Mandalas

7th Graders this week have been learning about the Buddhist and Hindu tradition of Mandala making and what they symbolize and their deep significance within both religions.

We started off with a clip from the 2011 photo-documentary 'Samsara' which shows Tibetan Monks creating a sand mandala.

After we talked more about Mandalas I showed a second clip from the movie which shows the monks destroying the Mandala only moment after completion. Students were amazed and in awe to see the monks so easily destroy something beautiful, but understood that it was a sacred ceremony in their beliefs and traditions.

We started working on the project with a practice worksheet and as we started on that each student came up one by one to add to a class mandala on the whiteboard. Below is a stop-motion video I put together of each student coming up and adding to it during class time:

7th Grade students just began outline their Mandalas today and soon will begin coloring them in and finishing them up. Here are some pictures of the process:

More to come soon!

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới ! After a nice Tet holiday students are back in school and starting up some new projects in art class. 8th Grade students are just starting the first part of their drawing unit with their "Creative Value Scale" project.

This week students learned about different shading techniques and practiced pencil control to achieve different values. For the project they were challenged to create a composition which incorporates a 10 step value change within the drawing.

Once they finish their 10 values within the drawing it is up to them how they want to finish their artwork and they can use any materials they wish too. Here are some pictures of students working from this past week!

Keith Haring Symbolism Artwork

7th Grade students are nearing completion this week with their Keith Haring Symbolism group paintings. For this project, we started off by learning about the life and artwork of Keith Haring and his use of pictographs as a visual language within his artwork. His art was heavily loaded with symbols and imagery that told a story. We even compared some of his the vases he created to ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic sculptures and most students had trouble telling the two apart!

Egyptian Hieroglyphics                                                         Keith Haring Pictographs

                                      

For our first step, we discussed what symbols are and how we use them to represent things sometimes literally and sometimes for ideas and concepts. For example, a heart shape we may say is a literal symbol of a heart - but conceptually it represents the idea of love.Students were then challenged to create their own unique symbols which represented ideas and concepts that they would use in their artwork. We also warmed up each day by reversing the process with students challenged to create visual symbols for 4 different ideas I presented to them.

After we spent time creating symbols, students were put into groups of three and challenged to create a large size mural design incorporating symbols based around a theme the group agreed on. Here are some pictures of what they are working on in class so far! 

Students discussing their theme, ideas, symbols and beginning to draw out their plan

Next, we outlined with marker to to separate and finalize each symbol. After that we were ready to paint!

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!