“I really believe that if you practice enough you could paint the ‘Mona Lisa’ with a two-inch brush.” – Bob Ross

Speaking of Mona Lisa, an art masterpiece, I am happy to announce the 2019 Youth Art Month artists and masterpieces by my students at Miscoe Hill School!

The 2019 Youth Art Month exhibit, sponsored by the Massachusetts Art Education Association and titled, “Your Art, Your Story”, is begin held at the Massachusetts State Transportation Building, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, from February 11 through March 27.

The exhibit will be open to the public on weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., February 11 – March 27, 2019 and is closed weekends and on Presidents’ Day, Monday, February 18, 2019. Entrance to the exhibit is free. Parking (for a fee) is available at the building.

A Family Celebration will take place on Sunday, March 3, 2019 from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m, with the YAM Ceremony at 12:30 p.m.

The Artists and their Artworks

Paul Van Norman – Paul, a sixth grade student, designed his 3D printed buildings for the Imaginary City project-based learning unit last June, when he was in fifth grade. While his cooperative learning group was busy preparing the city map for their project, Paul focused on the design of buildings using Morphi app. It is important to note that all of the designs were created by combining and subtracting primitive 3D forms, rather than by downloading ready-made objects. Paul seems to have a knack for designing community spaces à la Frederick Law Olmsted, and may one day apply these skills as a landscape architect or civil engineer.

Kylie French, Alden Genovese, Samira Evens

This cooperative learning group worked collaboratively to design the game pieces for their board game created during the Game Makers project-based learning unit this fall. Kylie employed whimsy and fun in her design of the mustache and banana. Alden used his love of ice cream to create the delightful ice cream cone. Samira create the pizza slice dripping with sauce. Of note was the lesson learned about the way a 3D printer builds in layers as Samira’s first effort, with the tip of the slice facing downward, wouldn’t print because there was not a shelf for it to build on. She flipped the triangle and voila(!), was met with success. I’m hoping she will remember this concept when learning about Frank Lloyd Wright and cantilevered construction one day. This group chose to add detail to their models with acrylic paint before attaching them with velcro to a non-scaled replica of their game board.

Zuleica Booth

Zuleica (Zoe) created her ceramic snake using the clay hand-building coil method. Zoe has a generous artistic spirit with all mediums, and has an especially expressive way with clay. She tames her creation with elegance and fluidity resulting in a graceful rendition produced with a single coil of clay, which rests gently on a slab ceramic base. Zoe finished her piece with Mayco Stroke and Coat glaze.

Matthew dos Santos

Matthew is in the seventh grade. He last had art class with me in fifth grade, where he learned to design 3D models. He sent an email to me a couple of weeks ago showing me this model he had designed while home sick one day and mentioning that although he hasn’t had art class for a year and a half, he remembered the app and wanted to explore it more deeply. I was amazed. Keeping in mind that each piece of this dragon design is a single form attached with other forms to realize the whole model, one can’t help but to reflect on Aristotle’s statement, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Whether designing 3D models of dragons, snow persons, castles, or buildings, this early, non-academic exposure to 3D modeling can lead to future application in designing prosthetics, mechanical parts, or whatever the artist can envision.

Nolan Mann

During a study of self-portraits vs. selfies earlier this fall, 6th grade artist, Nolan, created his self-portrait with the Rotoscoping technique used in animation, where the artists traces over images to create the stills that when multiplied, become animation. Nolan took a serious pose, painted it in AutoDesk Sketchbook app and added a photographic background. I especially love the painterly moments of shadow and light.

Elizabeth Scharn

Elizabeth truly enjoyed the Digital Art on iPads unit this fall. This piece is a SuperImposition of two images created in Autodesk Sketchbook utilizing the layers and opacity options within the app. She has overlaid an image of a Halloween parade on top of an image of a coral reef. She adjusted the opacity of the silhouetted Halloween image to be translucent enough to show the coral reef through the figures, with a sophisticated sensibility as she created a lively texture of shape and color. Elizabeth is in fifth grade, and I look forward to her continued work in the art classroom.

2019 Youth Art Month Boston Exhibit

Each of these pieces has been matted, mounted, labeled and packaged to begin their journey to Boston courtesy of my colleague, Jon Hansen, who delivered them to Franklin High School yesterday. From there they will be transported with artwork from regional schools to the exhibit site in Boston.