Jean Francois Rouzier's Hyperreal Photography

This photography reminds me of a cross between an M.C. Escher print and the movie Inception.

This excerpt is from PhotoJoJo.com, a great site for photo-enthusiasts or photography teachers. I know I've posted a few things from them before, they're a good resource.






This excerpt describes Rouzier's photography:

"Mad man constructs faux reality by assembling deceivingly realistic structures that are maze-like when observed too closely.

Surprisingly, not Inception! Jean Francois Rauzier’s Hyperphotos are photographic reconstructions of real places often created from between 600-3,400 individual photos.

A bit like Hockney, Jean photographs a single place for one to two hours. He uses a telephoto lens to collect close-up shots of his scene.

The compilation is where his vision or dream, if you will, takes over and the thousands of photos translate into Babylones, Voyages Extraordinaries, and Cités Idéales. We can take a gander at what most of these French titles mean!

Looking at a single image will have you lost in its architecture for hours! (Kind of hoping we’ll find a Leo or Juno if we stare long enough.)"

The link to Rouzier's website (it's in French)
http://www.rauzier-hyperphoto.com/babylonsbabylones/

Getting Back to the Phantom Skill

Here's a link to an article posted in the NY Times that is part of a series by James McMullan on drawing. Each article in the series will contain a drawing lesson that connects to an art history reference with explanation. It's sounds like agood mini-lesson/exercise, but I've been so busy I haven't had time to do it. If you do, let me know what you think! :) Happy drawing!

NY Times-"Getting Back to the Phantom Skill"

Some New Photo's of my art room...a work in progress

Yes, I also did a jungle theme for my room this year, although, outside of my bulletin boards it doesn't look very jungle like. Some other themes I thought of for next year include, outer space, ('stellar students', 'out of this world artists', etc.) and an under the sea theme, and of course there's always a traditional 'artsy' theme that can be fallen back on. But anyways, I cant let myself think to much about next year when I've only completed the first week of this year!
Here are some pictures of my classroom bulletin boards, I only have two, but I'm working on getting some more in-class display space to hang student work and some art prints.

3D Street Art

I have an article I wanted to post from a few days ago. I find it a bit humorous that this would even be done, but you see for yourself. Also, on the topic of street art, on drawpaintandcut.blogspot.com there is a cool video that's been posted on Julien Beaver. Here are the links below:

Canada unveils new speedbump: optical illusion of a child:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100908/od_yblog_upshot/canada-unveils-new-speed-bump-optical-illusions-of-children

Julien Beaver video:
http://drawpaintandcut.blogspot.com/

A question regarding 'meet the teacher' nights...

Tomorrow is our open house. I'm nervous...Not because I don't like to meet my students parents or anything, just because I'm expecting a pretty large turnout from parents and I'd like to make their trip to the art room a purposeful one. I'm new to the school and don't have any artwork from previous years to show them, I only have completed examples of projects I've done, or some examples from students from previous schools I've worked in. I have a few ideas of things to show them and discuss, but I'm a bit antsy. What do all you art teachers out there do for meet the teacher nights in art?

2 websites of interest:

The first website is something you may have all heard of before. It's called 'Teacher Tube' and is similar to the idea of 'youtube' except its, drum roll please...for teachers! (How'd you guess?) Anyways, I find it to be an o.k. resource, every once in a while you hit a good video but I find it a bit to confusing and time consuming to search through the video descriptions. Just the same though, I thought I'd post it. You never know what's on there that might be useful.

The other site is more, what I like to call, 'art-teacher' friendly. It's called 'Teaching Photo's' and it has a bunch of bulletin board images that may come in handy when brainstorming ideas. The links are below:
I also added the teaching photo's website to my 'websites of interest' column for easy reference.

http://teachertube.com
http://www.teachingphotos.co.uk/main.php

A good Video about the value of hard work

'The Grasshopper and the Ants'

A GREAT site for resources!

While lesson planning yesterday, I was thinking to myself how nice it would be to find a website where you could type in some sort of keyword search for artworks and find what you needed to use as a resource in your lessons. I was looking for an artwork that demonstrated the use of different types of lines, and so, I googled 'lines in artwork' and I came across a website called 'artsconnected.org' and they have a link that is called 'the artists toolkit'. Not only did they have short child-friendly animations on some of the elements and principles of art, but they also had a link to the artsconnected site which is a database of resources where you can type in a keyword and scan through tons of hit of artwork examples that contain that topic. Ka-ching! I was so happy to stumble upon this site! So if you're ever in the same predicament as I often find myself, than this could be a great resource for you too!

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/index.html
http://www.artsconnected.org/

Blog from Crizmac

Crizmac art and supply company has just started a new blog. For their first post the show you a picture and short video of a mermaid costume (a functional one!) they created. It's very cute! Here's the link:

http://www.crizmac.com/artandsoul/

Short, Sweet, and Music Related

I just learned a new website. it's called 'Groove Shark'

http://listen.grooveshark.com/

It's a website that streams free music, but you can also search for certain songs. I wandered around on it a bit and it seams pretty easy to navigate. I tried it at home on my PC so I'm not sure if it will work on my Mac at school, but it's worth a try instead of always bringing in CD's.

Fortunato's Smile

I'm always looking for ways to get involved and help out with things. A friend of mine sent me this and I think the cause is truly worthwhile. Take a minute and check out the link.

Is it too soon to cheer?

*Image from www.todaysteacher.com

A new school, new students, new room. Pretty much new everything. I'm in the process of ordering art supplies for this year and when I was told the budget a big smile came across my face. I'm so fortunate to landed in a place where I have such great resources accessible to me. I feel like I'm on a shopping spree, actually being able to order all the things I'd like for my students.
Although, I must say that the expression about the hardest steel is only forged through fire is very true. As thankful as I am for my current job, with all the bells and whistles, I am just as thankful for my past experiences, which sometimes were, let's just say, challenging. If you think about it, it's really through those tough times and the situations where you look around and all you have is 17 blue markers and toilet paper rolls, that you really push yourself to rise above your circumstances. I have to always remember not to get comfortable and to always push myself. Those of you that are out there everyday making great art programs out of underfunded and under-resourced areas deserve to be commended, it's easy to do a lot with a lot, but it isn't easy do to a lot with a little. Kudos to you and don't give up!


Now that I've completely digressed....I originally wanted to post my first art class activity. So far its been going pretty well. For my 3rd-5th graders I've come up with an art scavenger hunt. Like I had mentioned, I'm new to the students and they're new to the way I operate the art room, so what better way to get them acclimated to the rules, routines, and procedures I use then to let them figure it our by themselves.
Basically I go into the hallway to greet them, I let them know that in order to enter the room they need to be invited in, and to get an invitation, they need to be waiting silently in straight lines. They enter, sit at their seats (which are numbered and color coded) and then I have them come up to the front where they sit on the floor by the blackboard. I talk about transitioning and how it should only take 30 seconds or so and should be done silently. I then have them return to their seats and work as a group at their table to complete the handout. It's about 10 questions which include getting them used to the reading and writing center, finding the art rules and picking one they feel is the most important, identifying my volume level chart and the class green, yellow, red, chart, and choosing and identifying consequences for inappropriate behavior. I set a timer and when the timer goes off, they return to the front and we go over their answers. It's a perfect activity for a 40 minute period and it sets the foundation for classroom management, which is my primary goal this year. I have the lesson and worksheet I made up so if you are interested you can leave me a comment and I can email you the lesson.

And We're Off!

*Image courtesy of squidoo


I wanted to have the theme music from horse racing to narrate my post, but I don't think there's an option to actually play just music with a post! :) Anyways, just an interesting tid-bit of information to start the year off. Below is a link to a short article on the difference between a left brained person and a right brained person by looking at an image of a spinning dancer. If you see the dancer going clockwise, it means you are right hemisphere dominant and therefore think of idea in a more organic, holistic manner (more or less of course). If you see the dancer going counter-clockwise you are left hemisphere dominant and more analytical, logical, and process oriented. And, if you look at the dancer long enough and try to focus on it going the opposite way from which you originally saw it, you should feel a sort of 'switch' in the dancer. It's very cool, check it out and let me know what you think!!

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/wacky/the-right-brain-vs-left-brain/story-e6frev20-1111114577583

Here's another RB/LB challenge, it's harder than it looks, trust me!



Lastly a bit of my off the cuff sense of humor.

So much to do and so little time!! (and a big thanks to all of you!)

Well I'm thrilled to say that this year I am starting over in a new school, in a new area, and of course, in a new room! I spent what felt like all of last week sorting, organizing, moving, and cleaning the room so that I'm ready for the first day on Tuesday. I'm very lucky to have such a great room this year. Coming from last year, where I taught from a cart, it's a totally different experience. Plus, my room used to be what looks like an old wood shop room, so it's actually two rooms long! I have a big storage closet, a kiln, and tons of cabinets, drawers, and shelving. So much so, that I feel like no matter what I did to the room last week it still feels empty! I know its a work in progress and I look forward to spicing it up so that it looks like a proper art room, but it will definitely take some time. For now I concentrated on my two bulletin boards, organizing and labeling the drawers the students will be using, and my management systems and such. Here's a few pictures of two bulletin boards that I completed and the inside classroom bulletin boards. However, I must give credit where credit is due, and being that I'm a fairly new art teacher I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from you, my fellow art teachers (and bloggers). So here is a gigantic THANK YOU to all those of you who have such outstanding and inspiring imaginations and whose ideas of adopted for the start of this year. If you haven't checked out these blogs or sites definitely do so, they've inspired me and I'm sure they will do the same for you!!!

Jungle themed classroom setup ideas:

http://plbrown.blogspot.com/
http://msmalonesartroom.blogspot.com
http://artwithmre.blogspot.com
http://mrspicassosartroom.blogspot.com/
( for the 'Let's Get Art Smart' bulletin board idea)

www.usefulwikis.com
( for the 'Pea's' bulletin board idea-although, I think this board was pulled from another site prior to the one I listed as well, but I'm not sure what site)