Mixed Media Printmaking

Long Ago by Kelly
...This piece makes me think of a  calm and cold evening in the desert.

In our elective class, we've been exploring printmaking. These are mixed media glue prints.  Hard pastel sticks, pastel pencils and markers were used  to add layers of interest to the work.  To see the original glue prints and the process click here.

Assemblage With Old Watercolor Sets

This was a wonderfully challenging project; you could actually see the thinking going on.

The Ever-Changing
by Reese

My assemblage is about a person's journey through life.  Sometimes we are struggling, sometimes we feel like we have the world in our hands, at other times maybe we are just at peace.  The silver piece represents how there is always hope and dreams in us. 

Esmae 

My assemblage is about being lost in the moment of doing something you love. 

Gabriel 

We've used old watercolor sets for the base of our assemblages. The materials were simple in nature but could be transformed depending on the artistry each student brought to the challenge. Hot glue or modpodge  was used to adhere the materials to the shallow boxes.  

Altered Page, Artists as Designers

The 5th and 6th grade girls are working on designing an altered page with a "spooky" mood to it.  Shown above are the steps we are taking.  First,  they were to select words to make a sentence that spoke to them about creating this spooky mood.  This was actually a really fun part because they become so enthralled into finding this perfect sentence which never existed before.  Then,  I gave them a selection of images to choose from which they were to glue onto their board/page.  Then they used the oil pastels to block out the negative space.  They could use the oil pastel however they chose.  The next step was to design a frame or border (we used the scissors with a special edge for this).  The last step is to construct a small envelope and attach it to their piece. I'm encouraging them to invent a new way to make an envelope.  We are not completely finished yet but I wanted to share the work thus far.  I like this lesson a lot because I believe every part has challenged them to a new level.  

Altered Books

"I think of the poem I wrote in 6th grade, Gray Rainbow.  The main idea of my book is random thought; no page is related to the other.  My favorite part is the karate page because it's very creative and looks well made."  Yianni

The selected text on left is:   I feed Zuric your checks...chex mix.

On right:  Don't be shocked

I have always wanted to do an altered book project and I felt  I had the perfect opportunity with my middle school  class as there are only 14 kids and they come 4 days in a row.   They started by laying out their page; selecting the right words is actually extremely engaging, once you try it you'll understand.   After the text was highlighted, gesso was added to the surrounding areas. This basically makes your pages stronger so it can take all of the mediums that will be applied to it.  Now they had to visualize how to portray the text into images.  

Probably one of my favorite parts of any lesson is reading the artist's thoughts about their creative process.   It gives me so much more appreciation for their work and they too gain such a better understanding of "what it all means".  You can see some excerpts from a student's art reflection card above.  I'll be adding more images to this post later this week.

CONFUSION                                                      artist: Gabriel

text selected:
Her consciousness had separated  from her man.

text selected:
She fired.

Some students decided to work with existing images while others completely blanked out the page and created their own. 

"The main idea of my altered book is confusion.  I tried to make this clear by using strong colors throughout the book and also I think the slashes add a feeling of confusion.  My favorite part of my book is being able to carve away part of the book to continue the line of the shot.  I also realized that I like seeing a picture that's already there and developing my own story from it versus writing a story first and then coming up with the pictures."

                                 WONDER                                                          artist: Joumana

"The main idea of my artwork is imagination.  I was trying to express a feeling of wonder by the use of color and texture.  My favorite part is the colors because I think they express the mood of imagining.  My book makes me think about the past and how when trouble came to me that made me stressful, imagination is the place that I would go to to make me happy." 

                                 Waking Up...To Fall Asleep                                  artist: Kelly

text selected:
...each moment we fall asleep we recognize something to be thankful for.

text selected:
...we need to wake up to find the world a safe place.

"When I was working on my book, I realized that in the past I haven't been appreciative of what I had.  That's why my book interprets the idea of waking up and taking a look at the things around you, appreciate and enjoy them because you might not find them there tomorrow."