Black River Art Blog

Introduction to Art: Complementary Color Paintings

2011-05-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

During the beginning of the second semester students began to apply their knowledge of using value to create form to working with color. Students learned the art and science behind mixing and matching color and applied it to completing the following painting project. The following is some of their great work!

Clockwise from Above Right: Emily Bonello (9th Grade), Kayleigh Miilu (9th Grade), Javi Venegas (12th Grade), Tianna Borst (11th Grade)

Clockwise From Upper Left: Christine Roudebush (9th Grade), Arielle Henry-Tatum (9th Grade), Liam Johnson (9th Grade), Chelsey Kubeck (9th Grade)

Introduction to Art: Linoleum Cuts

2011-05-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Students learned about the art and History of printmaking and worked to design, cut and print a landscape image of their own. For the project students were challenged to create a sense of space using perspective, texutre, and value. Two of the prints from this project were in the Holland Area Arts Council Show! The students did an outstanding job!

Clockwise from Upper Left: Caitlin Crum (9th grade), Zach Cheung (9th Grade), Jazz Borst (12th Grade), and Fabien Perez (9th Grade)

Clockwise from Upper Left: Emily Bonello (9th Grade), Chelsey Kubeck (9th Grade), Arielle Henry-Tatum (9th Grade), Tanner Burns (9th Grade)

Exploring Social Issues in Sculpture; Students Deconstruct and Reconstruct Wooden Chairs While Commenting on Social Issues

2011-05-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Art Department, as a whole has been working throughout the year to implement a visual arts curriculum focused on developing student's abilities to critically think about art making and the importance of meaning and concept behind creating work. Students have spent time exploring artists who used their work as a platform for commenting on social issues throughout the world. This particular project was this class's first introduction to this practice. Students learned about artists such as Carrie Mae Weems, Doris Salcedo and William Kentridge, whose work is as much appealing and successful for its' visual qualities as it is for it's conceptual qualities. The students had a great time working with this medium. More importantly, students were forced to critically think about their particular social issue and reflect on what particular aspect of this issue they were drawn to and then solve the problem of how to communicate these thoughts visually with their structures. Here are some of the results.

The following summaries were based off of the students artist statements that were submitted with their final sculpture
Upper Left - Zach Burlingame (12th grade) focused on Energy Consumption with the spindles of the chairs representing power lines and the wire representing the electricity moving throughout the earth, which is represented by the chair itself. The chair is really battered to illustrate the negative effect that our current sources of energy are having on our planet. There are also batteries drilled into the surfaces to comment on the often negligent approach to refusal of wastes from energy sources that damage the planet.
Upper Middle - Paige Mason (11th Grade) focused on the how distorted perspectives of others and oneself can be. She experimented a lot with broken glass to comment on how humans often identify themselves as broken and not worthy enough. The colors shining through all the broken pieces suggest the real person trying to shine through the often distorted perspectives. Structurally, Paige wanted to create an imperfect somewhat unbalanced composition that represented the innate uniqueness of every individual, and that we should not look or be like anyone else.
Upper Right- Liz Pierce (11th Grade) focused on the stress and pressure placed on students to be extremely successful both academically and socially in high school. Her chair remained somewhat perfect and intact as a whole to represent the structure and perfect expectations that are pressed on many teenagers. She covered her chair with old torn out pages from a book to illustrate the both the numerous thoughts and amount overwhelming image of homework and studying that stresses students out. Liz had fun with the actual seat, ripping it open to suggestion the student exploding inside. There are also little spiral wires protruding from the seat to further illustrate this pressure bursting out from them.
Bottom Left- Jazz Borst (12th Grade) and Brooke Koelndorfer (12th Grade) worked together to create a sculpture about gender roles and the stereotypes women often face from the American Society. The front black shape is the desire of a woman to be bold, powerful, strong and unique while the Pink Form with the bright red lipstick is hovering and engulfing her pressuring her to maintain the feminine "girly" appearance and attitude.
Bottom Second from Left- Evan Wright (11th Grade) This sculpture was constructed to represent an African Warrior fighting against the AIDS Epidemic in Africa.
Bottom Third from Left- Rosie Rosales (11th Grade) focused in on the idea of being shunned by others and society after making a mistake and dealing with the consequences. This piece was inspired by a friend of hers that she saw go through this. The final sculpture is composed on a strong tilt to represent a person's support structure crumbling or being chopped off. She used color at the base to represent the darkness that one goes through when feeling abandoned and as you move upward from the legs of the chair the colors grow more vibrant with life representing the desire to come out of the darkness. The seat also has a literal illustration of someone curled up on the seat of the chair which really drives home the connection between the structure and the abandoned human.
Bottom Far Right- Alex Angerer (10th Grade) worked with exploring the true meaning and reality of experiencing life. He used the literal form of a ladder to represent going through life and working towards the top or happiness. Each stage or step has a lot of wear and tear which he used to illustrate the experiences and hardships many face. Gold was used to emphasize the hardships and experiences as being more valuable than the end result.

Observational Contour Line Drawing

2010-10-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Visual Arts students learned about the concept of drawing from the right side of the brain. Students were encouraged to ignore what they already new of drawing a hand and focus in on what they were actually seeing in their hands. The class composed to different hand gestures for their drawings and then explored value through line by creating patterns to suggest different ranges in value. Their final drawings were then inked with natural bamboo ink pens.

Exploring Graphic Design in Three Dimensions

2010-10-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

The Introduction to Graphic Design class explored the work of the iconic graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister. Sagmeister has blurred the line between fine art and graphic art, creating a body of work that serves a deeper cause outside of marketing and consumerism. The students responded to his work by creating word sculptures focused on conveying an inspiring and somewhat humanitarian message. The students were encouraged to draw connections from their message to the materials used, the typography and the place they chose to install their sculpture at Black River.

Introduction to Art: Surreal Clay Sculptures

2010-10-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

Students in Introduction to Visual Arts learned basic clay techniques and properties while exploring the artists and work of the Surrealist movement. The students created hollow forms using white earthenware clay. The forms were finished with acrylic paint and then spray lacquered. The class did an exceptional job planning and executing their ideas.

Introduction to Graphic Design: Using Text to Explore Elements and Principles

2010-10-31T07:26:00.000-07:00

The Introduction to Graphic Design class began the year learning about the elements and principles of design and completed a geometric composition exploring these design elements using text as texture. The students did an outstanding job creating really dynamic compositions that show a strong amount of depth and movement.

Late to Post...... Two Dimensional Design Transformation Paintings and Final Multi Media Projects

2010-07-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

The second semester of the Two Dimensional Design Course offered a lot more freedom in idea development and approach. The following paintings are a mixture of pieces from a unit exploring concepts in "transformation" and also the final projects which required that the students explored at least three different mediums in their paintings. Both paintings forced students to think critically and engage in individual idea development. During the final projects the students spent a lot of time exploring the effects of mixing mediums which resulted in extremely expressive and innovative works.

Clockwise from top left: DeMarcus (10th grade), Joey (12th grade), Zoe (10th grade), Lisa (12th grade).

Above Left to Right: Ashley (12th grade), Matt (9th grade), Kristina (10th grade).

Above Left to Right: DeMarcus (10th grade), Kristina (10th grade), Bri (10th grade).

Above Left to Right: Stephanie (11th grade), Emma (12th grade).

Above left: Hannah (10th grade), Emily (12th grade), Jessica (12th grade).

Late to Post..... 4th/5th Grade Watercolor Ship Paintings

2010-07-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

The Fourth and Fifth grade art classes spent the last part of the year working on watercolor ship paintings that reflected their personalities. Students considered the structure of their ship, the surrounding scenery of ship and also the time of day in relation to their own personalities. Additionally, the students learned about points of views, mixing colors and working with wax resist with their watercolor paintings. Beautiful work!

Late to Post..... Outstanding Life Drawing Work - G Block

2010-07-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. Due to the Rainy weather today, I have been organizing files on my computer and realized I had some images of some gorgeous work done by last year's life drawing G Block Course. I am so proud of the work the students in this course did.

Above Left to Right: Jessica (12th grade), Shelby (10th grade), Zoe (10th grade).

Above Left to Right: Bri (10th grade), Dylan (10th grade), Ilana (10th grade).

Above Left to Right: Zoe (10th grade), Jessica (12th grade), Tallon (12th grade).

Above Left to Right: Emma (10th grade), Shelby (10th grade), Bri (10th grade).

Hands, Hands and more Hands! Exploring idea development with Richard Serra

2010-05-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

The Three dimensional design course spent several classes learning about the work and approach of sculptor Richard Serra. More specifically students reflected on his verb list compilation created in the late 1960s for inspiration or purpose. Students chose an action from his list to illustrate in their sculptures. The focus in production for this unit was on mold making and casting. The students planned out hand gestures to incorporate in their sculptures and created molds by dipping their hands wax. The molds were thin filled with plaster of paris. Once they were dried the class began working on composing and installing their sculptures. Their final structures were to incorporate an additional medium, besides the hands, and also to include text in someway. The students really enjoyed the process and ended up with some outstanding work!

Harrison Clark, 11th grade

John Seif, 11th grade

Jessica Walker, 12th grade

Marte Balke, 11th grade

Picasso!! 4th & 5th Graders learn about the many styles of Picasso and create their own Picasso style ceramic portraits.

2010-05-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

In February, the fourth and fifth grade classes spent a week learning about the diverse styles of Pablo Picasso's work. Students then specifically focused on his abstract portraiture work. The class responded to this style with a clay sculpture project mimicking Picasso's profile approach to portraiture. The class made sketches before beginning their clay works. Student's started with a large rectangular slab of clay and cut out a profile of a face. Students worked with the scrap clay adding facial features using a slip and score technique. After an overnight fireing of their project they were then able to glaze their work. Each student's final project was extremely unique!

Intro to Graphic Design: Exploring Non-Commercial Poster Design

2010-04-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Last semester the Graphic Design students learned the history and evolution of poster design. Students were then challenged with designing and producing their own non-commercial poster (supporting a cause or movement). Students learned about color theory and mixing and were to complete these projects in a hard-edge painting style, with crisp edgeds and clean color transitions. Students worked hard carefully mixing colors in order to maintain flat color within their designs.

Top Left to Right: Daisy MacGilbert, Jenna Kaetzel, Zoe Hoover, Caitlin Reed. Bottom Left to Right: Amber Bergeron, Dylan Martinez, Theo Munch, Ashley Bergeron.

Left: Rachel Chase. Right: Leah French

Ceramic Busts!! Three Dimensional Design First Semester

2010-04-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

Students in Three Dimensional Design began the year working with clay. The following projects were completed by creating a newspaper based form and draping clay slabs over the molds to create hollow bust sculptures. The students completed the work with acryllic paint and a lacquer spray.

Jessica Walker, 12th Grade

Marte Balke & Jenna Kaetzel, 11th Grade

Max Singer, 12th Grade

Daisy MacGilbert, 12th Grade

Paul Rokus, 10th Grade

Chuck Close Self Portraits

2010-02-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

Two Dimensional Design Students completed self-portraits in response to the exploration of the life and work of Chuck Close. The students learned tools and techniques to create form with charcoal.

DeMarcus Young, 11th Grade

Joey Sherrell, 12th Grade

Bri Overkamp, 10th Grade

Daisy MacGilbert, 12th Grade

Ashley Bergeron, 12th Grade

Ben Winebrenner, 10th Grade