Help Maury Artists Help the Hungry by Donating Canned Goods to the Studio First!

           

ART + FOOD = WINNING COMBO

I know you all have been generously donating items to our thanksgiving baskets and coat drive, however, I’m writing to hit you up for canned goods just one more time, only this time, your canned good will be turned into art and then donated (I promise!).

I am not the biggest fan of holiday craft projects, however, with Thanksgiving right around the corner and our Latin American Art Unit wrapping up just before the holiday, I wanted to come up with a mini project that celebrates the value of giving thanks in combination with the fine arts.

Students will be designing colorful labels to adorn a canned good, ala Pop Artist Andy Warhol, but this time, their design must incorporate what they are thankful for with a Pop Art feel. These creative canned goods will be on display in the lobby and will later become part of our thanksgiving gift baskets or be donated to a local canned food drive.

As many cans as you can muster, the sooner the better, would be wonderful. Donations can be brought to the studio or placed in the mail room with my name on it. Thank you all for being the most generous and supportive school community around.

Already full of thanks,

Ms. Bomba

Maury Loves DonorsChoose.org!

DonorsChoose.org is changing my life as an art teacher which means donorschoose.org is also changing your student’s life. Whoa! That’s deep!

What is DonorsChoose.org? Here’s what the website says,

“DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need.

Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. Requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class.

Then, you can browse project requests and give any amount to the one that inspires you. Once a project reaches its funding goal, we deliver the materials to the school.

You’ll get photos of your project taking place, a thank-you letter from the teacher, and a cost report showing how each dollar was spent. If you give over $50, you’ll also receive hand-written thank-you letters from the students.

At DonorsChoose.org, you can give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives millions.We call it citizen philanthropy.”

Just recently, I posted a project asking for legit carving tools and rubber stamps for a unit on block printing  and relief sculpture. Due to the limited supply budget, the money allotted to the art studio is usually spent on essentials, such as paper and dry media. The supplies that I asked for on donorschoose.org are ones that serve to advance and authenticate your child’s art education. As an artist myself, I never had experience carving linoleum blocks for relief prints until I was in graduate school. Your child will be exposed to this form of art making in the 4th grade! Thank you donorschoose.

It took just two days , TWO, for someone to fund my $200.00 supply list! The best part about it– $150.00 of that donation came from an absolute stranger!!

A block-printed Frida thinks that’s awesome!

Last night I posted a second, larger, project to support the blossoming ceramics program at Maury. I am asking for terracotta clay and authentic potter’s glazes. With these supplies, I hope to kick off a grand unit on the history, tradition, and creation of face jugs–from Africa to the American South. Check out this in depth video to learn more about exactly why I am so personally fascinated with face jugs.

If you would like to make a donation to the art studio and more specifically, our quest for ceramic supplies, follow this link to my donorschoose page. Thanks in advance and I can’t wait to begin creation on these intriguing and imaginative ugly jugs!

Prepping the Studio for the New Year

Hello Maury,

I wanted to put a quick call out about household items I am collecting for the upcoming school year, particularly in preparation for ceramics at Maury! By no means should anyone go out and purchase any of these items, but if you happen to have them lying around the house and are looking for a new home for them, the studio would be more than willing to take them off your hands. Thanks!

Supplies:

Rolling Pins (or other creative objects) for students to roll slabs of clay

Metal Forks and Toothbrushes (boiled before donating please) for scoring clay

Extension Cords and Power Strips (it is a goal of mine that each table have at least 2 hot glue guns to use to cut down on wait time for certain sculptural and collage projects)

Sponges with a little tooth on them would be best (for scrubbing tables)

Medium to Small Buckets (for water/sponges)

Medium to Large Plastic, Reusable Plates (for rolling ink on brayers during printmaking)

Large Easel with Dry Erase Board (I discovered the leg of mine snapped somehow?)

Textured Surfaces for pressing into clay

Clay Tools (wooden, metal, plastic, legit or invented)

1′ X 1′ pieces of drywall (~50)

Shelves on Wheels for storing wet and dry work

Wipes

Storage Bins for tools

Small Plastic Containers with lids

I know some of these are odd requests. I have begun test firing our kiln in hopes of getting our ceramics program up and running and it takes quite a bit of prep and supplies to make it successful. If anyone has any tips or advice about beginning  a ceramics program in an elementary school, I’d love to pick your brain. If anyone knows of anyone who has glazes, clay, under glazes, and other ceramic supplies available for donation or for sale cheap, let me know! Thanks again!

Mrs. Bomba

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Soy MRS. Bomba!

It’s official, after 6 years of dating, Jeff and I are married! You can now officially call me MRS. Bomba!  Crazy! The festivities took place at a friend’s farm, outside, in the wonderful 106 degree North Carolina heat on June 30th! It was one for the books and a “barn burner” to say the least. Thanks  to the Maury family for all your well wishes and loving vibes sent our way. Although I don’t have any official pictures from the wedding to share yet, I promise I’ll post at least one once they’re in for you.

In other news..I miss my students!! Even with the pleasant distraction of the wedding and honeymoon, I am still having withdrawals from teaching and seeing the kiddies every day. I have proof of this because while in Colombia for our honeymoon, I couldn’t help but snap shots of school children–especially a group of four year olds at the Botero Museum in Bogota! There is nothing like 4 year olds learning about art, in Spanish, in matching sweat suits, at a museum, to tug on my heart strings.

Botero Museum, Bogota, Colombia

Lunch time! Students walk home for lunch in Villa de Leyva

I hope everyone has had a productive beginning to summer. I wanted to share a few summer happenings with you all in case you’re looking for a way to beat the heat.

Children Events at the national Gallery of Art

 STORIES IN ART

(ages 4 to 7) This series of programs uses storytelling to introduce children to works of art. Led by museum educators, each program includes reading a children’s book, looking at one work of art in the galleries, and completing a simple hands-on activity. The summer series is presented in a four-year cycle—Explore Italy, Discover Dutch Art, Tour de France, and American Adventure—with each topic highlighting a different part of the permanent collection. Approximately 60 minutes.

Sign-in for Stories in Art will take place in the West Building Rotunda, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on weekdays and at 11:00 a.m. on Sundays, and will continue until all spaces are filled.

Summer Story Series: Tour de France
Would you like to visit France this summer? Pack your imagination and travel to the National Gallery of Art! Explore scenes of France, from its countryside to the bustling urban center of Paris, through works of art in the French galleries. You’ll meet French artists in children’s books, investigate paintings, and make a souvenir to document each adventure. Participants will receive a passport to the summer story series and a stamp for each program attended. At the end of the summer, children with three or more stamps will receive a prize!

Auguste Renoir

The Cows Are Going to Paris by David Kirby and Allen Woodman, illustrated by Chris L. Demarest

July 15 at 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
July 16, 17 at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

Join a herd of cows in a sightseeing adventure in Paris. Visit the Eiffel Tower, the Pont Neuf, shops, and cafés, then explore they city through a painting by Auguste Renoir.

Claude Monet

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet by Laurence Anholt

July 22 at 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
July 23, 24 at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

Travel to the French countryside to learn about Claude Monet’s gardens, then create a colorful work of art with oil pastels.

Edgar Degas

Bijou, Bonbon & Beau: The Kittens Who Danced for Degas by Joan Sweeney, illustrated by Leslie Wu

July 29 at 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
July 30, 31 at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

Visit the Paris Opéra and learn about the ballerinas who inspired Edgar Degas, and then color your own theater scene.

Vincent van Gogh

Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew

August 5 at 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
August 6, 7 at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

Join Katie’s imaginative adventure through museum masterpieces, explore Vincent van Gogh’s still-life paintings, and make your own flower-filled work of art to take home.

ARTFUL CONVERSATIONS

(ages 8 to 11) Designed for children and adults to participate in together, this series of programs uses observation and discussion to explore works of art in the collection. Led by museum educators, each program focuses on one work of art in the galleries.

Sign-in for Artful Conversations will take place in the West Building Rotunda, beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Sundays and Wednesdays, and will continue until all spaces are filled.

Artful Conversations Summer Series
Many museum visitors spend only seconds looking at a work of art. Find out what you can discover when you spend an hour exploring one work of art! Bring your observation skills, imagination, curiosity, and creativity to these guided discussions that delve deep into masterpieces from the Gallery’s collection. Each participant will receive a booklet to accompany this series and a stamp for each program attended. If you have three or more stamps at the end of the summer, you will receive a prize!

Week 1: American and British Art

July 15, 18 at 12:00, 2:00

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

Week 2: French Art

July 22, 25 at 12:00, 2:00

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

Week 3: Italian Art

July 29 at 12:00, 2:00
August 1 at 12:00, 2:00

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

Week 4: Dutch and Flemish Art

August 5, 8 at 12:00, 2:00

West Building Main Floor, Rotunda

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Wine bottles and tin foil needed in the art studio ASAP

Hello fellow wine drinkers (I know you’re out there!),

I need to collect ~40 wine bottles, or any glass bottle for that matter, ASAP to serve as holders for the upcoming 4th and 5th grade puppet making project. The bottles will serve as sturdy, non-tipping holders for our wooden dowels once our sculptural heads are attached. Plastic will be too light and lead to heavy puppet heads falling to their deaths from any out-of-reach resting place I can find for our creations among the studio.

I will be collecting bottles starting Monday. Please have your child, or yourself, bring them up to the studio. Any fun puppet-esque additions you have lying around are always welcome. These puppets will be inspired by characters students select from famous works of art so the possibilities are really endless. Feathers, buttons, yarn, fur, fake flowers, etc. Tin foil is also a precious commodity while we sculpt our facial features. Thanks in advance and bottoms up!

Ms. Bomba

Examples of a few of my favorite “art characters” of all time

Either specimen from, Homesickness, by Rene Magritte

Face Jugs!–as a collector of these traditional face jugs, I am a huge fan of the cultural and folk art significance of these grotesque functional wares

Who can resist a face like that? Salvador Dali

My girl, Frida’s, constant accessory, her pet spider monkey Fulang Chang, a gift from her husband, Diego Rivera