. When the painting was completed I digitized the art and worked on the collage in Adobe Illustrator. I used symbols that are major themes in my life; the Chinese flag indicates my love for travel as well as a major catalyst in life. The tropical fish and Spanish cross allude to my upbringing in South Florida. The paintbrush is a large part of my life. Hindi and Arabic characters, speak of my travels to India and marriage between East and West. The verse has been and continues to be a guiding force in my life as it leads my decisions it continues to bring me through adventures, love, and travels.

Art Teacher Humor

Stroke Survivor Creates!

This artist suffered a severe stroke and unable to speak he used paintings to communicate to his wife. Amazing! www.harryteague.com/index.html

Visual Thinking Strategies in Early Learning

http://www.vtshome.org/

 I tried Visual thinking strategies today with the 3 year old studentshttp://vimeo.com/9678152 The students reviewed the painting: Christ in the Carpenter's Shop John Everett Millais 1849-1850 I was intrigued by the insight of 3 year olds!

Chinese New Year and Curriculum Integration

Pictures to follow soon!!

I have currently been able to link art and other curriculum in some minor ways this year. Most homeroom classes at my school teach about Chinese New Year so I have incorporated a Chinese New Year Unit into the Art curriculum by having each class create a different piece of art from Asian cultures that celebrate Chinese New Year. I was excited to teach a bit about China in the Art room as I had taught in China and speak conversational Mandarin. Students learned to count and use a few mandarin phrases.

Each class studied a different cultural object from China in Art class and worked on a project. I tried to focus on objects that were very common in Mainland China but not so commonly seen in Chinese New Year classroom curriculum. During the creation phase students listened to music from the Beijing Opera and traditional Chinese Er Hu. Chinese Pinyin songs were also played students were surprised to hear all the different sounds. The Elementary art students studied images of Chinese schools and pictures from China. They talked about the differences in daily life and asked a lot of questions about the pictures. 

I hung a display in the hall that included English writing projects from my previous teaching experience in China. Students were interested to see my work from my pupils living in China. I featured writing assignments from my Chinese, Japanese, and Korean student their essays and art that described daily life in China and featured art and handwriting. 

A hall sized banner of Ancient Hanyu (writing) characters illustrate the way that pictures rather than letters form ideas in Hanyu. The banner integrated with the religion classes by breaking down 6 characters that illustrate ancient chinese knowledge of biblical account of creation as explained by Dr. E Nelsons & Dr. G. Tong Chock.

Art Projects:

PK- Tea Paintings

K- Asian Paper Bateek

1st- Dragon Puppets & Class collaborative dragon

2nd- Wei Fang Paper Kites

3rd- Asian Kirigami

4th- Clay Beijing Opera Masks

The 5th Grade teacher went the extra mile, she taught a unit on Japanese Haiku which students created their own Haiku writing piece students chose an appropriate Sumi Brush stroke project. I explained that in Asia there are often 3 core art lessons daily, Calligraphy, Traditional Painting, and Craft. Students learned the basic brush holds and pressures painted gorgeous works which the homeroom teacher will frame and display.

Jacob Lawrence/Narrative Art Project Post

Jacob Lawrence/Narrative Art Project Post

This assignment was to be patterned after the narrative style of Jacob Lawrence:

The goal of the piece is to tell a story and show your place in the family. 

The piece has a lot of movement and color shows a picture of our family at the holidays in our home in South Florida. This painting is a watercolor painting that was outlined in black marker. I chose to place my father as the central figure in the piece and everyone surrounding him.  My sisters are facing each other and my mother is off to the side. The dinner table is centrally located in the art. I chose a vibrant linear style reminiscent of Jacob Lawrence yet the colors are lighter.

This scene could have taken place in our home on any winter night. One of my dad’s favorite things to do after putting up lights and cleaning the house was to blast Hawaiian inspired Christmas music and swing on the hammock with us. This shows the birth order. I was a middle child, my two older sisters were always together doing something together and in this case it is hula dancing. I am on the hammock with my dad and little sister, as I usually played with her the most. I am holding my trusty blanket that I carried around for far too many years.

The pool and the dinner table occupied a large portion of the scene. We always had a large family dinner each night and spent many hours in the pool through the year. We spent lots of time together in our yard that looked very much like a well-manicured jungle. We had a good childhood and loved holiday times when the work was put away and we were able to enjoy time relaxing together.

Adolescent Journey Artist Statement: Door Themes

Adolescent Journey Artist Statement

The adolescent journey began with a watercolor background. I chose vibrant watercolors to render my journey, as people often tell me that I have a zest for life.  Sentimental objects were placed on top of the painting. Lastly, I digitized the work and added a meaningful song lyric to the piece. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s I heard the bells on Christmas day has a rich history and personal significance to me.

The work is divided between East and West it shows my journey from the West to the East. The backdrop of my life has the traditional European double cross door, our family heritage is historically European. 

The hibiscus was from a trip to Haiti. The vacation to Haiti was my first experience of international travel. My father is a member of the Gideons International and always has bibles to give away. The Haitian people realized that my dad had bibles; they left their market stalls and swarmed him begging for bibles. I realized that Americans take our heritage and freedom for granted. I want to be able to offer people in the third world an opportunity that we often take for granted.

The brushes stand for my love of painting and Art. The charm is from my high school graduation; the rings are from my 16^th birthday and undergraduate graduation. The red Chinese door 

opens to welcome me from the West to the East; the pearls symbolize the connection of people and cultures through language. The pearls are important as I actually learned much of my Mandarin Chinese from pearl shopping. The Chinese clouds in the image symbolize heaven and are reminiscent of the beautiful Temple of Heaven in Beijing. 

The Eastern side of the piece shows a traditional door from Kerala, India and symbolizes traditional family values of Kerala, my husband’s native home.  The book is Arabic and is a symbol of my father-in-law’s career that placed his family in Saudi Arabia for twenty years. Saudi Arabia is pivotal, as it is the place where his family embraced Christ.  The book also represents education, which was the link that brought my husband Victor from East to West.  The eastern door opens to the traditional Kerala style cross oil lamp; this lamp was used at our wedding in India. The dowry necklace surrounds the lamp and shows love and acceptance of our parents. 

The wedding rings center on the cross as Christ binds us in love. The fire was lit at our Indian wedding to join two families. The Spanish tile signifies a step up in my career. Teaching Spanish helped me to gain a full time job that enabled me to teach Art.  The Spanish tile charm was an art and cultural advocacy piece that my classes created last year and it shows my love for language and cultures.

The element that most typifies my character is water. My path of life is a winding blue river of water. The river flows past areas of growth and blessings symbolized by flowering plants on the banks. The grey area is a major theme in life; we really never know where life will lead us. Uncertainty is often imposing but the creator will always remain in the front and center of my life career as an artist and teacher.

My Childhood Artists Narrative Inspired by the work of Gustav Klimt

THE NARRATIVE: This week I thought about the narratives of children and the important in the moments of childhood. I contemplated readings about the ideas that the adult world has for children. Adults run ragged trying to provide what is needed; yet children understand that simplicity and imagination is fantastic. I brainstormed ideas about my childhood, which typically involved water. I decided to depict a summer day at the pool where diving sticks, buckets, and goggles provided hours of fun. My sister and I would fill buckets with air, and then force them under the table inside our pool. The buckets perfect for our secret underwater conversations.

THE ART: I chose Gustav Klimt my style does tend to have swirling movements and I was immediately drawn to Gustav Klimt’s tree of life. I wanted to show a fantastical world of seclusion, peace, and imagination that I felt as a child in the pool.  I wanted to depict my underwater world as separate from the adult world above and its cares of going, and doing. The style of Klimt is bejeweled, and playful, perfect for a fanciful underwater scene. I used watercolors to achieve an ethereal quality.

THE PROCESS: I started with pencil thumbnail sketches on business cards. I chose a sketch enlarged it and printed it out. I used a marker to thicken and simplify the line. I decided to eliminate most of the lines then I re-printed the image and painted right on top of the laser printout. I repeated this layering process of painting and printing 15 times.

THE COMPLETION: I started adding small amounts of swirling acrylic paint on top of the prints until it looked painterly. I decided that I was finished, but the composition had shifted. The world above was on the diagonal and my position was now more centered. This “happy accident” was the finishing touch. The world above was out of line with its rushing about, but I was perfectly placed in my underwater seclusion.