Monday, July 31, 2017

Current Events in the Art World

I love sharing interest art happenings with my students. One way I used do this was by assigning weekly art current events or interesting art finds that we'd share out to the class on Mondays. All they had to do was a little research to find out what was going on in the world related to art and post a little blurb about it, perhaps with an image or related link to their art blogs and then every Monday we'd share a few of their finds at the start of class. I'd also come prepared with my own art event or happening to share with the class. It was always so interesting what they would discover. It ranged from interesting artists, recent events relating to art exhibits or art theft, or neat videos featuring anything art related. Below are a few of my favorites.


Steal like an Artist



Embrace the Shake



Nick Cave's Sound Suits



Shake the Dust







Sunday, July 23, 2017

Tech Resources for the Art Room - Monday, July 24, 2017

Here are some neat tech resources I've discovered this summer that perhaps you could utilize in your classrooms. All are free to the public and range from design oriented to art history instruction or supplemental resource material.


Maybe I'm late to the game with this but I just discovered Google Fonts. It is a huge directory of fonts available for free online through Google. You just download the font you like and then copy and paste into your Fonts folder on your computer and it is accessible in any program you have access to fonts. I used it to create my personal logo in Photoshop after trying to use a website to create it but not being able to manipulate the letters with ease. The font I had fallen in love with wasn't a Photoshop font. So I started Googling and low and behold discovered the ease and beautiful of Google Fonts. If you are in need of some font updates I highly encourage you to check it out.




Here is a neat article I found online that discussing adding word bubbles to digital art reproductions as a means for getting kids talking about art that they are learning about in class. 



Google has come out with a really wonderful resource that features interior tours of seventeen world famous art museums. Don't have the access, funds, resources, time, etc... for a field trip? Now you can take your students through these wonderful museums without leaving the classroom.




Art Babble is a website that houses a large collection of short videos about artists and artworks. They are currently featuring a collection of videos about Andy Warhol but also cover a wide range of topics related to art. There is a link specifically for educators within their website to help art educators hone in one relevant videos and those that may be more kid appropriate.


Sunday, July 16, 2017

Art Educator Spotlight - Joy Bender Hadley - Monday, July 17, 2017

I'd like to introduce you to Joy Bender Hadley!


Joy has been teaching art for fourteen years for the Marquette Area Public Schools. Her favorite thing about teaching art is "watching the students utilize their magnificent creativity. I really enjoy when they feel good about what they did in class." A highlight of her career to date was being chosen the 2015 Art Educator of the Year for the Marquette Area in May 2015. 

Her favorite quote about creativity is:


Joy's most memorable teaching moment is currently in progress. She and her students are currently working on a huge outside mural that is 65' x 12' and has taken a year and a half to complete. Almost every student at her school has helped with the mural at some level. The neighborhood is thrilled. This is just the most recent of her community based art projects created in the Marquette area over the years.

Joy is an active full-time artist as well as an art teacher. The WOW Art Studio in Marquette, MI is consider her art home where she creates and teaches. She exhibits in her community on a regular basis. Below are several of her works. She explores a wide range of media and styles but often has an overriding theme within her body of work.




The image above shows Joy at work teaching and creating works outside of her traditional public school classroom.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Art Educator Spotlight - Rebecca Butler - Monday, July 10, 2017

I'd like to introduce you to Rebecca Butler!



Rebecca teaches at Okemos High School. Her favorite thing about teaching art is knowing that her art classes are a fun place for kids to learn. Rebecca has taken her students on several trips including to Italy and New York City throughout her teaching career.


Rebecca's favorite art quote:



Her greatest teaching achievement to date:

"I'm pretty low key, not really the type to go after any awards. I guess my biggest achievement is teaching for 32 years and I still like the kids!!"

Her most memorable thing about teaching is "seeing my students each day that look forward to working on their projects." Here is a link to Rebecca's teacher page where you can see her 2016 Scholastic Winners featured artwork.

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Patriotism through Art

Many artists have looked to America and patriotism as their subject matter based on what they experienced in our country throughout their lives. Here are a few that you may want to explore further as we celebrate the 4th of July and our country's independence.



American Impressionist Frederick Childe Hassam created several paintings capturing the spirit of American patriotism from 1917 - 1922 as seen on the streets of New York City.



Thomas E. Franklin is a photojournalist how has captured a wide range of subjects with his camera lens. Most notable is his photograph Flag Raising at Ground Zero. He captured many scenes from that tragic day but it is important to note the spirit of patriotism that arose on 9-11.



Archibald Willard was an American artist and fought in the Civil War. His depiction of the spirit of America can be seen in his most famous painting The Spirit of '76.