Inner Voice

I follow the Art Prof and each month they post an Art Dare. The Art Dare is a technique or an idea that they are asking people to engage with and then share their work on social media. I especially liked the February Art Dare theme of "Inner Voice". It seemed perfect for my 7th graders first idea based assignment. I was hoping to challenge them to make art about an idea, and understand that art doesn't have to be just a pretty picture. The theme also worked well to tie in some social emotional learning.

We started with a slides presentation looking at different styles of art work that were focused on inner voice/what's on your mind/mental health and then the students did some journaling about THEIR inner voice, and both positive and negative things that were on their minds.

The next step was to brainstorm a plan. I gave a starting point of a silhouette style self-portrait to SHOW what's on your mind for students who needed a little more direction and let those who had their own idea go for it!

I was so proud of the students. Several were BRAVE. It's not easy to be vulnerable, especially in middle school, but several took a leap of faith and showed some vulnerability in the thoughts they shared.

I was so pumped that my 7th graders' Inner Voice projects were reviewed in the Art Prof February Art Dare recap! Our clip is here:

via ytCropper

We also got an Honorable Mention!
via ytCropper

Graphic Design + Ceramics

In my school, my graphic  design course functinos like an Art 1. It is not difficult to hit all the competencies while incorporating traditional art media with digital media. This year I've been conscious about pairing a digital project with each traditional media assignment. There were 2 parts to the introduction to ceramics, designed to cover techniques that the students would be able to pull from in future assignments with more choices. The first assignment was to make a cylinder which could function as a cup or a mug. This assignment covered slab building, pottery, art history, and surface design.

I started wondering about the history of graphic design in ceramics and when I searched, I found a wonderful resource, Guity Novin's a History of Graphic Design, and chapter 12 is Graphic Design in Ceramics. Bingo! Chapter 13 is on Native American Pottery so I showed some of those examples as well. I'm just pretty pumped to know about this resource!

Here is the slides presentation I showed the students so that I could group images by technique:

After the presentation, I demonstrated a variety of surface design techniques that I asked students to take notes on- sgraffito, underglaze, mishima, slip trailing, carving, and stamping. On the note sheet, the students wrote about which technique(s) they would like to try and then were able to sketch their idea.

The students had the rest of the 1st class to plan then 2-3 classes to construct their cylinders and complete the designs. I demonstrated pulling handles for anyone who was interested.

The design on the left used carving and underglazing. The cup on the right used carving, sgraffito, and mishima with the same repeated pattern.

This student incorporated a favorite quote in her ocean-themed mug.

Some inspiration from the Great Wave!

After the cylinders were complete, the students started on the digital part- designing a magazine cover that featured their cups.  

1. Students watched a video that broke down a magazine cover into parts and completed a worksheet I made to label them.

2. They wrote an analysis of a magazine cover they looked up.

3. Students photographed their cups.

4. Adobe Photoshop was used to create the magazine covers. (It was a quick assignment so I didn't want to tackle introducing new software.)

Here are some of the magazine designs

Viewing Virtual Art- Free Online Resource for Art Teachers

While preparing for online instruction during the Covid-19 pandemic I remembered a slides presentation and questions I put together to hit one of the 7th grade visual arts standards and tweaked it to include taking a virtual tour of an art museum. I may end up using it with my high school students as well as middle school.
Feel free to use as is or to go to file, make a copy, so that you can have your own version to edit.


And here are some really simple questions that I plan to post in Google Classroom for students to answer: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Metlz63IXyED9pA96ak01vRonv3_EMGAHCIa3VV5h-E/edit?usp=sharing

Gouache Flowers

Gouache lilacs painted for my mom's birthday

A few months ago I got the urge to paint with gouache. I hadn't used the paint since my 2D design class at ESU in 2005 but I remembered enjoying how quickly it dried along with the ability to use it opaquely or in translucent layers.

I decided to use part of a Blick gift coupon to invest in a nice set of true gouache (instead of acrylic gouache) and I’ve been very happy with the Utrecht designer gouache I bought. The colors that come in the set are not your typical primary and secondary colors so you've got to understand how to mix them to get the colors you want.

The biggest benefit for me is that I can pull them out when I have a little bit of time to paint in between chasing my kids and get something done without making a huge mess!

I got on a floral kick after painting the lilacs for my mom’s birthday. I am now accepting commissions for 5x7 gouache flowers for $25. Email Catharine.Morris@yahoo.com if you would like to order an original painting or are interested in one pictured here!