Student Work: 3rd Annual Student Art Gallery 2014

I recently held the 3rd annual student art gallery exhibition to present the outstanding work of our Doulos artists from this year. Like in years past (which you can read about here and here), this gallery event was in effort to display the work of my students both in a professional way and to bring their work into the community for more people to enjoy.

While this time around I kept things a little more simple, I did add an extra spin to the evening-- I invited our break dance teacher to perform with his class! It would have been really sweet to have them dance inside our actually gallery, however space didn't allow it. Though we were lucky to have a little patio area on the first floor of the plaza, so they danced down there. The group performed really well and the best part was to be able to include another art presentation to the evening.  I wish I had a picture or two to show, but I was upstairs in the gallery the whole time so I didn't get a chance to snap one.

After these past years I think the students finally caught the vision behind this annual exhibition. So this year when I would go to ask a student to hold on to their artwork until May for the gallery I could barely get the words out of my mouth before they were nodding their heads and passing their artwork right back to me. I think this meant they understood what a privilege it was to have their work chosen! And they weren't the only ones excited about it. Selecting these artworks to display was definitely a joy for me, too!

It seems strange to say, but I feel proud of how proud my students are of their art. I love to see them enjoy their creativity and want to share it with others. Likewise, it is truly a gift when I see them confident in using their made-to-create energy.

Student Work: 3rd Grade Pinch Pots

Here at Doulos, we don't get to do very many clay projects-- mostly because a lack of resources and space. But last year I purchases a packet of Sculpey over-bake clay. The opportunity finally arose to use it with a class. The third graders studied ancient Egypt for their spring expedition this semester. As they learned about different aspects of that culture and civilization they focused on the different castes and roles in the society. I got to come in and role-play as an ancient Egyptian artisan!

After doing that, it dawned on me that we should create something out of clay like the ancient artisans did...uh duh brilliant art teacher. Integrating into the core subjects (especially social studies) has been such an fun part of my work at Doulos. The students love it because they already are growing experts on a topic and it actually makes my job easier because I don't have to spend a ton of time on history, geography, or other background information because they already know it!

As soon as we started working with clay the students became so excited. They were practically giddy before each art class when I went to bring them to the art room. The shear fact of using a different material I think made them so engaged, but also because they were really learning a new craft (and this class in particular loves learning new things.)

After we finished our pinch pots, the students filled out a little reflection form like we do after most projects. Some of their responses were too great not to share!

When you look at your artwork how do you feel?

"... good, because I'm learning how to do new things."

"...delightful, because when I see it, it reminds me that I am an artisan."

"...good, because it is an artwork, a real cool artwork."

"...happy, because now I have something to put stuff in."

What will you put inside your pinch pot?

"...candy, or something that I can eat."

"...my collection of little rocks."

"...5 pesos to buy cornflakes" (every cereal here is referred to as "cornflakes")

"...money, a marble, or a necklace."

"...my secret things that no one is going to know."

"...salchichitas."  (translation: little hot dogs)

If you could make anything out of clay, what would you make next?

"...a bird or a worm."

"...a heart pinch pot or a star pinch pot."

"...a clay bird lid and a nest pinch pot as the bottom."

You'll notice that many students styled their pinch pot and lid like little beetles. This is because we also spent time discuss the symbol of the scarab beetle in ancient Egyptian culture.

Classroom Commotion: a zealous 3rd grader

There is almost nothing I love more than to have students tell me they are creating art at home. (You can read a story about it here.) Our class time seems so little, and therefore so precious. I always wish I had more time to engage in the creative process with my students. So when they tell me that they have created something outside of school that they are proud of, I get really pumped. First because that means that they were paying attention in class, and secondly because that means that they were inspired by what they were learning! And I mean what teacher doesn't love that.

Last week I had a student not only tell me they were creating at home, but bring in their work to help decorate our art classroom!

3rd grade has been studying mobiles by Alexander Calder. Most kids are fascinated by the kinetic quality of the sculptures and it is a blast to watch them play with discovering the balancing act involved in creating one.
However, even before we started construction on our mobiles in class, this particular student showed up to class one day with his own design!

Student Work: Elementary Art Goes Into the Garden

Here's another very belated post about a study I did with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders last year in the spring.



It occurred to me at some point last April that Doulos students love to spend time in our garden just like Claude Monet did. This simple revelation seemed to clearly lead me to the conclusion that these kiddos needed to learn about Monet's artwork and methods! They are already like mini Monets!

The students are always running around the garden during recess or lunch time. The pond is an infinite source of fascination for them. Between the fish, stones, mango tree, and all sorts of flora, our students are drawn to this lovely little garden. Not only is it used during play time, but often classes go out into the garden during reflection times. A place of peace and play-- what could be better! It is such an integral part of our campus, the center focus and defining feature.

And much like Monet's garden in Giverny, our bright red, Japanese-style bridge is a focal point.

 The elementary students loved learning about Monet and his special garden. We took time to draw outside working on our observation skills. Then we made the connection that we have a bridge just like the Giverny garden! That's when our final artworks emerged...

The end results are like Giverny with a touch of Doulos! I am already looking forward to studying Monet again this next year with the new 2nd graders!

*Bridge over Pond of Waterlilies by Claude Monet via metmuseum.org

Classroom Commotion: 8th Grade Portraits

The last time I taught this particular class of kids they were in the beginning of their 6th grade year. It was also my first year at Doulos and my first year of teaching art. Between their rambunctious rebellion and my inexperience, needless to say, we had our butting of heads. When we parted ways at the end of that year, I was glad to give them a little time and space to grow into their junior high selves. From the sidelines over the past year and a half I watched them mature and evolve as a class. They have unfortunately had to say goodbye to many of their classmates for various reasons, but that has only seemed to force them to more closely examine and evaluate their identities as individuals and as a collective.

One thing that I have grown to love and appreciate about this class is their creativity and their kinesthetic learning style. They are performers and collaborators. Here is one great example of what they've created just recently in their dance class. Knowing that their creative energy was burgeoning, I was excited to reunite with them as a more experienced teacher.

My 8th grade curriculum is essentially a drawing basics class and while some students in the past have whined about not getting to *paint* (because apparently painting is all we are supposed to do in art class), this group of students impressed me with their openness to learning the fundamentals of contour line, form and value, and drawing from observation. What I loved the most about the class dynamic was that the students began to surprise themselves. As we finished our first drawing project, students filled out a reflection sheet. Here is what some of them said about their creative process during their final still life charcoal drawings:

"The feeling I have when I look at my drawing is proud and impressed with the work I’ve done and I like that because I thought I wouldn’t be able to do this and it to look realistic. The part I was most excited about this process was to finish and see what it would finally look like."

"I think the purpose of this project was just not to see a shell but to see what is within (it is not just a shell) and also to practice our skills. I feel proud I can’t believe I did this. I am impressed. I feel like that because I thought I couldn’t do it. I was excited on making it look realistic."

"The purpose of this project was to practice our techniques that we have learned in art class. When I look at my drawing I don’t like it much because I know I didn’t put much effort on it. In this project I didn’t really found any part interesting. I was surprised when I saw [other student's work] because they all look nice. Next time we do a project I will spend more time in it. Also I wanted to know how to sketch my hand better, but something I achieve at the end was that I know what were the errors that I made." 
"The feeling I get when I look at my drawing is that I feel proud of myself because I thought that I wasn’t good at art so I feel good and I feel like this because I am really proud of myself at how I got the 3-dimensional shape. The part that made me most excited was creating that 3-dimensional shape. The part that was most frustrating to me was the values that I didn’t get perfectly right. But I was surprised by the values because it made it look more realistic."

Some of these 8th grade artists even got honored by having their artwork displayed in the all-school gallery. One student in particular even asked me afterward if there were more opportunities to display his work because he wanted to start doing more drawing on his own. I wanted to put together another gallery right then and there for him!

Our final project as a class was mixed media portraits based on this example lesson. I think the students were glad for the opportunity to experiment with collage. This project was a great way to finish out our semester together-- a chance to apply their blossoming creativity to an image of their own likeness and subtly express how they perceive themselves.

Student Work: Art Gallery 2013

Our 2nd annual Doulos Discovery School Art Gallery came and went and oh what a night it was.

If you remember last year's event, our gallery was centered around year-long projects done by the HS elective students. After last year in my reflections on the whole process and endeavor of putting on a gallery for the first time in my own and the school's history, I realized that it was such a special time of celebrating the visual arts. I immediately knew that the following year needed to include ALL grades so that more students, families, and community members would feel welcome to celebrate with us.

So starting at the beginning of the year, I collected the exemplary work from all the art classes that I teach (K-12)  and from various projects. When I would hand back artworks to students and there were a couple I thought worth keeping for the gallery, I would pull those student-artists aside and quietly ask them permission to hold on to their artwork. Each time their expressions were so excited, but that kind of contained excitement like they didn't want me to see how much the really were thrilled by the idea. By May I had about 6-10 works from each grade.

In addition to all of those, my spring elective students still completed independent study projects that involved research, short-term goals, and a final culminating product. We learned a lot about all the resources available to this generation via the inter-webs. Each students got to personalize their pursuit based on their own interests and abilities. And you better believe they were wide ranging! Two students studied architecture and 3-D models, one studied surrealism films, one studied Cubism and distortions, one studied caricatures and emotions, and another did digital nature photography. It was a lot to keep track of, but they took amazing ownership over their work and it was so fun to have such a variety of projects going on in our "classroom".

Once the gallery opening night finally approached, I was excited to promote it and set it all up. We were blessed to have an available space in the plaza across from the school campus. While there were some complications (if you want to know the story behind those, then ask me some other time), but it all came together beautifully. 

The biggest gift of the night was to see so many families there with their student-artists. We had a ton of people coming in and out, really taking time to look at the artworks. It was truly a celebration! I felt like the vision I had two years ago was finally taking form. I think the students really saw it as a privilege to have their work hang professionally in a community space and everyone there was so clearly proud of these student's creative powers!

Expedition Projects: Spring 2013

Another round of learning expeditions has come and gone. This spring semester I upgraded the art integration for many of the classes' expeditions based on my own trial and error learning process over the last few years. And I am happy to say that I think I finally landed on some keepers!

This is specifically true with the 3rd grade unit on Ancient Egypt. There is really too much a teacher can do with Ancient Egypt, and I felt like everything I had seen or attempted wasn't worth repeating because it was either too kitschy, didn't cover standards, and/or was going to end up in the trash a week later. I want the art integration I do to be authentic, not forced or meaningless. So this year with 3rd grade we spent some time creating these wonderful Egyptian profiles based on artworks we studied from ancient tombs (inspired by this artsonia gallery). I also wanted to do a little clay project with the oven-bake clay a generous work team brought me, so we did these quick and easy clay scarabs.

for some reason I can't get this photo to orient correctly...sorry for the neck ache.

The 4th grade studied the Incan Empire for their spring expedition. In their art class we study the Inca's geometric designs and weaving. In the past we have done flat yarn weavings on cardboard looms. However, this year I used this excellent tutorial for making our weavings into functional pouches! The students always huff and puff when we start this project, but by the second class they are tracking me down all over campus because they need more yarn to keep working! I love their enthusiasm for creating something! One student who particularly struggled and had a bad attitude at the beginning told me at the end, when we are tying up all her strings, "I am excited about my bag because I am proud that I can say 'I made this.'" Bah! That comment made my week!

In the spring semester I teach a drawing basics class to the 8th graders. Their spring expedition is on freshwater eco-systems. Their science units for their expedition happen to fall right when we are starting our drawing from nature unit in art (what a coincidence :) We study techniques for drawing implied texture and amp up what we've already covered on value by switching from pencils to ink. Each student had to choose a view from our local Rio Yaque to communicate in their drawing.

Some of these lovely pieces will be displayed in the 2nd annual Doulos Art Gallery on Friday. Stay tuned for all that goodness soon!

Student Work: Kindergarten Screams

Kindergarten is a tough bunch of kids for me. I was having dinner with our Kindergarten teacher last night and talking with her about the surprising moments that these young children can share with you. We were discussing how at the beginning of the year it is always difficult to imagine what the end result will be of months and months of hard work. Those first few weeks with an English language immersion class of Spanish speaking students is about as chaotic as trying to corral a group of scared chickens. They look at you like you are crazy and you look at them like they are crazy! But it is absolutely amazing to see how much growth happens in their young minds and hearts over the course of a school year. And what is even more sweet is when God really gives us glimpses into what he is doing in their hearts.

This spring semester the Kindergarten class studied inventions for their expedition units. Rather than come up with all new art integration. I gave myself a little grace and decided to go ahead with the self-portrait unit I did with them last year when their expedition was on 'me, myself, and I'. I framed the whole unit with the idea that God made us all the same, but all unique. As we learned how to draw ourselves we learned to see that we all have eyes, ears, mouths, legs, shoulders, etc. But we also noticed how we are all unique and special. While Mrs. Kerrie might have brown straight hair, another student could have black curly or blonde spiky hair. And so on and so forth.

The big climax to the whole deal was perhaps the most successful project I have done with Kindergarten this year-- their identity screams. I got the idea from this picture I found online. We looked briefly at artworks by Wassily Kandinsky and how he used a variety of lines and colors to paint what he heard in jazz music. The students drew a design with oil pastels and painted washes over it with tempura paint cakes. Then we added their photos and a few tid-bits of information about themselves.

They turned out pretty sweet, right?