Third Block Art II - Working with Clay

This week, Art II students finished basic pinch/coil pots and began on basic slab work. Their pinch/coil pots are egg separators called Snot Pots - after you break an egg into the pot, the whites drip out of the nostril holes. Students had fun creating these and reviewing basic hand construction techniques.


Moving from pinch/coil pots to slab work, students created ceramic fish by rolling two slabs and cutting the fish shape from each using a template. After stuffing the fish with newspaper, they sealed the halves together and decorated the design using at least five distinct textures.

Too provocative?

Woodmont High School declined to hang this self-portrait in the school library because of "provocative" content. It's by former IB student Elise Ellisor, and won Best in Show at last year's annual Woodmont Student Art Show.
What do you think? Is the content too provocative for a public space like a school library? Why or why not?
UPDATE - Mr. Imperati, our principal, viewed the painting this morning and agreed with the Art department that the painting should be on permanent public display in the Library.

First Block Art 1 - Basic Drawing

For their first week, Mr. Davis's first block Art 1 class studied basic observation and drawing skills. Students began by copying a drawing upside-down, using the unfamiliar orientation to force themselves to draw what they actually see. This assignment is designed to encourage students to look carefully at the objects they draw, avoiding the use of symbols.

Students then moved on to negative space drawings. On their handouts, photos from Sports Illustrated Magazine had been converted to black and white shape drawings. Students traced the format or outlines of the boxes, then copied the negative or background shapes into the boxes. Filling the negative shapes in with bright colorful patterns reinforces the idea that these are shapes. This is another exercise designed to help Woodmont Art students observe and accurately draw the actual shapes of objects.

As part of their art routine, students finishing their assignments work in their visual journals. All Woodmont High Art I students are required to create three entries per week in their visual journals. These entries center around an artifact - for example, a drawing, a photo, a ticket stub, or any other 2-dimensional object they find visually interesting. Students create a full-page design around the artifact, incorporating text and design elements into their work. Visual journals count as 20% of each student's grade.