A few wonderful artists to check out:

I find so many inspirational artists online- in this post I'll share a few of the ones I've found recently. In our daily online exploration, we are inundated with images and works from a seemingly endless stream of artists. It is important to slow down and appreciate them sometimes.

An idea for a class activity:

Have students research and explore art sites online and make a list of 10 artists that inspire them. Using curriculum/project-specific criteria, have them narrow down their list to the 3 most inspirational and course-relevant artists. Have them prepare a brief slide show presentation with examples of the artists' work, a bio and 1 example of the application of the critical analysis process to analyze 1 work from each of their chosen artists.

Here are 3 that I choose:

Dan McCarthy: http://www.danmccarthy.org

Beth Zaiken: http://www.bethzaiken.com/projects.html

Song Kang: http://www.song-kang.com


Enjoy!

- Patrick

The Smithsonian Digitizes & Lets You Download 40,000 Works of Asian and American Art!

I saw this awesome link on the Ontario Art Education Association's Facebook page to the Open Culture site:

http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/smithsonian-digitizes-lets-you-download-40000-works-of-asian-and-american-art.html

Definitely worth checking out!

Arts Education in Wales

Exciting news for arts education coming out of Wales- they have recently reconfigured their education system based on some inspiring ideas, read more about it here:
http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/wales-put-arts-heart-curriculum

- Patrick

Abigail Watson and Bela Fleck: Banjo Love Mosaic

To celebrate a recent album and tour, banjo geniuses Abigail Watson and Bela Fleck asked fans to send in photos of themselves holding a banjo. The result is the Banjo Love mosaic poster made up of all those submitted images:

See the high-res version and galleries of all the individual images on their site, here:

http://www.banjolove.com/#main

As a long-time Bela fan I could't resist, even though I play guitar, I went to my local music store and played around with a beautiful banjo for a while and took this photo for my submission:

This would make a great Visual Arts project for the classroom or the school community. It is a versatile project that can accommodate any theme and include a variety of amounts of participants. Basic photography and photo-editing skills are required. I would recommend using Illustrator and Photoshop to finalize the collaborative poster. 

- Patrick

Another wildlife photography contest! (WWF)

Happy new year!

The wildlife photography contests continue, here's another one, this one focuses on birds:

https://wwfcanadaphotos.pgtb.me/wttFKt

Cheers!

-Patrick

Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest

To follow up with the last post, check out this contest by the R.O.M. for wildlife photographer of the year: http://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/exhibitions/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year/rom-wildlife#/gallery/recent

- Patrick

Wildlife Photography of the year 2015

Here's a great post on the Glossom blog about the Wildlife Photography of the year winners for 2015:
http://blog.glossom.com/2015/10/wildlife-photographer-year-2015-winners-pictures/

- Patrick