Day 33

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor and photographer known for his environmental art.  Andy's work is a type of sculpture known as an 'installation' which just means that it is site specific.  He generally uses materials that can be found where he is creating his sculpture, such as twigs and leaves and rocks and flowers and sometimes even icicles.  His goal is to work with nature as a whole and to use what is available to him.  In addition to only using found materials in his artwork, the only tools that he uses to create his work are his hands, teeth, and found objects, like a sharp stone or branch that are found on site.

Photography is a very important part of his work because his sculptures, being outside in nature, are temporary and prone to the elements.  Andy considers the change and decay that comes through the time that his work exists to be a part of the art that he creates.

To learn a little bit more about Andy Goldsworthy, you can visit here, here and here.

Environmental art is also known as Land Art, Earthwork and Ecological art and has been practiced by humans throughout history.  Think of Stonehenge, The Great Serpent Mound in Ohio, The Nazca Lines in Peru and even our own Town Creek Indian Mound. Unlike the environmental art of today, these earthworks often had religious or ceremonial connotations.

"Environmental Art, also known as ecological art, encompasses several different forms and practices that engage with and represent the environment. It is distinct in its less specific time period and greater scope of art."  ~ the Art Story

"Earthwork is art that is made by shaping the land itself or by making forms using natural materials like rocks and tree branches. Earthworks range from subtle temporary interventions in the landscape to significant, sculptural, lasting alterations made with heavy earth moving machinery.  Some artists have also brought the land into galleries and museums, creating installations out of dirt, sand and other materials taken from nature.  Earthworks were a part of the wilder conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s." ~ Museum of Modern Art

Read about Creating Art from Nature here.

Today's challenge is to create your own environmental art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy.

• Spend some time outside while being safe, social distancing and exploring the nature around you (your yard, neighborhood, park-but only if it is open and you have permission from an adult)
• Gather any natural materials that are already on the ground instead of picking any plants or flowers. Items that you can look for are leaves, branches, sticks, twigs, rocks, stones, pebbles, ice, nuts, seeds, flowers, dirt, and even mud.
• Once you have gathered your materials, choose a place outside where you would like to create your artwork.
• Play around with your natural objects and experiment with patterns until you like what you come up with.  Think about radial symmetry, stacking stones or twigs, creating patterns with pebbles or using leaves to create a natural mosaic.
• Take photographs along the way to document your process. 
• Remember that your artwork is temporary!
• Don't forget to upload the photos of your work to Google Classroom.

Here are some images of environmental art found in Google Images to give you some inspiration.  Some are by professional artists, some are by students, some are done by unknown artists.  

Here are some other environmental artists that you can read about: 

Robert Smithson

Nils Udo

Richard Shilling 

Patrick Dougherty (NC connection: Patrick grew up in NC.  His latest artwork was created on the campus of Davidson College.  I might take a ride up there this weekend to see if it is still there!)

Simon Beck Fun fact: Simon makes his art by walking on snow!

Jaaku Pernu

Walter Mason

Day 32!

Using your chromebook, a smartphone or a camera, go on a scavenger hunt to find the following items.  See how many you can find.  When you are done, make a collage out of the photographs and upload the collage to google classrooms.

Day 31!

  After yesterday's challenge, some of you may have practiced drawing hands, which to me, is one of the hardest things about drawing the human body.  They can be so difficult to get right- proportion, symmetry, it can be hard to make hand look real.  It just takes practice. In case you have forgotten, here's the link to the hands tutorial.

I've added 3 charts that show how to do each letter of the alphabet in American Sign Language (ASL).  Spelling out each letter in a word is called Fingerspelling or dactylology.  The first one is a bit cartoonish, and probably the easiest to draw.

The second one is a little bit more realistic.

And this last one is the most realistic of all. 

Have fun practicing.  When you do your name, take a pic and share it in google classrooms!

Day 30!

  I think most, if not all of you have tried to draw anime characters. This website is a great source for tutorials and breaks down how to draw all the parts of the characters that you might imagine.  Have fun combining different hairstyles, poses, clothing, eyes shapes etc.

Day 29!

There's a lot of work put into the art supplies that we use daily.  Click on the links below to find out how they are made.  Each video has been approved for viewing on SCS chromebooks!

Pencils
Colored Pencils
Crayons
Erasers
Markers
Paint

Then, when you have learned how art supplies are really made, head over to our GoogleClassroom and click on the assignment "Wrong Answers Only".  Choose one of the supplies from the videos that you have watched or choose your own ART supply and write a paragraph about how that ART supply is made - WRONG ANSWERS ONLY! 

Day 28!

Comic strips often reflect what is going on in the world. Today, I want you to write and illustrate a comic strip that tells a little bit about what your life is like these days. 

Day 27

Before the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th c., books were not as common as they are today.  Most books from that time period were religious text, primarily the Bible and they often took up to two years to complete.  Monks would work in a special room in the monastery called the 'Scriptorium', copying the text and then later an illuminator would take over and illustrate the text with pictures and designs.  Because making the books was such a painstaking process books were very expensive and generally owned by monasteries, universities and the extremely wealthy.

Another type of book created during this time was a 'Bestiary'. A bestiary is a book of a collection of animals. Like today, animals were a very important part of life for the medieval family. People kept animals as pets, hunting and farm animals and they were an important source for food and clothing. Since they usually didn't travel far from home, people also imagined the world beyond their village might be full of fantastic creatures like monsters and dragons. People also believed that illness and disease were punishments and that evil spirits, demons and beasts were real and ever present. Often these beasts would end up in illustrations in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. These animals that appeared alongside the text were symbolic and they oftentimes told a story. Since the majority of people couldn't read, they could still understand the story just by looking at the illustrations.

Animals were also associated with different qualities. Monkeys were considered evil and
were associated with the devil. Peacocks were associated with immortality and dogs were
associated with devotion. One animal that is often seen in illuminated manuscripts is the
owl. Unlike today, when owls are associated with wisdom, during the middle ages,
owls were often associated with darkness of mind and spirit because they are nocturnal.

You can learn more about illuminated manuscripts here and here.

You can learn more about bestiaries here and take a look at the Aberdeen Bestiary here.

You can learn more about the invention of the printing press here.

In the meantime, my only question for you today is:
Which medieval owl is your mood? 
I’d say I’m about an 8 right now.