2015 School-wide Student Art Show

There are so many great art works to see these year!  Here is a quick overview of what each class created:

 4th Grade Classes in Irvine, Brosko, and Lugo's rooms created these amazing fiber pieces that have radial balance.

 Third grade artists in Buono, Kent, and Yates' classrooms studied Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso to create these Cubist Faces.

Second Grade classrooms Morales, Dailey, Garland, and Sides studied the artist Georgia O'Keeffe and created 2-D flower paintings, and 3-D flower bowls made out of clay.

 Third grade students in Ms. Rakusin's class created these wonderful drawings of mangroves.

 5th grade artists in Mr. Woodage's class studied the artist Gustav Klimt, and painted these beautiful trees of life.

 4th Grade Ms. Thompson's class studied Vincent Van Gogh and drew the Texas State Capitol against a starry Texas sky.

 1st Grade classes also studied Van Gogh and used oil pastel and paper to create the downtown skyline of Austin.  These classes are Ms. Murphy's and Ms. Bomely's artists.

 First graders also studied symmetry and body proportions to create a self portrait collage. The classes on display are Ms. McLendon's and Ms. Avant's classes.

 Kinder students in Ms. Cohn's class studied Texas wildflowers and painted them.

 Ms. Shapiro's 1st  grade artists created dot paintings after looking at the book by Peter Reynolds.

 Kinder artists in Mr. McNitt, Ms. Caswell, Ms. Caroline, and Ms. Wolden's classrooms studied artist Jasper Johns to create paintings about letters or numbers.

Ms. Saucedo's 2nd grade artists created still life paintings after studying artist Henri Matisse.

 Fifth Grade artists in Weaver, Thompson, and Russell's homerooms created bicycle paintings.

 I hope you have had the chance to see the 2015 Art Show in person!  If not, it will be on display until mid May; please stop by and check out the amazing art works that our Zilker Panthers created!!

Veggie Fence Mural

 So there is this wonderful collaboration going on with our school and a local business/restaurant named "Odd Duck."  They have donated time and money to expand the gardens we have had for a long while that have been primarily taken care of by former Zilker parent and neighborhood legend Jabo.  Here is the amazing sign that PTA created for the area ( I LOVE the rake as the sign post!)

 Each class planted an area with veggies, and are taking care of their plots.  Here is an over view of the whole area.

And here's a fenced-in PPCD play area that is just begging to be "Zilkerized!" Not to worry: my art students will be painting some great veggie designs so we can jazz up this area and connect it to the awesome learning they are doing in the classrooms about plants, food, gardening, and healthy eating.  Stay tuned: I am in the process of gathering supplies and writing lessons so all the grade levels can contribute to this community project.  I am hoping to be finished by late Fall 2015.

Blog Posts Paused because......

......the Zilker Student School-wide Art Show is opening in less than two weeks!  

I am super busy getting artwork mounted to banners like in the photo below:

I'm also mounting artwork and adding names to other works that will be on bulletin boards.  Ms. Wilson, our traveling art teacher, is hard at work too.

I haven't forgotten about updating our blog....just busy getting all of the outstanding art ready for the art show!! Almost 500 students is A LOT OF ARTWORK!!

 The Art Show Opening is Friday, April 10 at 5:30 pm, coinciding with Zilker's Talent Show, so I hope to see a lot of you there!

Kinder Fish Sculptures

Remember this post from a few weeks ago? 

http://zilkerelementaryart.blogspot.com/2015/01/winter-happenings-in-art-room-kinder.html  

Check out the finished Kinder Fish Sculptures that are brightening the Art Room Hallway!!

AustinISD District Art Show Participants

 March is Youth Art Month, and in AISD we celebrate by displaying student art in the District wide Art Show!  This year we were able to display in our brand new Performing Arts Center building. It is always so difficult to pick just a few artists to represent Zilker, and that is why I have a School-wide Art Show in April every year, so I can display EVERYONE'S Art!  I wasn't able to see every student who made it there on Sunday, March 8 (it was so crowded!), but here are a few of the amazing artists who represented Zilker this year in the district art show:

A big thank you to families who made it out to the Opening despite the rain!

2nd Grade Kandinsky-inspired Weavings

Second grade artists learned about the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and looked closely at his use of line on his abstract artworks.  Then students took a line "for a walk" and created a linear design with a black crayon.  We added textures with texture rubbings after deciding upon a cool color or warm color scheme.  Then we created a loom for weaving by carefully cutting five slits into our papers.   Students began weaving the opposite color scheme into their looms with strips of paper.  Using a white crayon, students added texture to a black piece of construction paper, and glued their paper weavings to this to create a frame.  Last, students added more lines around the border with oil pastels.

1st Grade Abstract Paintings

First Grade art students are learning brush techniques in painting.  Students first learned about the different parts of a paintbrush:

Students practiced just using the "toe" of the bristles to create a very thin line.  Then we practiced painting with the heel and toe, gently pressing down all the bristles to make a really thick line.  Students were amazed that they could paint such different lines with the same brush! After practicing painting different kinds of lines, students then practiced painting large shapes with solid colors.

Next, students tried out painting shapes or lines on top of colors.  It was a fun experiment to see which colors could show up on top of the painted backgrounds. The final touch was adding a few lines around the border, and painting their names.  To see them all, check out our online students art gallery at Artsonia:   http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=926366