May Wrap-Up.

Mermaids...done!  I haven't been great about posting the final images to my gallery and FB page for a few reasons...

Kiln...broken...whaaaaa?!

First off....it's the end of the year.  It's cray.  Like...really cray.  Instead of starting to do less like a normal person I geared up and started five projects all at once.  I did have a reality check last week and stepped back just a wee bit...but my students have been working on masks, a bottle cap mural, Chihuly-inspired recycled water bottle sculptures, sorting through/taking home artwork, finishing their May sketches AND doing the whole final exam thang.  Oh...and somewhere along the way my kiln had a malfunction and I had a mini-nervous breakdown, it's not repaired and I still have about three glaze fire loads but...those will just have to wait.  

I don't post that often about teaching on my blog.  For a while I had a separate blog page on the site but I didn't feel that I posted enough...then I kept thinking that my identity as an artist and as art teacher are so intertwined I didn't want to compartmentalize them...so gonna just add bits and pieces about my teaching on this here blog when the mood strikes me, I may change my mind about this but for now, that's how I am going to handle it.  

That being said...I had a great idea last week that really helped solved an age old art teacher problem- trying to get the students to actually take their work home. It baffles me, but every year I have taught, really at any level, the kids are so quick to just throw their work away.  It is upsetting to me because I spent my time planning the lesson, teaching the lesson, and often times I may have spent some of my own money on the supplies.  Even more frustrating is it makes me feel like they are saying that they don't value what I taught them, the experience of making those pieces of art.  Maybe I am reading too much into it, but that is how I feel.  In reality, the kids have other things on their minds or are just thinking they don't want to lug the portfolio around.  Just some thoughts.

So my idea was to challenge my students to not only take their work home, but to take photos of the portfolio and/or work at home with parents, siblings, pets, displayed around the house- whatever.  Just SHOW THAT THE WORK MADE IT HOME.  And guess what?  Totally worked!  I have had so much fun seeing the pictures and it feels great to know that the work made it home.  Here are a few of the pictures that the students shared with me;

I digress.  Back to why I haven't been keeping up with my blog/final pics.

The other main reason that I haven't updated...I have been so involved MAKING the work.  I had so much fun with this series!  I love watercolor and my water soluble pencils...but the only problem is I just keep working in layers...I would start a piece and then work on several over a few days...layering and layering. But I will keep working with these materials...'cause I love them!

So that's it.  The May series is finished.  I feel that overall there is a flow to the body of work...sometimes I went off on a tangent...got distracted...but the colors and the overall style are pretty consistent...and here they are;