Mrs. Alice Gentili
Cardboard Creatures – Phase Three – Design for 3D Printing
“There are 3D people stuck in a 2D world” – Katherine Douglas, Choice-Based Art Education in the Classroom (TAB), (Douglas & Jaquith, 2018) “…especially in school art classes.” – Mona Lisa Lives Here I am blessed with a son who participated fully in an entire childhood filled with art making experiences, from extra-curricular classes I offered at […]
Cardboard Creature Project – Phase Two – Stop Motion/Green Screen
“My filmmaking really began with technology. It began through technology, not through telling stories, because my 8mm movie camera was the way into whatever I decided to do.” – Steven Spielberg Starting with a quote by Steven Spielberg may seem like a lofty way to begin a post about video making by upper elementary students. To […]
Cardboard Creature Project – Phase One – Build
“The most sophisticated people I know – inside they are all children.” – Jim Henson The photo above is of me and a whole bunch of cardboard on October 8, 2019 as I waited to introduce our Cardboard Creature project to an incoming class. It was all down hill from there! Here’s how we did […]
Out Of This World Sketchbook Covers
“To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.” – Stephen Hawking As I curate the student artwork for this post, I just can’t stop downloading pieces from Artsonia because they are ALL OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! We just wrapped up this project and most students have had a chance […]
Couldn’t Make It To Open House 2019?
Couldn’t make it Open House this week? No worries at all! This is a super busy time of year and one can’t do everything! It was a pleasure to see so many parents and guardians Tuesday night and I appreciate your stopping by to say “hi” and check out the art room. If you weren’t able […]
International Dot Day 2019
In the Miscoe Hill 5/6Art room we have had a blast creating dots and watching them come to life using the Quiver app on iPads. Why create dots? Because of the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Here is a narrated video of the story: We colored in templates made by Quiver and then used the […]
The Printed Image: Student Artwork On Display
“Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.” – W. Eugene Smith The following students will have their artwork on display in the Massachusetts Art Education Association exhibit The Printed Image from September 30 – November 15 at the MA State Transportation Building, 10 […]
Summer Learning 8: Clay Is Fun/Clay Is Hard
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison I spent most of my summer getting dirty and looking like this: And it was glorious! I would spend the early morning hours getting stuff done around the house, writing, or […]
Summer Learning 7: MA Art Museums
Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while But Mona Lisa must’ve had the highway blues You can tell by the way she smiles – Bob Dylan, Visions of Johanna How fortunate I am to live in Massachusetts, where in anywhere between an hour and three […]
Summer Learning 6: New Horizon
“My vision for New Horizon was really to create a sculpture that was living; something that could create a moment in time as opposed to something that was made of form and was solid. Artworks which one can seek out or explore. Artworks that are time-based, that can burn hot for temporary moments. Artworks that […]
Summer Learning 5: Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” – Isaiah Zagar We went to Philadelphia during the last week of June to celebrate my nephew’s wedding. Congratulations Courtney and Brendan! Lucky for us, they chose Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens as the venue for the rehearsal dinner. I say “lucky for us” because I have visited the site […]
Summer Learning 4: Street Art in Philadelphia
“When you walk down the street and see something in a crazy spot, there’s something powerful about that. The street will always be an important part of getting art out there for me.” – Shepard Fairey We went to Philadelphia for a wedding during the last week of June. In the time around the wedding events, […]
Summer Learning 3: TABnology
“I do it/You do it. I challenge/You wrestle. You choose/I support” – John Crowe, Theory of Everything This isn’t the first time I’ve used this quote. It was at the top of the post I wrote about attending the TAB Institute at MassArt in the summer of 2017. If you read that post, you’ll understand the […]
Summer Learning 2: The Rodin Museum
“I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.” Auguste Rodin We went to Philadelphia for a wedding during the last week of June. In the time around the wedding events, my husband, Dick, and I explored the city on foot taking in artworks of all kinds. The first morning we […]
Summer Learning 1: The Philadelphia Museum of Art
“True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.” – William Penn We went to Philadelphia to celebrate my nephew’s wedding. Congratulations Courtney and Brendan! We brought my mother (91 years young – don’t tell her I told you her age), so […]
April Showers Bring May Flowers
“Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.” – Stevie Wonder For the last few classes, students have been working on drawing flowers. The focus of this project is on drawing from observation, abstraction of composition, […]
The Names Dress (With My Name!)
“There is no limit to beauty, no saturation point in design, no end to the material” – Salvatore Ferragamo Today I’m honored and excited to share the news that my name has been included in the Names Dress, which is on display at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, Italy! The Names Dress is a wearable, compostable conceptual […]
Art Show at the Miscoe Hill EXPO
The Art Show at the Miscoe Hill EXPO, being held Wednesday night in conjunction with a French class showcase with Mrs. Shilale, and Crossfit in the lower gym with Mr. McInnis. On this magical evening, the red wing hallway will be illuminated only with luminary lights in decorative vessels prepared by the 5-8 art students. As […]
Charcoal Still Life Drawings at the Art Show at the Miscoe EXPO
“All the visible world is only light on form.” Andrew Loomis For the past few weeks, my fifth grade students have been creating charcoal still life drawings. They began by sketching a still life positioned in the middle of the table, while observing light, shadow, and form in their sketchbooks. We had explored ellipses just […]
Watercolor Abstraction at the Art Show at Miscoe EXPO
Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an exploration into unknown areas. ― Arshile Gorky For the past few weeks, my sixth grade students have been working on watercolor still life arrangements abstracted through contour […]
