Story

I wanted to share some of the artwork my intro high school students created during our "Story" themed unit this year. You can see another post about this theme along with a slides presentation full of examples here: https://www.katiemorrisart.com/2017/11/story.html.

A couple students took on the challenge of altered books. This was a play on Rapunzel with the artist's friend serving as model.

The next 2 altered books were inspired by anatomy and by telling stories. The book on the left (in progress at the point of this photo) has a rib cage cover and the inside had sections of pages cut away to represent the organs. The book on the right is supposed to be a campfire where you could sit and tell stories. The student used tissue paper for fire and ash.

The next project was created by a student who loves fantasy and dragons. She made a hollow egg first and cut it apart so that it fit perfectly together. Then she sculpted a tiny baby dragon. She experimented with layered glazes and found a combination she liked.

The following project was made by a student who wanted to explore spray painting. He created a combination of stencils and masks that he used to make a phoenix.

This student used a mask mold as a starting point for a mermaid. She added some real shells in the end.

It's always fun to see the variety. I only wish I'd taken more photos!

Theme: Story

STORY was one of my favorite themes from last school year. We got some really cool artwork out of the theme and it was broad enough that there was lots of room for different interpretations and the students' interests.

After the introduction, I asked students to research a myth or legend that they were unfamiliar with and write a paragraph summary just to get them thinking about new possibilities. A few students used the research for their projects and the rest moved on with other ideas.

I didn't do a printmaking bootcamp but offered demos when students were trying to come up with something new to try. These two prints were both inspired by a myth or legend.

Clay was a popular choice during this unit. Some students fired and glazed and others added in different materials such as moss, stones, sticks, and glass.

This student made a hobbit hole.

This was kind of like a fairy cottage. It was super cool.

This was one of my advanced students last year. She found an old story she had written and created a box from the story. It even has her own language carved into the side.

These students chose stories that are movies but did a good job moving past copying a movie cover.

I love looking around and seeing all the variety in the classroom!

This student joined the class at semester so made basically her first painting for the project using water soluble oil paints- not a fan of the medium, by the way, regular oils are SO much better- and she worked to get lots of information from the story into one composition.

This was inspired by a song I think called Granddaddy's Gun or something like that. The student incorporated small copies of family pictures of them hunting together on the drawn mantle.