ICA Family Day October 24, 2008

The ICA has a great contemporary art exhibit up of Tara Donovan’s work, open now through January 4th. Tara Donovan’s work uses everyday manufactured materials such as Scotch tape, Styrofoam cups, and drinking straws to create large scale sculptures This Saturday is a free family event:
Institute of Contemporary Art
Saturday, October 25 2008
Play Date: Beyond the Artist’s Hand
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Looking for an awe-inspiring adventure? Discover how artist Tara Donovan uses everyday materials to create sculptures that imitate natural forms even as they seem to defy the laws of nature. Afterwards, head to the Bank of America Art Lab to experiment with common materials. Make a sculptural installation come to life and make your own prints with Boston artist Evelyn Rydz. Catch performances in the galleries by Underground Railway Theater; check back for upcoming details. This program and museum admission are free for 2 adults per family with children 12 and under. No prior registration is necessary, but theater events are ticketed. Tickets are free and available first-come, first-served at the admissions desk on the day of the program.

Tessellations

The 7th graders are finishing up their first project of the year: tessellations. The students learned about the creation of tessellations through repetition, rotation, and reflection. They examined many works by MC Escher, the Dutch graphic artist credited with so many mathematical tessellations.

Here are some great links to websites with more information and activities on tessellations:

Tessellations.org

Tessellation Town

Make a Tessellation online

And some finished 7th grade tessellations:

BU Art Enrichment

Today was the third class of the 6 week BU Art Enrichment Program. In its second year, BU art education students come to Morse to teach a supplemental art class to select students. This year, 15 students from the 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade are participating. Both BU students and Morse students are enthusiastic and great work is coming out of these classes. The theme for this year’s program is “isms in observational drawing”. The students have been drawing common kitchen objects, attempting to give the objects a feeling of importance, through the styles of realism, impressionism, cubism, pop art, and more.

Some photos of the works-in-progress as well as the Morse students and BU students working together:

Frame Drive! October 18, 2008

The Art Studio, with the help of the Morse Arts Committee, is in search of frames.  We are seeking donations of old plastic or wood poster frames, or frames from photos and/or prints.  If you have an unused frame between the sizes of 11×14 and 18×24, please bring it to the Art Studio.

Logo Designers

The 6th graders just finished creating personal logos for themselves.  Learning the business of graphic design, the students compared many well-known logos in their everyday lives.  Middle school students all have their own portfolio, and the logo drawn on in 6th grade will remain until the students leave for high school.  The goal for their logos was a clean, simple, compact design incorporating their name.  Starting with 10 sketches, the students narrowed down their design to 4, then ultimately chose the best one for the portfolios.

Some logos from the 6th graders:

Mexican Pinatas October 15, 2008

The first graders have begun a cross-curricular project. While learning about Mexico in the classroom, they are going to be creating pinatas during Open Studio in the art room.

If you don’t know already, Open Studio is a flexible time in my schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays that allows classes to reserve extra art classes for interdisciplinary projects. Already this year, the kindergarten teachers have been using Open Studio time to recreate the garden on a bulletin board near their classrooms.

Today, Mrs. Shin’s class got messy with paper-mache, working in partners for their pinatas. Only a couple of balloons popped while they were working! Here are some photos from the mess:

Oaxacan Alebrijes October 11, 2008

Second graders have just finished a unit on Oaxacan alebrijes…a Mexican folk art of carved animal sculptures in brightly painted patterns. The project began with tangrams, combining shapes into 2D animals, monsters, and alebrijes. The drawings were then transformed from 2D to 3D using random wood pieces glued together into imaginary creatures. The sculptures were finished with bright colors and patterns, similar to the Oaxacan folk art.

In honor of finishing the sculptures, Mr. Gutierrez’s class dressed up as live alebrijes. They came to school in mismatched colors and patterns: stripes, plaid, polka dots, different socks and shoes.  They looked fantastic!

A couple photos of the finished alebrijes from both Ms. Riley’s class and Mr. Gutierrez’s class, as well as today’s dress up day with Mr. Gutierrez’s class:

More garden art October 8, 2008

Fall is a great time of year for garden-based art projects.

Mr. Klinman’s kindergarteners have finished their series of garden images. Observational drawings began in the garden using viewfinders, followed by watercolor painting from photographs also through the viewfinders. The final component was in the computer lab. Using iPhoto, the students edited their photos, experimenting with saturation, hue, contrast, and brightness. The final results are fantastic examples of different perspectives of the same subject.

Some finished kindergarten projects (also displayed in school if you’d like to see more):

Also, Mr. Macomber’s third graders were in the garden, creating their earthworks today:

Goldsworthy in the garden October 3, 2008

The third graders have been hard at work planning and creating earthworks in our Citysprouts garden. They examined photographs of Andy Goldsworthy‘s well known earthworks, noting the natural materials he uses to make his works.

Working in partners, the students collected stuff from the garden and created temporary designs and patterns throughout the garden.

Visit the garden to watch as the earthworks change and disappear due to weather, animals, and maintenance.

Here are a couple photos from Mrs. Roderick’s class: