4th Grade Clay Masks

The 4th grade clay project is a lesson in spontaneity. The students are shown are series of tools and techniques for creating texture. The actual mask is created by using a rolled slab formed over various paper armatures. This way eyes, noses and mouths can actually stick out. The masks are then painted with metallic tempera paints to create the illusion of a lost or ancient artifact.

6th grade medallions

This project was one that had been on the back burner for a couple of years but we brought it back this year. We changed the focus from a central image or symbol to a radial design with a focus on design elements such as shape, line and texture. The end results were dynamite and re-charged this lesson. The medallions are actually made from a combination of cardboard, card stock, glue, toothpicks, tin foil and ink. The end result is something that resembles pewter or tarnished silver. Here are a few of the many great results from this year.

4th Grade Monster Totems

Alright, who doesn't enjoy drawing monsters? There's really no wrong way. The monster totem is a little different than your average monster project. We break up the monster, drawing the top half on the bottom of the paper and the bottom half at the top of the paper. Seems strange right?!  The idea here is that when finished, we can link our paper up with someone else in the class. Then our bottom fits on their top or vice versa. We can even link up to other 4th graders in other classes, the possibilities are endless. In order for this to happen we have to have set lines that are the same on everyone's paper. Thus the use of the master copy...see below                                   

With everyone working off the same lines, everyones will fit. They can also be moved to create endless combinations. The same pieces were used below and just moved around.

5th Grade name illustrations

This is the first project that the 5th graders do at the beginning of the year after reviewing the elements of art. We talk about using objects to create the illusion of letters. A candy cane for a "J" or a lower case "r" for example. We also took a look at some photographers that do this same thing with cropped images.

 Students had a minimum of 5 letters to work with...a first name, last name, nick-name. We also talked about light and how we can use it to help create a 3-d illusion on a flat surface. Here are some examples:

Fish On Parade - 4th Grade

Our first major project in 4th grade this year was a painting project based around Horses on Parade. Rochester has a rich background in public sculpture. From the Horses on Parade to Animals on Parade, The Light Houses throughout West Irondequoit to the Benches on Parade, it seems there's always some sort of public art on display in our area. We took a look at a couple of the different horses to see what the artists were doing. The first two we looked at were working with the idea of characters. One was a comic book hero, the other was a movie hero...

These artists took all the key elements of the Heroes and applied them to the form of the horse. Their skill in adding these details make it obvious that we are looking at Batman and Rocky Balboa. So then we looked at artists that paint about things that they are interested in or influenced by. In this example the artist was really interested in Jazz music and created an intricate composition of instruments and musicians as well as sculptural details in the legs and mane.

The last category we explored was location. A few of the artists that participated in this project decorated their horses with images of the community. Whether it be an image of the canal or the city skyline at night. They used the surface of the horse as a three dimension canvas and filled with elements from where they lived.

Now for our version of this project we decided to try fish as our canvas. We settled on fish because when fish swim together they call it a school. Students had three categories to draw from:
1. A character, it could be from a cartoon, comic book, movie, story ...
2. An interest : sports, activities, music, art...
3. A location, this could be where they live or a place they like to visit or would like to visit.
There are always ideas that are really interesting but might not fit one of the three categories, so when it's possible, we include those as well. Once they are all painted, we concentrate on outlining with sharpie to re-focus our images and clean up any mistakes where paint overlapped during the painting process. The goal is to end up with a clean and polished version of our original idea. Then we hang them and they all swim together in the halls...

... and that's Fish on Parade!

Art Club

Art Club at Iroquois School meets two days a cycle after school and is offered to 6th graders. We take old vinyl records and re-purpose them into clocks. The process starts with a blank record...

Then Mr. Perry adds a coat of white spray paint for a better surface to paint on...

Then students choose what to paint on them. Maybe a cartoon or comic character. Perhaps a favorite sports team, the possibilities are endless. Images are drawn on in pencil, then sharpie is used to outline the pencil. We use acrylic paint to add color. The atmosphere is set up like a studio where students hang with friends and work on art...is there anything better?

Once everything is painted, numbers are added using a template. A clock motor is installed through the hole in the record and VIOLA! Ready to hang!

Extreme Materials

Extreme Materials has opened at the Memorial Art Gallery. A different version of this show came to rochester in 2006 and featured artists working with found and recycled materials. A head stitched together and made out of orange peel, a flower made of pink high heel shoes, a sculptural sun made with carrots. This current exhibit expands on the first show and pushes the boundaries further. The creative solutions with odd and found objects is something for everyone to see.

Museum Hours: Wed-Sunday 11am-5pm, Thursday 11am-9pm
FAMILY DAY- Sunday November 20th, Noon-5pm. Cost- FREE!

More information is at The Memorial Art Gallery website : http://mag.rochester.edu/