Sketchbooks for 8th Graders

In 8th grade, the first five minutes of class are dedicated to drawing practice. It's a good thing too, because when surveyed, the overwhelming majority of students here say they want to improve in their ability to draw. Drawing well takes practice, so we set aside a few minutes at the start of class to transition into "Art-Think" and practice looking, because part of drawing well is learning how to see.

Collaged sketchbook cover 

Some students chose to laminate the cover 

To get ready for drawing practice, each student made a small sketchbook. 








This year a beautiful 110 year old book press has been added to the studio. This was used to encourage students' sketchbooks to lie flat after they were bound. 

We used a simple three-hole Japanese binding this year, because last year the staples we used kept falling out or stabbing us! The skills introduced through this simple bookmaking exercise will be expanded later this term when a book-making center is created. 

A Community of Artists

One of the strengths of our studio-learning art program is that students take ownership of their work. This means ideas can be generated outside of the school day and carried into the art studio in the form of: 

• A sketchbook worked on over the summer
• Several special stickers saved to customize an in-school sketchbook cover
• A brown paper lunch bag filled with new sharpies, pencils and ballpoint pens to use in the drawing center
• A water bottle that needs a face-lift
• Plans for improving ideas started last year

  

  It's fun to see the drying rack starting to fill up again!

Drawing Center Grand Opening for Grade 5 - pastel resulting!

Today is the third day of school, and all but one of my classes are experienced in using the studio at CBMS. Once portfolios are designed and stowed, most students are eager to start right in, work in their favorite "Center" and get re-acquainted with their preferred materials and tools. Some students are already preparing art for display while others are warming up and discovering new possibilities. 

"How Do You Make Brown?"

This year, only primary colors, plus black and white, are available to start the year in the Painting Center. Students appear to be quite knowledgeable and happy to mix green, violet and orange. Brown is another matter however. Brown is very mysterious, and stumps students time and again.

"T" grade 6 designs her portfolio cover

It turns out, there are many formulas for making brown. "Mix all the colors together" one student suggests. "Use purple and yellow" coaches another." "Add black?" someone guesses.

Some students give up, some beg form premixed brown (they probably see it in the storage closet, mocking them). Most stick with it and struggle through puddles of army green and muddy purple until the magic happens and brown appears. There are as many shades of brown are there are ways to mix it. It feels like quite an accomplishment when a young artist can call up brown on command!

READY...SET...GO!

The studio is ready! All we need now are the artists!

Our new classroom loom, purchased with a generous gift from Waterbury's Across Roads Center for the Arts (ARCA)

Until now, the Fabrics & Fibers Center was squeezed in between the Collage Center and the Sculpture Center - no place to call home. With a little reorganization, we have carved out a new home for fiber artists to sew and weave.  

A redesigned and reconfigured "Fabrics & Fibers" Center

The whole nine yards - sewing station, standing loom, Fabrics & Fibers Center

Sewing and weaving have increased in popularity at CBMS recently, the new center arrangement should better serve artists choosing fiber media for their work. 
NEEDED:Donations of spools of thread to keep us stitching

“I don't know why people kill...”

Weapons, weaponry, violent action drawings – these are subjects and themes that frequently appear in middle school art – usually boy art. My colleague Clyde Gaw writes extensively about this in “The Secret Art of Boys” (in The Learner Directed Classroom, 2012, Jaquith &Hathaway Eds.)

By "J" - Grade 6

When students choose to make art about guns or violence there is an opportunity to talk through these themes and gain insight into why some young artists find these ideas compelling.

Often a student will say: “I made this because guns are cool.” or simply “I like guns.” Fascination with weapons is not unusual. Social commentary about guns, at this age, is. So I was very interested in a recent mixed media piece (pictured above) titled “Y the Violence?” The artist's statement created for the display of this piece reads: “I don't know why people kill (that's the "IDK"). "LOL" is that I think killers might think it's funny.”

Artist's Statement

 

This interested me – the artist used materials in an interesting and deliberate way, created meaning, communicated an idea, and put their work “out there” for others to see and respond.

I have a reproduction of sculpture by Marvin Bartel pinned to the wall in the Sculpture Center – a piece I greatly admire. It was made in 1968 and depicts a rifle with a long site, hanging broken from a coarse noose – a lynched rifle. I asked my student if he ever noticed that photo, (he did not). Together we looked at it, commented on the artist's possible intentions, speculated about the year it was made (1968) and what might have been going on during that time. I told the student that 1968 was the year Martin Luther King was assassinated and Robert Kennedy – Was Bartel "assassinating" the rifle? Killing violence? Calling for an end to the shootings?

I know that in some schools, depicting weapons is disallowed. And while it is sometimes unsettling to see young students drawing and building weapons, their interest in these provides an entry point to speak about complex topics that hold relevance to this generation - conversations which might otherwise be silenced.

The artwork of three students will represent CBMS at the STUDENT ART SHOW 

at 

Helen Day Art Center in Stowe Vermont.

The opening reception is May 3, 3:00-7:00 PM.

The show runs through May 26th 

and includes the work of 11 area schools.

Congratulations to Amber, Reily and Amaya!

 Sun/Moon, Encaustic by Reily and Amaya

Thunder Lightening Rainbow  Tempera Painting by Amber (one of a series of 5 paintings)

Hurray for Clay!

The Clay Center opened today for Grade 5. Hurray! The "ware shelf" is filling up with bowls and plaques and animals and all manner of objects created by eager hands grateful for the wonders clay holds.

"When will it be dry?" "Can we paint it?" "Will it be ready for Mothers Day?" The clay center is a rich area for learning in the art studio - lots of science and physics plus all those aesthetic choices to make. The esoteric vocabulary is fun to learn and use, there are interesting tools to test, and nothing beats the fun of having shaping something from nothing.
Welcome back clay center - I've missed you these last two weeks!