6th Grade Face Jugs

                                                 (Congo jugs)

In 6th Grade we are starting the Face jug project. It is an annual tradition and it works well with the year long study of Asheville and the Appalachian culture in other subject areas. There are many stories about why face jugs are made but it seems most of them are folklore at best. But I do love sharing a few of them with the students. It seems especially important and somewhat of a coincidence that we start the project during Black History Month. Many people believe that face jugs were first started in this country by African Slaves. For more info you should check out these links.

http://river.chattanoogastate.edu/orientations/ex-learn-obj/Face_Jugs/Face_Jugs_print.html 

https://www.saskcraftcouncil.org/the-history-of-ugly-face-jugs/

This project usually takes 2-3 months. the first day we go over "Jobs and Responsibilities" and the 2nd class is a test where they come in and practice their jobs and build a small pot. This helps them know what is expected each day and helps me know who is going to need help in various areas of building a "Jug" with a "Face" out of clay.

The Objectives: 

1. To make a jug at least 8 inches high, with a handle and a "face"
2. The ceramic jug stands up and stays up, is neat, smooth where it needs to be smooth, and nothing falls off.
3. Contrast, good use of color, and or neatness with glazing

The Responsibilities:

Helping to set up, doing your job to help have the maximum amount of class time to work on clay and helping clear and sponge the tables at clean up.






(more Congo Porch Jugs)

The Jobs:

Clay:  Setting the clay out for beginning of class, and putting clay away at the end of class.

Boards; Putting boards on tables at the start of class, and stacking boards up at the end of class.

Tools; Make sure the tools are organized and put away in the right place during and at the end of class

Cart; Pulling cart out, pulling slab rolling table out, and carefully getting projects from kiln room

The "Mad" Spongers; preparing sponges for the sponging of the tables.

Let the fun begin!

https://youtu.be/zACeC2GDCFE

Every year it seems the Scholastic Art Awards creates great enthusiasm in the art room. The students worked really hard to submit their work, and though we didn't have a lot of time there were some excellent projects entered. Usually it is just 8th graders who enter work, but this year we had many 7th graders who caught the SAA bug and entered their own creative efforts.

Judging Criteria

Originality – Work that breaks from convention, blurs the boundaries between genres, and challenges notions of how a particular concept or emotion can be expressed.
Technical Skill – Work that uses technique to advance an original perspective or a personal vision or voice, and show skills being utilized to create something unique, powerful, and innovative.
Emergence of a Personal Vision or Voice – Work with an authentic and unique point of view and style.


We had three winners;

Genevieve Beatty for two drawings;

Mind Works, (Honorable Mention)

Secrets of the deep (Honorable Mention)



















and Henry Broshar for this photograph; Looking Through You (Silver Key)

Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who worked hard to submit some art work!

Thoughts for a new School yea

It seems that the problems with teaching and being a student in this age are similar and possibly more challenging then when I first started teaching art in 1990. Devices are more seductive, shows are more flashy, and students are spending most of their time with their faces in front of a screen. I'll admit that it's easier sometimes letting them just watch mindless TV. But it can't be good for them, or us. GO OUTSIDE!!!! 100 years ago a man named Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick a pioneer in Physical Education thought kids were not getting enough exercise and becoming soft. I wonder what he would think of kids today. 

We are made to be outdoors, we are designed to move around, and we are capable of thinking and solving problems while moving around. Isn't this why we like playing sports? One of my goal this year is to add more physical activities to my classroom for students and advisory. As well as more physical activities on the weekends for me and my own kids...Sooo surfs up for 2015/2016!!!!!

It happens every year. the excitement is contagious, the energy is insane! It's march madness in the Middle School at CDS. It's the 11th annual Congo/Lammer's Hoops tournament. 64 spots, one champion! The game played is Knockout with nerf balls, on a little tikes basket hoop. It's a tradition that started out as an Advisory game to play in the morning. Advisory is an awesome part of the Middle School experience and a great time to get to know your students and bond with them in and sometimes a friendly game of nerf is a great way to do just that.  We played around the world and PIG back in the early days but nothing can compare to the action of knockout, so the game evolved and here we are...11 years later...

previous champions;
John Ruhl 2005
John Ruhl 2006
Ricky Modrzynski 2007
James Nevant 2008
Zach Maag 2009
John Freeman 2010
John Freeman 2011
Candler Rice 2012
Mac Gourlay 2013
Owen Cecil 2014
? 2015

https://youtu.be/1cQSgg5b9eY

Scholastic Art Awards 2015

Congratulations to all the 8th grade students who submitted work to the Scholastic Art Awards! Big giant thanks to Toni Oreck, Brooks Sullivan, Missy Sullivan and Kylie Olp for helping prepare all the work for submission!! We submitted 30 works of art this year. There were over 800 entries this year at the Asheville Art Museum.

the winners are;

Honorable Mention

1. Carly Oreck- digital photography- “Flame Shop” Honorable Mention

2. Adelaide Lammers- Painting –Natalie Achonwa – Honorable Mention

3. Meghan Dephouse- b/w photography-“Hidden” Honorable Mention

Silver Key

1. Carly Oreck - digital photography- “Drawing Dawn to Dusk” Silver Award

Submissions are juried by luminaries in the visual and literary arts, some of whom are past award recipients. Panelists look for works that best exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.

Congratulations to everyone who submitted work and to those whose work was chosen

 

7th GRADE ANIMATION METAMORPHOSIS PROJECT

1000 drawings, 40 students, and 4 months.  The 7th grade spent a good 4 months of art classes finding their spirit animals and then turning other animals into an animation project. We start by finding our spirit animal. Telling stories and thinking about what animal appears to us during random times, or at the end of the story that I tell them. They are given another students animal randomly and then the drawings begin. They slowly try to change the animal into the shape of their animal in 18 to 30 drawings. They collaborate with each other, they help color and pen other students.









 We watched BLU street animations to inspire us....
 http://youtu.be/sMoKcsN8wM8

It is a great project and the kids really enjoy the process, though they sometimes struggle on the concepts. overall they worked hard this year and here is the final work. enjoy!!!

http://youtu.be/_dsa1auOjuk

 LG, Zada, Congo, and Halsey (in the Barn at Camp Timanous- photo by Tomm Polos)

It is that crazy time of year when we run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to do way too much! Partys, events, school, and not to mention the usual things we are responsible for like, yard work, house work, homework, walking the dog, feeding the family, the dishes, football games to watch and of course finding time for art work. It's a crazy time of year! It feels like some irresistible tread wheel that I want to stay off but always seemed to get tricked into jumping on. It is that time a year for thinking about others, especially those less fortunate, or those non profits all for good causes that want our money. It is that time of year when a fool is soon parted from his money. My wife LG presented us with some choices for giving back the other night for "family meeting".

Family meetings take place every week..usually on Sunday night after dinner. We start by taking turns to commend each person in the family for something, then we talk about issues or the week ahead. Issues are usually about the kids doing more of their fair share of work or screen time problems or somebody (our 14 year old) leaving his stinky socks laying around etc.. the coming weeks schedule is usually the main topic. Because many of the issues are dealt with at "Family Dinner" that happens at least 5 times a week. We are far from the perfect family, if there is such a thing. but it's important for us to connect at least once a day around a table where we are all equal.

So LG brought home a bunch of options for us to donate $200.00 the other night at family meeting. We talked about each one asking lots of questions, sometimes too many questions and almost driving LG to the brink of mental tsunami. We decided that each person could use their $50.00 for whatever they wanted to donate too. That worked out well. Halsey wanted to help the outdoor one, Zada wanted to help the animals, and LG and I the schools. and that was perfect.

The next day LG was interviewed and we appeared in the local newspaper.

http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/12/01/organizations-community-celebrate-giving-tuesday/19750011/