For starters, it has been the time of 'magnet tours', which means that parents of hopeful future James Weldon Johnson Trojans have been popping into our classrooms to see what a day in the life is like. (Very fun, OBVI...)
In addition, I have FINALLY got the ball rolling with out Public Art mural projects and I could not be more excited about the fun new adventures that are right around the corner, holy COW! I will fill you guys in on dates that you can come out and volunteer to place your own personal touch on something permanent and inspiring right in the heart of our river city! This is happening, y'all!!!
In the classroom this month, we have been learning about the process of printmaking (quite an advanced Art practice just fyi), the "ism" of Pop Art, and good ol' folks like Andy Warhol and the like.
First, we talked about why certain objects and people are 'popular' and why other more mundane things are not (EX: Beyonce, Air Jordans, iPhones vs. my grandma, hiking boots, and say a cup of tea)
Next, we made our own lists of what we thought maybe ought to be popular and/ or put on a pedestal or Art gallery wall, and made rough draft thumbnails in our sketchbooks.
We talked about the importance of color during the Pop Art movement and how we could incorporate a similar use of bright, vibrant, borderline NEON color schemes into our own Pop Art prints and got to work.
The students created some pretty impressive prints, I must say.
We carved our final designs into our blocks (styrofoam plates) then 'inked' our plates (filled in with watercolor markers), and rubbed our paper into the blocks as many times as we could until we came up with at least four solid successful and clean colorful prints. Check out the completed pieces!!!
Like WOE.
This upcoming week, I will be posting the rubric for our big Artist Study Research Paper, so check back in by Friday for all the details. This is the ONLY homework my kids get ALL YEAR long.