Wings in the Works

Artists continue to work as a team on our community mural inspired by the street art of contemporary artist Kelsey Montague.  Classes have finished creating their piece of the artistic puzzle, so now we need to put it together!  Here are a few pictures of students at work:

Even our youngest learners in Pre-k and E-k contributed to the piece!

Students used their best personal skill with permanent markers.

They were thoughtful and careful.

Each class worked as a team to contribute to the wings.

You can see more of our process on our wings mural here.  
Keep making art! Love, Ms. B.

Art Studio Update

Artists have been busy thinking and learning with and through art exploration in the Muddy Brook art studio!  

Pre-K art explorations

Drawing, painting and collage are established studio centers at all grade levels.  Older students have had the choice to work in 3D at the supply center as well.   Younger grades will transition to 3D art making soon through puppetry and artistic play.  Slowing down studio center opening allows students time to process their ideas and create artwork that is personally meaningful while showing their best skill, thought, and care (WOW work).

Next up we will open the architecture/building studio center and fiber arts!

Students have been discussing what it means to persevere, and what that looks like for artists at work.  We have been generating lists of ideas to use as inspiration in visual journals or as a class. J

Students’ are connecting art to their worlds and linking artistic solutions to other areas in their lives.  That’s what artists do! 

Artists checking the idea list for inspiration!

What Lifts You? Our Wings Mural

We have been working on a community project in the studio for a few weeks along with personal student-driven work.  Muddy Brook artists are working together creating a large collage mural inspired by the international street artist Kelsey Montague.  We created a display of our progress.  If you cannot visit the third/fourth grade gallery wall, just look below.  I am very excited to see the wings and learn what inspires and lifts our students and community!

A great big shout-out to art teacher Cassie Stephens of Nashville, TN!  I saw Cassie's kids great work on Pinterest, which started our studio's journey of learning and creating!  Artists and artist teachers are a wonderful sharing bunch!

The Magic of Mud

This week I opened classes with some questions "How do you know when artwork is finished?" and "How can you turn a mistake into a happy accident?".  So much of being an artist is reflecting on and reacting to the process of creating- before, during and after.  Like everything in visual art (and life), each individual has their own thoughts and ideas on process and problem solving.

In the Muddy Brook studio students are encouraged to revisit work.  Many painters from last week added to their work this session with drawing tools and more paint.  Observing day two, it is interesting to see individual learning styles.  Some artists embrace the mud of mixing, while others strive for clean hues.  Where adults see variations of brown and gray young artists see mixed rainbows, the perfect animal fur, and newly created never-ever before invented colors generated by their wonder and fearlessness.  We need to embrace the magic of mud.

Opening Studio Centers

Visual Journals are already in use.

 This week we opened the painting center with liquid tempera paint.  All students learned painting expectations, where to find smocks and supplies, and how to clean up.  Many children love to paint and the drying rack was filled with colorful experiments.  Students were thoughtfully discussing color mixing as their pictures shifted with each wet layer.

We will revisit these paintings when we talk about collage next week and think about the big question "When is artwork finished?"

Technique and skill come with engagement, care and hard work.

Many artists were excited to paint!

The soft opening of the supply center for grades 3 and 4 allowed for the beginnings of figures made by 3rd grade friends.

Welcome to a New Year of Awesome Art!

Muddy Brook Artists are already busy in the art studio!  We started the year with the inspirational book Ish by Peter H. Reynolds.  It reminds artists that art doesn't have to be realistic and "ish art" can be beautiful and freeing to create.  Ish art can be a great place to start- or end!  Artists make plans and artists can change their plans!  We've started a project I'll share later, and we've opened the drawing studio.  We've talked about art studio expectations and behaving like artists.  AND we've created our own personal visual journals!  We've been busy- and Monday students haven't even had art yet (they will have a busy class to say the least)!  All students are excited to be back in the studio and most already have big plans for the year.  We will be aligning with classroom curriculum for some project based learning with a strong goal of wonder, artistic experimentation, and play.  I am looking forward to a truly amazing year!
Artfully yours, Ms. Benton