NUMU Student Exhibition

The annual NUMU high school exhibition isn't exactly soon, but since I have the information for the theme I might as well share them here.

The theme they have decided on this year is: Choices.

Here is what they have to say in the pamphlet I received from them:

"Which a spotlight on youth perspectives, NUMU asks stdents to visually communicate their responses to the theme, Choices.
Life is a set of choices. We live with the consequences of the choices we make as well as those made for us. Our family, our friends, our teachers, our leaders make choices that affect each of us. How does choice define you, identify you, or excite you? What impact has a choice made by you or others, regionally or globally, influenced you and/or the world? What single significant choice affects you now?"

You can find more information about the exhibit ONLINE HERE, or by taking one of the fliers from my desk.

Daily Sketchbook 1/22

So you see the sub here today, right?
Please do what you know you are supposed to and be kind and courteous and appropriate with your time. Some of you are more on top of this than others, but as usual you should know that it is your responsibility to help make sure your peers are doing as you all know they are supposed to be doing.

Your daily sketchbook for the day...

I want you to position yourself at your table group so that you can see another table of students working in another part of the room. Please spend the next 15 minutes after you finish reading this to draw, from observation, a table group in another part of the room.
Your drawing should include the people, tables (or at least the table tops), and any other important information (pencils in hands, sketchbooks, etc.)

Might I suggest beginning in a gestural fashion and only worrying about details after you get everything blocked in???

Daily Sketchbook 1/5

Pull out the contents of your backpack or purse.
Ok, ok, it doesn't have to be everything, but you should have at least five to seven items there.
Please don't be too un-fun and take "easy" things like a stack of books out. Keys and pens and cool stuff that is challenging is way better.
Set them on your table and draw them in pencil to create a composition on your page.

If you came to class with nothing - or just not enough - share items with your neighbor. Put your things together and have both of you work from the same thing.

Please make sure you have all of the same stuff here on Thursday as we will be using it again then.

Oh, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Little Something for the Juniors Out There

One day, probably soon, your parents will start bugging you about college.
I've seen over the past 4-5 years how the manifestation of this application process has sort of spiraled out of control. Meaning, y'all get way more stressed out than you need to, and your peers and parents don't help.
Short truth, you will all get in to college.
Maybe not your first choice, but my almost automatic response to "Why do you want to go there?" is, simply, "Why?"

"Because it's a good school" is usually the response, and that is a terrible response, so my next question is almost always, "But is it a good school for YOU?"

Maybe.
Maybe not.
And that's ok. Really. Trust me.

I think this article by Scott Anderson is fantastic. He is a Senior Director at The Common Application, so he might be familiar with the process after all.

Let's cheers to no working yourselves up too much next fall!

Back To School Night v2015

Students, it's that time of year again.
Time to get your parental units out of the house and send them to spend some quality time with me.
When, this Thursday, 9/4 at 6:30
Where, well, school, naturally.

Parents, it's time to spend some quality time away from your kids. Sorry, not on a date, but at school!
Back to School Night is here so let's do this.

The main thing that will be different this year is that the advanced art students will be holding a raffle/fundraiser for the mural we will be painting on the outside of the Art 1 room some time this fall (this month?).

If you would like to win one custom painting (of one person/pet) by one of our truly stunning students then drop your name in the "hat" - trust me, you'll see it in the classroom.
We are asking for a $20 donation to be eligible (but you can donate more if you like). There will be slips of paper for you to fill out when you attend back to school night - and probably more information then as well.

What, the LG Museum announcement already?! Whoa!

Welcome back and all that jazz.
I just received an email from the Museums of Los Gatos referencing the high school exhibition they will hold in the spring.

Art 4's, you will be required to make a piece for this exhibition. While I will try to spend some time brainstorming with you in class, the sooner you can start thinking about it, the better.

Here is what I know so far:

That is the theme. Bridges: facing challenges. I can think of a lot of options and possibilities so far so I hope you can too. There is more information here, so please check it out.

AmazonSmile

AmazonSmile must be new, but I was able to select our very own New Millenium Foundation as the future recipient for Amazon donations based off of my purchases. Pretty cool. You should do the same.

Great Day!

We finished. 

It wasn't perfect, but we finished. 

Today was the reading/showing of the collaborative project between the Art 2 and creative writing students. 

You write something, I draw a response to it, someone else writes a response to that, yet another person draws something from that. 

And so on. 

A fun idea that I hope the students got as much out of as I did. 

Crazy creativity these folks have. Truly impressive. 

Here is a little pic from our morning.