Virtual Sistine Chapel Vatican Site

The Vatican site provides the link bellow to access the Sistine Chapel with superb visual resolution. This is a great resource for art history teachers and students, and obviously provides a much more interactive and memorable experience than looking at a dozen slides, enjoy:

The Sistine Chapel

Class Activity:
Students explore the site and choose one image/figure for a sketchbook assignment. Students choose any piece and research its meaning and complete a sketch using coloured pencils. Students must also come up with one puzzle or question about their chosen piece.

Surreal Drawing Exercises

Here are two surreal drawing exercises that can be effectively explored in  a 75 minute class.

#1. Homage to Andre Breton

Using an exercise handout that has four square grids of equally placed dots, draw and try not to think about what you are drawing. Try to allow the drawing process to be automatic. Do this with the first three grids and then use the forth to refine the composition in a conscious way, using a more usual approach to drawing.

#2. Illustrating a random phrase

Take any passage of text and randomly underline 6-8 words, not in a row, but sporadically throughout the passage. Work out some sketches to illustrate the random phrase. Try this a few times and choose the most interesting one to develop into a larger composition.

Mick Ebeling: The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist

"Mick Ebeling: The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist."

This is an inspiring talk that shows how much difference creativity can make. Mike Ebeling had a far-fetched idea and with a group of creative people, made it happen. Towards the end he asks the motivational questions that many innovators ask, "if not now, then when?" and "if not me, then who?"

Handspring Puppet Co.: The genius puppetry behind War Horse

"Handspring Puppet Co.: The genius puppetry behind War Horse."

This is a very inspiring talk, well worth a listen.

A.G.O. visit follow-up lesson and CPT studio project

Anticipatory Set: have students write a list of words, ideas, phrases that represent Canadian culture/identity to them personally, based on their experiences. 

Follow this with a powerpoint and class discussion, reviewing some of the Group of 7 work that was explored at the A.G.O. What would their list include? Review the creative process used by the Group of 7. Then introduce the studio project, which has three stages.

Stage one: for the rest of class today, students will look through magazines to find images of the items on their list (that represent Canadian identity). Students are encouraged to use the internet and print out search results. (15 Minutes) If they have time they will begin to create a collage that covers one piece of illustration board (16X20) using these collected images. To be completed during the following class.

Stage two: students will engage in the creative process used by the Group of 7, by outdoor sketching on a class trip to a nearby park. Sketches will be done in their sketchbooks and will focus on a landscape that must incorporate some wilderness. Students will take 3-5 digital photographs of what they sketched for reference, upload them to the class folder, and print them during the next class.

Stage three: students will explore composition in their sketchbooks based on their outdoor sketch and their digital photographs. After I approve their sketches and composition, students will begin an acrylic painting on top of their collage, based on their sketch, their digital photographs and their explorations. Students will paint over their collage but must leave some showing through. (For example, students may keep the collage as the sky, or as the background, or a texture). I will model each stage as we go. 

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

"Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education."

Salman Khan presents an effective way of using video to instruct content mastery so that students can watch at their own pace at home. This opens up the class time for activity-based learning, more one-to-one time and peer interaction. I have seen so many attempts to shoe-horn technology into the classroom, this is an example of a way to really use technology to enhance education. This is an inspiring and motivating talk.

If you want to learn more about this, check out: The Khan Academy site.

JR: Can Art Change The World?

French street artist JR's TEDtalk addresses the question: "can art change the world?"
He is this year's winner of the TED prize and his wish is: "use art to turn the world inside out".




Check out his site and get involved if you want to: inside out project.