Spring Art Show Color and Fashion

The last quarter has flown by, but we managed to fit our Spring Art Exhibition be March . Everyone who entered the room commented on how colorful the student work was, which means our color theory unit was a success. 

The exhibit was a nice way to wrap up our fashion unit as well. It's hard for blind students to enjoy arts shows, when so much of the work is two-dimensional, but we made sure the hats and masks were out for students to feel and try on. High Schoolers always show up to support each other at art show openings.

I love involving students in the selection process. I used to pick one maybe two pieces from each child to put on a couple 6 foot tables, but now that I found a room to use for a gallery, I can have class critiques that allow students to pick the best four pieces from each portfolio. We tried  to get a smattering from each project and then worked together during the hanging to arrange things in a way that would give a sense of balance over-all.

When placing the colorwheels on the way, we turned them to create hidden squares of color. Only a few people saw how all the yellows or all the blues for example faced in towards each other in a group of four circles. It's always nice to have "easter eggs" for people who take the time to find them.

Our primary and secondary relief sculptures hung on opposite walls. 

And the costume designs were a big hit as students explained their concepts to teachers and peers at the show.  It's so important for students to learn the curating process and help with hanging a show. They do better work when they know that their assignments aren't just made for a grade, but made to share.

 

Student Art Show: People, Places and Things!

The student art exhibition had to do with subject matter. Students made a lot of Portraits in the style of famous artists like Kehende Whiley and Chuck Close.

Students recreated famous portraits by the masters of Renaissance, Surrealism, and Pop Art.

They created still life drawings using graphite, pastel. And they displayed their 3D model of the campus for the giant wooden map of Macon downtown.

Below is a picture of one blind student showing her blind friend her drawing. The lines of the bottles are raised in hot glue. She found her piece using the Braille tag beside the work.

 The Christmas Art Sale was a huge success as well. I love seeing my students pointing out which pieces they made to faculty and peers. They're almost giddy when they say, "I made this one!"

Fall Student Art Show

 This year, we started school in August and had our first student Art Exhibition in September. Most of my students only come twice a week, but this year but I only have 10 high school students and 5 middle school students, who I teach daily. This means there wasn't a ton of work to choose from, but luckily every student, whether they were low-vision or totally blind, were each able to produce a couple worthy pieces.

The fact that we've been studying repetition, pattern, and unity made for a coherent and colorful body of work. We used some of our zentangle portraits for show posters and invitations, made commercials for the morning news, and cookies for the opening reception. Turn out was better than we'd seen in years and the students felt great about being able to put together a body of work in a short period of time.

Rock and Roll Sets and Student Exhibition

 I started my Set Design class just two Fridays before the Spring Concert at school, which meant I would only have the help of four students for less than 4 hours total to create four 8 foot tall panels and a 6 foot long submarine. I'd have to do some serious prep-work and between class muscle work to get it done on time.

The theme of the concert was "Rock and Roll", so I did intercontinental themed sets, focusing on the British Invasion. It's hard to imagine how many lives were forever changed the night the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, after all. I drew up some plans, and when the students got to class, we projected my drawings onto the Christmas snowflake backgrounds and they traced them in chalk. I painted three of the panels during the week. 

The following Friday they painted the fourth panel, traced, projected, and painted the Yellow Submarine. So we finished in time and still managed to put together the Art Exhibit for all my other students in the lobby!

On the big day, I got to participate in an aerobics themed percussion piece performed by the faculty to Tyler Swift's "Shake It Off," which made for a nice send off before Spring Break!