National Scholastic Tour Comes to Portland

Check it out! A touring exhibition of National Scholastic award winning art is coming to Portland. One of four stops on the tour. Opening reception on January 5th at PNCA 6 -8 pm. Anyone want to come with me? We can visit other galleries that night and support the two Lakeridge students in the show, Lizzie Aronson and Eva Davis.

You can eat all their snacks, see amazing student work from around the country, hang out downtown, visit galleries and be with Ms. McB. What more could you ask for?

Let me know on Tuesday if you are interested.

P.S. You don't have to hang out with me the whole time. You can ditch me and hang with your friends downtown and look at cool art. I'll get over it. Really.... I will.

Concentration Critique Tuesday

It's a beautiful day, hopefully you are not in the house creating art that you should have been making weeks ago.....hmmmmmm

This time of year is usually when people get really frustrated with their concentrations. All the original or obvious ideas have been used up already and now you really have to think. Take solace in knowing that you are not alone. What usually happens after this concentration check is that things get moving again. The ideas will flow and the back end of this process goes smoothly. Hang in there! You can do this.

Looking forward to seeing you all. Ms. McB

Secret Santa Success

As I sit here blubbering over the VERY sweet notes you all wrote for me...I thought I would post a few of the Secret Santa pictures. The AP Secret Santa party is one of the best things we do all year. Because the presents must be handmade I feel like it gives you another opportunity to get to know your classmates. Honestly, I don't think there is a better feeling in the world than knowing someone is thinking about just the right gift for you.

The party was a big success and I was super impressed with the quality and craftiness of the work this year.

OPEN STUDIO on Wednesday, December 28 10:00 - 2:00ish

Hope to see you there! xxoo ms. McB

Crazy Busy-Funness-Exciting-Most Bestest week

December 12th - 16th

Tuesday, December 13th - Scholastic Challenge Due - I'm expecting fabulous, edgy, fun, spectacular things from all of you. Can't let the Art 3 kids out do you, their work was pretty great.

Thursday, December 15th - SECRET SANTA. Perhaps the most anticipated event of the school year. The crafty side of all of us should come out on this day. Don't forget to bring the food you said you would bring. It's going to be a feast of all feasts. Ordering Bellagio's pizza, REQUESTS?

If you are absent, PLEASE get your gift to school. Imagine how sad your person would feel if they were the only one not getting a gift.

What needs to be done by the end of the week???????

1. Seniors - registered for Scholastic, art or photography portfolio or both. You are also welcome to enter as many individual pieces as you would like. There are scholarship available for portfolios and gift cards of $100.00 for the category winners (i.e. you receive 4 Gold Key's in drawing and you would be the winner of that category) Please put anything you enter into the F drive folder.

2. Juniors - registered for Scholastic, at least two photo's, and some of your artwork. Many of you have already done this. Check with Ms. McB if you are not sure. Please make sure whatever you enter there is an image in the F drive folder.

3. I NEED ALL THE SCHOLASTIC PAPERWORK AND FEES IN MY HANDS BY FRIDAY!!!! It's really hard for me to remember to get this stuff so I need you to step up and remember. I'm old, you are young with young minds. Help your teacher :(

4. I will open up the studio on Wednesday, December 28th from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm. You can work on the TWO pieces of art that will be due on January 3rd, 2012. You can work on uploading Scholastic work or you can just come visit.

Monster Child

What children’s drawings would look like if it were painted realistically?

Check out this cool idea.....

The Monster Engine is one of those projects that make me love the Internet for its ability to expose amazing creative talent to a worldwide audience. Illustrator Dave DeVries started with a simple question: What would a child’s drawing look like if it were painted realistically? In his own words:

It began at the Jersey Shore in 1998, where my niece Jessica often filled my sketchbook with doodles. While I stared at them, I wondered if color, texture and shading could be applied for a 3D effect. As a painter, I made cartoons look three dimensional every day for the likes of Marvel and DC comics, so why couldn’t I apply those same techniques to a kid’s drawing? That was it… no research, no years of toil, just the curiosity of seeing Jessica’s drawings come to life.....

Click below to see more images. Keep reading below for an update on what's going on this week...

http://www.elezea.com/2011/12/realistic-childrens-paintings/#more-1974

Are you an addict?

December 7th, Wednesday you need to have your 12 breadth photos selected. You need to put them on a disk or on a jump drive. We will be creating your breadth websites. So exciting.

December 9th, Friday

Seniors - need to select 8 photos for your Scholastic photography portfolios. These images need to be a body of work, with some sort of theme. All the images need to feel like they are from the same person. Avoid vacation pictures.

Juniors - need to select at least 2 images to enter into the Scholastic Art Awards. Some of you have already done this.

Please leave a comment where you tell me what method you use to remember things. For example, I have a new thing on my iphone called Reminders. I'm obsessed with this new feature. It really helps me to remember all the little things.

Draw a Stick Man

This is fun. Be patient and enjoy the process. Ms. McB

----------------------------------------------------------------- This is cool, watch what happens after you draw your stick man http://www.drawastickman.com/

It's your turn

For the last three months I have been blogging about everything from inspiring artists, mind games, unicorns and photography club. Now it's your turn. Your blog comment for this week is to find something art related to blog about.

It could be an artists that inspires you, something related to your concentration, an interesting article about the arts, a museum that you like and why, or other blogs or websites that you find interesting (art related)

Make a comment just like you would before except you will write a little about what you found and provide the link.

What is interesting to you?

Body Worlds and The Brain

Has anyone seen this exhibit yet?

http://www.omsi.edu/bodyworlds

How do they do it? Where do they get the bodies from? Do you consider this art or a form of art? This is the information on the official BodyWorlds site regarding where the bodies come from.

Body Donation for Plastination
All anatomical specimens on display in the BODY WORLDS exhibitions are authentic. They belonged to people who declared during their lifetime that their bodies should be made available after their deaths for the qualification of physicians and the instruction of laypersons. Many donors underscore that by donating their body, they want to be useful to others even after their death. Their selfless donations allow us to gain unique insights into human bodies, which have thus far been reserved for physicians at best. Therefore, we wish to thank the living and deceased body donors.

Did you know there is an Institute of Plastination? One reason they created the Institute is because, "The complexity and work involved in preparing these specimens far exceeds the capacity of most interested institutes. Preparing a technically correct, whole-body plastinate does, after all, require 1000 to 1500 man-hours." 1500 hours, that's crazy.

Thoughts? Is it art?

Alexa Meade - Cheating or Creative Genius - you decide

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/alexa-meade-photos-imitate-paintings-1319236464-slideshow/1-photo-1319231555.html

This just in from a former student via Facebook. I'm going to let you take a look and tell me what you think. Is she a cheater or creative genius?

Kelsey Ramsey - The Truth

Kelsey is one of the students doing her concentration using the media of photography. She is focusing on transcendentalism. What's that? Look it up. Okay, here is how Kelsey describes it... it's about the philosophy of communing with nature to find your divine soul. Odd fact about Kelsey....she loves Eggo waffles. Not the wheat ones, just homestyle or buttermilk.

What do you think about her work so far? Which of the Amelia photos do you think are more successful and why?

Local Artist Jesse Reno

http://www.jessereno.com/

Jesse is a great guy and a fascinating artist. He paints mostly with his hands and fingers. Take a stroll through his work. What do you think? What makes his work a 'body' of work? How does he tie it all together?

Games for the Brain

Because mindless activities can be good for you.

http://bomomo.com/

http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/

http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/zone.htm

Anything else out there?

I made this using Sea-Saws on the last link. I know, it's pretty spectacular.

What did you do today?

Do you know why there wasn't school on Friday? It's a statewide teacher inservice day. Which means that teachers get the opportunity to go to conferences and learn new things! I was in Eugene on the U of O campus. I graduated from U of O in 1990, so it was great to go back to my old stomping grounds. I joined 150 other art teachers for the OAEA art educators conference. I participated in several great workshops, my two favorite were sewing and glass blowing. In the sewing class I learned about a new tool that allows you to 'draw' with the sewing machine. It was super fun and I've already got my eye on buying a new sewing machine for the classroom.

Today I was in the U of O craft center learning how to blow glass. I have to admit I was terrified of all the hot molten glass and blow torches, I thought my hair was going to go up in smoke. Once I got over my fears I managed to crank out two glass ornaments. Here are some pictures of me in the hot shop.

So what did you do today? What did you learn? How did you challenge yourself?

It's worth watching

How do people do stuff like this? Does anyone know how?

500 years of Women in Art

http://wimp.com/womenart/

Josh Keyes

Yet another fabulous artist. Acrylic paintings, you have to see to believe! This guy has something to say.

http://www.joshkeyes.net

365

Are you up for a challenge? I stumbled on this little gem the other day. It's called the 365 project. It's for photographers!

http://365project.org/

You sign up, it's fre,e and start posting your images. You get people to follow you and they make comments about your work. You wouldn't have to post every day for 365 days but it might be kinda fun!

It's important to get feedback from others if you want to improve as an artist. This seems to be a supportive community of photographers. Let me know if you try.

I am Unicorn

“I think that you are the biggest unicorn. When a pony does a good deed, he gets a horn and he becomes a unicorn and then he poops out cotton candy until he forgets he’s magical and then his horn falls off. And black unicorns, they become zebras.” Brittney from Glee

Yes it was a whole episode around Unicorns. Crazy. Don't just look at this first blog post. Look at the other three. Lots of good information. Unicorn love.

Pattie Lee Becker

I'm always on the look out for interesting artists. This work reminds me of the idea that Stacey has for her concentration. It's good to spend some time on the Internet looking around, see what's out there. Inspiration comes from many places. Just because you have your idea doesn't mean you should stop looking for ways to be inspired. Try it you might like it. I dare you...try it.

http://www.pattieleebecker.com/

Art Rant

Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz0MKZt4WXE&feature=related