Inocente

This post is long overdue, but I was recently reminded of a great movie short I saw back in March.  Inocente tells the story of a brave teenage girl who struggles through difficult life circumstances by making art.  First, as an art educator with a foundation in social justice, I appreciate that this story illustrates the power of art.  Second, as an artist, I greatly admire her talent and work ethic.  She is an inspiration for her artistic vision as well as her strong will. I was not surprised to learn Inocente won the Oscar for best documentary short!

4 years down

Our Mural! The finished product- not too shabby!

The school year finally ended!  We wrapped up classes last week and prepped our rooms for the summer.  It was a great founding year at Capital City middle school and it is hard to summarize all my feelings about this past year.  I will be taking a break from the blog this summer but will leave you this lovely portrait my student drew on the last day of class.  It is me and him parting ways.  Happy Summer!

A pretty flattering portrait

"Oh my God, can you believe we made this?"

The 8th graders are amazed at how their hard work is paying off.  We still have a few final steps to go but they are certainly impressed with themselves. 

A meeting of two worlds

Free Minds came to Capital City for on On the Same Page event as part of the 7th grade humanities expedition.  It was amazing.

I am a huge Free Minds supporter but have never actually seen them in action during On the Same Page and it was pure magic.  Tara, the executive director, started by talking about "Glen" the founding Free Minds member.  Next were the guys sharing their stories mixed with poetry reading.  The guys were so engaging and open that they had every student staring and listening in amazement.  The students were encouraged to read along in their literary journals and I saw students who "don't read" with their eyes glued to the page.  Students opened their minds and shared some deep thoughts on poetry and meaning as well.  It was truly amazing to see the power of a positive male role model.

At the end of the session together, we shared a toast for change (from Freedom Writers Diary) where all of the students received a champagne glass with sparkling cider and made a toast saying what they would change about the world or themselves.  After hearing the guys tell them how important school is,  many students made a pledge to take school more seriously.  The students have been buzzing about the visit ever since and continually ask my about my experience working at the jail and beg me to ask the guys back.  It was an amazing experience.  I hope to have them come to school for PD next year to talk about the school and prison pipeline.

One Million Bones: TODAY!

One Million Bones public art exhibit opens TODAY!  Some CCPCS students and teachers are going down to the mall today to install the bones.  The exhibit will be up all weekend and you can find a schedule of events by going to the website.  Go down to the mall to support peace and celebrate the work of my students!

You can read by previous post about this project here.

Mural Progress

We are making some serious progress on the mural!!!  We are hoping to get it nearly finished today so on Monday we can stretch it and sign it and call it a day!  Looking good, no?

Leaving a Legacy: the beginning

The mural begins!  One section of 8th graders has been working on a very special project - a piece of public art for the middle school.  As the first "graduating class" from the middle school, this work has a lot of meaning.  

This project began with students looking at 38 different mural examples from around the city.  Next we watched and discussed 5 short videos showing the purpose and meaning of murals as well as practically how they are made.  Then each student submitted a design and we voted on our top 5 favorites, had a critique and developed a design "team" of the 5 strongest artists to combine all the ideas into one final design.  While the design team was busy at work, the rest of the students divided into the "supply & inventory" team that assessed the cost and supplies needed to complete the mural, the "fundraising" team who generated ideas of how to receive money and supply donations to make our mural, and the "presentation" team who worked on developing a catchy commercial like presentation for the principal, head of school, and other important people to get approval.  In the end, we got approval but were never granted wall space to paint our mural.  So, in a moment of creative thinking, I bought a 6 foot by 8 foot piece of canvas and a 5 by 7 foot stretcher and cross beam!  This weekend, the Spanish teacher and I went into school and prepped the canvas so the kids could start drawing and painting on it tomorrow.  We have one week to finish but I know we can do it!

Priming the final edge

Ron English; Cincinnati Artist

For my birthday, my sister and her boyfriend bought me 3 original artworks by Cincinnati artist Ron English.  As I understand, English considers himself an outsider artist as he has little to no formal training but a strong desire to create.  Like many outsider artists he makes his work out of humble materials- cardboard, colored pencils and chalk pastels- and he sells them on the streets in downtown Cincinnati.  As the resident art expert in the family, I am often asked "is that really art?" and in the case of Ron English I give a resounding YES.

I confess I don't know much about English or his art.  Despite my lack of knowledge, I find that his work speaks loudly and perhaps knowing a great deal of his personal history or aesthetic philosophy is unnecessary to its appreciation.

From what I have gleaned from photos of his work, stories from my sister and from a few google-able articles (mainly this and this), it seems his work is generally figurative in nature with an emphasis on solid color and bold line.  What looks like one single black continuous line winds around the cardboard surface to create a roughly circular face shape with definite eyes and less obvious nose and mouth.  The color is arbitrary- not connected to reality- and seems to be applied according to the taste of the artist.  He uses a limited palette and often creates an energetic pattern by repeating colors throughout the work.  The work on the right (my personal favorite of the three) has little spots of red scattered throughout the portrait which help lead your eye around the picture. While the red is scattered throughout the pale blue serves as a centering force allowing your eye to settle and focus on the center portion of the face.

 In this square portrait you will notice English has done the same trick.  Red leads your eye around the drawing's surface while blue centers your focus to the middle.  In these two works the eyes are particularly noticeable and I like how in this one, the eyes are the most detailed part of the face- roughly circular shapes divided into many smaller units.  To me, it gives them a glittering quality and I think how eyes in art history are frequently understood as windows to the soul. You might also notice a difference in shape and color between these two works.  The work above is more a vertically oriented rectangle while this one (and the following one) are both square in shape. Additionally, the one above is made with chalk making it more vibrant where the other two are drawn with colored pencil and are more muted. I like the vibrancy of the pastels but I like the precision of the colored pencils.  Both have a great sense of energy and life.

Here is the final English drawing.  What do you notice about this work? How does it compare or contrast to the other two?  Which is your favorite? What do you like/not like about his work?

Wherever you are reading from (Cincinnati or elsewhere), do your city and yourself a favor and support local artists!

Can you find these creatures?

Our camouflaged creatures have come a long way.  Camouflaged creatures is a three part lesson- first sculpting the creature, second creating and painting a pattern or environment that it blends into, and thirdly photographing them (we have yet to do this section).  Below are some paintings with creatures hidden- see if you can find them!  I'll admit some are easier than others but I like the variety of styles and results I got.  Some are abstract patterns, some are based on real life, some are neatly and precisely painted while others are more messy.  At the bottom are photos of just the creatures.  This is just a little less than half of my students.  I'll post the other half next week.