Altoona Finishing Up

We finished at Altoona after some pretty intense clay work.....by that much of it was from my end as I tried to get pieces dried enough to put in the kiln.  Rick made a wood fire and we kept moving the wet clay sculptures from the top of the stove to a table.  We finally loaded the kiln and did a single fire of the student pieces.  All in all the results were quite good and I was very pleased with the work.

Our last days involved grouting our first smaller works onto the boards for their personal mosaics.  Grouting being such a messy business was even more fun as I chose black grout for their work.  Our last day we took shots of their final clay pieces, ate snacks that I brought and some of the students contributed also.  One wonderful mom made some awesome cookies in the shape of palettes and brushes.  We played a vigorous game of Pictionary charades and headed on our way!

Cinquain Poems from Altoona After School Arts Students

We wrote poems today about our clay sculpture pieces


Cross
Small, Creative
Cutting, Drawing, Creating
Spreading the spirit of God
God

Heart
Messy, Wet
Moving, Thinking, Challenging
It is brown and soft
Sculpture

House
Scary, Haunted
Screaming, Creating, Howling
I love Halloween time
Mansion

Flag
Fun, Pretty
Making, Cutting, Designing
Red, white and blue
British

Chagath
Fearsome, Deadly
Eating, Stomping, Destroying
Darkness devours your soul
Monster

Koi
Majestic, Graceful
Swimming, Jumping, Swaying
Black, orange, white dashing
Fish

Vase
Colorful, Cheerful
Concentrating, Caring, Molding
Vases make flowers beautiful
Pottery

Name
Little, Cheerful
Guarding, Watching, Baking
Changing with each figure brush
Statue

Mug
Bendable, Wet
Adding, Subtracting, Placing
Sculpting is a lot fun
Sculpting

Shoe
High, Purple
Wearing, Fitting, Losing
I love high heels
Footwear

Mosaic
Slippery, Cool
Scupting, Dabbing, Carving
I love the ocean
Puzzle

Fairy
Cold, Heavy
Flying, Coloring, Building
I love to fly around
Angel

Homestock
Soft, Cold
Creating, Building, Coloring
I love creating new things
Anime

Altoona After School Arts

So fall begins in 2012 with the beauty of the sunsets and the folliage colors in the leaves.  It is already October and I am not even sure how many years I have been doing a residency for Altoona After School Arts.  What I do know is that this year I feel particularly lucky to have such a great group of students.

Our goals this year are to learn some processes in clay sculpture and being able to transform our work into personal mosaic projects.  I teach some basic skills in learning out to sculpte and add to the the stoneware clay I use.  Since we only have two weeks (10 days) we are actually going to single fire the clay works in my kiln here at the house.  Next week the students will get to work on a personal sculpture other than their mosaic project.

The things I like to see in this class are the friendly and helpful attitudes.  It has been a joy to be around this group. 

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Finishing at Forest Hills Middle School May 2012

I finish my residency here at Forest Hills Middle School in just a few days.  As you can see we have been quite busy with watercolors, tempera paints, oil pastels and even acyrlics!  Having worked with 7th-9th grade and over 180 students in 20 intense days has given me a greater appreication of Patience with students.  It is almost the end of the year so Spring Fever is very evident.

My real core group of the 9th graders worked as teams to create 6 large murals that will hang in the cafeteria.  I also worked very briefly with them on a clay sculpture, the work of wich is literally firing in the kiln.  I probably enjoyed the 7th graders just as much and their work in watercolor, oil pastels and tempera painting was very successful.  A small sampling of their work is evident below.  I was even able to sneak in a piece that Mrs. Honkus accomplished....accidentally posted twice so we get to see it two times!

After this, we are working on finishing my studio space, flying to Vegas for a wholesale show and keeping up with our orders.....FUN and EXCITING!

More of Forest Hills Middle School

Forest Hills Middle School Residency

Here I am at Forest Hills Middle School.  I will post more photos of the finished watercolors later this week.  Right now I am working with Art Teacher Lucille Honkus for 20 days with grades 7-9.  This is Lucille's retirement year and we will all really miss her!

The 7th and 8th graders are finishing their watercolors based on animal, plant and bird imagery.  I borrow the meanings from Ted Andrew's book Animal Speak as well as my own research based on Victorian Times and the language of flowers.  Each student selects 5 adjectives to describe themselves and then renders a drawing based on these images.

The 9th grade project involves us in teams working on large scale canvas paintings that will hand proudly in the cafeteria.  Of course Lucille and I had to do one that talks about the arts!  More photos and jargon to come.