Artist of the Week 2/14/18

Last week I recognized two young women from the third grade as Artists of the Week for completing their dot paintings inspired by art works made by the Australian Aborigines. These paintings, like many artworks (and many things in life), take time to do a quality job. When we look around our school, it’s easy to see that all students work at different paces, and that’s natural, but what is important is that we do our best work and are persistent. Persistent means we keep trying until our work is finished. For this reason there are many 3rd graders who still have more to do to complete their paintings, which is fine, because they are doing quality, careful, work and their results are fantastic. Today I want to recognize a young man from Mrs. Levesque’s 3rd Grade Class. He chose very nice colors to use for his painting. You will see the yellow that he chose to color his koala bear and tree really stands out against his red and blue background! When you look at his work it easy to see that he was focused on finishing, but also careful to do a quality job! Nice work Lawson M.!

Artist of the Week 2/7/18

Third Graders have been studying the art of the Australian Aborigines. Australian Aborigines are the people native to the continent of Australia. Some of their ancient artworks are still found carved into the rocky hills of Australia, but today the aboriginal artists make their artworks on bark, paper, and canvas. The subject matter of their paintings often still represents animals that are found in Australia, especially marsupials like the kangaroo, wallaby, and wombat. One technique Australian Aborigines use is carefully placed dots of paint to create their compositions. Third graders have been experimenting with this technique too! Two very artistic young women got into this painting quickly and have had great results! They’ve worked so efficiently that they even were able to help each other and others in their class. I would like to recognize Deidre H. and Leah T. from Mr. Dean’s class. Nice work you two!

Artist of the Week 1/31/18

 On occasion, when I feel like 2 students worked together, or were influenced by each other, I will recognize them both as Artist of the Week. Here we again look at two examples of work created by arranging Geometric Shapes (shapes that have rules) to create Abstract Portraits (an abstract work focusing on the face). Both of these 5th grade students have impressed me many times with the art works they create. One of these students makes most things school related look easy. He always does careful, quality work when working on assignments in the art room. The other student often impresses me with his sense of design and how he often uses abstract patterns and shapes to make a project his own. From the start of this assignment I used one of these two students’ work to show how he created a very interesting balance to his piece by arranging his shapes almost (but not quite) Symmetrically. The other student, upon taking time to really appreciate his classmate’s work, decided to start over and create an abstract portrait that displays true Symmetry. I has been a great pleasure to watch these two young men learn from each other in the art room and I have been waiting for the right moment to recognize them both as Artist of the Week.   Nice job A. S. and C. M. in Mrs. Wheeler’s 5th Grade Class!

Artist Of The Week 1/24/2018

This week’s artist of the week is very kind, super helpful, and always makes quality artwork. I have seen her grow over the years and I am always impressed by how she reaches out to students who might be having trouble in the art room. Last week I suffered a mild concussion from an ice skating accident. (Make sure you wear your helmets folks!) When I got back to school Wednesday morning I was very curious to see the notes that the substitute teacher had left for me. Fifth Grade classes were asked to work on a project that they had started previously. We are learning about Geometric Shapes, or “shapes that have rules.” We reviewed some of the Abstract Portraits painted by Pablo Picasso, and then 5th Grade students were asked to create a portrait using only Geometric Shapes! Now, this student didn’t exactly follow the instructions, because her picture isn’t actually a portrait, but that’s ok sometimes in Art Class. She did do a careful job tracing her shapes, coloring them in, and using the whole page. She also made me chuckle by creating an expression of surprise on her Geometric Figure at the center of her composition. Nice work Madison B. in 5 Hoskins!

2nd Artist of the Week 1/12/18

We are going to do things a little differently this week and recognize a student artist this Friday, 1/12/18. I want you all to be aware that we are losing to really awesome young women artists because they are moving to Montana. Riley St. Pierre has been recognized twice for her artworks, a flying fox princess, and a flying paper dragon sculpture. I want to take a moment to recognize her little sister Morgan, known as “Mo” in the art room. Mo has serious drawing skills. She has been working on an ambitious painting in Enrichment Art. The concept, or idea, of her painting is very cool! Mo carefully studied Leonardo D’Vinci’s famous portrait, “The Mona Lisa”. She then used her imagination to put Princess Peach, from the Super Mario Bros. video game, into a similar pose and placed the princess in an environment that includes other characters from the game. She just finished her painting yesterday and I want you to all take a moment to look at it. I put it up across from the entrance to the cafeteria. Awesome job Mo! and best of luck to both sisters on there journey to there new home in beautiful and exciting Montana!

Artist Of The Week 1/10/18

Today I am choosing to recognize a student in Ms. Newkirk’s 3rd Grade class. I noticed her interest in art almost immediately when she entered my classroom. This student is an accomplished artist and has already developed her own style. She shares a fondness for foxes with many of our students, and these furry animals find their way into many of her drawings. She has also started a paper mache fox in Enrichment Art and created this Flying Arctic Fox   in our make up “Free Day” for students who missed out before our Holiday Break due to the early release. Her classroom teacher even told me that this student plans to give an art lesson to her 3rd grade class in future weeks. Amazing! Nice work Ada B!

Artist of the Week 1/3/2018

It has been a tradition in the FMS Art Room to have a day of free exploration of various crafts on the week before the holiday break since the days when I shared my responsibilities at FMS with WCS teacher Laura Devin. This allows students to create gifts and cards for their family and/or create art in a less structured way, and in interest areas of their choice. It is a fun and sometimes hectic day, and each student must do their part to exercise patience, share resources, and advocate for their needs, both for materials and my assistance. There truly were so many awesome art works created this week. Please see examples here. I may have said to more than one student that I was so impressed that they may be the new years first Artist of the Week. When the dust settled and the art room was put back together I looked through the photos I took of students work. I thought about originality, craftsmanship, the ability to work well with others, and work independently. I chose to recognize Charles T. in Ms. Phippen’s 4th Grade for his boat, complete with sail and sailor, that really floats (we tested it in the sink)! Nice work!