Pop Quiz!

Tomorrow is the day:

1. That you bring your Scholastic paperwork (x 2) and your fees at the start of class
2. Have 3 works of art ready
3. Bring a treat to share for our Winter Celebration

The correct answer is:

4. All of the above.

4 class periods before winter break!!

Starting tomorrow we have only 4 class periods before WINTER BREAK!! I'm very excited to have some time to sleeeeeeeeep iiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnn. But before then, you will have to get some things done.

1. Sign-up to help at Empty Bowls. There are many shifts that need to be filled.
2. Everyone needs to put up 2 Empty Bowls signs somewhere in our community (not on school grounds) and take a picture of yourself doing it to post on your blog (graded and DUE ON DEC. 17TH).
3. While you are out putting signs up for Empty Bowls...You also need to take a picture of yourself giving an AP ART POSTER to your sponsor (yes, even if it is just your parents). This will also need to be posted on your blog (graded and DUE DEC. 17TH).
4. Take pictures (with pennies if needed) and get them edited and submitted to Scholastic (2-piece minimum). Get a handout from me if you lost your old one. This is DUE BEFORE CLASS STARTS ON DECEMBER 17TH.
5. Have your 3 pieces of artwork ready for viewing at the beginning of class on Dec. 17th.
6. Be ready to celebrate the arrival of winter on Dec. 17th....sign-up to bring a yummy treat to share!

Ok, so I think that's it. I won't need to talk to you at the beginning of class if you read this post tonight ... just get there on-time and be ready to rock out!

By the way: TheThe picture of the snowflake is a photograph of a real snow crystal that fell to earth in Northern Ontario, Alaska, Vermont, the Michigan Upper Peninsula, and the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. They were captured by Kenneth G. Libbrecht using a specially designed snowflake photomicroscope. More very cool pictures of snowflakes can be seen at:http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/photos/photos.htm

Have you been working on your pictures?

Hi kids!

I'm wondering if you have been working on your photos yet. Just so you know, you will need to have all your pictures (taken with a penny if you're planning on submitting to Scholastic) edited, saved and uploaded to the Scholastic website before school is out. Remember that you won't have access to your school files from home.

By the way, all of your images can be found on the P: drive once you log on to a school computer. You can save your images to the P: Drive, or you can save them to the shared folder on the H: Drive if you prefer. You must be logged on to a computer that has PhotoShop software in order to successfully edit your images!

I wrote out all of the instructions that you need for successful photo-editing on the handout I gave you in the library.

Another Radical Artist: Wendy Hoare

I came across this ceramic artist in the magazine Craft Arts International #79. Wendy Hoare works primarily with COILS!!!
Most of her forms are large-scale and meant to be displayed outside in garden landscapes or in conservatories.




http://www.studiopottery.co.uk/potter_profile.php?id=305

Scholastic Art Awards

Have you finished registering your artwork for Scholastic Art Awards??

http://www.artandwriting.org/registration/

Be sure to follow the directions for images that I gave you on your handout! This is very important because all of the artwork will be juried by the digital images that you submit.

Also be sure to print out 2 copies of your entry forms to turn in to me along with your money for your entries. The cost is $5.00 per individual piece and $20.00 per senior portfolio.

I would appreciate you finishing with most of your entries by the time we depart for winter break!

Calendar updates and Concentrations

Nov 4: Get your artwork to Quinn or Laura for the Lakeridge Open House.
Nov 8: Loading of Noble Hill Anagama. We will leave sometime after 3rd period on Monday (*Blue day)
Nov 10-13: Wood-Firing: Sign up for work shifts.

Nov 17: KCAI will be visiting...also Alfred may drop-in to say hello.

Nov 19: Unloading Noble Hill. This is the exciting "Christmas Morning" of the firing, when you get to see of the results of your hard work. We will need 4-6 people for this job to help with unloading and the kiln clean-up. This will happen during the school day (Friday). Be sure ask your parents for permission if you have signed up for this duty.
Dec 8: EMPTY BOWLS EVENT. Held in the cafeteria, cost will be $10, all proceeds benefit the Oregon Food Bank.

on another note: I will have a handout for you to fill out in class to help you define your concentration. After that, you will begin working on concentrations starting tomorrow in class! TWO concentration pieces will be due at the end of November. ONE more will be due BEFORE winter break, and ONE right after winter break!

CONCENTRATIONS.....ba, ba, buuum!

Now that you know how to edit your photos, get on it and get them done! We will be creating breadth webpages within the next couple of weeks for this first set of images. Yes, this probably means that you will have to find time outside of class to use the D-25 lab in the library. Just be sure to check with the librarian for appropriate times (so you don't disrupt other classes).

On another note, we will begin working on concentrations.
A concentration is a body of related works describing an in-depth exploration of a particular artistic concern. It should reflect a process of investigation of a specific visual idea. It is NOT a selection of a variety of works produced as solutions to class projects or a collection of works with differing intents. Students should be encouraged to explore a personal, central interest as intensively as possible and are free to work with any idea in any medium that addresses three-dimensional design issues. The concentration should grow out of the student’s idea and demonstrate growth and discovery through a number of conceptually related works. In this section, the evaluators are interested not only in the work presented but also in visual evidence of the student’s thinking, selected method of working, and development of the work over time.

Please actually click on this link: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_questions/2135.html#name3
Be sure to look at all of the student samples for each of the categories. Try to understand why each of the samples were given the scores they were awarded. Have your sketchbook at hand while you are looking because you might have a fleeting thought on rationales for the scores or be struck with a moment of inspiration.

Become familiar with this website. It is your friend. Know your friend. Be one with your friend. We will be discussing your friend in class. Be prepared!

Cool artist Alert!

I found Beth Cavener Stichter by reading Mariah's blog. Here's her website:

http://www.followtheblackrabbit.com/index_main.htm

If you are interested in sculptural processes, I highly recommend reading the link called "Materials and Techniques". She has definitely shared a LOT of very useful information that probably took years for her to develop and discover on her own!

Photographing your artwork:

I was watching this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz-3hKfgs5I about photographing your 3-D artwork. There are many videos like this that will help you with all sorts of stuff!
You will need to have pictures of everything you have made so far by Oct 25th. I have scheduled time for you in the photoshop lab on Oct 27th to learn how to access your images on the shared drive and how to process your images for your portfolio and for our website... please be prepared!

Also: Don't forget to get your pirate gear to school before Oct 26th. We will only be taking AP poster picture ONE time. No re-takes!

Dates to Remember:

• Oct 15-16: Pit-Firing at Sam's house this weekend got postponed until sometime in November... Not enough pieces to justify the cost or the effort. Stay tuned!
• Oct 19: Guest Artist Diane Lou. Plan on being here from 11am-6pm. You have been excused from your 4th period class. You will not be allowed to leave at lunch, instead I am ordering pizzas for you so you can work through. If you have sports or a job, make every effort to make arrangements so you can participate fully!
• Oct 26: Pirate Photo Shoot afterschool. Come with your pirate garb!
• Oct 27: We will be going to the computer lab to learn about the shared folder, processing images, and beginning exploration of concentrations.
• Oct 27: PUMPKIN CARVING CONTEST and service project. 3-6pm. Sign up in the ceramics room!
• Oct 29: Your family-inspired ceramic artwork is due. I prefer the work to be bisque-fired for durability, but will be accepted if it is greenware. The assemblage you began at the Diane Lou workshop needs to be finished and is due.
• Oct 30: Deadline for submitting portfolios to the NFAA, Young Arts Scholarship Competition. Seniors only. Registration deadline was Oct 15. http://www.artsawards.org/ Upload images here: https://app.applyyourself.com/?id=NFAA-YAP
• Nov 3: Get your artwork to Quinn or Laura for the Lakeridge Open House.
• Nov 3: Empty Bowls THROW-A-THON. 3-6pm. Our goal is to make a minimum of 300 bowls. We had to change to this date since Nov 5 is not a school day.
• Nov 4: Lakeridge Open House at 6:30.
• Nov 8: Loading of Noble Hill Anagama. I will need 3-4 students to help with this for our firing.
• Nov 10-13: Wood-Firing is back on!!! We are taking responsibility for the majority of the firing...so if you would like to have a piece, or pieces fired, you WILL sign-up for work shifts on these dates. Firing to be held at Noble Hill. See Amy for work shifts.
• Nov 20: Unloading Noble Hill. This is the exciting "Christmas Morning" of the firing, when you get to see of the results of your hard work. We will need 4-6 people for this job to help with unloading and the kiln clean-up.
• Dec 8: EMPTY BOWLS EVENT. Held in the cafeteria, cost will be $10, all proceeds benefit the Oregon Food Bank.

Our calendar is filling up quick! Keep checking the blog and also this particular post as I can edit it as our dates change or more are added. You guys are all doing a great job of staying organized and keeping up with the work. I'm super proud of you!!!

Items to Collect:

Diane has asked me to remind you to begin collecting items that will help you be successful in your mixed media assemblage workshop with her. Start looking now for interesting things from nature, from the street, from the garage, wherever. Find old boxes...cigar boxes, old/ antique cabinets, and crusty old drawers make great "frames" in which you can create your assemblage. Go to the Goodwill Bins with your friends and buy a bunch of stuff that no one else wants...Find things that are haunted by their discarded life. Bring in things you want to work with, and things you can share or trade to others in class.

I copied this from one of Diane's blogs to give you a sense of the kinds of materials that she finds most effective in her compositions:

"Rust and bones, broken toys and old text, game boards, gears and nests. Even as a child such odd, unwanted items evoked a pit-of-the-stomach response that bordered on exhilaration.
While I make no attempt to conjure up specific feelings in the viewer, the ambiguous juxtapositioning of familiar materials creates art that evokes half-forgotten, dream-like visions that beg to be interpreted by the viewer. The once-private discards of people's material lives that I collect for my art seem to carry universal memories with them, memories that can engage and mystify the viewer. Their beauty lies within the rust, the erosion, the wear, and the mere fact that they were once possessions."

Getting ready for our guest artist: DIANE LOU!

We are going to have a guest artist visit our class in October and we need to starting thinking about collecting objects that can be used. Here are her blogs. I encourage you to look at and READ about a few of her pieces to get a feel for the concepts behind each work.

http://dianelou-mixedmedia.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Diane-Lou-Assemblage/127678563944194
http://dianelougallery.blogspot.com/
http://dianelou-collage.blogspot.com/

Registering, Reminders,

So far, you should have registered for:

1. Scholastic Art Awards by going to this website: http://www.artandwriting.org/registration all of you guys should have done this to begin the process of getting your FANTABULOUS art submitted for recognition at this school year's Regional AND National Scholastic Awards.
2. NFAA: National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, Young Arts Program: http://www.youngarts.org/ only seniors should apply to this as you will need a portfolio to submit as well as meeting the age/ grade requirements.

We also have these due dates to remember:

1. NAHS Membership form and Fee is due on September 30th
2. AP Poster money and ads are due on September 30th
3. Sarah Davis inspired Artwork due September 30th
4. Shocking Art due September 30th

And here is a video on using your hands in craft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfoByYLSBY8&feature=player_embedded I am curious about your reactions to this.

Welcome to AP 3-D 2010-2011

Can you believe that we have only had one full week of school??! We have already done so much!
The AP 3-D retreat at Menucha was amazing. It was kinda crazy to do it the very first weekend of school, but it all worked out. I felt like you all came together as a cohesive group and that everyone was very productive while we were there. Our guest artist, Sarah Davis, was also a big treat to have there. I felt like it was good for you guys to meet someone who is working on getting her name known in the world of ceramics... sometimes it is hard to imagine the steps to take in becoming a successful visual artist, and to me, she personified an intermediate position between being a student and a self-supporting artist.
The work that I have seen during our critique was good, the attention you paid our guest artist was stellar, and the way you conducted yourself on the retreat left me feeling like a proud momma! I am super excited to spend the year helping all of you in your quest to completing your portfolio!