Tra la! It's May!

I worked this weekend. All weekend long. And actually got things accomplished! But I'm not going to share them today because I'm too lazy to use my scanner.

Instead, three reasons May is the best month ever...




I forget how amazing May smells. Coming home from a trip to New York when I was about 12 was the first time I realized - the place I live smells really nice. Especially in May.

Also, since they were on my camera, two final art projects with the kids. I really wanted to do something that involved both the individual and the entire class for the younger ones. So the pre-Ks did these flowers. First we each drew our own stems, grass, and... flower middles. Whatever they're called. Then the kids dipped their thumbs in paint, stamped a thumbprint petal, and passed their picture to their neighbor. It was a bit of a nightmare to get the passing and the stamping coordinating. I ended up doing "Simon Says" to get them to stamp and pass at the same time, and felt oddly like a coxswain on a rowing crew. But at the end, each kid had a cute picture that everyone helped make.




For the Kindergarteners, I decided to do something that wouldn't require much planning or preparation. First we read a story about a rainbow, and I told them we'd be making our own rainbow, but it would require teamwork. Each kid picked a piece of paper out of a jar; each piece of paper had a color written on it. The kids were given magazines with instructions to only cut out images in their color. Two of each color x three classes, and I had six of each of our color wheel colors. Then on Thursday, I put them up in the cafeteria.

School's out for summer!

Well, almost. Yesterday was my final day of teaching. We still have two weeks left of school, but from here out, it's testing, cleaning, and parties. No more classes! I find myself bouncing when I should be walking.

As promised, the middle school mural...



It's come along farther now, but this is how it looked when we sent in the picture for the contest. The turtles and eels are more detailed, and we have some great, stripey lionfish keeping the puffer fish company around the coral. I think the kids did a really excellent job with the gradation on the water - we were painting on gravel at the time, but I think the little white spots look like light in the water.

Also, the second of the auction portraits.

What I Did Today

It's nice to close a day having tangible proof that you did something. This is the wooden stand that the air conditioner sits on in my classroom. It used to be white, and now it's not. I think it draws the eye away from the grotty carpet quite nicely, don't you?

Whaling Walls

Every Friday when I was in middle school, I would walk the couple of blocks from school to my piano teacher's house. I was never the first lesson of the afternoon - in nice weather I'd sit outside and do my homework, but most of the time I'd come in and sit on her couch. She had a coffee table book full of art by Robert Wyland, otherwise known as "that guy who paints life-size whales". Years later, taking the train from New York to DC, I'd keep an eye out for the "Whaling Wall" in Wilmington. Maybe it's a Thomas Kinkade thing, where it's considered hokey to like commercial art, but I've got to respect anyone who's found something they enjoy doing, cornered the market on it, and turned it into a profitable endeavor. Besides, Wyland's murals are pretty darn cool.

So when an administrator at my school told me she'd signed us up to do our own mural for a contest set up by the Wyland Foundation, I was excited. My middle school class is the perfect age for it, so we looked at Wyland murals online and did lots of sketches of different sea creatures. Finally, each kid picked an animal he or she wanted to be responsible for, and did a detailed sketch. I took the drawings home, and came up with a composition that would fit all of them.



As a teacher, I struggle with control of the big picture stuff - this definitely came to the surface on the yearbook. I erred on the side of controlling dictator that time, as I've seen books where the advisor was absent and the senior section had each student's "nickmane" (amongst many, many other mistakes). But most of the time in art, the process is more important than the final product, and the kids just want to get good and messy. I feel like this is one of those grey areas. So my sketch is just that - a sketch - and we're making changes as we go. I doubt we'll finish by the contest deadline (Thursday), but it'll be something nice to hang up in the gym.

Child's portrait

I have all these blog posts in mind - recently, I went to the Green Valley Book Fair, and was thinking I really need to post about my favorite children's books, and why I love them - but I never seem to get around to posting. Hmm...

Just a sketch today. As my website bio says, I teach art at a small private school. Small, but larger than it was last year! I've got about 120 students, ages 4 to 15, who I see each week. Every year, the school does an auction to raise money, and teachers are expected to provide something to sell. I'd done a few super-quick sketches of some of the middle schoolers when we did figure drawing, and the parents really seemed to appreciate them, so I figured I'd offer to do a portrait of the highest bidder's child/children. Two moms ended up splitting the bid, with my approval and one child each. One of the moms already had a portrait of her older daughter, and wanted a sketch of her youngest to match it.



I tried to match the style of the other portrait, but am not sure I succeeded. It was much looser, very soft and delicate (which I tried to capture in the hair, at least). In any case, it was fun - I worked from a photo, but having seen the child every week in art class for the past year really helped.


Note to self: Remember to double up on the paper next time you scan. Otherwise the slide slot shows through!