What the Art Teacher Wore #98

Stormy Monday: Ya'll, if you live in the South you know there was some pretty terrible weather. Thankfully, after going home two hours early, we were left unscathed, but those in Tupelo didn't fair as well. I'm sure they'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers, if that's your thing. sweater, dress: vintage, thrifted; tights: Target; shoes: Dolls by Nina

Well, kids, next week my wee friends in third and fourth grade land embark on their standardized testing adventure. Which had me thinking about sharpened Number 2 pencils all weekend long (tell me I'm not the only one who's a freshly-sharpened-pencil-huffer). In fact, I tossed all current DIY's out the window this weekend (as well as cleaning and yard work, but that's, like, every weekend) and crafted up two pencil-y inspired ensembles just for the occasion. Cuz I gotta dress the part, ya'll. I'll be posting those DIY's later this week. 

In the meantime, I thought I'd share the pencil-y creations of Brazilian-born artist Dalton M. Ghetti. Have ya'll seen his work before? I'm just blown away by his work. My plan for next year is to share more contemporary artists with the kids and I know they'd love to see these pieces. Have any of you shared Ghetti's work in the art room? I'd love to hear some lesson ideas from ya'll that don't involvemy little friends carving into pencils with knives. Whatcha think?

Oh! And if you've not yet voted for the Best Dressed Art Teacher, please go here, check out these awesome teachers and cast your vote! Voting ends Thursday, May 8th.

AND, I almost forgot, May the Fourth Be With You! If ya'll didn't know I have a love for all things Star Wars, go here and here to see the depth of my crazy.

Alphabet, Dalton M. Ghetti. So Ghetti, who moved to the U.S. at the age of 24 in 1985 is a carpenter/house remodeler, according to his biography. Growing up in Brazil, he and his fellow classmates learned to sharpen their pencils with knives and razor blades (so, maybe I can use sharp objects with my littles? Um, pretty sure my administration would vote NO!! on that one).  Noticing his interest in sculpting and creating, his parents gave him a tool set at the age of 8. Since then, the dude's been creating all sorts of sculptures with a variety of media.

According to that bio, "To create his [pencil] sculpture, he holds the pencil in his hand under a strong light source (table lamp or sunlight) and carves it mostly with a sewing needle and a very sharp, triangular, small, metal blade. He works at very small intervals: 1 to 2 hours maximum per day whenever he gets inspired. He works very slowly by removing specks of graphite at a time. It therefore takes months or sometimes years to complete a sculpture." I love hearing that he only works when inspired and for a short amount of time a day. That means, there's no more using the excuse, "I don't have the time!" Everyone's got at least 20 minutes a day to work on something, right?

Let's Get Spring-y Tuesday: Everything is green right now. Especially after all the rain we've had. So much so that when I cut the grass this weekend, it was like plowing a field which was super hard to do in those heals, lemme tell ya. dress: vintage, thrifted; shoes: Fluevog; tights: Target; felted sweater: DIY by me

At first, Ghetti sculpted large things. But then his interest in small living things like moss and insects caused him to switch gears. He decided to create the smallest thing possible with just his hands and the naked eye (that's right, dude doesn't use a magnifying glass, if you can imagine). So, one day, he picked up a pencil and started carving.

Boot.

More Like Irish Spring Wednesday: So. Very. Greeeeen. sweater, shoes, dress: thrifted

For Ghetti, he believes people should pay more attention to the small things. The details. So he uses his art to call attention to that. The pencils he uses as his canvas are discarded ones that he finds on the streets. What others consider trash, he turns into fine art.

Dorky Thursday: Even after several photos, this dorky one was the best I could do. My apologies. dress: vintage; tights: Target; shoes: Indigo by Clarks

Forever Linked. For Ghetti, sculpting pencils is his form of meditation. He doesn't sell his pencils. You can buy reproductions of photos of his work. But the guy isn't doing this for the money. He sculpts for himself,  from his heart. Isn't that amazing? 

Happiness is Friday: Seriously. With the art show a week and a half away, I'm putting in some serious hours at school. I don't enjoy 12 hours shifts, but I know the end result will be worth it. That doesn't mean I don't love me a Friday! dress: Bernie Dexter; sweater: Buffalo Exchange; shoes: Anthropologie

Giraffe.

Amazing. I'm looking forward to hearing how you'd share this amazing artist's work in your art room!

DIY: The Best Dressed Art Teacher Contest!

Well, folks the entries are in! Here are just some of the most crazily, er, Best Dressed Art Teachers around. I've included a super short bio (there were so many entries, I had to keep 'em brief) as well as a blog link if available. Casting your vote is easy peasy, just click on your fave in the poll on the right (it's a tough choice so you can vote for more than one!). Voting ends Thursday, May 8th with winners announced shortly thereafter. Have fun checking out these awesome characters and good luck, you crazy art teachers!

 Meet Natalie Friedl who is an elementary art teacher in Huntersville, NC (right outside of Charlotte). She says, "I love teaching art to little artists and this Halloween I decided to take a sick day to enjoy my favorite holiday. Well, I was so happy to find that Frida Kahlo herself had recently become a substitute in our system.  I quickly called her and she agreed to sub for me on Halloween!"

 You might know Don from his blog. He teachers at Zamorano Fine Arts Academy which is a K-5 Visual Arts Magnet School in San Diego. He writes, "The first look is me as a Che Guevara t-shirt. I stenciled "Viva la education!" below the portrait on the shirt. The second one is me as the one and only Bob Ross. I wore this one for our halloween parade a couple years ago. Gosh, I remember being mesmerized by him on TV when I was a kid. That voice, that fan brush, that hair..."

Kimberly Jones has a "sub" known as Ms. Paintbrush that occasionally shows up for her! Kimberly writes, "Ms. Paintbrush is my crazy cousin who, interestingly enough, looks and sounds just like me! It's been rumored that Ms. Paintbrush has actually demonstrated painting with her paintbrush hair!"

 Deyana Matt teaches art in Bloomingdale, IL  to students in 6th through 8th grade. Deyana sent me so many amazing outfit photos, I can tell she is a girl after my own heart! I wish I could have share 'em all with you. These were my faves!

Melinda Flinchum, aka Miss French Fry, writes "I am a kindergarten through fifth grade art and special education teacher. I LOVE color, my dog Mugsy and putting together theme-y outfits based on the artists we're studying.  Most of my outfits are thrifted because you never know when a Kindergartener will spill a container of red glaze on you (true story)." 

Stephanie Walton taught middle school art since 2001.  In 2013,  she made the leap to elementary school! She is now more comfortable in dressing the part as Crazy Art Teacher and does so with her adorable apron collection. She says, "They [the aprons] are a hit now and the kids worry when I don't have my aprons on in cute colors!" What a perfect way to add a little color to your art teacher wardrobe, Stephanie!

Amy Fitzpatrick teaches grades first and fourth through seventh at Duluth Edison Charter North Star Academy. She writes, "The Art Fairy was originally a Halloween costume, but she's made appearances on days when we've done art history or art appreciation." I love this idea of an art fairy, so stealing this one, ya'll!

 Debra Thomson organizes an "Art for Ed's Sake" event as a public school art fundraiser in my district. She says, "So of course I had to dress up as well.  This is my hubby and I as American Gothic.  (Once in awhile we stood the other way and said "the tornado had come through"…." So much fun! I love that hubster got involved. And what a fabulous idea for a fundraiser, Debra!

Heather Hyslop, who blogs at Art Intertwine, says that she put this look together after finding a Marilyn t-shirt. She wrote me to say, " Since no outfit is complete without accessories I also included my Andy Warhol soup cans and 25 cats which are 'hidden' throughout both pics."

Heather lives in Victoria, Canada where she teaches art as a sub to elementary, middle, and high school students.  She also runs an art program for elementary kids through community recreational center.  

 Sheryl Depp teaches elementary school art. About her outfits, she writes, "One is the typical artist "uniform" and the other is my self proclaimed Queen of Recycle costume." I personally love her typical artist outfit, especially that scarf, fantastic!

 Erin Maday is a baby to the art education game. She's a second year elementary art teacher in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. She says, "I love my job (I am 39 and left a marketing corp. America type jobs few years ago to finish up an Art Ed certificate and have never looked back! I love being an Elementary Art teacher!)." Here she is dressed as a silent film star for Halloween, highlighting the art element "value" and principle of design, "contrast." And... of course the silent film movies of yesteryear.

Patricia Brentano is an Elementary Art Teacher in Neptune, NJ. About this lovely look, she writes, "I love Hokusai's Great Wave and have a pair of leggings and a shirt with his print. As a way to introduce the artist and a project on the Great Wave to my third grade classes, I wore my leggings, origami crane earrings, and a wave bracelet. Now kids in all grades can say "Hokusai", without someone exclaiming "God bless you!" and students who are doing the Great Wave project are super excited to begin!"  

Donna Staten, most famous for her amazing art education pinterest boards (which I am so very thankful for, Donna, what a resource!) got all Suess'ed up for Read Across America week! She teaches kindergarten through fifth grade art at Gattis Elementary in Round Rock, Tx (right by Austin).

Hope Knight, the art teacher behind Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists, sent these photos and wrote, "I am dressed as a Picasso painting, fictitiously called "Head of a Woman." I don't dress up very often - I have to admit that comedy is a huge part of my life, but for some reason I act very serious and teacherly in the classroom. I have some sort of hang-up about getting in silly mode at school, but that's just my introverted nature I suppose. So glad my partner in crime, the music teacher, is a total extrovert and we make the best team."

 Ashley Hammond is an art teacher at Munford Elementary School in Munford, TN. She says, "I love making my own costumes to surprise my students, even though I am absolutely too scared to sew a single stitch. So everything is made with my best friend, the hot glue gun! :)  

The Very Hungry Caterpillar comes from my avid love for the life and work of Eric Carle. 

The Super Art Teacher outfit greeted my students on the first day of school this year. Nothing says "Welcome back!" than to harness your inner power of creativity!" 

Michael Kantor, aka Michael van Gogh, wore this awesome ensemble for Dress Like Your Hero Day! He says that he uses this very cool ensemble all the time and writes that when he dresses this way, the kids listen to "Micahel van Gogh more than me!"

Meet Lindsey Ostafy, an elementary are teacher in Bear, DE. Her first costume was inspired by an Egyptian themed unit (I have that very same hat, Lindsey!). She writes, "Each student used their photos to make themselves into a pharaoh. It was a fabulous day, and all of the students were inspired by my costume!" Her second photo features  a super cute scissor happy skirt. perfect for a lesson on collage!

Arlene Shelton teaches ninth grade art in Aledo, Texas.  This fabulous ensemble was inspired by an SNL Dress-Up Day! She says, "I have always wanted to wear my paint pants to school but I knew I would have to get creative to be allowed to wear them.  Therefore, when SNL Dress-Up Day was announced I grabbed the chance and dressed up like Garth from Wayne's World!  My counterpart, Wayne, is our school librarian."

Jena Love is a pre-k, third through eighth art teacher whose philosophy is, "If kids can relate to it then they get excited about it!" She writes, "Kids can relate to comics so I show them examples of comics and superheroes that have primary color costumes/uniforms then we talk about that. Then I tell that that I have a secret. I put on the cape and glasses and become a superhero whose power is to make any color in the whole world!"

 Ya'll probably know Phyl who blogs over at There's a Dragon in my Art Room. After teaching for 36 years, most of that at a rural elementary school in upstate New York, Phyl is now 2 years into her retirement. Although, you'd never know it. She stays busy teaching, painting, sculpting, you name it! This ensemble was created from a large collection of free art tees that Phyl had collected from attending years of conventions. If you were at NAEA in San Diego, you probably saw Phyl wearing this dress!

And, lastly, we have the super cute Erin Mikels who teaches at the Blue Earth Area School District in Minnesota.  About her look, she writes, "I love color, but have always been "scared" of being too loud. However, after adding bits of color and loud patterns, I have had nothing but positive feedback on my wardrobe! I buy most of my clothing from thrift shops, strictly because we are "poor" due to having five people in our family!But the other reason is due to the fact that every article of clothing I own has some sort of paint stain on it." Oh, friend. I think we can ALL relate to that!

And there you have it, folks! Place your votes. I'll keep you posted on the winner shortly after May 8th!

In the Art Room: Ming Vase Still Life with Third Grade

Well, after taking a two week hiatus to create our Chinese-inspired clay dragons (which I'll share with ya as soon as those bad boys are glazed and refired), my artists in third grade land returned to their Ming vase projects and finished 'er off. They were pretty stinkin' proud of themselves and who can blame 'em? They're just about as colorful and amazing as my third graders themselves.

This project, like so many of the ones we do, was a million step process that schooled us on bunches of stuff. Here's how we began this adventure:

Day #1/2 (two 30 minute class periods): We reviewed properly painting with watercolor paint (for details of that kind of chat, go here) and chatted about warm vs. cool colors. The kids were given the choice of painting with either color family. We also chatted about what constitutes an abstract painting (that'd be line, color and shape) and how we might begin that kind of painting. With that, the kids set to work on their 9" X 12" papers.

Day #3/4: Although the kids were painting a Ming-vase inspired kind of design, I wanted to emphasize to 'em that their vase could simply be decorative or tell a story. So I shared with them the Legend of Blue Willow. I'm kinda dorky (duh, like I have to tell you that) in that I really love story telling. So I got all into it in hopes that it would inspire some super vase illustrations. 

After story time, we chatted about what kind of vase or planter shape they might want. Turns out that there are many different Chinese vase shapes that span the history of pottery in China with each signifying a different period in time. The kids learned to fold their papers in half, draw a shape of their choice and cut. Viola! Instant symmetrical vase!

Once that was complete, the kids created their design on their vase. Pencil lines were traced in blue sharpie and color was added with colored pencils. 

Day #5/6: Well...I noticed that when the kids chose to use the cool colors for their backgrounds, their vases blended in. Oops. So to remedy that, and to create a three-dimensional feel to their work, I had the kids create a shadow behind their vase. This was super simple and the kids thought it was like magic. They simply traced their vase onto black paper, cut it out and glued it to the back of their vase, shifting it slightly to cast a shadow. Once the shadow was glued down, the entire thing was adhered to the background paper.

From there, we had a discussion about bonsai and cherry blossom trees. On newsprint, I showed the kids some ideas on how to paint these kinds of trees. I suggested (em, strongly) that they attempt to paint both kinds of trees on practice paper (that'd be newsprint) before painting on their masterpiece.

I am seriously loving both of the backgrounds in these paintings. By the way, when it comes to watercolor paint in the art room, you must use Crayola's Mixing Colors paint. Not the regular Crayola watercolor. This stuff is way better. Look for the box that says "Mixing Colors." It does come with an odd assortment of colors so you might have to supplement with additional pans. But, look at that magenta and turquoise! So pretty!

I love that this artist remembered from our clay lesson that Chinese dragons are often shown with a pearl that is believed to be the source of their strength and power. 

Look out that painting on the right seems to have an almost patterned shadow behind the vase. These third graders are, like, genius.

Day #7: Once their tree of choice was painted into their vase, I gave the kids several choices for finishing off their still life. One was using a variety of green paint and a stubby brush to create a leaf texture for their tree.

Another was using tissue squares to create three dimensional blossoms. I remember doing this in elementary school and thinking it was the best thing ever. You simply wrap a piece of 1" square tissue around the bottom of your pencil, put a touch of glue on it and press/hold it onto your paper. Give it a second, gently lift off and, viola! Blossom! Sometimes, a couple of pieces of tissue were glued together before attaching to the paper.

The final option I gave to the kids was simply painting their blossoms on. I also told them that they could do a combo of all three processes if they wanted. 

I'm so happy these masterpieces are complete. It's just a coupla weeks until our school wide art show so I was happy to scratch this project off the list. Now! Onto glazing dragons, writing artist autobiographies, painting our clay stars...sigh. Fingers crossed we get it all completed in time.

Until next time, ya'll, have a great week!