What is Amy Gonna Do Now?

This class has been packed full of ideas and gems for me to take back to my classroom. From actual project ideas to medium techniques. We all have different ideas about what will work best in our own classroom.
What I wanted to touch on was Lauren's teaching style. There were several things that really stood out to me- even though she was injured for most of the week. Firstly, a genuine interest about each of our well-being. I truly believe that trust is a huge part of students being able to let their guard down and be able to start developing their own artistic process. Lauren does a great job creating a safe and supportive environment.
Secondly, Lauren set's high expectations. I find that I will dumb down or water down a project instead of really challenging my students. (For whatever reason) Instead of making my students work and be uncomfortable for a greater result. I'm looking forward to pushing my students a little further. :)
Lastly, Lauren spent substantial time with us individually. In a fifty minute period, it's hard to hit everybody in a class, but I think sitting down with students and spending quality time helps the student to feel valued and provides the teacher with opportunities to truly guide.
Thanks Lauren, for a great class. :)

Amanda's Woven Amazingness

Here is Amanda working on her Project book. One of the things that really struck me about her creative process, was that she seemed to be very open to happy accidents and was able to work organically with wherever her art work takes her.

I loved the work she did with the leaf structure, as well as her woven images. I am really interested to see if the wax paper is able to translate as a medium for her more sculptural translations, (like the lamp shade)- but I'm pretty sure she will make it work which ever way she goes.

Miss you already girl :)

Rustic Pottery Extravaganza Project

I loved this project. And it was so much fun being able to develop an idea and plan it in it's entirely. Basically the event or 'Project', would be some kind of art show, where friends and family could come and see what I have been making- and hopefully buy some of it from me. :) You can see in the images- the color scale, and the forms I would create.

I also really loved this willow leaf pattern and my hope would be to incorporate it on the surface of the clay. I'll have to play around with the shapes and scale to see what looks best. Wish me luck!!

The Crow and the Pitcher

You'll have to excuse the six picture post- I wanted to show the entire story of my book. Unfortunately, the third and last image have been switched so don't get too confused!! I absolutely loved this project. I have been teaching altered books in my classroom, and it was really cool to learn techniques that I had never seen before. I'm so excited to pass some of these ideas to my students!!

Found Rust Art

Amy's Color Associations

I love to play with color in my work and it was fun to recognize what goes into our color palette choices. This exercise called for quick image association to either the name of the color or the color itself. I found that I used the name more often then the color itself, as the trigger for my associations. The challenge, however, was allowing myself to accept my first response instead of editing it or filtering it. It was cool to see what came out of my brain. :)

Objects and Negative Space

This was another wonderful drawing exercise where we focused on a group of small random objects , drawing only the negative space. We emphasised the negative space by adding some type of interest to that area. I chose to use a graphite powder wash and these are some of my faves.

Paper and Tape

I absolutely love this project. It was such a good opener for the class and a wonderful exercises in innovation. I decided to take the box that the tape came in, as one of the major components of my book. The tape became a small pouch on the front and the paper became the pages bound inside. My favorite suprise was that I was able to find my name in the left-over scraps from the tape box.