Captured Moments:  The Visual Diary of an Art Teacher

Today, we reflected on the purposes of art. ​Students were asked: What is art for? Why is it important in our lives? Once they had a collection of ideas, they were challenged to find artworks that embody those "purposes" - and they made a display.
The Grade 10 classes worked on blind contour portraits today. To develop our observational drawing skills, everyone was challenged to "draw what you see, not what you know".

Students chose a partner, and then the partners created a contour drawing of each other without looking at the drawings they were making as they developed. (It is SERIOUSLY hard not to peek at the drawing while you're doing it!) We are training our brains to notice detail and nuance.

Yes, the results are hilarious. ​No, nobody was insulted by how weird they looked in the final drawings.  :)
Today we toured the "Hallway Gallery" to look at some contemporary artworks.

Grade 10 and 11 students considered the purposeful and intentional ways that Visual Artists use media and design to communicate their artistic intent.
Today, we started experimenting with hand-marbled prints using liquid acrylics.

​The mess is not for the faint-of-heart. 
Sydney pauses to take in this poetic piece by New York artist Xaviera Simmons, called "LINE", at the Entering the Landscape exhibition. The Grade 12 class took in this amazing show at Plug In ICA on our latest field trip.
Grade 12 students create their own sounds by touching, tapping and rubbing this amplified "drum" made of animal hide in the Insurgence/Resurgence show at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.  This amazing show is the largest-ever exhibition of contemporary Indigenous art and featured the works of 29 Indigenous Artists who are pushing boundaries with their work. 
1:52 Friday Afternoon.

When your art class is drawing in almost complete silence, and then one student says, "Can you read us a story, Ms. Knight?"

So you take out a children's book about Frida Kahlo and let the kids hear a story about what true strength looks like. 

How did I end up surrounded by such open-hearted 15 year olds?  

​Happy Friday, everyone.
These gals smile like a sunrise and laugh like an earthquake. 

(But they also sneak photos onto your phone when you turn your back.) 

#ilovemyjob

#squadgoals
That thing where you ask the kid with the ridiculously perfect handwriting to label all of your Sharpie Markers...

​Thanks Endi10! 
Unfortunately, not all people recognize the value of art.
​
Such a shame when insanely talented kids are forced to develop "other" dreams. 
Sometimes my mouth gets the best of me... and I rarely back down to a challenge.

​Thank goodness my sister is a dance instructor... help is on its way... but I think I might have made a *huge* mistake.
HO-HO-HOLD THE PHONE!

Festivus (formerly known as "Staff Infection"), your very favourite holiday-season-only-rock-band-made-up-of-FRC-staff, is back in the house!
You give me a responsibililty, and I'm gonna take it seriously. 

As unflattering as this picture may be, I put my heart and soul into the staff holiday dance routine. 

​I was the happ-happ-happiest darn "Christmas Bell" ever portrayed on an FRC stage! 
My grade 12 class is investigating Kiki Smith's work - and one student is holding a picture of her sculpture "Woman on Pyre" - (a sculpture of a woman kneeling on a pile of logs with her arms out at her sides)... and I say, "The position of the figure's arms is really interesting to me... why do you think the artist might have chosen that pose? (I hold my arms out like the "Christ on the cross" pose)... what do you think this gesture might be referring to?"

And a chorus of Grade 12 students all shout: TITANIC!
When you play "Pretend You're an Artwork" with your Grade 12's.
When you run out of classroom-room and send a handful of students to work in the hallway, and then come out to find that they are ALL seriously hard at work on their sculptures. Ahhhh. :)
Sunny-ish days, playing the Describe An Artwork game with partners. It's a lot more challenging than it looks!
My Grade 12's are extremely responsible and fun people, and because of them, field trip days go off without a hitch. What a fantastic group of humans.
Yeah, maybe we need more room in this classroom. At least the kids are good sports!

FRC's Celebration of Woman Artists:  Bodies of Work

Grade 10 students were asked to research and learn about a woman artist who has changed the world. Playing on the idea that societal expectations relate primarily to a woman's beauty and not her brains/skills, we created a room full of tribute sculptures by manipulating and changing idealized "female forms" (mannequins) to celebrate the amazing work of a woman artist. Can you guess which artists are being celebrated here?