rom the ARTISTS WORKSHOP

March is Youth Art Month. All the art teachers in the SAU select works to hang at the Exeter Town Hall. The exhibit is open weekends in March, noon to 4:00 each day.

EKES is represented by fifth grade art work done after the pouches were finished. They drew their project as part of their assessment of that project. The requirements were to fill the page visually, add color with either colored pencil or crayon, express the texture/pattern of the woven pouch, and, of course, sign the work. The students whose work met the requirements are on display at the Exeter Town Hall through March. They are Emerson MacBride, Sarah Ricker, Amanda Cook, Ryan Dixon, Christina Cashman, Conner Conti, Gabby Harrington, Jack LaBroad, Robert Berthel, Isabelle Rice, Eliza Friend, Isabel White, Ethan Cook, Max Keegan, Sarah McManus, Calvin Bork, Dylan Senter, and Amanda Varney.  The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays  through the 27^th; all are welcome. I always look for middle or high schoolers from EK whose work is included.

The upcoming exhibit at EKES will be the “gears project” which began on STEAM Day. Each student will be painting, coloring or collaging on a gear shape. These will be attached to a larger piece of paper to construct machines of our imaginations. They will be on display in April during the book fair and the two Wednesdays of parent conferences.

Presentations and discussions in art class have revolved around the differences of appreciating and creating 2- and 3-d art.  We built simple sculptures using blocks and drew quick sketches of them. A   peripheral component of this project is how groups within the class and the whole class work together to create objects. Two sculptors whose work is presented  at varied times during the 3-d work are Alexander Calder, http://www.calder.org/ and  Augustus St. Gaudens.http://www.nps.gov/saga/index.htm

I'm preparing the art work to go home tomorrow, Ma.11 with students' report cards. The works span all the types of art and all the themes - from hearts to monsters to overlapping lines of beeswax crayons on black paper. Parents get to see their child's work,
 I am privileged by seeing all of them.
I came across this article this morning and thought it fitting.
 http://clydegaw.blogspot.com/2016/03/teaching-for-artistic-behavior-is.html

  Students in grades K-4 will be bringing home art work this week. Some third and fourth graders have done small weaving projects. The fifth graders finished small polymer clay pots and items to bring home.

Other grades have done 2-dimensional work specifically to bring home to share with you. It shows what was important at that moment. Sometimes the picture in a child's work is hidden in the lines and colors on the paper and my look like scribbles. The thoughts or emotions are intermingled with the color, movement or energy of the work.

If I am unable to see a specific image, I ask " What were you thinking about when you did this? or "what do you see now ?" Sometimes a child's work doesn't look like anything recognizable to adults; a child may be creating an abstraction of sheer joy of using the media, or are self-editing because he/she has sensed that the art work they sometimes do isn't quite how they want it to look. It's not perfect, so not attempted.  But that does not imply that it is not an important work for that moment. That' s one of the things I like about teaching art, a creative expression is not what is represented by the artist but what it makes the viewer thinks about or question, and everyone's creative expression is different. My job as art teacher allows me to support the efforts, and direct work as appropriate for  each child.

Art Work To Go Home
We started working on the work to accompany the TM 2 report card on March 11. In honor of the beauty of the season, I shared Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" with Friday's classes. The illustrations are by Susan Jeffers.
Different groups engaged with different things: all knew snow angels. Then black papers as well as white were used to create whatever came to mind.

 https://www.google.com/search?q=stopping+by+woods+on+a+snowy+evening&espv=2&biw=1777&bih=887&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&pjf=1&ved=0ahUKEwilwvve5_TKAhUKTCYKHWLxB_cQ_AUIBygC&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=stopping+by+woods+on+a+snowy+evening+susan+jeffers

Fifth grade clay pots

 Everyone made a clay pot and will be painting them.  I showed  these samples:

slab pot

2 coil pots

slab - 2nd view

 

pinch pot - colored pencil

 

 

 

sketchbooks

This is the first time for Kindergarten to have art as a special. As a way of communicating some of what they do in art classes, their sketchbooks will be coming home Friday, Jan. 29. These contain varied sketches. There are pages of post-its for Museum Share. These are sketches of classmates’ work as we walk around and look at the work on display. The goal is to eventually be able to draw everyone’s work, but an individual’s pace will influence how many are seen and done. Writing classmate’s names was a challenge. I do little sketches also for my assessment, and listen to the conversations between students. You will also find pages “free draw”, and some thumbnail sketch pages where projects are planned.

WEAVING
Fifth graders have used and taken home their woven pouches. We have started additional pieces, and will be working on a communal project. I will display my Edwin Sulca tapestry, "Doblando El Posado". http://www.dreamweaverperu.com/index.html