Annual Middle School Art Show at the PDC

February marks the biggest event for middle school art in the district. Artwork from each middle school is on display at Mesquite's Professional Development Center. The work will be on display for February's School Board meeting and afterwards each middle school principal will choose one artwork from his or her school to receive the prestigious Principal's Award. Check back in early March to see which work was selected. 22 of our 28 Advanced Art students have work on display.

Our 2012 Principals Award winner with her self portrait

Low-relief Rhythmic Sculptures: Art II

A few months back I ran across a lesson plan that I had been wanting to try so I decided that it might be a good way to start off the new semester. After showing some examples from the lesson plan, the Art II students were eager to take on the challenge. To create a rhythmic feeling in art the artist must repeat certain lines, shapes, colors, patterns, etc. These examples of the final projects show that they really grasped the concept of rhythm in art.

Aluminum Masks: 6th Grade

As a means of focusing on Texture, 6th graders created embossed aluminum masks. We started our unit by learning that Texture is: the way something feels or looks like it would feel. Textures can be both real and implied. Next classes looked at various examples of masks from around the world. Each student then created a unique design that demonstrated their understanding of texture and embossing techniques. Check out some of our awesome examples...

Non-Objective/Monochromatic Oil Pastels: 6th Grade

To begin our focus on the element of Color, 6th grade classes explored the use of a monochromatic color scheme. Ask any 6th grader and they can tell you that Mono = One, Chroma = Color, and Tic = exhibiting the characteristics of something. When you put that all together you get the definition of the word monochromatic - having the characteristics of only one color. 

Students created non-objective (not of anything other than lines and shapes) designs and used their chosen color of oil pastel plus black, white, gray, and/or small amounts of other colors to create a monochromatic color scheme.

Finished Slab Bowls: Art II

The Art II slab bowls are finally finished (as well as several other projects that I have failed to post lately). Some students followed the original assignment to create a "Bowl Creature" while others went a bit in another direction and came up with their own design. Regardless of how they designed their bowl, all students had to include addition pieces added to the original bowl.

School Board Appreciation Month

January is School Board Appreciation month and each school was asked to submit either cards or a poster to show the Board some love. This is our school's contribution as it was drying on the Art room floor this morning.

Our sign was prominently displayed for all to see!

Slab Bowls - Art II

The Art II classes have been working on a clay project: Slab Bowls. The original plan was to create a "face" bowl, which some students did, but others opted for their own project ideas. Students used our slab roller to create a flat slab of clay and then cut out a shape to lay over a paper form they had created. One of the bowls created is below... waiting to be fired and then glazed.