Amadeo Modigliani Inspired Self-Portraits – 4th Grade October 31, 2008

The dreaded self-portrait always gets groans from fourth graders- “It’s too hard.”, ” I can’t draw a nose!”, “My eyes look weird.”, and the ever popular…”Do I have to?”.

Their opinions changed however when they held a critique of Amadeo Modigliani’s paintings. Elongated, stylistic, and exaggerated were some of the words used by students to describe this Italian proto-Cubist’s work.

Modigliani was Italian born on July 12, 1884 in Livorno, Tuscany. He began studying art in Italy before moving to France where he continued his studies. He was influenced by his artist friends and primitive art. Fascinated by African masks, this Italian painter and sculptor focused on line quality, subtle colors, and a distortion of the body to emphasize his models’ personas.

Our fourth graders learnt about proportion of the face and had to chose at least one feature to elongate. Many students we quite taken with his stylistic solid eyes seen in some of his paintings and choose to do the same. They worked on values with skin tones, blending paint to show the variations within their face. Throughout their work you can see the influence of Modigliani’s paintings with elongated necks or faces, solid colored eyes, profile noses, and simplistic highlights and shadows.

Be on the look out soon for Rockburn’s take on this artist!

Aborginal Printmaking – 5th Grade

Our 5th Grade classes have been very busy with their Aboriginal inspired printmaking project. They learned about the Aboriginal people of Australia and their artwork. As a class we focused on two styles shown in their craft- Dream Paintings and X-Ray Paintings. Dream Paintings are made up mainly of various sized dots and symbols. The X-Ray Paintings have animals and/or people with a visible skeletal system and organs which they believed by showing these feature revealed the true nature of that animal or person. In our final project both will be incorporated within our end result. Symbolism is also a very integral part of the Aboriginal people. Different shapes and colors stood for things such as the water, land, and animals. For example, the color green stands for plant life and blue is the symbolic color of water; a circle represents the circle of life.

With our unit students created a printmaking plate with an animal, bird, fish, or insect of their choice. We then set up our paper for printmaking, covered the plate with acrylic paint and made our proof, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prints. Next we outlined the creature, added three contour lines, created a border and horizon line, and then drew in our X-Ray Painting inspired spinal cord and 3-5 organs (these could be realistic, stylistic, or simple shaped). Finally we added the Dream Painting inspired dots of various sizes and color to our print.

Here is an example of a student printing their plate-

To learn more about this culture and their artwork please check out these links below:

AboriginalArt.com

Wikipedia.com

Day of the Dead Inspired Artworks October 30, 2008

Dia de los Muertos

The 3rd and 2nd graders have been very busy learning about the Day of the Dead. They have created wonderful drawings and paintings based on the indiginous artwork of Mexico which they are now beginging to sculpt into ceramic Calaveras and Sugar Skulls.

2nd Grader's Sugar Skulls

El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), a Mexican celebration, is a day to celebrate, remember and prepare special foods in honor of those who have departed. On this day in Mexico, the streets near the cemeteries are filled with decorations of papel picado , flowers, candy calaveras (skeletons and skulls), and parades.

It is believed that the spirit of the dead visit their families on October 31 and leave on November 2.

In order to celebrate, the families make alters and place of rendas (offerings) of food such as pan de muertos baked in shapes of skulls and figures, candles, incense, yellow marigolds known as cempazuchitl and most importantly a photoof the departed soul is placed on the altar.

It might sound somewhat morbid, but the Mexicans react to death with mourning along with happiness and joy. They look at death with the same fear as any other culture, but there is a difference. They reflect their fear by mocking and living alongside death.

Death is laughed at in its face. Many euphemisms are used for death, La calaca (the skeleton), la pelona (“baldy”), la flaca (“skinny”), and la huesada (“bony”). There are refranes, sayings, and poems that are popular with day of the dead. Calaveras (skulls) are decorated with bright colors with the name of the departed inscribed on the head. Children carrying yellow marigolds enjoy the processions to the cemetery. At the cemetery, music is played and dances are made to honor the spirits.

-By Aracely Hernandez

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Here is some additional information about the Dia de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead:

DayoftheDead.com

Wikipedia.com

MexOnline.com

Hello!

Every year the Howard County Visual Arts Program hosts various exhibits based upon a specific subject, medium, age group, or focus. The focus of the Howard County Art Program for the 2008-2009 school year is Identity. Throughout the year we choose creative examples to be showcased for these exhibits.

The first exhibit of the year is Artist Inspiring Artists: A Painting Exhibition which will be held at the Department of Education Gallery with an opening reception February 5, 2009 from 5:00-7:00pm. The exhibit will last from January 20th until March 10th. Other exhibits that will be held showcasing some of Rockburn’s student artwork follows;

Youth Art Month

Located at– 2-D work is at The Central Branch Library/3-D workis at The East Columbia Brach Library

Reception-March 3 at 7pm @ Central, March 5 @ 7pm @ East Branch

Identity

Located at– HCAC

Reception– March 27 @ 5pm

Kindergarten Showcase

Located at– Faulkner Ridge Gallery

Reception -April 13 @ 5pm

37th Annual Spring Student Exhibition

Located at– Columia Mall in Columbia

Reception-April 15 @ 6:45pm

Please come out and support our wonderful visual arts program at Rockburn!