Get your shoe fix at KILLER HEELS!

If you are near Manchester, New Hampshire, stop in at the Currier Museum of Art and get your shoe fix at their latest special exhibit: Killer Heels-The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe. I went this past week and it was FABULOUS!! Some of the shoes are pretty tame (not many, though!) and some are confusing (I still can't figure out how one would even put on one particular shoe in the show). Many I want to own and a few just made my jaw drop (spikes? animal hooves? pointe shoes with a 7" heel? YIPES!!).

Image top: Christian Louboutin, “Printz,” Spring/Summer 2013. Courtesy of Christian Louboutin. Photo: Jay Zukerkorn.

The only thing that could have made it better was if I could have tried some of them on--or if they were giving away boxes of shoes to take home! You know, a girl can dream!

Seriously, if you have a chance to see this show, please do. It is fun and so versatile to an art teacher's repertoire! I have a bunch of future art ideas in store for my kiddos.

Enjoy!

One Day GROUP Project: Winter Assemblage (Louise Nevelson)

This was a 1-day getting-to-know-you project I did with the fourth grade students at a school I am temporarily teaching at. I probably should have done an easier "box" as our base--I chose an origami version that we did as a class, step-by-step. Most of the classes were able to follow along, but one class struggled a bit with the creation of the boxes. The original post I saw for this project online, describes an easier "box." I may do that NEXT time.

This piece is about 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall--impressive!
I'm so proud of you, fourth graders!!

We looked at Louise Nevelson's work: "Sky Cathedral," from 1958, and then created our own relief assemblage inspired by winter.

VOCAB: origami, sculpture, relief, assemblage, sculptor, horizontal, vertical, space, form

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTION: Science (seasons, winter), Language Arts (poetry)--if you have the students write a poem about the finished piece. Try this poem, here.

MATERIALS: One 9x12" piece of construction paper (for the box), multiple 1"x12" strips of construction paper (about 6 per child), little squares of white paper for snowflakes (optional), scissors, hole punch, glue sticks; for the teacher's use: hot glue gun and glue sticks, stapler

Picasso's Hands With Bouquet With KINDERS

 I've been having a blast with the elementary students at the school I am working at temporarily. I've been having the Kinders explore art materials a bit and this week I thought they'd enjoy doing a project I originally posted back in 2013 as we continued our discussion about line and shape. This is not my idea, as you can read in the original post, but it's a great one that I'm sure I'll be doing again and again in the coming years!

The only thing I changed this time was to have the students draw all of their flowers first, then add the stems, and when they were done they could line up and they could make their hand print at the back of the room at a table by the sink (and near the drying rack). Other times I'd have them print their hand first and then add the flowers.

Again, it helps if you have a bucket or two of water ready for them to rinse their hands in and paper towels ready to go right near the sink (already ripped to single-serve sizes). This was a wonderful project that helped them explore some of the elements of art (shape, line, color) and explore a new material and technique or two. They have some really good observations and insight about Pablo Picasso's work and, it's a FUN project--I mean, who doesn't love to have their hand painted by the art teacher!!??

VOCAB: Pablo Picasso, bouquet, shape (circle, oval), line, color, drawing

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTION: Science (flowers (petals, stems), spring), kindness/giving

MATERIALS: 12" x 18" white paper, oil pastels, black tempera paint, paint brush

Our inspiration!

ENJOY!

One day printmaking project: Winter Prints

I used this as an attention-getting 1-day project with the fifth graders at a school I am temporarily working at--I thought they would appreciate a hands-on project as we got to know each other the first day. 

Yeah, I know, first day printmaking-I'm a little crazy...

We used foam trays from the supermarket as their printmaking plate and they "carved" the plate with a pencil to make a relief. I didn't have them sketch their ideas out first--just grab a pencil and go (I know, super-risky, but it worked)! I had originally intended to have them create just snowmen, but a few branched out and did other winter-themed artwork (snowflakes, hot cups of cocoa, gingerbread houses and more). I'm fine with giving them creative choices and they were able to make a print (white ink on black paper) by the end of the class. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and they loved their prints!

P.S. I know that foam plates are not eco-friendly, but I had them already and I wanted to show the students they could create art with supplies they could find in their homes. Next week I'm going to show them how they can use washable markers to hand color a foam plate and make a monoprint like I described in this post.

One day project: Winter Landscapes

This is a getting-to-know-you project I used with some second graders at a school I'm working at temporarily. They are great kiddos and VERY enthusiastic artists! It was fun to see what they drew on their "winter walk through the woods" (snowmen, critters, cabins, and more) and the lovely skies they created! Even though it was 15 degrees outside, we could take a walk in the woods and stay nice and warm!

This project is from Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists...I should have had them add paint dots for snow in their skies as well---ah, NEXT time!

ENJOY!

VOCAB: landscape, foreground, background, perspective, scale

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTION: science (the seasons/winter)

MATERIALS: 9x12" white drawing paper, gray crayon, black crayon, watercolor paints (I used biggie cake paints I found in the art room), brushes.