Filmmaking Group Project - Sandwich Land

The last project for the Spring 2017 Filmmaking class was to make a short narrative movie. The entire class helped to create this odd little movie. It's sort of a twist on Alice in Wonderland. Senior Shelby is such a wonderful actor. 

Behind the Scenes Photos

Sand Mandalas

I had my cultural art class learn a little about Buddhism and mindfulness. We explored the art of Tibetan Sand Mandalas and used it inspiration for our own sand mandalas on 12x12" cardboard. Of course, ours were not made to be destroyed because we glued the sand down, so the concept was not completely the same. They did turn out absolutely beautiful. It is a really relaxing and fun project. 

Sam T. and her excruciating detail.
The finished product is beautiful also. 

Erinn W.

Kaleigh L.

Kaylee L. 

Madisen P. 

Marriah S. 

Paige T. 

Danielle Z. 

Camera Obscura

I am always so proud of my photography class. Some days they just aren't feeling it, but many days they show me photographs that simply amaze me. At the beginning of the year we were figuring out how cameras worked. We created a giant camera obscura from the computer lab window and a white sheet. It actually worked for the most part. The flipped image was a little blurry, but you could still see things happening.

We taped up black paper and garbage bags to conceal the window. There is a tiny hole in the bottom left corner. 

I had some students go outside and see if we could view them from our projector. This is looking through the window hole. 

 The white sheet made a good canvas to see what was happening. The image stayed blurry, which could be caused by multiple factors (aperture size, distance, brightness).  Overall we made a pretty good projector.

Last year we made pinhole projectors from Pringles cans. That also worked pretty well on bright days. 

Tinga Tinga Inspired MN Paintings

In the Cultural Arts class we go country by country creating art inspired by a style of the area. In this project we looked up African Tinga Tinga paintings and mixed the African style with Minnesota animals. Students learned how to create a gradient background and paint using a stylized cartoon rendering. 

Tyrus F.

Erinn W. 

Kaleigh L. 

Madisen P.

Marriah S. 

Paige T. 

Jacinda K. 

 Sam T. 

Kaylee L. 

Master Copies

Students attempt to copy the masters. Sometimes the best way to learn is to copy, until you can do it for yourself. Can you figure out what artist they are replicating?

Ashton O.

Bekah T.

Josie M. 

Finn S. 

Kaycee J.

Nina K.

Jenna C.

Terrance S. 

Printmaking

Printmaking. The last art class I took in college, but one of my absolute favorites.

In my very first year of teaching, I taught the intro students how to do collagraph printmaking out of found materials. They turned out... interesting. It looks like modern or contemporary art I suppose.

The second year we explored block printing with linoleum stamps. This was a huge improvement. Here are a few products with the students' own designs. This was such a silly class. They turned out pretty nice, and some of the extra prints even appeared all around the school for months after the project was complete.

 Alex                      Josie                     Ashton

This third time around, I wanted the project to be more about the process and technique and not so much about taking time to create their own design. They explored watercolor techniques for the backgrounds and looked up pop culture images to copy from for the carved print. The project went even smoother this time.

They look great on the corner wall leading out the school doors!

Grid Ink Portraits

One of the first projects I have my upper level drawing and painting class do is grid portrait drawing. I let them choose absolutely anybody as long as it's a portrait image. They learn to use a grid along with different shading styles in pen. These are a few from last year, as well as this year. They usually turn out pretty amazing and helps build confidence in their drawing abilities. 

Misha Collins by Cheyenne

Tupac by Coelina

Jimi Hendrix by Kaycee

G Eazy by Nina

Ice Cube by Chuck

Mr. North Korea by Jake

Frankenstein's monster by Mariam