Arturo Herrera Collages

Arturo Herrera is a New York and Berlin based artist. Herrera’s work primary focuses on collage using paper, paint, found materials, such as books, coloring pages, and recycled paper. His work intertwines fragments of cartoon characters with abstract shapes.
Herrera's continual use of Disney images is what drew me to his work. Below are some images of Arturo's work that inspired our collage project.

Art 21- Arturo Herrera's episode. Enjoy!

Door Decor

Every holiday season, our school holds its annual door decorating contest. Each homeroom decorates the doors to the classroom. Prizes range from an honorable mention to a pizza party (a very coveted prize in the high school realm). 

Here are some of the student's amazing work. Teachers are not allowed to help the students and the students have to bring all of their own materials! If this does not put you in the holiday spirit, I don't know what will! 

They did an amazing job! Wow! 

Happy Holidays! 

Christmas Time is Here- Part 2 Oh Christmas Tree!

Here are some of the final products from our Christmas Time is Here project! 

Christmas Time is Here- Part1

Christmas Time is Here and that means we are drawing ornaments in class. We focus on three things, 

 Light - Shadow - Reflection

Thanks to Ikea, I was able to get a box of durable plastic ornaments in student friendly colors. We started drawing ornaments using charcoal and white conte. Having the girls be able to break color into value was an important part of the drawing process. Notice that I almost never have the students draw on white paper (unless using their sketchbooks). This is because I want the students to push their shades from dark darks to light lights. 

Next, we played  with oil pastels on black paper. Students looked at the highlights and lowlights on the reflective plastic ornaments. They also used contrasting colors to pull their ornaments off of the page. 

Finally, Students combined their knowledge of highlights, lowlights, and layering colors into a Christmas masterpiece. 

Here is a sneak peak! 

Contour Line Drawing- Sketchbook

To get into the winter spirit students have been making contour line drawings of pine cones. Pine cones are a perfect subject due to their natural, organic form. 

Below is a worksheet we use in class and a few student sketches. 

Happy Creating,

-Ms. M

Day of the Dead- Papel Picado

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world by other cultures. The holiday focuses on the gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember those who have passed away. 

To put my own spin on Dia de los Muertos, I took a traditional project (Papel Picado) and gave it a printmaking twist! 

For this project, students used simple printmaking techniques to replicate the look of Papel Picado Banners. Papel Picado are paper banners with intricate cut out designs. These designs often have motifs of flowers, birds, and skulls. The banners are used during religious celebrations, weddings, and funerals. 

Students created a relief print on Styrofoam plates, inked the plates and transferred their designs to paper. From there, the students cut out their designs and strung them on ribbon. 

Got Milk?

The students have been very busy collecting and creating a sculpture entirely out of milk cartons. Student council and the art classes collaborated to create this whimsical sculpture of a dairy farm, 100% out of used milk cartons. 

If you ask me, this is recycling at its best! 

-Ms. M