Second Grade Explores Dale Chihuly!

Although the BES Art has not been busy on the blog lately (I am sorry!), we sure have been busy in the art room!  I am so excited to finally debut a huge unit that second grade has been knee deep in for the past 2 months.  As some of you might know, the contemporary glass artist Dale Chihuly had a special large exhibit of his work at our very own Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  As a Beaverdam native myself, I know how far away Richmond City seems from our small little town... BUT we are so lucky to have such a wonderful resource less than an hour away where we can see art up close and personal.  This is why I thought it was so important to introduce students to the artist Dale Chihuly and his artwork and try to spark the student's interest in going to visit the VMFA.  I hope some of you were able to go!!  If not, the students sure did learn a lot anyways right here at BES!

We started the unit just like Chihuly starts his glass work... by creating a painting!  Chihuly explains that he does not think about his paintings while he is doing them and that is what makes them so special and interesting.  Students had a great time experimenting with this way of art making.  THe results were MAGNIFICENT!!!

 

The next Chihuly series of work we looked at was his Ikebanas.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement and you can see the corelation when you look at his glass Ikebana series.  Students created their own on a much smaller scale using clay and glazes.  The clay medium made them fragile like glass and the glaze made them smooth, shiny, and reflective like the surface of the glass medium.  Take a look!

 

 

In between the clay handbuilding and glazing of the Ikebanas, students explored Chihuly's Maccia glass series.  Students experimented with creating their own Maccia like form using washable markers on coffee filters and spraying them with liquid startch to make the colors run together.  The startch also helped them keep a cup shape by letting them dry while slumped over a cup.  The finished result was translucent and similar to Chihuly's Maccias.  We displayed them as a whole grade installation and people really oohhed and awwed over them!

 

 

 

The last series we studied had the biggest WOW factor... the chandelier series!!  Students were able to use plastic soda bottles to paint the inside and cut into different lines to create the second grade collaborative chandeleir that now hangs in the main office here at school.  It is amazing discovering kid safe materials that show a similar surface quality to glass.

 

 

Weaver T. Beaver is all sorts of excited with this new art addition to his habitat!

 

This unit was so much fun!  I want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated plastic bottles!  I also want to thank the VMFA for having this amazing exhibit and offering the teacher workshop that I went to to learn more about bringing Dale Chihuly into the elementary art room.  Please ask your second grader about their "Chihuly-Smarts" because I know they would be happy to share their knowledge. :)

 

 

 

 

 



 

Finished Storyteller Dolls

With holidays and snow days, January has really flown right on by!  We are looking forward to February in the BES art room and catching up on our artwork.  Second grade has finished their ceremic storyteller dolls inspired by the Native American Folk Art.  We completed them using colored permanent markers so that we could make fine details and have more control over the facial features and patterns on the clothing.  We LOVE how they turned out and we have quite a few on display in the main hallway at school.  Come by and check them out!  Here are some images of a few :)

Happy New Year!

It is great to be back at school after a nice winter break where I got to spend lots of time with family and friends.  Coming back to work, I can't help but think about how blessed I am to work at such an amazing school with such talented, creative, and loving students!

Since the last post in late November, it has been a whirl wind here at BES!  The few weeks we have here in December flew by and now I have so much to share with you all about what has been going on  in the art room!  Let us start with fifth grade...

Fifth grade just finished a fun unit learning about the ancient textile art of batik.  Unlike the tradition method of batik that requires hot wax, fabric, and fabric dyes, we used flour paste, fabric, and acrylic paint!  The process of a batik fabric design is based mainly on the idea of resist.  The wax, or in our case the flour paste, is applied to the fabric in whatever design the artist wants to create and resists the dye/paint from getting underneath onto the fabric.  This way, once the resist material is taken off, the design is revealed.  Here are some of the abstract fabric surface designs that our students did through our faux batik process.

Aren't they GEORGEOUS!?!  Now fifth graders are moving on to learning one-point perspective drawing and they are looking great!  Can't wait to share them with you in a few weeks!

Next up, we have fourth grade!  These students have been learning about the Mexican folk art of ceramic Metapec suns.  These bright and beautiful clay suns have faces and are an art that has been passed down by the Nahua Indians in Metapec Mexico for generations.  Students are exploring various clay hand building techniques such as throwing a slab, rolling coils, and scoring and slipping to attach clay peices together to create a sun that shows a specific emotion.

The suns have all been fired and now the students are on to painting and adding details to them!  Images of the completed work will be coming soon!

Third grade has just started exploring Greek pottery and next week will be creating their own ceramic vessels through the coil building process.  I will be sharing some images of them knee deep in clay soon ;)

Second grade has been learning about the ceramic Native American storyteller dolls.  Through creating these dolls, students learned about how to create coils and slabs in clay and how to attach them using the score and slip method.
Over break, the clay dolls have dried and been fired in the kiln and students are working to add some finishing touches to make them uniquly their own.  Images of these final works will be here soon!


First graders have been having an AWESOME time getting really messy in the art room!  We have been learning about animal masks from different cultures and creating our own using paper mache and milk jugs!  Students could decide if they wanted to create an elephant or a lion for their mask.  This week we learned about the textures of each of these animals and have started painting and decorating them.  I can't wait to see these masks complete because they are looking great so far!



Finally, last but certainly not least, KINDERGARTEN!  These little ones have also been getting messy in the art room with clay!  They have learned how to create a pinch pot by making a ball of clay, sticking their thumb in the center and pinching all the way around to make a a little cup shape.  This week the students were able to see how their clay has changed since it has been in the kiln.  The students observed that the color, texture, and hardness has changed due to being fired in the kiln.  This week, the students painted them using tempera and clear gloss.  They did such a great job and I know they had a great first experience with clay!

I know that was a lot of catching up to do but I hope you enjoyed checking in to see what the BES artists have been up to!  As we head into this brand new year, I look forward to keeping you all in the loop about the creativity that is always going on in the BES art room!!