JohnG Comes to Houston

For a whole great week, my dad came to Houston! We did all sorts of things but we mostly did a special ceramics unit with my students.

We got REALLY lucky as a lot of things were donated to us...  the clay and kiln use by Saint Thomas High School. The tools and the glaze by my brother AND my dad's time and talents (and all the numerous last minute items that we needed).

So happy!

Mackenzie working the wheel.... in heels!

Some students got messier than others.

But all of them love being in pictures!

This guy should teach classes more often!

And we even went to the art car museum.... my new obsession!

And a visit to Houston can only be complete by  riding the bull at Rebels Honky Tonk!

 

 How many of you can say you got your dad to ride a bull?

All in all it was the MOST marvelous week. I feel so lucky to have a dad that would just fly down to Houston to hang out with me and my students. Working with clay can be so many things... messy, invigorating, dusty, creative, chaotic and peaceful... we really are lucky ducks!

watercolor

 

12. Explore watercolors 

I tried this fun technique to make my favorite state, wisconsin. Instead of painting in each sections with the pigmented paint... I first painted the area with water... then when I dipped my brush in each section the watercolor just bleed throughout the section!

current class project

We finished the wire sculptures for this semester's students... I'll pass along pictures soon.

The next project is kind of a fun one. To me it really shows how much or how little the students choose to use their creative side.

They each make a stencil, any size, shape, simple or intricate. Then they have to make a composition. And then do it again and AGAIN... each time a little different. 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Below are a few that I chose just one of the three that the students made...

shoes!

monsters.

And mine! Sometimes I love when the kids are working hard and I can just be in the creative moment too (sadly there is usually a lot to do, see, critique) or something...

I made the stencil and image below but never finished it last semester.... now that the students are back working on the project I decided to get in on it too again... AND I was having some trouble figuring out what I wanted to do with the white space... a student ending up giving me the idea! (just another reason why I LOVE critiques and wish I could find away to still do them for my own work besides bugging people)!

Ill send the finished project your way when I am done!

adventures of creating a giant community art project!

Last Friday we had a special "President's Reception" to celebrate all our wonderful donors. The theme was "Halls of Thunder" and everything was comic book themed! 

They had giant cut outs of superheros, cookies that had comic book action words, the invites were a comic strip... comic comic comics!

This event was held on our campus and was set up to showcase what goes on at the school/in the class rooms!

Even the art room!

So I created a special project for the night. I needed to create something that would be easy/not intimidating for people to do AND something that could be done while socializing. After some brainstorming I was brought back to my own high school days where I created a painting of a Roy Lichtenstein print.

Hanging in my childhood bedroom!

I decided to make a paint by numbers/coloring book canvas for people to paint. 

I looked at some old comic book covers and combined a few ideas to sketch out my came plan.

Then I bought a GIANT (5x3) canvas to put it on.... I measured to make SURE it would fit in my car.... but it didn't!

This was my final sketch.

I blew it up to put it on the canvas and then painted/sharpied  the outline image.

Then I painted a few of the sections so people wouldn't be intimated!

A few students who were around for the evening painted a few parts!

Then the pressure was on! (those lamps got a bit hot)!

Work in progress...

Some of the background Dots AND check out how AWESOME this woman is.... She was so into it she sat on the floor!

Mrs. Burns!

Mr. Walsh!

It is pretty much done by the end of the night!

Each artist got to sign their for their artwork!

I touched it up a bit (with a fellow student artist, Victoria) and now it is complete!

contour line.

Definition: 


Contour Drawing

Contour drawing shows the outline of the subject, and not the volume or mass of an object. Blind contour drawings are those created by looking only at the subject, and not the paper while drawing.

Continuous. On-Going


Recently my students completed a unit on "line" in my drawing class. For the final piece the students did a project that I did in high school (thanks Mrs. Larscheid for letting me beg, steal and borrow... and for being a great teacher (then) and resource (now)).

The students worked on a self-portrait contour style... BUT with a "twist"

Instead of using pen and paper they used WIRE!

I was SO proud of the kids... they are now on display (a first for our school)!

two big thumbs up

to my students!