my hands are my heart

Our fourth grade artists watched an interview with Art21 artist Gabriel Orozco. We used his work My Hands Are My Heart as a starting point for an exploration of clay, process, and the connection of creating and caring. This fit in beautifully with our fourth grade theme, Artists Making a Difference!

Students were asked to only use their hands to create a heart (no tools allowed other than stamps for their name). Some hearts took the form of vessels, baseballs, mountains, or beloved pets. Some hearts wore their family names, some touched deeply with fingertips, and some hearts were perfectly smoothed. All of these hearts were a wonderful play in process and a great way for us to start our year of caring and creating.

won't you be my neighbor

These sweet little houses were created by the kindergarten artists. We are still busy working in our "Building a Better World" theme!



You've probably heard of this before: all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. This BBC story, Crossing a St. Louis street that divides communities, has really stayed with me since I saw it last month. In fact our school is very near to the Delmar divide. I feel dismayed and hopeful at the same time.


(this image is a still from the BBC video news story)

hope is the thing with feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all...
-Emily Dickinson

The second grade artists thought of this poem and the bird metaphor as they created a clay bird on which to place their own hopes! Above is a bird shaped collection of their hopes. I also did this project with my fifth grade advisory at the beginning of the year as a place to put their academic and personal hopes for the year. Something about stamping each letter of their hope into the clay really helps to strengthen the concept for them.



I was inspired to do this project after seeing Kristin Love's beautiful Poetry Birds. The second graders really responded to her use of texture and fluid shape.


I love the way Andrew creatively stamped in his name and his hope for more art in the world!








Hope for strong friendships.


Hope for quiet- from his sister:)


His original hope was to discover that dinosaurs really do still exist. After considering the space constraints, he shortened it to find.




I am always asking them to be brave artists so I was pleased to see some hopes to be brave!




Aashna was proud to share with us that her name means hope.

birthday birds

Say hello to our new batch of birthday birds! The sixth graders do a service project at the beginning of each year. It is their job to sculpt and glaze 300+ little clay birds. Making this many multiples requires a different set of art skills than spending lots of hours on just one piece, so it's a valuable experience.





The birthday birds were inspired by this project and these little birds a few years ago. When a kiddo comes to art on his or her birthday/gotcha day (or as long as it's the same week), he or she gets to pick out a birthday bird. We do summer bdays in June so that everyone will get one by the end of the school year. The kids LOVE choosing a special bird to take home. Well done sixth graders- thanks for working so hard to brighten someone else's day!

second grade bird sculptures

The second grade artists have finished up their bird watercolors and are now working on creating bird sculptures! Each bird actually started out using the pinch pot method in clay. The features of the birds were carefully pulled out and texture was added using various tools. The artists chose a piece of wood as the sculpture base and had to decide how their bird would balance. The clay birds were kiln fired, glazed, fired again, and then carefully perched. It was fun to see what kind of wood the children were drawn to- some organic and rough others smooth and geometric.



Last year I made a fun trip to the workshop of NCS family Willard Woodrights to collect pieces of scrap wood for the art room. They have a passionate interest in using reclaimed, locally harvested urban hardwood whenever possible and we are very fortunate to have these gorgeous pieces to use for our art projects. I love their philosophy and you can read more about what they do here.

Pandora's Box: Opening at a theater near you!

I shared this movie trailer with Anne's fourth grade class (greek mythology experts) and I thought you might like to see it too!

pandora's box from on Vimeo.

So I guess you know that I was just having some fun with imovie now. Anne's fourth grade class did love seeing their art on the "big screen" and it was a great way to start off a group discussion/reflection about the project.

fourth grade pandora's box

The story of Pandora's Box is a rich source for visual interpretation. The students were asked to create their own Pandora's Box from clay using a slab construction technique. This was a wonderful opportunity for independent study and each student developed their own ideas through sketches and discussion. The results are highly original and creative interpretations of an ancient myth.



















The fourth graders were asked to write artist statements. They could write about their creative process, write an original story or poem, or retell the myth referencing details from their boxes. For the first time this year, we used garageband to make a multimedia artist statement. They loved doing this part and did a great job using the art room macs! For example, here is a play on Pandora Radio from clever Willa:

Untitled from on Vimeo.

Allison did a beautiful job describing the artmaking process:

Untitled from on Vimeo.

And Fran gives us a dramatic retelling of the original myth:

Untitled from on Vimeo.

See all of the fourth grade Pandora's Boxes here!