I was blown away by the quality of work done by 7th and 8th graders at my daughter's middle school. When Victoria told me a day ago that she had to go to an art show at school (which meant I had to attend too), I got a bored look on my face. I pictured walls lined with drawings done on construction paper. It would take us 20 minutes and then we could be home again. Hardly worth the 8 mile drive (one way), but a parent has to do what a parent has to do. Right?
Instead, the exhibits were amazing. There were communication arts posters up in the walls in the hallway, competing for attention from mathematical 3-D sculptures hanging from the ceiling. Science presentations on tables lining the length of one side of the hallway running the whole length of the school. The highlight for me, was the art hanging in the gym's hallway and displayed on tables. Scratch board animals, pencil portraits, oil pastel flags (folds rendered accurately with shading so they appeared to all flutter in patriotic unison), glorious renderings of over sized flowers a la Georgia O'Keefe, festive masks and bodacious paper mache letters.
My daughter did the blue bird "boy" in the top photo. She would correct me and say it was a girl, but it doesn't look particularly feminine. The beak inspiration came from Gonzo, the Muppet buzzard (he's a boy by the way). The kids made a plaster mold of their faces (done in the first month of school or so) and used that for a base to paper mache over, then painted and decorated the paper mache. The results, as you can see are AMAZING. I kept mumbling," I wish I had brought my camera. Dang! I wish I had brought..." until I realized I had my cell phone (eureka!!!!) so I took pictures and emailed them to myself. The beauty of a Blackberry.
The butterfly girl by "Brittany" was one of the more unusual. I suspect their art teacher did a lot of art direction (with stunning results) because Victoria grumbled that her friend was told to add dots and dashes to her mask and herself had to add lines and dots she wouldn't have otherwise. Feathers and glitter and sequins were all artistically placed with brilliant effect.
I was also impressed with the coordinated name tags. Every mask was "best in show" in my book. No two were alike. Each had their own fantastic merits.
I WANT a set of these letters. Never mind that I do not have the room in my house to spell out anything longer than "ART".
Don't you just want to hug them and take them home?
Instead, the exhibits were amazing. There were communication arts posters up in the walls in the hallway, competing for attention from mathematical 3-D sculptures hanging from the ceiling. Science presentations on tables lining the length of one side of the hallway running the whole length of the school. The highlight for me, was the art hanging in the gym's hallway and displayed on tables. Scratch board animals, pencil portraits, oil pastel flags (folds rendered accurately with shading so they appeared to all flutter in patriotic unison), glorious renderings of over sized flowers a la Georgia O'Keefe, festive masks and bodacious paper mache letters.
My daughter did the blue bird "boy" in the top photo. She would correct me and say it was a girl, but it doesn't look particularly feminine. The beak inspiration came from Gonzo, the Muppet buzzard (he's a boy by the way). The kids made a plaster mold of their faces (done in the first month of school or so) and used that for a base to paper mache over, then painted and decorated the paper mache. The results, as you can see are AMAZING. I kept mumbling," I wish I had brought my camera. Dang! I wish I had brought..." until I realized I had my cell phone (eureka!!!!) so I took pictures and emailed them to myself. The beauty of a Blackberry.
The butterfly girl by "Brittany" was one of the more unusual. I suspect their art teacher did a lot of art direction (with stunning results) because Victoria grumbled that her friend was told to add dots and dashes to her mask and herself had to add lines and dots she wouldn't have otherwise. Feathers and glitter and sequins were all artistically placed with brilliant effect.
I was also impressed with the coordinated name tags. Every mask was "best in show" in my book. No two were alike. Each had their own fantastic merits.
I WANT a set of these letters. Never mind that I do not have the room in my house to spell out anything longer than "ART".
Don't you just want to hug them and take them home? I wonder if Arika, Raymond and Tarin would sell me theirs?
7 comments:
Oh they ARE all awesome! Your daughter's blue mask is so great, too.... she did a wonderful job. Glad you were able to take pictures and get them out into the world!
Oh, I wish I would have known about this! :( I missed it! Thank you, Sylmon, for getting Nathalie that blackberry! (I hope I didn't spell his name wrong.)
Hugs, Ashlyn
Oh it's so good to see young people making something really great and getting some praise for once. Your daughter's mask is great!
mel xxx
Well I'm glad you popped by - really great to meet you. I love it when people introduce themselves. The masks are fabulous - my daughter loves masks so I'll have to show her these. As for my comments on Mels blog - I truly believe that there isn't much that cannot be sorted with a good stiff Gin - except for alcoholism I suppose!!. Off to read the rest of your blog. Do stop by again. xx
Glad you went!, fab exhibition, how encouraging to see all the great ideas out there.
Fantastic creations, we never had fun projects like that when I went to school. Victoria's mask is exceptional and so inspired!
Amazing what kids can do! This is fun! Thanks for sharing it!
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