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You can now follow everything you would have seen here.... on my complete site and blog  kiickstart.com  and/or my  creative arts class blog

Our Dinner Party Brunch

Yesterday was the last day of final exams. For three days, I got to have brunch with all of my students! What a delight. We ate off of our handmade place settings and each student brought in food to share. It was a pot-luck style meal that made me feel very lucky indeed!

Tonight, the class of 2012 will graduate, and I know great things await them!!

Thank you and congratulations! I have enjoyed our time together.

Dinner Party Brunch - free slideshow

The Making of an Art Installation

Spring has sprung here in the Garden State, and ’tis the season for art shows and art installations! I wanted to share some preview activities for the middle school installation, called “Tapped”. This year’s middle school, Art is Elemental theme is water. We are well under way in planning for, and executing the necessary components for our installation.

Above are pictures of my sixth grade students creating the faucet features out of two-liter soda bottles, tape and plaster craft. My seventh and eighth grade students are busy poking holes in rescued water bottle caps and stringing them together into long chains of “running water”.

Did you know that Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets? (in excess of $15 Billion) To put it in other terms, we pay more for bottled water per ounce than gasoline, and our oceans and earth are paying the ultimate price. This year’s installation is tapping our greatest resource…….awareness.

Our installation will be up for our middle school art show and district-wide Arts Extravaganza on June 6th! While our “Tapped” installation is temporary, I hope the message from a bottle will be lasting. Check back for more info!

Click here to watch last year’s Art is Elemental Middle School installation: when TRAsh becomes ART!

March is Youth Art Month!

There is a whole month dedicated toward celebrating art in our schools. Hooray for that!

Although it's officially celebrated on the calendar in March - we live it and love it every month out of the year!

Haddon Township has some good news! Emily Himles, grade 12, had her piece (shown at left) selected to be one of the six that will represent Camden County at the State Youth Art Month Exhibit at the State House in Trenton!

A special celebration will be held on March 30th! Congratulations Emily!

Kids on Fire

Our metals unit is finished! The assignment was to create a miniature metal panel using copper, brass and nickel silver. Each piece had to be smaller than 4 inches, but most are actually smaller than 3 inches.

The students do their own sawing, filing and soldering and use an acetylene torch to get the job done! To see the students' work, visit kiickstart.com

Artist Research Project

We completed a new mid-term assessment project this year. My students were required to select one artist to research from those we discussed in the 500 years of the portrait lesson. The students then created a biographical research blog post and also an interpretive piece inspired by the artist they researched. Above are some of the students’ interpretive pieces. Click here to see more.

Every Wall is a Door

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the one who said, "Every wall is a door". This quote has always helped me to remain optimistic and hopeful. It seems fitting for this post and my student's work above.

My students are finished with their mixed media collages. And I'm happy to say once again, I am pleased with their results! Of course, being pleased does not mean it was easy. It's hard work to make a bunch of ideas, directions and materials come together to look like a meaningful and intentional finished piece.

For some of my students the topic of "identity" is a stumbling block, because they feel as if they don't actually have an identity yet. (You know, after all, they're only kids!!) It is definitely true that over time, we mature into knowing ourselves with a deeper understanding that's more reliable and consistent then when we were young, (thank goodness) but even at "middle-age", I still consider that knowing myself is a series of vistas, more than an actual destination. I don't view it as a place where one arrives, but more like opening doors. It's about what we see, but also what we allow ourselves to see...walls, doors, windows?

The Collage Detail above was created by Karen Graeber, Grade 12. Click on her blog link to read what she wrote about her collage. Thanks KG! :-)

Click here to see more students' works.