What's the Big Idea?

News from the 21^st C. Art Room

This year we are continuing to explore things that art can do.  We want our 21^st century students to understand that art plays a role in everyday life. 

We are looking at art as a way to creatively express ourselves in relation to the many layers of our lives: our feelings, our identity, culture, society, environment and imagination. 

Students at Brown and Hoffman Trails Elementary will be taking this journey together through the collaboration of Rachel Murdock and Stacey Peters, art teachers at Brown and Hoffman Trails, respectively. 

We think that this will be a way to get students to think critically about art, its purpose and why we create art. 

This year we will cover three areas in depth:

§  Feelings - Art can express how we feel.

§  Identity - Art can show who we are.

§  Culture – Art can change how we live.

First, we will explore how art can communicate how we feel. 

First grade will explore color and feeling through the help of chameleons, who express their feelings by changing color.

Second grade will express feelings through movement and dance and show the relationship between the feeling of the music and the art they create.

Third grade will look at feelings shown in self-portraits through expressions and the artist’s style before creating their own self-portraits.

Fourth grade will respond to music through creating expressive skies and trees.

Fifth grade will identify things in their life that have a positive impact on their feelings.  Their mixed media art will give you a glimpse of what they live for, laugh at and love.

We are excited to find new ways to utilize our new technology in the art room.  Using the ELMO (a document camera) students can see live and recorded demonstrations on the big screen.  They can share their work with the class or with students at the other school. 

Using the wireless SMART slate, students can interact with what is on the screen while in their seats, which keeps students engaged in the presentation of new information. 

We are looking forward to our journey this year. If you would like to be a part of our year, volunteer in the art room!

Stacey Peters (Hoffman Trails)            

Rachel Murdock (Brown)                                       

ZENTANGLES!

To start the school year, grades 1-5 have been exploring the world of Zentangles! We learned that zentangles are complex patterns and inspiration to make them can be found anywhere. The name came from combining the idea of relaxation and allowing ideas to come to you (zen) with the idea to mix and intertwine (tangle).  We brainstormed where artists might get their ideas for patterns and decided that the best inspiration can be found right before us! We looked for patterns in architecture, animals, plants, and more! Some patterns, like tiger stripes, were familiar; others, like the walls found in plants cells (cellular patterns) or the patterns found in cauliflower (fractal patterns) were something totally new!

We have been creating beautiful zentangles using the first letter of our first name. These will be the covers of our sketchbooks.  We plan to re-visit zentangles throughout the year.

For more information on zentangles, check out this site.

OHSK8 Show

Over the weekend, I attended the opening of OHSK8, a hand painted skateboard show. There were boards done by many local artists-- me included! Check them out!