2025 Winter Student Art show

Our December student art exhibit was a hands-on experience since most of the visitors were blind. It's pretty rare to to to an gallery or museum where touching the art is allowed, much less encouraged. Teaching Art at the Academy for the Blind has taught me that for these kids, "you see with your hands, not with your eyes," and so most of the assignments from this semester were relief sculptures for tactile image projects.

We had a table in the middle of the room for ceramics items and hand-bound books, just waiting to be handled. Text was often in Braille, and some of the images were pop-up.

2D images on the walls and easels were all within arm's reach.

We offered a rotating schedule for students to come and visit in their time slot during a 2 hour reception on Thursday, and then parents came on Friday after the school concert.  

Students helped curate the exhibit, deciding what pieces should go in, how they should be arranged, and making Brailled the name tags.

 

Although it was an exhibition and not a sale, a lot of students were able to sell their work to teachers and parents. It was so gratifying for them to know that their work had value and was appreciated by discerning adults.

Ultimately, talents are meant to be shared, and you don't have to wait until you're a master to start sharing. I love that my students can shine at their current ability level, and because shining feels so good, I have every confidence that they'll keep growing to the next level.

Eric Carle Style Christmas Art by Kids

I teach children with multiple complex needs who will probably never be able to draw complex images; but that doesn't mean they can't make art in the style of some of the greats. Eric Carle books are fun to read to these students because of the repetition makes it easy for them to make predictions. There's also fun features to their books with different size pages, holes for fingers to explore. They teach numbers, colors, animal names, time telling, days of the week, and of course the life cycle of a butterfly. But what I wanted to my students to learn most, was the process that Eric Carle used to create his pictures.

As a class painted big pieces of bulletin board paper, cut shapes out and collaged them to a piece of construction paper. 

Triangles, circles and rectangles could transform into a Christmas tree of ornaments.

Squares transformed into gifts with the help of colored masking tape turned ribbon and bows.

Once this concept played out, we used the concept of collage to make tactile wreathes from torn up scraps of tissue paper. Even students with no vision and little muscle control could tear, drop, and pat pieces into place.

Recent Field Trips: Festival of Trees and GA & GA Library Services for the Blind

I feel so fortunate to work at a place that supports my belief that learning for my students extends beyond the walls of my classroom. 

The origami ornaments we made in the classroom was part of a tree design for the festival of trees. This exhibit is one of the biggest fundraisers for our local Museum of Art and Science. It is one way we can contribute to society while simultaneously creating an awareness for our school and art department.

I have few enough students that the museum has allowed me to bring them to help decorate the tree, and while we're there, we explore the museum, which always has wonderful exhibits. 

Students could explore the mini-zoo, dance in the light box, build with blocks and magnets, and dig for dinosaur fossils. They had a room for an immersive experience with sound and images sorounding the viewer.

But I was pleased to see that many were happy making art. The tactile plates to make crayon rubbings was perfect for students who are totally blind.

A week later, we made the trip to Atlanta to learn about Georgia's Library Services for the Blind. There are so many accessibility tools and support groups that can help my students tap into the world around them. 

The Atlanta Library has a lot of local artwork, and so many pieces were fabric portraits, similar to the projects we had recently completed. It was fun to audio describe these pieces for my students who couldn't see them.  And the Library Services area had art that was tactile and begging to be touched. We were happy to oblige.

We paged through Braille picture books and played Braille or large print BINGO and than had lunch at the famous Varsity.

Hopefully these experiences will be not only memorable but transformative. I want my students to know how to be part of a larger community where they can both serve and be served.

Pamphlet and Accordion Book Projects for Kids

There are many things I love about having my Art students create a hand-bound book. It incorporates language arts, teaches problem solving skills, creativity, and craftsmanships. It is also a perfect chance to differentiate by interest. 

We made quote books, joke books, concept books about dinosaurs, architecture, and mythological creatures.  There were quote books, original poems, and "a day in the life of" slice of life books. Students don't just get to choose the content of their book, they choose the form that book will take.

Accordion books, such as this one about winter can stand expand to stand up and display the pages all at once. A half an inch of each page spread is turned back before folding the center of the remaining paper. That provides a tab to glue to the back of the previous page spread.

One student decided after the fact to make their book an accordion, so they created strips of paper that they added glue on either side of the peaked fold to attach pages.

Other stitch-less books used a similar technique, but without a tab. For example, the second page spread would half the back of the left page glued to the back of the right page and the back, but just in a half an inch strip from top to bottom. With this book the back and front cover are connected with a strip of colored tape to form a spine.

Most of these books, such as this digitally illustrated story book, just needed a strip of glue along the back edges of each page spread. 

But in some cases, the entire back of each page was covered with glue, using a glue stick. This pop-up picture book of types of vehicles was extra sturdy because each page was two layers of card-stock. This student had to figure out how to get water to pop in front of the jet ski and how to attach a race flag as the background of his race car.

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Pamphlet books were another option. A single signature is simply sewn together with a couple of stitches. This has the benefit of using the front and back of the paper, but the downside of having to figure out the page numbers and what will go on each page, rather than each page spread being on a single sheet of paper.

To make this, one of my students, folded four or five pieces of paper together and poked three holes in the signature fold. A piece of yarn and a large needle was used to poke the yarn up through the back of the center hole and then down through the bottom hole. Then she came back up trough the center hole and finally in the top hole from front to back.

The ends of the yarn were tied near the center hole on the back side.

For all of the hard bound books, students used a piece of book board or mat board just a hair bigger than the pages. with nice mat board it might just be fine to leave it the original color, but all of my students chose to cover theirs with paper. They used a glue stick to cover the board with glue and than rubbed the paper on until firm. The corners were cut with just enough wiggle room to cover the thickness of the board, and then side of the board had the edge glued.

The entire outside of the outer page of text is covered with glue.

And then attached to the inside of the book board. If a good glue stick is not available, liquid glue brushed smoothly with a thick brush can also provide an even layer of glue.

this student opted for the easy spine solution: just use tape.

I loved to see students share their books with their peers. They each felt a sense of accomplishment with their finished product, but just as important was the enjoyment of the process. 

 

Quilt Making: Art project for Students with Multiple Complex Needs

My students with multiple complex needs are not able to sew their own quilt or even to participate in our wire quilt like some of my other art students. But that doesn't mean I couldn't differentiate the lesson to allow them to understand how contributing a square to a larger group project helps create art and community. They could understand pattern through some exercises that involved clapping and word patterns. They made choices of colors, shapes, and placement for their square, and they glued their shapes down. Origami paper was perfect for this assignment because each shape had a front color and a back color to try out in the arrangement. I pre-cut all the shapes and they used glue sticks to attach them. Many of these students are non-verbal so they would point to the color when I'd give them a choice or two, or I would give them two shape choices up front and then individually a second time for each of those choices (Do you want a rectangle? Yes or no? Do you want a triangle? Yes or no?) and then wait for a response such as an nod or an attempt to say "yes."

Using squares of pre-cut fabric that were actually made for quilting is another great way to introduce students to the idea of piecing a quilt together. Students made decisions based on similar colors and themes and were encouraged to space them in a way that created balance. The range of abilities varied, but what mattered most to me is for students to be able to understand a little bit of what goes into quilting in the real world. For this one they used liquid glue on the back before flipping, placing and patting each square. Quilts can be made using an collaborate or individual process, but I hope the next time they climb under a quilt they get a cozy feeling, remembering these projects and knowing their art teacher loves them.

 

Wire Quilts

My students love to hear stories about the lives of the Quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Their quilting knowlege was handed down from mothers to daughters since before the civil war. They just wanted to keep their children warm with scraps of worn out clothing, but their aesthetics were similar to those of modernist painting giants. Once someone recognized the aesthetic value, they were exhibiting their work in museums across the country. The majority of the talent in the world goes unnoticed, but it is not the fame that makes something beautiful. It's the work itself, and of course, the love that goes into it.

After talking the purpose and construction of real quilts, each student started making their own quilt squares to contribute to a class quilt, except this one would be made from metal.

How to fill a square? It was a problem to be solved, and the room was full of solutions: wire, pipe cleaners, beads, buttons, tape, upholstery swatches; if we had it, they could use it. Students chatted about their day as they twisted and taped, and strung things together. This isn't the kind of quilt you'd want to curl up in, but I hope the process gave my students a sense of how communities come together in the form of quilting bees. 

Origami Trees and Diamonds

It's nice that basic folds in origami are the jumping off point for lots of different projects. Paper Christmas trees and diamonds start the same way as the classic fortune teller. 

You begin with folding a square piece of paper in half to make a vertical rectangle and than open and fold it in half to make a horizontal rectangle. Opening to leave a plus sign in the middle of the square. Flip the paper upside down.

Next you fold it in half in diagonaly to make a triangle, first in one direction, than the other, to make a multiplication sign. 

With the right side up, push in on opposite diagonals until a square (1/4th of the paper size) is formed and push down. Keep the open side pointed towards you on the table. 

Bring the right folded side to the center line, making sure the top stays pointed. Than do it on the left side. Flip to do the right and left side on the back. It should be shaped like a kite.

Slide your finger up from the inside to open up one of the flaps, moving the inner fold to the opposide sides to open it up and make the triangle span the whole width of the kite shape. Do the same thing on each of the 3 remaining flaps. From the top point, the folds should be going in and out and in and out, 8 times, the whole way around. Than you'll make 4 slits on each side. Each tree bough is formed and held into place by folding the upper corner down and in to make a point on the lower outside of the branch. You'll do it 4 times for each of the 8 sides. I tried to always do it on the right half for radial symmetry. These can stand on their own or they can have a ribbon or hook attached and used as an ornament.

Now if you want a diamond shaped ornament you'll need to do this on a second piece of paper with a contrasting color or pattern.

You'll flip one upside down so the opening is going up while the other is going on. You'll tuck each of the long pieces into a short piece of it's partner. It helps to use a drop of glue to keep it from coming undone as you move to the other parts. I like a drop of hot glue or two at the beginning and then maybe one or two at the end of the process. No scissors needed.