MURSD Visual Art
Project Planning During A Pandemic
“The devil is in the detail” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or Anonymous When I was asked to come up with a “light and fluffy” art project for a segment of my students recently, my mouth dropped because it hit me hard that I don’t know how to do that. I was rendered speechless. […]
Every Day Drawing Challenge 2020 Edition
“Drawing takes time. A line has time in it.” – David Hockney A long, long time ago shortly after iPads were first released by Apple, under the vision of Superintendent Joseph Maruszczak, my school district made a commitment to include iPads in instruction. We were early adopters in the public school sector. We started in […]
Painting Over Photos (Rotoscoping)
“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and […]
Digital Drawings
Digital technology is the same revolution as adding sound to pictures and the same revolution as adding color to pictures. Nothing more and nothing less. – George Lucas Over the past two weeks, the Miscoe Hill students in grades five and six art classes have been learning to use the Sketchbook app by Autodesk. We began […]
Couldn’t Make It To Open House 2020?
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 Zoom to say “hi” and hear about the 5/6 Art program. If you […]
The 5/6 Miscoe Hill Art Show Has Been Updated
“The artist’s job is to be a witness to her/his time in history.” – Robert Rauschenberg The Miscoe Hill 5/6 virtual art show has been updated! I’m always proud to share the creative work of our young artists with our school and greater community. I’m especially proud to be able to share the work created by my […]
Drawing Act150/Human Made Object/Wk8 Remote Learning
“The teacher showed us how to see proportions, relationships, light and shadow, negative space, and space between space – something I never noticed before! In one week, I went from not knowing how to draw to sketching a detailed portrait. It literally changed the way I see things” Daniel H. Pink This post features the work […]
Youth Art Month 2020 5/6 Artists
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” – Michelangelo It is my pleasure to announce the artworks and artists for this year’s Boston Youth Art Month show! The Massachusetts Art Education Association sponsored Youth […]
Reimagined Book Covers
“The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. What we see and share at that age stays with us for life.” – Anthony Browne Over the past few weeks, my fifth and sixth grade art classes have been reimagining book covers for their […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
WeRMakers: Product ReDesign In Fifth Grade Art
“A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.” – R. Buckminster Fuller This is the third fall I have facilitated the WeRMakers Product Redesign unit. This is a project-based-learning unit that utilizes resources from Project Zero Classroom’s Agency by Design. A few colleagues and I participated in their online […]
Miscoe Hill 5/6 Artwork at Youth Art Month in Boston
“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 […]
Digital Art – Superimposition
“Things are not always as they seem; the first appearance deceives many.” – Phaedrus I’ve long been a fan of Superimposition, using Photoshop to combine images and make them one – so much so that I can’t help considering scenarios in this way, sometimes with an image superimposed over a compatible image, sometimes paired with an […]
