What's New in 2013

Nothing much to post about.  Last postable painting was the Yellow Crowned Night Heron. I gave it to my daughter's flute teacher.  I did post it on Facebook in it's not quite finished form.  If any one is interested, I will post it here.

I have been taking a painting class at the local Art Association.  I felt I needed to be in a class to get out of my "slump".  So I am taking this Old Masters painting class and it is a love/hate thing.  It is much tighter than I usually paint and I must say that I suck.

Nancy, was a watercolor teacher of mine some 15-18 years ago.  She is very good at this but it is not my thing.  Still I find the challenge enticing.   I've learned some nifty things and I might do a little more of this.
If nothing else, it will help me to teach my students.

On another note, I am going to start a new blog for my Photo 2 students.  I will post some photos for them to look at and critique.  (I might be visiting some blogs for these).  I will also be requiring them to create their own photo blogs to post and critique each other.   So please visit them if you think about it.  More details to follow.

Blank Canvas

My daughter gave me two blank canvasses for Christmas.  I think that is the best gift ever for an artist.  They are pre-stretched, pre-primed Dick Blick 16x20s.  I like to stock up on these, then I never have an excuse not to paint.

Think about it.  Blank canvasses, an empty journal, a 32G SD card.  The empty tools that need to be filled.  A gift of possibilities.

Someday when I am retired perhaps I will have time to stretch and prime.  I will have time and money to buy good linen canvas, but that time is not the now time. Now I need to have convenience so that when I have the urge to paint, I can.

It is a new year, a blank canvas, an empty journal, an SD card with a lot of space.  What will I do with it?  What will you do?

Have a great year filling your emptiness with possibilities.

Thank you Annelise.

White Paper Sculpture

For a bit of a change, we started our 3-D Design Class with paper sculpture, drawing on the works of  Canadian paper artist Calvin Nicholls and Japanese American paper artist, Jeff Nishinaka.  The students were quite impressed and went to work.  They were instructed on exacto knife safety and some scoring and folding techniques, but they were free to use any method of constructing or deconstructing the paper to form their sculpture.  We used white tagboard and white glue.  On some the the more heavily folded structures we needed to use heavier glues such as wood glue and hot glue.  

This was an inherited class and prior to this year, the class was called "Ceramics".  The students were instructed in various clay construction methods and were required to complete 13 projects.  The previous teacher prided himself in developing a self-running class.  After a few years of teaching to this curriculum, I noticed that after about project number five, the quality started to diminish.  I suggested that we change the name to 3-D Design, Sculpture and Ceramics, hoping to introduce other media and techniques to the students.  

I am quite pleased with this first project!  Some of the students certainly went above and beyond.  They were supposed to observe an actual flower or animal  for this study.  Some did.  Others did not.  The posted results were among the better ones.  I thought I also uploaded a cool toucan, but I think he flew away.

PDD Banyan Trees

A great resources for Art Teachers is the Pinterest Sight!  As a high school teacher who is constantly searching for new and exciting ideas, I find Pinterest amazing.

Two years ago, I took on the task of teaching two special needs classes.  One class of students have multiple handicaps, are wheelchair bound, and cannot speak.

The PDD class is for students with a Pervasive Developmental Disability.  Most are considered somewhere on the Autistic Spectrum.

As a high school teacher, most of my lessons involve things like perspsective, value, line, sculpture, composition, art history and the like.  To find material for these classes, I frequently look for elementary lessons.   I found this lesson on Pinterest from the website of http://www.amartny.com/student-gallery.html.  I thought it was a wonderful exercise in negative space.  I taught the students how to draw the tree trunk and add branches in pencil.  Then they were to color the negative space behind the tree in very bright colors.
It was a difficult concept for many of these PDD students not to color in the trunk.  Some did outline around the trunk.  I would have preferred that they not outline but I think they still look wonderful!  Enjoy!

Ch-Ch-Changes!

This post should signify a new beginning for negativespace.   The thought occurred to me to start a new blog with a focus on the teaching of art.  

I decided to visit the old blogspot today to do that very thing.  I could not readily locate the old dashboard so I clicked on "Design".  My world instantly changed.  I changed my template to this nifty "flipcard".  Now all you have to do is click on the picture and you'll find any one of my fascinating old posts!  How cool is that?

I've decided not to start a new blog.  I will just "change direction" a bit.  So here it goes...

I do want to write about my day time job.  Yes.  For anyone who is new to the blog, I am a secondary public school art teacher.  As a secondary, public school art teacher I have much to post about.  There are lessons that I want to share with other teachers.  There are my thoughts concerning teaching and curriculum that I would love to discuss.  It might come as a surprise to some of you that public education is a very politically charged issue in this country at the moment.   I have a lot of thoughts on that.  I want to share some of the wonderful work that my students are creating.  I shared one at the end of last school year.  I will be sharing more. 

For the record, my schedule this year includes the following classes:

Art One - A year long class with a focus on basic observational drawing skills.  The foundation class of our Fine Art program for students who are seriously considering a career in art.

Cultural Art One - A semester long class for the student who is not seriously considering a career in art but is trying to fulfill the Arts/Humanities requirement.  I designed the curriculum with lessons that explore folk art from people of  many diverse cultures.   I am hoping to help the students build tolerance and appreciation for different cultures through the making of art.

Cultural Art Two - A semester long class which resembles an Art History class.  We start with Cave Art and work our way up to the Early Renaissance.  The students create a number of projects in addition to learning quite a bit about Art History. 

Three Dimensional Design, Sculpture and Ceramics -  I changed the name of our Ceramics class to make this class more interesting.  This year we started with paper low relief sculpture.

Fine Art Digital Photography I & 2.  I used to teach Black and White film photography.  Without a darkroom, I am now teaching digital.  

PDD Class (Autistic Spectrum Students) and MDS (Students with Multiple Disabilities)

I have a lot of things to say about all of these classes and I'd appreciate any and all feedback.  I do still plan to post some of my own art as well as random rants and commentary.  I do hope that having a bit more focus will help me get back to blogging a bit more. 

So Proud of my Frugal Child

I am so proud of my frugal child.  She will be a high school senior next year and may actually entertain the idea of going to the "prom".  My eldest did not attend any of these "formal" dances...prom or homecoming.  My youngest has resisted so far.  However, this upcoming year will be her senior year and she is hoping to make the most of it.   She already decided to use her "Distinguished Young Women" dress for homecoming.

Today she wanted to venture out to the formal ware store which will be closing next Saturday, hoping for a bargain for prom.  The senior prom will be held at the Baltimore Aquarium.  Dates are not important.

Delaney found a $350.00 dress that looked absolutely stunning on her.  I commented that it was pricey.  The store was offering a 50% discount due to the impending liquidation.  This would drop the price to  around $175.00....still a bit much.   Daughter suggested "haggling".   "Do you think we can haggle for a lower price?"

I don't know, but you could try.

Daughter offered  $100.00.  Sales Lady says...."I'll have to ask the manager, but that's a long shot."  She comes back and says  " You caught the manager in a good mood."  Delaney gets $350.00 dress for $100.00.

I could not be happier.  My daughter is not only smart and gorgeous, frugal and moneysmart, but she is not afraid to haggle.

I did not do anything!  Wow!

Of course she has to find a date or  a bunch of friends to go to the prom.  But we have until May of 2013.  My redhead daughter is absolutely gorgeous but perhaps intimidating to most of the boys around here.
Yes I am biased.  Have you seen her pictures?

What's Wrong with these Kids Today?

On a recent visit from my California dwelling brother, he commented..."What's wrong with kids today?  They don't do drugs, they don't drink and they are serious about their education?"

It is so true.  Compared to our generation, most teenagers I know abstain from the mindwrecking substances with which we liked to flirt. (I'm not admitting to anything here).

My youngest is looking at colleges.  We purchased the Princeton's Reviews Guide to the 376 Best Colleges complete with stats on academic ratings, green ratings, food service ratings and student comments on the typical "Vaseline" University student.   Schools are rated using some criteria that are not found in other guides.   Some of the top twenty lists are things such as GREAT SCHOOLS FOR ENGINEERING MAJORS.  Other categories include Dorms Like Dungeons, Dorms Like Palaces, Most Liberal, Most Politically Active, Lots of Beer, Reefer Madness, Don't Inhale,  Party Schools, Jock Schools, LGBT Friendly, Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians.  

Not to brag two much, but my youngest daughter is an excellent student, ranked second in her class.  I told her she can apply to some "Name Brand" schools and we will send her if she can get some major merit scholarships.

The first criteria was GREAT SCHOOLS FOR BIOLOGY STUDENTS.  She wants to major in bio, perhaps pre-med.

The first thing she crossed off her list were any colleges mentioning beer drinking, hard liquor, party schools, etc. in the description.  The second cross-off category are Greek life or Athletics dominates social scene, lots of Abercrombie and Fitch, and female students wear Ugg Boots and pearls.  (I can't imagine).

She seems to be gravitating toward schools with the Birkenstock-Wearing, LGBT Friendly, Culturally  Diverse students, Liberal, Students are not very religious  type descriptions.  Green Ratings are important and so are dorms like palaces(?)

If they had a book like this in my day I would probably have checked off Lots of beer, Reefer Madness, Party Schools.... 

Not that I'm admitting to anything.  As my brother commented, "What is wrong with kids these days?"  As a mother, I say absolutely nothing.  I'm not sure about the dorms like palaces thing, but most of the ones we've seen were more like hospital rooms (space wise) minus the equipment and private bath.

This same child is currently enjoying her Youth Music Abroad Tour; a whirlwind tour of Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France.  Needless to say.  I am very proud of her.  I also recommend this particularcollege guide to anyone.