Art Shows! December 18, 2008

Six community art displays have been confirmed. The Morse Arts Committee contacted many local businesses for a unique opportunity to have a Morse School art gallery.

January: Cambridge Trust Company at Sidney St/Green St

February: Starbucks at 750 Memorial Drive

March: Artist and Craftsman Supply at 580 Mass Ave

April: Four Burgers at 704 Mass Ave

April: Gallery 263 at 263 Pearl St.

May: Central Square Library at 45 Pearl St.

Other businesses that will be involved in our community art project are Starbucks and Trader Joe’s

Stay tuned for specific information about what grades will be involved and opening receptions.

Upside Down Drawings December 16, 2008

The first graders have been pretending they are cave men and cave women. Using chalk pastels, they first drew stories from the Ice Age. Today, they told modern-day stories from their life….but upside down. With paper taped to the underside of the tables, the students sat underneath and drew above their heads, our modern-day dark caves.

Here are a couple of their Ice Age stories, and some photos of Mrs. Shin’s class drawing under the tables:

Tara Donovan field trip December 15, 2008

On Thursday, I took the 6th graders on a field trip to the Institute of Contemporary Art, to see the Tara Donovan exhibit. The first hour was spent in the museum’s ArtLab, where the students experimented with the concepts of pattern and repetition in sculpture. The second hour was spent touring Tara Donovan’s sculptures and installations on the 4th floor. The students entered a room of 1 million plastic cups, which looked like “a giant blob of Cool Whip”. The students were very impressed with Tara Donovan’s use of everyday objects in extremely large quantities, and the visual effects they made. In the coming weeks, students will be collecting their own everyday objects for repetitive sculptures in Donovan’s style.

Some photos from the ArtLab experience:

Totem Poles December 10, 2008

Kindergarten students have been learning about Native Americans in their classrooms.  Ms. Allison’s class ame for 3 Open Studio sessions to create 3 types of Native American homes using bark, twigs, straw, and sand.

In Art class, both Ms. Allison’s and Mr. Klinman’s class are making clay totem poles.  Each student has constructed three animal rings, which will get painted and attached into a column.  Students read A Whale in the Sky, learning about the animals and creatures in the real Northwestern totem poles.

Some photos of students at work:

Cubist Collages December 7, 2008

Cubism and Pop Art were combined in this 8th grade project.  The students looked at Picasso’s cubist paintings from the 1910s and compared them to the 1980s photo collages of David Hockney.    In the assignment, students made many small observational drawings of cereal boxes, using a viewfinder for assistance.  The small drawings were collaged together, sometimes matching, but mostly not.  The final result was a large, fragmented representation of the food item.  Some students have also started photo collages, which will be posted as they finish.

Negative Spaces

The 6th graders recently finished a challenging drawing assignment.  They created observational drawings of chairs and plants, using the technique of looking at the negative spaces (the shapes of the air in and around an object) instead of the actual object itself.  This proved difficult, as the students had to re-learn how to see things.  Once mastered however, knowing how to look for negative spaces will help in all future observational drawings.  In the assignment, the students had to emphasize the negative spaces in an interesting and creative way.

Some examples: