Surreal

Surreal is how I feel about the situation in the world is in now. This can’t be real! What? Learning at home? Social distancing? Unprecedented times? Only the essentials? Life as we now know, will never be the same again!

Challenge: starting up art classes for online learning. Yikes! I am a dinosaur- I have no technical training! After a lot of stress and sleepless nights I was successful at putting togather a strong program, so that every student would be able to participate in art whether or not they own art supplies. (Art is not a core subject and therefore the students do not have to do it at home if they don’t want to.) So hopefully I have made the lessons Exciting enough for the students to engage in.

My days fly by staying at home and I am lucky to have time to do art work on my own. I have been working on my Altered Book, paintings, and really been trying to experiment with the creative process. I came up with the idea to have a art show in the fall and call it “Isolation”’The students will be able to show the work that they have done at home. I will let you know how it goes:)

Intaglio

Ron also presented a class on Intaglio printing. It is the opposite of relief printing in that the printing is done from the ink that is below the surface of the plate. The design is cut, scratched or etched( we used sharpen nails) into the printing surface such as matt paper, wood, or copper.. ( we used a small piece of plexiglass) The printing in is rubbed on with a small piece of cardboard and then gently rubbed off with thin paper( we used old telephone pages). The somerset paper is briefly wet and then put between some newsprint to take of the excess water. It is then run through the press using a considerable amount of pressure.

A couple of things that I learned- when you are scratching into the plate, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO HEAR IT! Also, my paper was too dry when I finally was able to do my print( a long line up) and my print did not show up that well.

Want some inspiration? Read Rembrandt Complete Etchings.”I highly recommend it!

Hiding in the back of my Closet

Another Teacher Convention. I have been to so many sessions in the past 30 years that there really isn’t much I have not seen or done. Imagine my surprise when I saw a class on Soapstone Carving with the presenter Ron Wigglesworth. I have gone to one of Ron’s drawing classes before and I appreciate his passion and knowledge. I have never done any carving and I actually have a large piece of soapstone hiding in the black closet at school.

Soapstone is actually talc( the stuff in baby powder) The light and dark blue is soft, breathable and delicate to the touch.. Green, green brown and grey you can use mid touch with. The black /blue is harder and you can abuse it better! Various tools you will need to use are rasps, files, exact knifes, old dental tools, various grits of sandpaper. Items are old t-shirts ripped up, ice cream buckets, dust mask, safety glasses and baby oil.

I decided to go for a small green/brown piece. The plan was to make something small, something attainable, something that would give the students a taste of the project, making them want to do more. I picked a small green/brown pick and carved in an interesting shape, sanded it,put a hole in it and made it into a pendant. Success!

Ice Ice Baby

I am still in an experimenting mood, so I decided to play around with some acrylic paint and syran wrap. I used primed watercolour paper and watered down my acrylic paint with water and a acrylic medium. On two of the pieces, I painted on the acrylic paint and the other ones I poured it on- I then layed on the syran wrap on top of the paint. On the surfaces that is poured the paint on, I moved the paint around with my fingers.

The results were great and they will make great paper for collage. I also plan on going in with some charcoal and using some ink.

Lollypop Trees

Inspired by another Bob Blast video, I painted some lollypop trees . I added a some water to my acrylic paints and then using a big brush, let them drip from the top of the watercolour paper to the bottom. I applied many layers and colours- till it looked like a organized mess. After it dried, I went back into the painting and painted the negative space. The process was so much fun and the result was actually very appealing!

Carrot People

I have been in a bit of a funk until I came across some YouTube videos by Bob Barridge or also known as Bob Blast. They were very inspiring and I immediately did his workshop on painting “Carrot People.” I practised all afternoon! It was refreshing to just play and not have to work a completed picture. Yes, I defiantly need to play more and I plan on doing one of his lessons at least once a week. I will add him to my bucket list of artists to visit in person!

Bricolage

This was the name of our first ever Senior Art Show at Western- it involved the Art IB, Art Advanced Art and Art 30 classes. We were a bit worried how it would go, but it went off without a hitch. The students work was incredible and I was so proud of them! I look forward to this event happening again next year!

Alberta’s Printmaking Society Galla and Show

What an amazing evening of great art and stimulating conversation! I was excited to receive an invitation to the show from printmaker extraordinaire Kate Baillies. Kate has a Fine Art’s degree from Dawson College, a BFA from Nova Scotia and has worked as a art specialist in schools and programs around the province. She is active with the Alberta Printmakers developing programs and teaching, participating in community work and studio projects. Kate’s artwork can be found in the Alberta Art Foundation, the Canada Council Art Bank, The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Art Collection, The Calgary Public Library Central Location, as well as in corporate and private collections.

This is Kate and her print “Marks n sparks.”

12th Annual Under $100 Art Show

I saw this advertised on CTV news today and I thought I would check it out and maybe be inspired. I really had mixed feelings about this. How could every art piece there be under $100???? How could artists afford this poor wage plus lose a percentage to the organizers? Why is art always so devalued? Why do women think nothing of spending over $200 to get their hair cut for two hours of work yet balk at paying what an art piece is really worth?

The warehouse was located in North Manchester Industrial Park. The warehouse and rooms were full of art made by up and coming artists. Some of the artists were present so you could have a conversation with them. So many people and lots of art to buy. Was I inspired? No, but it did confirm in my mind that maybe I am not such a bad artist after all. It also confirmed in my mind that I will not compromise quality vs quality just to make a buck.

Styrofoam Stamps

Who knew you could make a stamp out of your old recycled meat trays and make an amazing piece of art! That’s what we did in art club today- success!

Graffiti Snow Art

It’s only the first week in November and this is the third dump of snow that we have had. It’s going to be a long winter! Thankfully we had a Chinook today( it got to a balmy 6 degrees). I wanted to take advantage of the sticky snow situation and had the art club students do some Graffiti Snow Art! Despite our cold hands, we had a lot of fun and I would defiantly do this activity again!

A foot or not a foot-that is the question!

Today in Art Club, I wanted to try a exercise that was fun, took us out of our comfort zone and required no skill. May I introduce - painting with our feet! It really made me think about the connection I now had to do with my feet and not my hands. It was such a success, I plan on doing this with my Art 20 class next week!

A Glenbow Adventure

Each Thursday of every month, there is free admission to the Glenbow Museum. What better place for the Art Club to go! I was particulary interested in the work from Jin-Me Yoon. She had a photo on display from her “Group of Sixty Seven. Yoon uses historical works of art that contributed to the construction of Canadian identity so as to subvert their nationalist discourse. Yoon had 67 members of Vancouver’s Korean-Canadian community pose in front of Maligne Lake, Jasper Park and “Old Time Village” by Emily Carr. The 67 is a reference to the year of Canadian Confederation and to it’s centennial year, during which the government made changes to the immigration act, These changes allowed the artists family to move to Canada.

I am Back!

It has been a while since I have blogged anything and to be quite honest, I have been in a it of a slump. With school starting back, my moe joe has started to come back. How could I not with all the inspiring and amazing students that surround me every day?!

In Art Club this week we made “Scrap Monsters.’ A Scrap Monster is ugly( in a cute way)stuffed doll that is made with from scraps. It is sown and glued together with love!

In a Blink of AN EYE

It took us two months to paint this piano, and in less than a week, I was asked to get rid of it! Sadly, it only takes one person to ruin it for everyone. One person, I mean a drunk person, pounding on the piano at 1:00am in the morning. Calls and complaints came to the school- administration said “ It must go! “… but I had permission….. I was only trying to do a good and happy thing.

Cross-Curricular Art Project

In my Art 30 class, I usually give an assignment to students that involve a piece that has to be made in a multi-medium. The topics are, “When you are 40” “Say It” Hot off the Press” “Going on a Road Trip”. I really wanted to do something different this semester and I came up with the idea of using the music from the Electronic Music Class to produce a multi-medium piece. I assigned each student with one work of music and then they were to interpret the sound visually. Questions they could ask themselves- “ What do I see visually? How does this make me feel? Is there rhythm? Is ther’re action? Does it make you feel happy or sad?” The work could be conventional or non-conventional. I also had them do a short write up of their interpretation of the piece and create a QR code for the music.

In return, the electronic music class used the oil paintings that my art students and made earlier on in the semester for inspiration for a new piece of music.

The feedback from the students was that they felt this was one of the more challenging pieces they had every completed and they loved the idea of using sound to create something beautiful and memorable.

I will defiantly be doing this again next year!!

Throw Down Art Challenge

This week Art Club sponsored its first annual Throw Down Art Challenge! A topic was drawn from a hat-”Sink or Float” and students would then create a piece of art work in any medium they wanted in one hour. We then posted comments on sticky notes on everyones work and voted for the top three. Voting was done with check marks and added up. This activity was so successful that I plan on doing it at least two time a semester with all of my art classes!

Post-it-note art Gallery

This week in Art Club we decided to offer a challenge to the whole school- a Post-it-Note Art Gallery! We wanted to show the school’s unique diversity and be able to use something as simple as a Post-it-Note. We have set up a station outside of the art room and hopefully it will be visited by many students!

Ebru Art

In Art Club today we experimented with a form of printmaking called Ebru Art. It is very popular in Turkey and Central Asia and is art that is produced using dyes and various solutions to create designs- also called “Marbling.” We started off with a pan of water and used some dyes that were alcohol based. We then tapped coloured dyes onto small, circular watercolour paper. They spread over the surface of the water with the help of dish soap and becel oil. The paper was then carefully placed on top of the water and pulled off. Fabrics can also be used. I am planning on also trying this with my own homemade dyes and maybe some of my old nail polish!

So Proud to be apart of this!

The Humainologie Gallery and Store finally opened and we were thrilled to be able to contribute our painting and be part of the excitement. The store is located at 1514 7th Street SW- right next door to Mona Lisa. The store is a gallery of art, videos and a place to get connected. They also sell ethical sourced products and have their own line of clothing.

Spread empathy. Increase Inclusion. Decrease discrimination. Because our tribe in humanity.