Fairy Poofs! : Kindergarten

My kindergarten classes have been creating "Fairy Poofs" the past week!  What is a Fairy Poof you might be wondering?!?  Well, it is a make believe creature that is a cross between a dust bunny & a fairy. They are still young artists getting a handle on their cutting & gluing skills....and the Fairy Poof allowed for great success because it was more open ended about the final "look".  

MTSU Department of Art & Design Spring Open House

Saturday I was invited to participate in the MTSU Department of Art & Design Spring Open House. ( This is a university in Middle TN that I receive most of my student teachers & practicum students from.  They have a WONDERFUL art education program!!! ) They opened up their doors to the community to come in and learn about the department as well as provided hands on experiences.  IT WAS AMAZING!!!  They did such a good job of providing fun actives, valuable information, and a warm welcoming environment.  I loved seeing families, current students, art educators from the Middle TN area all exploring, learning, and participating together!  The volunteers/professors/staff seemed to be enjoying the experience as well! 

GREAT JOB MTSU DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN!!!!!!

I probably talked the ear off of the professor that was running this demo!! ha ha  She was amazing & so knowledgeable.  I probably could have spent the whole day in there!!

This was vinyl press in the Graphic Design department! I was able to get a cute canvas bag made with the Art & Design Department logo!

I visited the encaustics demo & found a couple of my fellow MNPS teachers hard at work!! I had just taken encaustics at our fall conference....
& it was busy in there.....so I let others take my spot.

This was student work hanging in the hall that I just loved!

 The art world's future looks bright!!

This was a hands on sand casting session.  I had never done sand casting before...it was so much fun!  I also was able to spend time with some of my Middle TN buddies!! What do you think of my octopus?!?! I love him!! He is going to be hanging out on my desk.

Sunday Devotional With Mr.E: If You Love

If you love art...one would expect you to speak often on the topic, visit museums and galleries, watch art related programs, read art related materials, create your own art work, and/or gift art related items.     What we love is reflected in our life.  It can't be contained.  We want to share the joy art brings to us.  Think about an amazing art exhibition you've seen.  Don't you share that experience with your friends, family, co-works...and at times total strangers.  Art has a way of impacting us so powerfully that we want others to experience it as well.  If you said you loved art, but did not reflect that love anywhere in your life....one might question the validity of your affection.  

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. 

1 John 3:18

I feel many Christians often say they love God, but fail to follow through with that love by their actions.  It is easy to share platitudes without proof.  If we say we love God...shouldn't that love have a transformative affect on our life? Wouldn't meeting the maker of life itself impact us in a way that would season our speech, move us to action, change how we view others, cause us to reflect that love we say we now know?  If others can not see a difference between us and the world...do we truly know this love we say we claim? Love impacts every area our life. What is it that you truly love? You will see it in your speech, where you invest your time & energy, and through your relationships with others.  If you love God...you will see it reflected. 

More Bang For Your Buck: Color Diffusers

Sometimes I like to try something new/different.....and hope that it works!!

Doing a teacher example would eliminate the unknown, but I like to live on the edge like that! ha ha

I had my 1st graders work on overlapping & composition by filling a page full of their favorite veggies & fruits.  They traced their drawing with Sharpie after finishing the drawing.  I then had the students create a "fairy" animal.  They made the heads, wings, arms, and feet.  The middle will be added when they cut them out later(as well as using construction paper crayons to add more definition to their creation).  We sandwiched their completed diffuser circle between their two images with a spray or two of water on each layer(including the top).  I then pressed each "pack" of images to make sure the diffuser was touching completely & that the water completely covered EVERYTHING!  The kids LOVED watching this process...they were so excited to see the colors bleed out & mix together.  It was magic!! 

Stencil Revolution

I was contacted by Stencil Revolution to see if I'd like to try out their products. They did not ask me to write a review & did not pay me for a review.
You can check them out here! >>>> https://www.stencilrevolution.com/ 

I'm always up for trying something new....ya never know when you are going to find a gem!

Here is what I received! 

(Sorry it's upside down! My iPad was acting weird...or it was operator error?! ha ha)

The stencils are laser cut & made from a Mylar plastic (durable!). A little masking tape on each side secured the stencils to the paper. For this first test run I used liquid tempera.  Though over all it worked extremely well...the watery nature of liquid tempera did cause it to seep under the edges a bit for the tile design. If I used a thicker tempera or acrylic I don't this this would have been an issue at all!  Clean up was super easy! I placed them in warm water after I was finished and used a wet sponge to wipe them down. Check out the results below.  

Though I don't use stencils in my art class, I've been thinking about it more & more in print making & mixed media lessons. I shared with the company how a "teacher pack" might be very beneficial!!  Smaller sizes with a variety of designs bundled together....like a leaf/nature pack, patters from around the world, or geometric designs.

I see these designs being awesome for Gelli Plate prints & like products!

I'm a music person too...and love this set!!!

How can you not love this turtle!!!!!!!!!!!

Two Georgia O'Keeffe Lessons

This week I'm using Georgia O'Keeffe as the inspiration for 3rd & 4th grade, but the projects they are doing are not the same. I love to use artists as jumping off points without doing a direct copy of the inspiration artist/art work. 

3rd grade is creating flower "ish" op art drawings using Sharpie. Next step will be to use watercolor pencils(three colors) to create a gradation of color.

4th grade are creating a mixed media piece that may look more traditionally O'Keeffe, but it is a bit more abstracted & less flower like.  I wanted my students to have an opportunity to work with oil pastels & color blending.  They did a watercolor wash over top of the picture when they were complete.

Sunday Devotional With Mr.E: Starting Over

There are times when starting over is the only answer for an artist.  They may attempt to remove or cover over a troublesome portion of their work.  They may try to incorporate the mistake into the piece as if it were meant to be there all along. They may even rework their initial concept to balance out the issues they are having.  However, these solutions may cause the work to fall short of the artist's original vision.  Starting over allows the artist a fresh start....a new beginning.  There is something about a black canvas or new piece of paper. The possibilities are endless. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

So often in our life we try to fix, cover up, or justify our mistakes. Sometimes this is because we are haunted by our past.  Though trying to make right for past wrongs is not a bad thing...we must be careful not to try earning God's grace & love by our own efforts.  If we are believers, we are like a blank canvas or new piece of paper.  We have the opportunity to start over without past mistakes dictating our direction and skewing our God given vision for our future. It is by His grace and not our efforts that starting over is a reality for all who are in Christ Jesus. 

#aheartaday19

Hey friends...welcome to the 4th annual Heart-A-Day challenge!  This year we are using the hashtag #aheartaday19 !  Please post it with your hearts on social media.  I will try to like & retweet as many as I can, but sometimes I can't keep up with all the awesomeness!!!!

Black Glue Debacle

I haven't done black glue line projects in forever! I love the look, but always struggled with the glue bottles I used clogging up(I used regular glue bottles and just mixed up the paint and glue and poured it in!).  I found some bakery bottles at Dollar General the other day, and thought they might work really well for this project. They were $1.50 for two 4oz bottles.

So this morning I was excited to mix up a batch and give it a try.  I decided to use donated glue(Washable) & donated black tempera paint(Washable).  I really need to learn to do a test/sample first?!?!  I mixed up a huge cup of the mixture and poured it into the bottles I purchased.

I'm a hot mess when it comes to pouring stuff?!?!??! 

 I drew out a turtle, and traced him out.  Now I will say the glue does squeeze out generously from these bottles, but that was not the real issue.  The glue mixture seemed extremely "wet".  It started blobbing out from the initial line I drew.

When I picked it up( TRYING to keep it flat)...the black glue mixture ran.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!  I JUST MADE 8 BOTTLES OF THIS STUFF!?!?!

So I mixed up enough for one bottle using REAL Elmer's glue(except no substitutes) & a good brand of black tempera paint(not washable!!!).  You can see the difference!!!  I picked up the one on the left and moved it...and it did not run at all.  So...LESSON LEARNED!!!! Use the good stuff...because you almost always will get what you paid for!! 

(Now I have to go empty the other 7 bottles and make a new batch!!!)