Hello everyone! I thought I would share with you all what my students have been doing for the past month (month and a half? 6 weeks?) in school. We have been very, very busy as we have two (TWO!!) big school wide gallery shows coming up in October . . . But first, a quick introduction.
My name is Lindsey. I was born to two mildly conservative parents in Austin, Texas around June of 1974. I have a younger sister named Kerry who has two amazing boys named Liam and Oliver. While I was primarily raised outside of Dallas, Austin has played a huge role in shaping me into the person I am today. Not only was I born there, but I also graduated from The University of Texas. And I lived in Austin directly after high school, and also between 2006 - 2010.
The second city I call home is Nashville, Tennessee. All of my immediate family and some of my very closest of friends now live in or around Nashville. The weather is gorgeous in Tennessee, and it is one of the most fun places to visit and an amazing place to make art! I have worked with several communities of young people in Nashville creating large performance and installation pieces that we have displayed all over. One of my most favorite projects was called Deliciously Happy. Check it out here. I look forward to working on projects in the future in Nashville! Keep an eye out!
Most recently I have been living and working overseas as a full time art teacher in international schools. I worked for three years in Singapore, where I helped to complete several large mural projects and a variety of fun and engaging projects in my school and throughout various communities in Southeast Asia.
I also lived in Qatar, which is located next to Saudi Arabia and just North of the UAE. While I loved the people I met there, I got very sick because of all of the sand in the air, and had to come back to the States for a bit to recuperate. (Did you know you could have an allergic reaction to sand? Me neither.) The good news is that I found a cat in the Middle East, and brought him home with me. He's a flat-faced Persian, and his name is Sir Rigby "HeyZeus" Noodleface. You can see more fun pics of him here. I think he looks like Ron Swanson from my favorite television show Parks and Recreation. I also like to think he saved my life.
My education is thorough and extensive. I enjoy school, both learning and teaching. My undergraduate--as I mentioned previously--is from The University of Texas at Austin. I received a BFA in Studio Art. I have two masters degrees. One is an MA in Community Arts, from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). And the other one is an MFA in Studio Art, also from MICA in Baltimore. I am currently working on my final degree in the formal education realm: a PhD in Art Education from Florida State University. It has been quite a challenge over this past month, fitting in readings and paper writings . . . But I'm doing it!
I will be posting on this blogspot about what we are working on in our art classes once every 6 weeks. Please stop by our art studio at Brookwood at any time! I always welcome parent volunteers! You can see more about the art making I do with young people on my website: www.cakecrush.com. Go. Make. Fun.
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In Junior Kindergarten, we have been very busy learning about Van Gogh and the colors of the rainbow. Our sunflowers, above, will be featured in one of our upcoming shows. We had so much fun learning about Van Gogh before painting sunflowers just like him!
And our rainbow people are starting to come alive! We've learned about red, yellow, and orange! Our next stop? Green!
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In Kindergarten, we have been thinking about Eric Carle and Gabriele Munter. Both of these projects will each be featured in one of the two shows that we have coming up in October. The animals, above, are now finished and ready to be installed. The students loved watching Mr. Carle painting with a broom to achieve texture! The flowers, below, are still works-in-progress. We looked at several flower paintings by Ms. Munter, and chose the one below to focus on. I can't stop taking pictures of them--the students are all doing such a fabulous job!!
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Cake, cake, cake! It's no surprise that I love projects that involve cakes or confectionaries of some kind! My lovely Grade 1's started out the year designing large cakes using woodless colored pencils and paint. And--I mean, come on--do you see their horses below? Aren't they amazing??? Inspired by Franz Marc, these horses are moveable and everything! Both of these projects will be featured in our upcoming shows, so hold tight to see the finished pieces!
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We are very serious artists in Second Grade. After starting the year off designing and creating our own giant robots on paper, we are inspired by The Blue Rider group to create fabulous portraits in the style of Alexei Jawlensky. Our robots will remain a surprise until they are installed for our show in October. But look at the beginnings of these portraits! Have you ever??!! Completely in love with these . . . Who knew drawing on brown paper could be so much fun!!
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My lovely third graders are parrot people. We have spent a month learning about these birds, watching fun videos of them singing and looking at their beautiful feathers. These wonderful watercolor paintings will be featured in one of our upcoming shows. Up next, we start on our portrait projects for show number two! Look out: greatness forthcoming!
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I can not show you all of what Grade 4 is working on because they are so wonderful, you must wait until the show! Plus, they are all works-in-progress. So the artists are a bit fragile with how they will be perceived midway. Here's one quick sneak peak, below (this is only a small portion of the painting). You can see that the British painter David Hockney is the inspiration for our most excellent swimming pool self-portraits. Just wait until you see them! These watercolor paintings are stunners, my friends! My lovely Grade 4's also happened to be in the room when I received the carpet we have been waiting on since about August 1st. Look how excited and helpful they were to unroll it and lay it out!
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Grade 5 started the year off with a great challenge: to replicate with pencil one of six famous buildings. They have done an impeccable job drawing, outlining, and now painting these buildings. Just look at the four examples featured here. I'm not sure they quite understand the excellence behind this challenge, but perhaps it will become apparent when they see all of these remarkable works of art hanging in our big show in October. During this project, they even got to speak to a real, live architect in New York. Up next, portrait collages featuring the color blue.
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Last, but certainly not least, my lovely Sixth Graders! I see these wonderful middle schoolers for only a short 12 weeks. We are hoping to get 6 - 8 pieces of art done in this amount of time. They have completed their self-portraits inspired by a famous artist. We had a fun and active mid-project critique where each student gave and received feedback from the group. And, now they are working on finishing up combined animal drawings in the style of the design company, Rifle Paper Company (Go Florida!). The students are thinking of two animals that compliment a different part of their personality. They combine the animal. Then, inspired by the lettering and design of Rifle, they complete their drawing with a label and background. Additionally, each day, one student gets to be the DJ-for-a-Day, creating a playlist for us to make artwork to (we only listen, we do not watch the videos). They love this! Up next, clay bowls and landscapes!
Look for another report from the art studio in early November! Excitement in the works!
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