GrAfFiTi ArT!

Kids have a fascination with graffiti. I think it's a combination of the expressiveness, the outlandishness of it, to the mystique of "teaching" it ~ is she really going to encourage private property defacement? By the time there were walls, people were writing on them; from the caves of Lascaux to the modern day defacement of property. Graffiti style has taken hold and has become mainstream so why not embrace it and take the opportunity to educate children on the history and the respectful use of the art form?

In my last week's summer art camp graffiti class we focused on the history of graffiti in America and the ability to draw in a bold and simplified manner. The kids produced personal and stunning work with creative lettering that incorporated the basics of perspective and isometric drawing. We worked on both small scale personal work and large scale murals emphasizing community & collaboration.

Piet Mondrian

Patterns, lines, & shapes all with the goal of creating visual balance is what we've been working on the last few weeks. We used a combination of markers and watercolors then finished it off with gluing black strips of paper to separate the grid. Crayola makes some beautiful colors in their watercolor paints that seem to last a bit longer than some other brands. The end result was really nice.

When the students are finished I encourage them to help others. This collaboration usually yields happier students.
 

Community Quilt

The second graders at my placement are a bit more challenging than all of the other grades. They are beginning to assert their independence and test their boundaries with each other. My mentor teacher was going to be out for a day and I had to come up with a one day project quick. I really wanted something that would be a group project so they could practice working as a group and give them more of a sense of community while still giving them freedom of expression and personal choice. I also wanted to incorporate some math and history. So, I went out looking for ideas and came across this paper quilt project.

This turned out to be the perfect project and one of the kids all time favorite. We had been working on creating patterns in the previous project and talked about how we see patterns in nature as well as our behavior so the goal was to create their own patterns within the given framework of the three sections the protractor created on each quarter square.

The kids got more and more excited as they saw their community quilt come together. They worked harder, got along, and praised each other for the good work they were doing. Afterwards, I took photos of each "quilting bee's" quilt and laminated miniature versions of them to hand out to each one of the kids.

This did only take one class period and it had me gluing and pasting like a mad woman! You'll notice that I messed up the combinations in the first two ~ but, by the last class I was more careful and put it together correctly.

The Wild & Crazy World of Architecture

At the elementary school where I am currently student teaching, I was asked to teach an after school class on architecture. The class is comprised of ten kids ranging in age from 2nd to 5th grade. After chatting briefly about their interest in architecture I showed them a quick Prezi presentation on some unconventional architecture for inspiration. Various well- and lesser-known architects' work was featured as well as some finalists from a futuristic skyscraper competition. This really got them excited. For our first project, the kids sketched a cityscape from their imagination based upon the style of James Rizzi from a lesson plan that I found here. Due to their different developmental stages and interests, I gave them a bit more freedom of choice in their colors and design elements than this lesson indicates. A few completed the project so we'll finish up this week and move on to other elements of an architect's job. Here are the completed ones:

At work on their projects:

Easter Egg Experiment ~ Natural Dyes

The end result:  very natural looking!

Happy Easter! This year we decided to have a little bit of an experiment with using natural dyes right out of the frig and pantry. Having recently finished a handmade paper project dyed with food such as spinach and beets with my second graders, I was ready to move on to dying eggs. I came across an article on natural dyes for Easter Eggs here that intrigued me with the use of coffee grinds and red cabbage. So, my stepson (and partner in crime in all creative endeavors) and I chose coffee grounds, red cabbage, turmeric, & beets seen below:

Boiling for 15 minutes first to release the color; then add eggs for minimum 30 minutes or until desired color is achieved.

Boiling beets

 

 

Rubberband wrapped eggs

The biggest surprise was that the red cabbage actually turned the eggs a deep teal blue! What was also unexpected was that the beets only turned the eggs a pale peach with small spots of pink. I ended up leaving the eggs in the water all night because after 45 minutes of boiling, they still were very pale in color (although the red cabbage eggs were a lovely shade of a bright robin eggs blue at that time). In the morning, the coffee grounds did turn the shell a strong brown although the color seemed to flake off more easily than the other colors. All of the eggs seemed to have a crystallized finish to them.

Next year; silk-dyed tie eggs!

Sunday Love

Menswear Dog!

Sunday Love

Love Bites

Happy Easter

My good friend, Glo, made these beautiful Easter eggs for her family. I wish she lived here in Colorado instead of Atlanta so we could make things together. She's a talented graphic artist, seamstress, an incredible cook, and has been inspiration to me since I met her twenty-five years ago. Aren't the eggs gorgeous?

Clean Rusticity

This home was designed by the talented Russel Groves. Although filled with wood beams and stone, the simple furniture and the clean lines of the light fixtures make this home very livable without an overwhelming feel of "mountain" ~ very nice.