OUR FINE ART

Here's a snapshot of this year's selection of work, that represented Murray at the Annual Albemarle County Fine Art's Festival, which was on display at Fashion Square Mall. In only wish I had more space to show even more of Murray's immense creativity and hard work! Congrats to the participants, and to all of VLM's young artists!

Did you see the show this year? What did you think?

PORTFOLIOS TO GO

At midyear, students excitedly took home their portfolios: half a year's worth of line, shape, and color explorations to share with family and friends.

(Top to Bottom: Lucy, Raliegh,  Excited parents, and Liv, all at pick-up)

ANATOMY OF A LESSON

A lot can go into an  art project! At VLM, I strive to include opportunities in each lesson for students to   LOOK (work from observation/ see demonstrations), LEARN (about an artist or artwork), CREATE (draw, collage, print, paint, sculpt, gain skills, explore ideas), and SHARE (by reflecting as a class or school community on work in progress as well as completed work).

This means our projects are generally completed over several art classes. in the older grades, we often work for as many as 5 or 6 on one image! One art project may be the result of discussion, sketch book work and brainstorming, practicing skills, solving problems, and starting over!

For example, VLM 4th graders recently completed their Van Gogh-inspired Virginia Landscape Portraits.  Students had many challenges, spread over many classes including:

• Drawing a face in PROPORTION (Our year long design goal  for 4th is exploring proportion.)

• Using observation to draw a SELF PORTRAIT
• Adding a detailed landscape from a specific REGION OF VIRGINIA (Students learn about Piedmont, Coast plains, Blue Ridge, and more as part of their 4th grade curriculum.)

• Showing depth in a landscape by including FOREGROUND and BACKGROUND areas, as well as  using relative size.

• USING DRY PASTELS , to add texture and shading

I hope as students and families enjoy each others work with an appreciation for all that may have gone into it. And that we can begin to recognize clues and ask questions that reveal the bones of our creations:  all the rich layers that might be buried underneath. 

(Images from top to Bottom:  Will T. selfie self portrait!,  Kamran, Eloise, Katarina, Ari)

STUDENT PORTFOLIOS PROS

This year, as an experiment, VLM art students are collecting their artwork in portfolios. My hope is that by seeing artwork over time, our VLM community will enjoy some of these benefits:

• Reflect on work to see patterns, strengths, and areas where we can  improve
• Have a greater variety of work to choose from for framing and art shows
• Get work home more safely along with some information about projects for families  

Please note that work from students K-4th grade will work will go home midyear (just before or just after winter break), with a  second batch going home at the end of the year. 

Per tradition, 5th grader's work will remains in art until the spring, when we choose work for our final 5th grade art exhibit. All work will be returned, along with sketchbooks by year's end.

(Images, top to bottom: Jonas & friends, William and Hannah, 1st grade portfolio by Mack)

A GREAT PLACE TO GROW

Murray students of all ages have been challenged to adopt a growth mindset this year in art. This means learning to think and talk about their accomplishments as the product of work and effort over time, a growing wealth rather than the result of innate (and diminishable) talent or a moment of inspiration.

This was true as students at various levels approached self portraits: As kinders described their own faces in lines and as 2nd graders rendered themselves peeking over grand birthday cakes after American artist Wayne Thiebaud.

This was also true of 5th grades as they sketched preliminary plans for what will be a collaged portrait project. Some of these older students noted how their drawing had come more precise, finer over our years of portraits together.

'Try your best,' I remind. 'Today's best'  'Trying----especially when something is difficult---is learning'

The important thing, I remind them,  is to keep moving forward, developing skills,
 ideas, and creativity along the way.

(Work top to bottom: Assorted kinder portraits in progress, Shelby(Kinder)

Luke (Kinder) Birthday Portrait Raleigh (2nd), Birthday Portrait Daniel (2nd) and finally 5th grade preliminary Sketches by Will T (5th) and Alise (5th)

LOOK CLOSER: VLM students discover young artist Alexa Meade's painterly SECRET

With so much great old art, how do young artists find new ways to speak? 

VLM students K-5 started the year by looking at the innovative art of Alexa Meade, whose painterly portraits contain a surprise: Meade skips the canvas and paints direction onto living, breathing people---flattening form  and creating collaborative installations, like the blue man.  You can see a bit of Meade's process in the video below.

This year,  in our art classroom,  students will strive to find new, surprising solutions to old questions:

• What visual story  am I trying to tell here? 
• What materials and techniques would best fit this story?
•  How can I make my story look good? 

My goal as this year as VLM's art teacher is to continue to  facilitate this exploration for our students.

Would you want to be one of Meade's models? Why or why not?

SUMMER, ARTY FUN!

As this school year draws to a close, I feel grateful for all of my VLM students, who work so hard to act like artists---looking, learning, creating, and reflecting in our art classroom each week. 

When I recently asked a group of 3rd graders, Why does art matter at our school? They answered, that art  was fun,  made them feel peaceful, made them feel excited, let them express their ideas, let them be  original, let them work hard on a problem and get better over time. 

I hope families keep artful activities in the rotation during the coming summer. This could mean

• taking a summer ceramics class,  
• visiting a museum, 
• reading about an artist, 
• choosing an art print to put up in your house, 
• or setting up a quiet space with special papers, oil pastels, color pencils... 

there are numerous ways to keep acting like artist, year round.

Check out the the sidebar for more specific art resources, or comment with art classes or activities you and your family enjoy! And remember, ART MATTERS!

(Images Top to Bottom: Ava & Jorge, Natoria, Nora and Ms. Johnson, & Hermi)