Ceramics Work!

Here are some photos from recent classes... great stuff in progress!

Jeff

Nick

 

Omar

Sean

 

Maggie

Liz

Catch up!

It's been a busy few weeks but here's what's been happening...
Art 2 finished charcoal self-portraits and are now making stencils based on them.  We looked at our Artist of the Week, Shepard Fairey as inspiration. We watched a video of an interview with him too.

Hurricane!

Hi everyone!
   I know you're all disappointed that school was cancelled today so here's a picture of you guys all working hard.  Love it...you all look so studious!  I hope you're working on your "eye" for homework this week (after all you get an extra day)!

 

and then a shot of Emma's portrait....

Also, here's a piece by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei with a link to a story about his parody of "Gangnam Style"  especially for Gage

 

What do you think about this piece? What do you think he's trying to say?

POP ART PROJECT!

Here are just some of the results of our awesome POP art project...

Emma

Cam

Katie S.

Nick

Sabrina

Masterpiece Monday

Hi!
 It's only Friday and I'm already posting Monday's Masterpiece! Go me!
Here's a "still life" by Picasso..... what do you think of it? How would you describe it? What do you see in the still life?

Our quote this week is also from Picasso...

“I paint objects as I think them,

not as I see them.” 

Deep huh?   What do you think he really means?  What does painting like you think not like you see look like in reality???

Art 2- Masterpiece, QOTW, and Homework

We are still focusing on Still Life so I chose one of my favorite artists, Frida Kahlo.  Most of her work is narrative, it tells stories of her life with lots of self-portraits but her still life paintings are just as interesting.

 Frida Kahlo   "Still Life with Parrot and Flag"  1951

Our Quote of the Week 

 "Look at the subject as if you have never seen it before. Examine it from every side. Draw its outline with your eyes or in the air with your hands, and saturate yourself with it." - John Baldessari

SKETCHBOOK:  homework due Monday October 15th

Draw, from direct observation, "an object that is very important to you" *** NO CELL PHONES, COMPUTERS OR TECHNOLOGY TYPE OBJECTS...also no cds, drawings of photos, or 2D things

Still Iife Time!

Here's our current still life and everyone looking so studious drawing using viewfinders.

Art 2: Masterpiece Monday Week 5

We are going to go back in time from our friend, Andy Warhol to our new friend, Paul Cezanne !

Still Life with Skull (1895-1900)

Cezanne painted close to 200 still lifes in his lifetime.  He focused mostly on household objects and fruits.  He liked the challenge of creating great works of art using simple everyday objects.

His friend says he took great care with setting up a still life. “No sooner was the cloth draped on the table with innate taste than Cézanne set out the peaches in such a way as to make the complementary colors vibrate, grays next to reds, yellows to blues, leaning, tilting, balancing the fruit at the angles he wanted, sometimes pushing a onesous or two-sous piece [French coins] under them. You could see from the care he took how much it delighted his eye” 

Our quote of the week also comes from Cezanne "  With an apple I will astonish  Paris"

What do you think he meant by this?  Can you astonish us with a simple object?

Art 2 Week 4: Masterpiece Monday and Sketchbook Homework

In continuing with our POP art theme, this week's artist is Jeff Koons

Rabbit  1986, highly polished steel

Our Quote of the Week is:
"Art to me is a humanitarian act and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to effect mankind, to make the word a better place." - Jeff Koons

What do you think about that?  Is it true?  DO you think his work goes along with the quote?

How does this Rabbit relate to last week's Masterpiece "Four Colored Campbell's Soup Cans"?


SKETCHBOOK ASSIGNMENT DUE FRIDAY SEPT. 28TH, 2012

In your sketchbook, draw a food....FROM DIRECT OBSERVATION....put it in front of you and draw it with value (shading, lights and darks, shadows and highlights)

Art 2- our pal, Andy!

On my way home from Curriculum Night I heard a radio show all about our friend, Andy Warhol!  What good timing! If you're interested click on the picture to link you to the show.  Lots of interesting facts and sound bites.

Masterpiece "Monday": Week 3

This week's Masterpiece is by Andy Warhol "Four Colored Campbell's Soup Cans" 1965

Click on the cans to see more color variations.
What do you think of these prints?  Do you like them? Why or why not?

Check out the Warhol Foundation's website.... especially one of Andy's time capsules.

Art 2 - Masterpiece Monday and Sketchbook Assignment

Reminder:

The Quote of the Week is:

"Art is not what you see,

but what you make others see"

-Edgar Degas

Sketchbook assignment:   Reflect on this quote and draw your interpretation of it. Due Friday Sept. 14th

Art 2 Sketchbook and Masterpiece Monday

Sketchbook Assignment #1
Do a drawing that reflects this quote:
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." - Edgar Degas


Masterpiece Monday- from the Collection at the Museum of Bad Art

"Works must be original, sincere and interesting. They must communicate or try to communicate, something. But something must have gone spectacularly wrong too"

Advanced Ceramics- Are you an egg or a grenade?

How do you describe an egg? Smooth, oval, fragile, protective, peaceful... How do you describe a grenade?  Oval, bumpy, mechanical looking, metal, explosive... Now think about your personality.  Are you more of an egg or a grenade?  Or are you a little of both? 

You are going to create a 3 dimensional oval shape using two pinch pots put together.  Then you are free to add, subtract, carve, attach, texture, crack, puncture, smooth, stabilize, etc it to reflect your personality.  The egg can open and have elements inside, it can look like it's made from another material, it can be cut, smooshed, angled, dripping, oozing, exploding.... whatever you think will represent your personality... NOT YOUR INTERESTS.  DO NOT MAKE IT LOOK LIKE AN ANIMAL OR FACE!

Really think about the concept behind it....be creative and thoughtful.

Think about this.....

Are You a Carrot, An Egg, or a Coffee Bean? By Anonymous

       A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

       In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. 

       Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?" 

       "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. 

         She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. 

        The daughter then asked. "What does it mean, mother?" 

          Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity—boiling water—but each reacted differently. 

        The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. 

        The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. 

        The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water. 

     "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" 

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? 

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? 

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hours is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level? 

How do you handle Adversity? Are you a Carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?