Okay, before we move on I have to give a major shout out to the square canvas creators, because this one is a big deal ...
Every county in the country has to be visited by the National Accreditation board every few years just to make sure we are maintaining and upholding a certain standard of excellence in our public education systems. When these accreditation folks show up to each county, they 'randomly' select a few schools to visit and walk through their campuses and even sit in and observe select classes.
Well, this year, Duval County was one of those counties visited by the board. The school board finds this out months in advance and all administrators are immediately on edge. The DCPS Art Specialist selected three art teachers from Duval to highlight student artwork as a welcome gift for the board members. Of course, since the JWJ artists are such rock stars, we were chosen as one of those three schools. (For real though! This was a major honor to have been chosen!!!)
The board members were given gift bags with certain items in them that represented Jacksonville and Duval County in particular, and our county art specialist thought that including an original piece of student artwork would be a nice touch to contribute in these gift bags. The task was to have the students paint on small square canvases a visual interpretation of what they love about their county. These guys knocked this one out of the water, y'all, and I could not be more proud of their incredible work. Check out their canvases for yourself, and tell me you don't agree!!!
Can you recognize any of these locations and epic views of our city? These young artists did such a great job with their renderings of familiar places and landmarks around Duval County that I am certain every board member was equally pleased and excited with these authentic welcome gifts. I sort of wish the students could get their work back ... On the other hand, though, I did make them all sign their names on the back of their canvas, so ... who knows ... Maybe one day, one of these brilliant creative geniuses becomes a famous artist and then those board members will REALLY be happy to have received them! |
One of my favorite events of the year is the statewide art teacher conference (dorky, but it's TRUE!)
A four day weekend camped out in a hotel with by hundreds of other art teachers from all around Florida sharing their lesson plans, inspiring new ideas, wearing the brightest, most art teachery outfits you can imagine, and taking hands on art workshops back to back til we drop. It's awesome!!!
This year, I focused my schedule on workshops that I could implement into cross- curricular projects so that my art students are constantly reminded how important art is, and that it truly is incorporated into EVERY other core subject class they will ever take in school. It's TRUE!!!
Art teachers have the best workshops and conferences of any other career I could ever imagine!
Back in the classroom, we began with an old school scientific process of making photographs called anthotypes.
Using spinach as our emulsion base (you can also use flower petals, berries, and other items found in nature to create this emulsion, how cool!) we started by coating our papers and letting them dry.
Then, we went on a little 'field trip' around campus and brought our cell phones with us to use as cameras for our own creative self-portraits working with a partner or in small groups.
Students were to directed find different angles, search for interesting backgrounds and unique textures, and just get deeper into what makes for a more authentic image. We are going for a new look in the self- portrait that everyone hasn't already seen a million times if ya catch my drift.
And boy, oh boy, did we have a ton of fun doing so! (We may have broken the student code of conduct by having our cell phones out (oooops, so sorry!), but these results are well worth it! :)
Students selected their strongest image from our field trip, and were given the option of creating a second 'off-campus' selfie in a background of their choosing. Take a look at what they came up with!
I could keep going and going and going with these, but we must stay on track ...
Our next step was to print out our 'experimental selfies' onto black and white printer paper using an ink jet printer. (Must be ink jet otherwise this step would not work.) Then we cover our printed portraits with two layers of cheap packaging tape (the cheaper, the better with this process!)
After covering our portraits with packing tape, we soak them in a bucket of water overnight, allowing for the transfer process to take full effect. The next day, we were able to take the selfies out of the water, and remove the paper backing, leaving the ink on the tape to create our very own hand-made piece of film negative to work from! The students loved this part of the process!
The final step to this project is to place our tape film transfers onto our dried spinach emulsion papers and place outside in the sun to expose. Now, we sit back, and wait for the magic to happen!
I don't know about yous guys, but the suspense is killin me! (Oh, and Drake and Blue Steel, too, ha!)
Okay, so the last thing I gotta to drop on y'all in this post is the excitement building up over the second annual event we are a part of called "Color Me Kona" because it's almost here!!!
https://www.colormekona.com/
The JWJ artists are playing some pretty major artistic role this year. We have four skateboard barricade murals being painted, two booth/ tents where we will be teaching the public, a 150 foot fence streamer installation, and assistant positions for professional artists on site. HOLY WOW!!!
Please stop by my room or contact me to sign up for volunteer shifts or just find out more information about all the details. This is going to be even more epic than last year, y'all. Ahhhhhh!