I have an idea...

Outside of my school, there is this area that is unused. It is a pentagon-ish shape surrounded by sidewalk and covered walkway. There are some bushes and trees growing there, as well as weeds. In different years, people have tried to plant flowers and other greenery, but unfortunately, it is very hard to find someone who can consistently take of the plants, so they always die. The grass grows really tall and the children run through the area in the morning. I was planning today for my 4th graders. I am planning a unit using the artist Joe Sam, who paints as well as creates sculptures.

Seeing his sculptures, it got me to thinking about turning this unused space into our own sculpture garden. We already have one sculpture there, the Chihuly inspired chandelier, which I keep putting off taking down.

So I am considering proposing this to my principal. I really want the related arts that we offer at Lakeview to be the main focus, since we are so often left out. I have been researching ideas, and have gotten some good ones, like this sculpture created from sports equipment

So what do you think? Any ideas or suggestions for possible sculptures?

Chihuly Chandelier

Here in Nashville, we have been very lucky to have multiple Dale Chihuly installations to inspire our students with. My friends Ted, Tina, Daryl and I were in charge of the elementary art teachers inservice (at the beginning of the school year) and we planned the whole thing around the exhibits at the Frist Center and Cheekwood. One of the things that we did was to challenge the teachers to have their students create a Chihuly inspired instillation at their own school. My students have been very busy creating these installations. So far, my third and fourth graders have finished their chandelier/tower (well, at least one of them). Here is is hanging outside of the school from a tree. We created an armature out of chicken wire, and the students brought in hundreds of water bottles. The bottom and labels were cut off, and the students painted the inside of the bottles in the school colors. When dry, the students cut them into spirals and then the bottles were glued into the chicken wire, starting at the bottom. Finally, the top layer of bottles were cut and curled like flowers and added on. A wonderful parent came out and hung it in the tree for me.

Fantastic teacher workshop!

I just attended a fantastic teacher workshop today and learn very interesting art activities to do with my classes. The Cheekwood and Frist Center staff got together to co-host a Chihuly workshop. This was a day and a half (well, a day and 2 hours) long workshop that was at both museums. We started out at Cheekwood for a tour of the nighttime Chihuly exhibit. Then we reconvened at Cheekwood this morning, toured the mansion, and then trekked over to the Frist center to see that exhibit and work on hands-on art activities. One of the really interesting projects utilized acrylic gloss medium and acrylic paint. The gloss medium and paint are mixed together (the less paint you use, the more transparent the finished project will be) and poured out on parchment paper or lamination film and a cookie sheet. It is allowed to dry completely, and then it could be cut up and wrapped around objects or attached to itself. The gloss medium sticks to windows and plastic without the aid of glue.

Embroidery floss can be added into the wet gloss medium to simulate Chihuly's baskets that use strings of glass to mimic the woven designs of Navaho blankets. I can't wait to try this with my class.

Art-al-Sol 2010

I was very lucky to manage another Art-al-Sol camp this summer. Art-al-Sol is a summer art camp run by MNPS, and is a week long, all day camp open to 8-13 year olds. This summer, we focused on a theme that was inspired by the Chihuly exhibitions at the Frist and Cheekwood. We were able to go to the Cheekwood exhibit (on a very, VERY hot day!) and the children loved it! Below is some of the projects that we were able to complete during the week. We worked on microwave kiln glass, glass coasters, Classroom Chihuly, Shrinky-Dinks with pastels (hint: wet the pastels first, then draw on the shrinky dinks), friendly plastic pins, silk painting, window cling mobiles and bead pictures (using the fusible beads that are available at Wal-mart).

Now Featuring: Jewelry!

I have finally gotten around to posting some images from my jewelry class at Cheekwood. I have been very busy with camps this summer, with five half day, week long camps at Cheekwood, and two week long camps for the school district, I feel like I haven't even had time to breathe! The pictures below show the sculpey pins that are based on some of the Chihuly work that is featured at Cheekwood, specifically the Sun sculpture that is on the lawn of the mansion. The last picture is a paper bead that was created by a student.

Summer Camps...time to prepare!

So, even though school is out for MNPS students, I am preparing to teach a variety of summer art camps. A local museum and botanical garden, Cheekwood, is celebrating it's 50th anniversary in a big way. Working in conjunction with the Frist Center and the Nashville Symphony, a large Chihuly exhibition is being held at both Cheekwood and the Frist, while the Nashville Symphony performed Bluebeard's Castle using sets designed and created by Chihuly. I got to see the symphony, and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Chihuly is one of my favorite artists, and I, of course an so excited to use this opportunity in my summer camps. I am teaching 6 different camps at Cheekwood, which means that my students can have some hands "off" (after all, we can't touch the art) experience with Chihuly. I am also teaching at Art-al-Sol, a 2 week long summer art camp provided by MNPS. There are 2 sessions, each a week long for students 8-13 years old. Of course, I am planning Art-al-Sol around Chihuly, and found an amazing wealth of lessons online to incoporate in the camp. I found a couple of great lessons at http://www.dickblick.com/ including this one using dura-lar, hot water and Vitrea 160 paint. http://cdn.dickblick.com/lessonplans/classroom-chihuly/classroom-chihuly-chihuly.pdf


This one is so easy! I cut three organic shapes out of the dura-lar, one large and two small. Then, I bent and curled the plastic into very organic shapes, and dunked it into boiling water, which caused the plastic to retain the shape I had bent it into. After drying off the plastic, I painted it with the vitrea 160, a glass paint that can be baked onto glass ware for a permanent finish. With the dura-lar however, you cannot bake it, just let it dry. I can't wait until the kids try it!