Ceramics Studio Field Trip!

Yesterday afternoon I took my art club on a field trip to The Overland Club Ceramics Studio in District 1 where they got to experience the ceramic making process first hand. A lot of them had never worked with clay before so we started with the basics of a coil making and students had a blast. Here are a few pictures from the field trip!

After some instruction students were ready to get started on their projects! They began by making a circular slab for the base and began adding coils.

Once our ceramics pieces were built we were ready to add our glaze

Overland was such a great experience for all of us - it was fun for me too to be able to teach some ceramics as well for the first time in quite a while. Before we even began cleaning up all the students were asking to go back again soon!

Right now, we are just waiting for Overland to fire our pieces so they are finished ceramic pieces. When we get them I will take pictures and share soon!

8th Grade - Zentangles!

This week 8th graders are nearing the final steps of our Zentangle group project. If you don't know what a zentangle is - it is a newer style of free-form doodling that uses repetition, pattern and rhythm. The idea is to approach a zentangle without a pre-meditated plan and keep the pen moving spontaneously creating different patterns within each given space.

For some students, seeing zentangles looked overwhelming at first. So to take the pressure off and give us a little practice we started with a thumbnail sketch sheet where students were challenged to fill 16 boxes each with it's own free-form doodle.

After we felt more comfortable creating zentangles, we split into groups of 4 and created a symmetrical design that we would fill with zentangles. Students collaborated their ideas together and once they agreed upon their design divided a large sheet of paper into fourths and laid out their plan.

 Working towards our final piece involves a lot of collaboration and communication while simultaneously allowing independent work. Where each individual students section met with another they had to work together to create a zentangle which in the end creates a balanced, united and seamless composition.

Some groups are just beginning the final step of this project of mixing paints to fill in the negative space around the zentangle. Last year I did zentangles simply on a sheet of A4 and last semester I switched it up by adding in the additional elements of design, symmetry and color mixing. The students seem to really respond well to it and are excited to work on it and proud of their final project. The only thing I need to figure out now is what to do when they all want to take the finished piece home for themselves. Within the next week these should be finished up and I'm excited to show off the final artwork!

6th Grade - Romero Britto Projects!

"Darth Vader"
By Romero Britto

6th graders this week are coming close to wrapping up on our Romero Britto Pop Art projects! For this project, we discussed what makes something a part of pop culture and the way it influenced and inspired what we be called 'Pop Art'.  Romero Britto grew up in Brazil in poverty and made art with anything he could get his hands on. It wasn't until he was found by chance and selected as a featured artist on the Absolut companies bottles he was recognized. Today, he is an internationally known artist.

For this project we created our own artworks inspired by Romero Britto's unique style and things from pop culture the students love. We started by discussing pattern, repetition and rhythm in artwork and then brainstormed different patterns. Next, we sketched out our idea and divided up our images into difference sections and spaces. After that we started plugging in different patterns with marker to create our composition.

Here are some pictures of students working on their projects from this week!

New classes, new year

Just two weeks ago marked the start of the second semester and the start of a new set of students taking art class. After getting to know each other and settling themselves into their new class, we are coming close to wrapping up our first projects in all three grades! The students are all excited to be back in art and I have a lot of great lessons lined up for them this semester. Already, I can tell these students are going to be as talented and hardworking as the ones I had last semester. 

Very soon I will post some pictures of in progress projects to show off what they are working on! 

Welcome 2 my blog!

Hello internet and welcome 2 my blog! Allow me to introduce myself..

My name is Bill Vaughn, I am 25 years old and grew up in New York where I graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a degree in Art Education and a concentration in drawing and painting. Today, I am currently living in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam where I  teach at the American International School.

So why am I adding to the seemingly endless streams of blogs that keep popping up left and right these days? For starters, I have the privilege of teaching an exceptionally wonderful and talented group of students here in Vietnam. No seriously, these kids never cease to impress me with what they make and come up with in my art room. First and foremost, they deserve this blog. They deserve as many outlets as possible to show off and display all the hard work they do in here. Simultaneously, it will give parents a chance to see what's happening in art and stay up to date being that I selfishly hold all the student artwork until the end of the semester for the school's Art Festival.

Primarily, this blog is about my students. Secondly, I will use it to share some stories and my own artwork with the AIS community and to anyone who gets around to reading along.

Thanks for reading!