What’s the Buzz?

I apologize to all my loyal studiomaury readers out there. There have just been so many exciting happenings at Maury that I can’t seem to upload pictures fast enough! Because the blog will likely take a rest this summer with less artists to document around school, I didn’t want to leave you all hanging quite so soon. Enjoy a brief and random recap of some of the latest and greatest work from Maury artists during the Spring of 2012!

Banyan Trees!

Kindergarten explores positive and negative space through their study of root and branch heavy Banyan Trees found in many parts of Asia

Third grade gets introduced to illusion artist, MC Escher,

students demonstrate the proper technique,

and before you know it, there are 22 illusionists creating deceptive 2D drawings that appear to be popping off the page!

Second grade has been hard at work designing and constructing vessels from everyday objects after studying the Zulu people of South Africa and their inventive new way of making baskets from recycled telephone wire.

Our vessels involved less weaving and tons more glue, tape, and paper mache!

4th and 5th grade are in the thick of their art history puppets thanks to many of your wonderful donations.

After weeks of construction and paper mache, I can’t wait to reveal the finished products soon!

Preschool and PreK have become experts on the moon as part of their rock study. We have mastered the lunar phases, created visual textures to mimic the rough terrain of our moon’s surface, and even carved the moon’s phases out of Oreos!

Fifth grade takes a field trip to pull screen prints at Lou Stovall’s home studio and visits his amazing printmaking exhibition at American University’s Katzen center

Lou reads his poetry before we tour the gallery

More to come soon on all art fronts. Stay tuned!

Student Art Night a la Mode!

What else can be said that hasn’t already been stated about the fabulous student art night that took place throughout the halls of Maury Elementary School a few short weeks ago? The culminating event with our fantastic partners at the National Gallery of Art only proved further why collaboration among schools and institutions such as the National Gallery are so important. The ladies of the gallery have showered our students with the most quality, rigorous and entertaining art education imaginable. As an art educator myself, I can vouch for how lucky and unique an opportunity our students get to be able to experience a world class art education with one of the most esteemed art museums in the world.

Jeff Hopkins, a visiting artist from New York, put on a wildly entertaining and interactive performance summing up our student’s knowledge of the many artists and art styles introduced throughout our tenure with the Gallery.

My favorite part of the evening, apart from the dessert buffet and model magic, was watching parents learn from their children. Students have become so fluent in the ways of the museum that their knowledge far surpasses that of the average person. Families were so eager to soak up the stories and facts our students had to share. The level of engagement from everyone involved was at an all time high.

I loved seeing the faces of our third graders, knowing that next year, the beautiful gallery of work that hung before them would be theirs to share with the rest of the school.

Until next year, keep visiting the enlightening museums that DC has to offer and check out many of the free education programs out there.

Digging Deep

The feeling of accomplishment that many Maury students and staff members were experiencing around 10:30 this morning was unreal. Before homeroom was over, we had already broken ground with shovels and pickaxes in the front yard of Maury and begun planting 6 trees with the amazing Casey Trees organization. Under the leadership of our amazing Mrs. Ford, the entire third grade and a few second graders from our Be Water Wise team were rocking neon orange vests and getting down and dirty in the name of school yard greening and beautification!

I think Mrs. Bonds in the main office said it best when she expressed how much joy it gave her to watch our students from the office window, working together, smiling, and truly enjoying the experience of contributing to something so authentic, so important, and something so long lasting as the planting of a young tree in their elementary school yard. There is something very profound about knowing that the hole you dug will house and protect strong roots, a sturdy trunk, blossoming petals, and swaying leaves for years and years to come.

I was proud to see no conflict among peers, only encouragement, kindness, and congratulations. We are lucky that our students and staff members are encouraged to participate and initiate the kind of activities that promote such stewardship.

Look at us go and watch us grow!

Members of our 2nd Grade Be Water Wise Team

Active listening in the ceremonial tool circle

Technique baby!

Flexing her muscle

Go Mrs. Fritze! Show that root who’s boss!

Breaking ground!

Even art teachers get the urge to make art

This is a snowy picture of my family’s house back in Chapel Hill, NC during Christmas time

The concept of home is very important to me. I like to make the spaces I inhabit feel comfortable and inspiring. I’ll be honest, I spend a lot of time in Studiomaury and sometimes it feels like my second home. Although most of the time I’m busy prepping student projects, researching, creating demos, or lesson planning, I do occasionally slip into my own world and create art for me.

A thoughtful parent dropped off an old desk calendar full of 365 stunning works of art throughout history. She thought I may be able to do something with them. She probably intended that I apply them to student work, but I was so fond of the glossy images that I spent most of parent-teacher conference day listening to music, cutting, taping, and assembling my wall collage for me. I am glad to know the students are equally as intrigued by the diversity, color, and complexity of art throughout the ages. Most of our rectangle discussions this week have revolved around the pieces that jump out to us and why they are our favorites. A fair number of discussions have also been about naked vs. nude and the frequency of nudity in art. Luckily, the National Gallery was there to back me up as our fourth and fifth graders navigated through numerous nude sculptures during Art Around the Corner. Topics such as nudity in art, race, diversity, and religion can often be radical, controversial, and polarizing, especially when discussed at school–most of the time such discussions are fascinating, eye-opening, and  a learning experience for all.

Those eyes! I wonder what Mona Lisa would have to say about it all?

Speaking of Art Around the Corner. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that a great day was had by all. Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I think of how lucky I am to spend Wednesday afternoons learning things even an art teacher doesn’t already know about art. I find new sculptures to love, something that speaks to me in a George Bellows painting, a hundredth glance at a Monet and the chance to clue a curious fourth grader into the world of masters like good old Claude.

“That Moe-net charachter you’re asking about is actually pronounced Moe-nay, and that painting you like so much is actually adored by many for the same reasons you just stated. His blurry brush strokes, his hazy colors, the way parliament looks like a medieval castle in the distance, the boat detail in the foreground, that is why we love art, why we love to look at it, make keen observations about it, and state our tastes and opinions.”

Claude Monet. The Houses of Parliament, Sunset. 1903. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

There was almost something poetic about tracing contours of Graft by sculptor, Roxy Paine,  in the rain. Especially for me, who had devoted an entire unit to contour line drawing with 5th grade!

This may not be my very best photographic composition and I apologize to Kianna who is a truly stunning girl, but this shot really summed up the joy and excitement of crossing over from seeing the older art in the West Building to the newer art in the East Building. Interactive art rules! It’s going to be a great year of museum education, can’t you tell?

So far…

This week, classes are reading, Ish, a story by Peter H. Reynolds. Together, we are empathizing with Ramon, the main character who becomes frustrated when his older brother teases him for creating less-than-perfect artwork. We discussed the concept of creating “ish-art.” Ish art is work that is unique to the artist. Ish art is wonderful because it doesn’t have to look real or perfect, it just needs to look “ish!” Each of us creates art differently and that’s what makes art so liberating. Even Ms. Bomba creates Ms. Bomba-ish work. Do you think Jackson Pollock would have become as famous as he did if his work wasn’t Pollock-ish?

Ramon is just like a Maury student. He keeps a journal, or sketchbook, of his ish-drawings! Students had fun adding the word ish to things as we sketched. We discussed how “ish” can apply to our writing too. It is important to get our ideas on paper without spending too much time thinking and rethinking whether or not our idea is good enough. What we write initially may not make it to the final draft but it will help flush out our thoughts so that we can move forward during Writer’s Workshop.

A page from Ms. Bomba’s sketchbook that she kept when she was working in Native Alaskan villages in rural, AK. Stories, poems, notes, and doodles can all serve as inspiration in our sketchbooks.

A picture from Kingston’s sketchbook. Kingston was asked to illustrate himself creating art. He drew a sophisticated interpretation of how he loves to paint from his easel.

Our word wall is accumulating an impressive array of art vocabulary.