The following slides are from the Art classes at St. Thomas More School in Oakdale Ct. The students at STM are all required to participate in an Art class. During the school year of 2008/2009 the classes offered are Studio Art (drawing), Printmaking, Sculpture, and Art Appreciation.

The students in any given class range from ninth grade to post graduates. They come from all over the world. The domestic students come from New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, Arizona and California to name a few, and the internationals students come from exotic places such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and Africa.

I hope you enjoy the following slides, the students worked very hard and I am very proud of each and every one of them.

The Thinker 1902 by Auguste Rodin

The students were given a history lesson on The Thinker and several other Rodin pieces of work. Once they were able to talk freely about the sculpture they were asked to make their own version of the Thinker. They created an armature from wire and newspaper, they then used paper Mache’ to cover the base and their thinker. Once the building was complete they painted the work to represent metal.

The students were given the assignment of creating a Noh mask based on a real wood carved Noh Theater mask. The student were shown the traditional use of the mask. They also watched sections of a Noh play and listened to the music. The students were then directed to use paper Mache’ and a balloon to form the basic shape and work with more applications of paper to create facial features.

The sculpture students created several different projects over the semester. They were given a material and then asked to go look at different artist that worked in that same material. Once the students had some ideas they were required to make several drawing about the piece they thought they were going to make. Some students were able to stay with their original ideas, other found that they were unable to achieve their original goal and had to make adjustments.

The students worked in wire, foam core board, and paper Mache’.

The students were all very excited about the world of politics during the first semester. To harness that excitement they were given a political assignment for their final.

Each student was asked to choice a political topic that was important to them. The ideas ranged from the economy to the dividing line in Korea. Each student had to research their topic and bring in several forms of information. They then had to create several drawing about the work they wanted to produce. They then created their work out of paper Mache’

During the final exam each student was required to give a five minute speech on their work and to answer questions on their topic.

The first semester drawing class focused of drawing the still life. The students work daily on learning to draw what they saw. The students were given direction on how to draw and were given examples of what they were asked to do.

The students were also asked to learn the language of drawing.

Printmaking was a class were the students were asked to learn a lot about color and basic drawing. The students learned about the color wheel, how to mix colors on their own and how to apply color to different surfaces.

For the final project the students were given a blank carving surface. The students were then shown how to carve the surface in the reverse. Once the carving was complete they were shown how to use a traditional method of inking.

Their final grade was to produce a stamped image in three different ink colors, paying special attention to the details and producing a professional looking print.

The second semester at STM requires all art students to change. The second semester holds the same classes just new material for the students to learn.

I have tried very hard to not repeat any project. I am hoping that the new students will convirce with the first semester students to produce new and exciting work.

Vincent’s Chair 1889The art of Vincent Van Gogh is known world

wide. The students have seen it in one form or another, so what a better way to start of the new semester. The students have seen several power point presentations and will be seeing the movie Vincent. They have talked about his work and his life in class and have written a small summary of what they think of his work. To further they enjoyment of the great painter they are creating a paper painting of they own based on his work. The students were to find a painting that they enjoyed and sketch it onto a large piece of paper. They have now started to rip small pieces of construction paper and apply it to the large piece of paper in a painterly fashion.

The current printmaking students are working on making their very own comic strip. Each students has created a main character and his supporting cast. They will be required to produce a final strip with five panels inked and colored.

They will continue the semester by looking into the art of political comic strips and their impact on the American newspaper.

Their final project will be to turn either their comic strip character or one of their political works into a carved stamp. They will then be required to take the stamp and make a professional print.

The sculpture students have just finished their first piece. They were required to make a three dimensional rendering of their own head in wire.

I gave them several images to look at as well as names of artist that worked in wire.

The only requirement they had to meet was to produce a wire in the profile and one in the opposite direction.

The drawing students this semester are learning in the method of Betty Edward. Her method has the most return with the least amount of effort.

The students are just finishing the pre drawing section and are staring the exercises showing them the left to right brain shift.

The following images are from an exersice where the students were asked to draw Pablo Picasso’s portrait of Igor Stravinsky upside down.

The purpose of the exercise was to help the students make the brain shift from left brain to right brain.

The students were given a full hour to work on the drawing. They were asked to be very quiet and to not turn the drawing right side up. Most students needed the whole hour and several did not finish. Most said they felt confused at the beginning but as they drawing went on they found that they were able to work will little acknowledgement of their surroundings.

The following images are my own work. I have a real affinity for political art. I hope that my work provokes the viewer to ask “why”.

I work in many different mediums. I currently am working with paper mache. I also continue to draw and do some illustrations.

I like for my students to see me working. I feel that if I am going to ask my students to do something I should be able to do it with them.

I enjoy being behind my camera as you will see. I currently am only able to work with digital.