Happy Canada Day!

In spirit of our national day of celebration, here are a few quick and easy photography projects.

#1. Create a series of 5 photos with the colours red and white as the focus.
#2. Take a photo that would make a good poster to celebrate a Canada Day celebration.
(either of these would work for other countries' festivities as well)

Here are two shots I took just walking down the street the past few days. It goes to show how you see what's already on your mind.

- Patrick

The Mural Project

This mural was completed by students from grades 9-12, each contributing a small part and working together over the course of two weeks.

The process for the project is described here:
http://splitcomplementary.blogspot.ca/2014/04/mandala-mural-project.html

I really enjoyed this project because it's flexible and adaptable - it's easy to let students take the theme in various directions. It was a fun, collaborative project and everyone enjoyed making it.


- Patrick

Guest Speaker Scott Mills on Social Media for Success and Safety

(Laurie Stinson, Angel Freedman, Scott Mills, and me)

Today at Blyth Academy Thornhill we had an inspiring guest speaker, Constable Scott Mills discuss how to use social media for success and safety. Scott engaged the students with fun, fascinating and thoughtful stories from his experience working with the Toronto Police and Crime Stoppers and explained effective and smart ways to use various social media.

He did a live video to youtube during his presentation that you can see here along with some helpful community links: http://internetviolenceprevention.com/2014/05/community-connections-at-blyth-academy-thornhill-for-success-safety-blytheducation/

- Patrick

(Me with the wonderful social worker Angel Freedman, who set up the presentation)

Mandala Mural Project

In a few weeks I will be co-ordinating a group mural project in the school with the grade 9 and 10s. The mural will cover a 10 ft X 10 ft wall in one of the common areas. The theme of the mural is "school spirit" and it will take the form of a mandala.

I like the mandala theme because it solves the overall design problem and leaves a lot of room for changes along the way and input from students and teachers. It also solves the problem of varying levels of skill among the students since they will be applying their contribution to the mural by using stencils that can be carefully drawn and cut before any painting happens.

The biggest concern for mural projects in general is how to avoid any free-hand painting on the wall to make sure there is no build-up of thick paint, no mistakes and no high-pressure situations.

The Basic Steps:

Step #1: BRAINSTORM images that represent school spirit to each student
Step #2: RESEARCH the chosen image
Step #3: SKETCH the image on bristol board
Step #4: CUT a stencil of the sketch (repeat as necessary)
Step #5: the teacher will work with the group to create a mandala pattern using the students' stencils
Step #6: PROJECT a geometric guide on the wall for each layer of the stencil using masking tape or a pencil as a guide (each student will paint their stencil on one layer of the mandala)
Step #7: One by one, the students tape their stencil and paint it over and over around their layer until the layer is full of their image
Step 8: use a paint marker to add detail
Step 9: remove any tape guides and enjoy!

Supplies:
Pencils, erasers, masking tape, bristol board (for stencils and tape guides on the wall)
House paint: 1 off-white for the background and 2 tones for the mural
Brushes/ paint tray
Drop sheet
Acrylic paint markers for details and writing on the wall

* As a side project, have someone film/photograph the mural as the students create it for a fun video of the process. See my tree mural project for an example.

** For some mandala inspiration see this great post on boooooom.

The Golden Age of Illustration: Jessie Wilcox Smith

Art history focuses too often on male artists. I made the same mistake with an earlier series of posts featuring artists from the Golden Age of Illustration. One of the leading female artists from that time is Jessie Wilcox Smith. Here is some of her her work.

She studied art at university, taking classes taught by Howard Pyle, who seems to have had a magical influence on many of his students who went on to become some of the greatest illustrators of all time.

Her work focuses on girlhood adventures and references to mother and daughter relationships. She was a master of various media including pastels, watercolour and oils, and frequently combined the material in new ways to achieve a specific effect.

 - Patrick

Celtic Knots

I've always wanted to do a class project on celtic knots. They look complicated but they are actually fairly easy to do. The trick is to create some guides and grids to use as a basis for the knot-work.

I would break the unit up into three main tutorials, leading to a culminating task. The first lesson would introduce the project with some cultural background and a look at the art history of the Picts and the Gaels. This would show students the cultural context of the work and how math and patterns are used in design- on paper and in stone.

The first lesson would end by watching a demonstration or video- the first tutorial.  This would give students a chance to practice the initial exercises and create their first knot based on a simple rectangle.

A clear and easy to follow video can be found here, and a variation can be created for demonstration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xce8NSx3AKo.

The second lesson would start with a review of the first tutorial and the art history and then a look at the second tutorial. The students would then spend some time working in their sketchbooks on the next exercises.

The third lesson would build on the first two with a more complicated knot. This would be a longer project, lasting at least three classes- and ending with the submission of the culminating task.

- Patrick

A few helpful teaching links

I found this post a year ago and have used some of these strategies in my classroom. This is a list of ways to bring art into any lesson to add creativity and a hands-on approach to learning:
http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/50-ways-to-integrate-art-into-any-lesson/

This next link is to a fantastic contemporary art blog: booooom- the specific post shows the work of an artist that uses flowers to create mandalas. I am putting together a mandala mural project for a grade 9 and 10 class, so I will be posting more about that project later. For now, here is some inspiration:
http://www.booooooom.com/2012/07/10/flower-mandalas-by-kathy-klein/

This last link is to a wonderful tumblr all about illustration:
http://artofnarrative.tumblr.com/page/102

- Patrick