We began our very first school day and very first hour in 6-8th grade practicing mindfulness. We settled our minds and bodies to let thoughts and feelings like anxiousness, fear, or even excitement pass by us. We also allow our mind to wander... Only for a few minutes and then we recognized that maybe we may have felt calmer. As a class we discussed subconscious and related it to dreams or day dreaming, much like the meditation that we just practiced. We also discuss the concept of abstract art and looked to the work of Joan Miro. We watched a brief video on his work. I described automatic drawing and the kids went to work. I began each grade this week with the same lesson, 3-5th grade and 1-2nd grade. Surprisingly the kids were very receptive to settling their minds for just a few minutes. This year my goal was to introduce mindfulness as a starting point to the day in our art room. The world moves so fast, we get caught up even as children in the hustle and bustle. MaterialsWatercolor Paper Pencil Colored Pencil Crayons Watercolor Brushes Water cup Inspiration![]() Joan Miro (1893-1983) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona in 1975, and another, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, was established in his adoptive city of Palma de Mallorca in 1981. Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and declared an "assassination of painting" in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.
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We begin our school year reading The Dot by Peter Reynolds. We learn that even though we may not feel confident, just starting with one mark, a tiny dot may be just what we need to get us started on the way to creativity. In this project we start with a square piece of tag/chip board. Students will create a design and make their mark with paint, markers, crayon. This will become the background for our dot stitching project. Once the background is painted holes are punched into the chip board ( I used a nail and hammer and tapped it twice). Then using a tapestry needle threaded with yarn students stitch the dots making a circle, filling in the circumference (the shape of the circle) and after the shape of the circle is made sew diagonally across the circle shape (diameter). Fill in your dot with as much of the diagonals you like. You made marks and you made a dot just like Vashti! Materials Chip/Tag board Paint/markers/crayons Brush Water cup Yarn Scissors Tapestry needle Drill or hammer and nail ![]() Inspiration Gabriel Dawe is a Mexican-born artist living in Dallas, Texas whose work is based on exploration of the visible spectrum of light (rainbow). He has gained recognition for his large-scale Plexus series of installations of sewing thread. He also creates works on paper as well as other media. https://www.instagram.com/gabrieldawe/?utm_source=ig_embed Link to the Video of Mrs. Buss reading The Dot by Peter Reynolds, making her mark, and stitching her Dot:
youtu.be/15eg7LpAcMA It's that time of year. Gearing up for the school year there are a few needed items. As always we need a few items. Life-like animal figures/figurines. These will be used for children to look and see, and draw what they see from 3D. I have books and magazines with animals but giving the child a tangible object in which to observe and draw from adds another approach and skill to their art tool box. Linoleum Block for carving and block printing. I would really like to expose the upper grades 3-8 to carving on linoleum to practice the "woodcut" process of printing. Brayers for the block printing (we have two, we need at least one more for the three colors red, white, and black ink) Block printing ink. We use red, black, and white. More would be fun, but I need a brayer for each color. STUFF! Like trinkets, game pieces, small broken toys, interesting plastic pieces. We need interesting shapes and things to create found object sculptures. Think junk drawer items. A variety gives the kids a variety of things they can assemble. Other items we can always use, markers, cotton swabs, glue sticks, sharpies. Or just ask! Creativity has endless possibilities!
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AuthorI have a passion for the visual arts and love sharing it with others. I have enjoyed teaching all ages and love to incorporate art history and traditional disciplines as well as innovative ideas. Art is vital to who I am as a creator and educator. Archives
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