Twas the Night 7th grade event, Vision of Peace images

7th grade:

I sent 2nd and 3rd period classes home with a hard copy of the information for Twas the Night. I forgot to hand out to 6th period. Please see this link for information.

6th grade:

See this link for images of the student's art work who won our Lions Club Vision of Peace Poster Contest!

What's up next?

6th grade is beginning a unit on Pop Art and will be drawing a realistic image of Andy Warhol's Coca Cola bottles, creating a painting in the style of Jim Dine, creating a silhouette collage, and sculpting clay inspired by Wayne Thiebaud's art work.

7th grade is working on a museum scavenger hunt web quest and creating a keynote presentation for all of our art classes. They will complete our unit on Museums by creating a fish painting in the style of any artist that we saw on our High Museum of Art field trip.

I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving.

6th grade peace poster winners!

Our art room has been transformed into a gallery!

The 2011 Lion's Club Vision of Peace Poster Contest is on exhibit!

Fifty-two posters were presented, on our new art panels, to our five guest judges.

More information to follow for our winners,

and they are . . .

1st place: Lauren Hemmings

2nd place: Sam Farris

3rd place: Collier Wilson

Congratulations to these students and the other 6th grade art students on a job Very well done!

Many of my 7th grade students complimented their work, as well. This is a great group of hardworking and very creative students. Thanks for all that you do, students!!!

7th grade field trip and 6th grade peace posters

7th grade field trip: students should return their information forms signed by both parents and students Thursday, November 10. Also, I wanted to clarify that no additional charges will be made for our trip. Any students who do not attend will not be charged. We still owe the fees to the Museum and Capital Trailways, but the money will come from our middle school general art budget.

We are using resources provided by the High Museum of Art to "learn the lingo". I have created flashcards on quizlet with the these terms. Students should review this information for an open notes quiz on Monday. They will be allowed to use the flashcards to answer the questions. We will look at images of famous artworks tomorrow in class that exemplifies these terms and also watch a DVD on visiting a museum. Student's will also have a handout with specific questions that they will answer in regards to their visit to the museum. This information will be due on Wednesday, November 16 at the end of our class period.

We have completed a group webquest on color schemes and students will complete another webquest on a museum scavenger hunt at the end of the following week.

6th grade peace posters: Students completed their work today and the posters will be judged at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. I will post the winners via this blog on Friday, November 11. These students have been working hard on their artwork. I am so proud of them! We will begin studying Pop art and artists Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, and Wayne Thiebaud. We will work on several projects in the Pop Art style in various media including colored pencil, oil pastel and clay sculpture.

7th grade Twas the night event

Twas the Night/Empty Bowls Fine Arts Event

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Willett Hall

Empty Bowls is a national event dedicated to fighting hunger in local communities through the use of handmade, or hand painted ceramic bowls. Guests will make a suggested donation at the door and pick up a handmade or hand painted bowl of their choice from the work of the visual art students in the middle and upper school art departments.

Your student is participating in the Twas the Night event this year by displaying the ceramic bowl that we have been working on in art. The seventh grade students learned about the Japanese Tea Ceremony and Raku Pottery as an introduction to this project. We sketched images from the traditional Japanese culture, used the smart board to visually study the architecture, interior design and elements of the traditional tea ceremony, its art and meaning.

The students were given a piece of greenware to apply color, glaze and fire in the upper school art kiln. The students selected colors from the Potter’s Choice color palette. These colors are very similar in appearance to tea bowls from both past and present.

It is not mandatory that students attend, yet we would like to invite you and your family. The performances for this annual event showcase the talent of the dance, show choir and forensics students together with a small ensemble of band students. Typically, the Art Dept. supports this event by providing the PR and Event Set up, so we are excited to be an integral part of it this year while raising awareness and support for hungry.

If you would like your student’s bowl and cannot attend, please send your donation with your him / her this week along with the form that they will bring home. We are suggesting a donation of at least $5.00 per bowl. All bowls will be on display, yet the claimed bowls will be marked. Students may take their bowl home at the end of the performances. I will have the bowls that were purchased, but not taken home, available for the students the following day.

7th grade field trip information to the High Museum of Art, Tuesday, November 15

A letter with specific details is being sent home with your student on Tuesday, November 8. Please review the information and return the second page by Thursday, November 10. We are looking forward to our field trip!

Trinity art students win awards!

Congratulations to the following 6th and 7th grade art students who have received art awards!

7th grade: Montgomery Humane Society Howliday Card Contest

3rd place Montgomery Schools: Sydney Bassett

Honorable Mention Montgomery Schools: Mary Carmen Haynes

6th grade: DAR Constitution Week Poster Contest

1st place Montgomery Private Schools: Mac Parsons

3rd place Montgomery Private Schools: Christopher Howard

Honorable Mentions Montgomery Private Schools: Thomas Helms,

Lauren Millo and Jessica Wilson

(*these students will receive their invitations to the Awards Ceremony this week)

Awards Ceremony will be held Sunday, October 23 2:00 pm at AUM Goodwyn Hall.

Coming up next!!

6th grade students continuing to work on their Lions Club Vision of Peace Poster Contest final design ideas. Their practice copy is due on Wednesday. We will begin the final poster on following Monday.

7th grade students are learning about painting in a looser style with a palette knife. We have looked at the work of Atlanta artist, Susie Pryor and will begin experimenting with this art style this week. Students will complete their assessments on edmodo at the end of week. We will begin studying about the Japanese Tea Ceremony and will glaze and fire a rice bowl in the upper school art room kiln the following week.

I want to say a big Thank You to all my students who are working so hard and staying on task! I appreciate you each and every day!

Congratulations to the following students who have been recognized for their recent work!

7th grade: Montgomery Humane Society "Howl-iday" Card Contest Finalists:

Mary Carmen Haynes and Sydney Bassett

6th grade: DAR Constitution Week Poster Contest, Trinity Top 10 Finalists:

Lauren Hemmings, Collier Wilson, Caroline Chapman, Sam Farris, Christopher Howard, Ensley Craven, Katie Scott, Echols Jones, Lauren Millo, and Luke Hufham.

Four additional finalists were also included: Mac Parsons, Ann Price Bishop, Jessica Wilson and Thomas Helms!

Here are Important dates to remember for awards ceremonies! (Both organizations also send invitations to students via their home addresses.)

Humane Society Walk 'N Wag event is Saturday, October 8th at Blount Cultural Park / Shakespeare Theater. Students who are finalists should be at stage no later than 9:30 am. Admission to event is free to these students and their families.

DAR Constitution Week Poster Contest Awards Ceremony and Reception will be held on Sunday, October 23 at Auburn University Montgomery Campus, Goodwyn Hall Lobby and Auditorium. Reception begins at 2:00 pm and Awards Ceremony begins at 2:30 pm.

I have uploaded PDF files with images of these student's work. Please see the 6th grade page link and 7th grade page link to view these files from our Middle School Art WIKI site.

Here is a link to the Art WIKI site. It can also be reached from the side bar of this blog site and also from the Middle School Art page on our Edline site.

http://jbrickenmsart.pbworks.com

What's up this week:

7th grade: We are rendering with colored pencils. Students have created a color wheel and rendered a tomato still life with step by step instruction. We spent Wednesday discussing what defines a still life and studying famous artwork from the early Middle Ages to Modern Art. Students spent Thursday and Friday creating their own still life with props. They were able to photograph their work and will use this design to render with colored pencils showing realism. We will then learn to paint with a palette knife (plastic) and paint the same still life in a more abstract style.

6th grade: The Vision of Peace Poster Contest is next! This event is sponsored by the Montgomery Lions Club. We have been discussing the theme in class, learning to draw a realistic hand and peace dove. On Tuesday, we will be in the Mac Lab researching images to use to collage our ideas. Students will then hand draw their poster ideas on 81/2" x 11" format and enlarge to the final poster format. We will be working on this project for the next 2 weeks minimum.

We are looking forward to a great week with lots of hard work!!

SAVE THE DATE !

Mrs. Miller and I are proud to announce that we will taking our 8th grade and 7th grade art students to see the Picasso to Warhol, 12 Modern Masters art exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta !! We will travel on Tuesday, November 15 by bus to Atlanta. We will be leaving early and should return late afternoon. We will need at least 7 adult chaperones to attend our field trip. The tickets will be $6 per student and bus expense should be around $36 per student. Our tour will begin at the High Museum at 11:00 eastern standard time (10:45 check-in). We will eat a late lunch near the Museum (probably Colony Square food court).

Please let me know if your child will not be able to attend.

I will also need adult chaperones that will be able to lead a group of at least 7 students. We will have audio headsets that guide each student through the exhibit. The students will also have a written assessment and sketch assignments to complete during the trip. Let me know if you are interested in attending the field trip as a chaperone!

6th grade ! You will not be left out. We will have several special guest artists during the year and tour the Montgomery Museum of Art in the late Winter / early Spring!

Your students have started off the year with such enthusiasm.

Both 6th and 7th grade are already working on competition projects. 6th grade students are designing posters for the DAR Constitution Week Poster Contest. 7th grade students are busy creating Christmas Card designs for the Montgomery Humane Society's annual "Howl-i-day" Card Contest.

Have a great Labor Day Holiday Weekend.

Welcome to our middle school art blog and the 2011-2012 school year!

I will be using this blog to post information from our art room, images of student work, information concerning art competitions, award events and any other general information that you will need to know!!

A link to the Wiki site is also found on this blog. Information will be linked between the two sites. You are able to subscribe to this blog via email. I will post any new information to the blog so that you will be able to receive any updates via email.

I am looking forward to a fun year with your children, and I look forward to seeing their artistic talents develop.

dress down / paw prints, portfolios

Parents,

Mr. Palmer announced Friday afternoon that students could use "paw prints" to dress down during exams ! Many of the students kept their paw prints locked in a file cabinet in my classroom. I will be in my room at 7:30 on Monday to hand out envelopes. I will also be at school off / on Monday - Thursday. I will leave a note on my door and take envelopes to upper school office when I am not in the classroom. Students can pick up their remaining paw prints there.

Best of luck to all during exams !!

Please remind your student to come by and pick up their portfolio as soon as possible. I will not be able to keep left over work after Thursday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer !!!

Mrs. Bricken

art show and portfolios

I hope you all had a chance to see the art work displayed in our library last week ! Spring Week of Arts was a wonderful time for our students to share their artwork with our Trinity staff, students and parents.

We were also busy last week creating some very special Mother's Day artwork!! Sixth grade created a beautiful bird nest with speckled robin eggs. Seventh grade experimented with watercolor to create a field of tulips. Our last piece is a number painting somewhat inspired by grafitti.

Friday is our last day of class. Your student will be bringing home their artwork beginning Thursday and Friday of this week.

It is always fun to see the student's progress from the beginning of their sketchbook to their final projects. We have covered many art styles, media types, competed in many competitions and discussed various careers in art. I hope your student feels more confident in his / her ability to draw, paint, establish a concept, create a color scheme and appreciate various styles of art in our culture and world.

• We have decided to change the format for the Spring "Night" of Arts to a Spring Week of Arts !! This will give our entire student body, staff and teachers the opportunity to see the artwork that your children have produced !! Each student entered a piece of their work that they chose to be displayed. The 7th grade students will also display their self portraits with all the elements of design. The work will be on display in our library from May 3-6 (Tuesday-Friday).
• Students will receive their artwork, and sketchbook back at the end of the year. A few of the competitions do not return work, but we have most of it.
• Remind your students to keep working hard !!! We have 2 weeks left of regular classes and I want to see their best effort !!!

Miniworks Art Awards & More!

We had a beautiful day at the Miniworks Art Awards Ceremony today !! I have all of the award certificates and artwork if you were unable to attend.

What's happening next in the artroom:

7th grade completed their name silhouettes this past week and will continue to work on the last of the six sections in their self portrait. We should be able to assemble all of the "pieces" by the end of the week !

6th grade has been working on a competition project known as "Funky Junk". We are working in teams to create art out of recycled, reused or reclaimed items (junk). There are some really large pieces and I will need the students to deliver some of their pieces. We will discuss this in class tomorrow and I will post directions and instructions as to where to deliver. The project is a grade, but not all pieces have to be entered in the competition.

Entries must be delivered to the following location: 1 Dexter Plaza, Montgomery, AL 36104 (Enter on the Montgomery Street side). The 4th - 6th grade are due tomorrow, but the students did not finish their work on Friday. I am working out an extension with Montgomery Clean City Commission for Tuesday delivery. All entries must arrive before 4:00, however.

** If you are able to help us deliver any of the artwork, please let me know ! We can load up a car or two outside my classroom.

We will begin a unit on Impressionism and landscape painting, concentrating on trees and water techniques, for the remainder of the week.

Save the Date for Trinity Annual Spring Night of the Arts !!

Tuesday evening, May 3

Willett Hall Auditiorium

This is our school art show for those who are new to the Middle and Upper School Art program. All of the art students will select a piece of art for our reception. The artwork is only up for one night, however ! We hope you can attend !! More information coming soon !!

addition to previous post !!

My apologies ! Message had been clipped from original email.

Six of our 7th grade students were left off the previous Mini Works Awards list:

Virginia Reid, 3rd place / clay functional mixed media

Katherine Rowell, 3rd place / mixed media multiple materials

Abbie Grace Sims, honorable mention / clay functional mixed media

Aline Sluis, honorable mention / painting mixed media

Hannah Stephenson, 2nd place / mixed media multiple materials

Katie Windham, honorable mention / clay functional mixed media

Mini Art Works Awards

Congratulations to the following art students who were acknowledged in the 2011 Mini Works Art Show:

category 4th - 6th grades

Lauren Barbaro, honorable mention / mixed media multiple materials

Jordan Dennis, 1st place / clay functional mixed media

Allie Dillard, 1st place / printmaking mixed media

Anna Esco, 2nd place / clay functional mixed media

Katie Jackson, 2nd place / mixed media multiple materials

McAuley Parker, honorable mention / mixed media multiple materials

John Luke Phillips, honorable mention / sculpture additive construction

Claire Stewart, 1st place / photography mixed media

Mary Stuart Tipton, 3rd place / collage 2D

Will Windham, 2nd place / clay functional hand built

category 7th - 9th grades

Josey Aughtman, honorable mention/ mixed media multiple materials

Elizabeth Beck, 2nd place / clay functional mixed media

Jackson Byrd, 1st place / graphic design mixed media

Chloe Champion, honorable mention / collage 3D

Francesca Ferrell, 1st place / printmaking mixed media

Madison Gillis, honorable mention / drawing color

Gray Godwin, best of category / mixed media multiple materials

Trent Harris, 2nd place / sculpture additive construction

Bekah Hitchcock, 2nd place / collage 2D

Hudson Hufham, 2nd place / digital imagery computer graphics photo manipulation

Addison Love, honorable mention / mixed media multiple materials

Drew Meany, honorable mention / photography color

Meredith Moore, 1st place / clay functional mixed media

Katie Morrow, honorable mention / drawing color

An awards ceremony will be held at the Montgomery Academy Hill Hall, Wilson Theater on Sunday, April 10, 2011. The art exhibit opens at 2:00 and the awards ceremony will begin at 2:30 with event ending by 4:00. K - 6th grade work will be display on Middle School Art Hall (level 2), 7th - 12th grade work will be on display on Upper School Art Hall (level 1) and ALL Best of Show and 1st place work will be on display in Wilson Theater. The awards ceremony moves quickly with an outdoor reception afterward.

I am sending home an invitation for those students receiving awards ! Congratulations to all students who participated in the art show.

Great Work !!

Alabama Wildlife Federation: artwork finalists !

Congratulations to the following 6th grade students whose artwork was selected for the Alabama Wildlife Federation 2011 William R. Ireland Sr. Youth Wildlife Art Contest.

2nd period: Carolyn Albritton, Katie Jackson, McAuley Parker, Allie Ramsey, Lizzie Swearingen

3rd period: Sophie Burks, Allie Dillard, Adam Hall, Whitney Hicks, J. Payne, Mary Todd Romanowski, Brian Roth

4th period: Sydney Bassett, Ben Cowart, Ethan Gentry, Mary Carmen Haynes, Sam Nunn, John Luke Phillips, Claire Stewart, Mary Stuart Tipton, Will Windham

The 6th grade students used the internet to research wildlife indigenous to the state of Alabama. Selecting their own subject matter, the students created an original work of art with the media of their choice. This is always a fun project and a great way to integrate science, geography and art !! Winners will be notified by April 4. Award ceremony will be Saturday, April 16 at the AWF's headquarters in Millbrook. Best of luck to our students !!

What's next?

7th grade will continue to work on their self portraits integrating the 7 elements of design.

6th grade will study line patterns and design a shoe. We will work on technical aspects of painting as we transfer the designs to canvas, and study color / value in this design challenge.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break !!

2nd Period Cake Design ! 200th Season Congratulations for Coach Rags !!

week of feb. 14

Happy Valentines Week !

7th grade has completed their birdhouses for the Sunshine Center. I will take photographs so each child has a picture to keep ! These will be wonderful gifts for the host families of the fundraising events.

6th grade has divided, per class, to work on several projects:

2nd period is working a a cake design for Coach Rags. (Thank you for sending supplies, baking portions of the 3 tier cake, and making fondant!)

3rd period made "giving from the heart" boxes for the lower school service project supporting school supplies for Nehemiah House. These boxes will be displayed in lower school hallway / pods.

4th period has been busy designing individual medals for the Trinity 5K / Fun on Saturday, February 26. These will be given to the 1st place and overall winners for the various age categories.

Whew ! I can't even believe that we are just beginning work for the Alabama Wildlife art contest and the Mini Art Works art competition. More info on these event to come !!

2nd period / 6th grade CAKE DESIGN Items needed

2nd period is preparing for our cake design project for Coach Ragsdale !

We walked through the process in class and have assigned students to bring items for our work.

We are planning to begin on Monday, February 14 in class.

We will need the following items by Friday, February 11:

mini marshmallows: Preston McAdams, Andrew Martin, Jordan Dennis, James Wilder, Madison Tylicki and Lizzie Swearingen.

buttercream icing premade / grocery store: Jackson Sharpe, Charlie Trotman, Marshall Dean, Joseph Curtis, Cole Brown

powdered sugar: Katie Jackson, Anthony Singleton, Allie Ramsey, Carolyn Albritton, McAuley Parker

I am getting all boxes of cake mix, saran wrap, latex-free gloves, wax paper, cardboard base.

I also have 3 tier cake pans, fondant roller, icing kit, food coloring, icing knife.

The following students have volunteered to make cakes with cake mix and pans provided: Tyler Hale, Cooper Humphrey, Mary Margaret Easterling.

The girls want to get together in groups to make the fondant. (I told them it was messy, but fun. They will need lots of crisco shortening on their hands)

I am going to send home a copy of Easy Rolled Fondant Recipe with girls on Friday.

We will begin working on layers, in class, on Monday. McAuley Parker won the class design competition. Her work expresses the 200th win season, a football field, football players, and paw prints. Should be fun !!

3rd and 4th periods will work on their cake design in the next weeks. We will take lots of pictures !

paint on clothes !

I am not only a teacher, but a Trinity mother. Seeing paint on uniforms does not make me happy !!! I am trying so hard to remind the students to Be Careful. I have looked in to smocks to wear, but the challenges are the following:

don't cover sleeves,

don't cover collars,

don't always cover skirts/shorts/pants,

cost to purchase a smock per student (they will have paint on them from class period to class period),

where to store 108 smocks in our classroom.

I do have several students who have brought t-shirts to pull over their uniform when we paint ! I am going to encourage all students to bring an OLD men's dress shirt. I am going through John's closet (and his dad's) this weekend !! I will also check with some of the tuxedo rental stores for Old shirts that they may let us have. Let's see what we can come up with to SAVE OUR UNIFORMS !! This shirt style works great when you can turn the shirt backwards. It will cover collar, sleeves, shorts/skirts and will keep art costs down.

I am going to use a clothes line and good old fashioned clothes pins to hang shirts. I can put brown paper on wall behind to keep paint off wall. Hopefully this will solve our dilemma and keep our artist creating some great artwork without the expense of a uniform !!

what's next !

6th grade: classes are working on Fish Pattern paintings on canvas boards this week. We will re-visit a drawing using negative spaces, shade and shadows the following week and begin our final preparations to design our cakes !!

7th grade: classes will complete the line study of their self portraits and begin a birdhouse project. Mrs. Betty Bobbitt Byrne is involved in a fundraiser for the Sunshine Center and has asked the Middle School art students to participate !! We are going to paint cedar blue bird houses to be given as gifts to the families hosting an event in their home. What a great opportunity for our students to share their talent with others !!

Art has lots of freedom and with that freedom comes responsibility ! We are going to begin a new point system to earn some rewards for good behavior. I hope this will encourage students to work hard, listen, pay attention, and treat each other with respect. I am looking forward to talking with the students tomorrow about possible rewards. One of the 7th grade classes got to start us off with the following ideas: bring a snack/drink to class, "freedom Friday" (i.e. sit where ever they want in class), movie day Friday (if every one in the class receives checks for the entire week), "paint (or draw) what ever you want Friday".

I am blessed to have your children each day and hope I can encourage them to be their very best!

6th grade students participate in Alfa Farming Poster Contest

6th grade students have been busy learning about the importance of farming and agriculture in our community, state and country. Students were challenged with the opportunity to develop a poster that promoted the theme: Alfa Farming / Agriculture, a Growing Story. They will be judged on Creativity, Originality, Neatness, Relevance to the Theme and Overall Appearance. Alfa Farmers are the sponsor of the competition. Trinity sent our own winners for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners to compete in the county level competition. The judging process was so difficult, we decided to include 3 additional honorable mentions. What great work ! The creativity and uniqueness was great. The students are really thinking and learning to research information and express their ideas. I am going to include a powerpoint with the winning posters on the Middle School Art Wiki. I will keep you updated if we have additional winners on the Montgomery County level. GREAT work students !

1st place winner: Allie Ramsey

2nd place winner: Madison Tylicki

3rd place winner: Ethan Gentry

Honorable Mention: Carolyn Albritton

Honorable Mention: McAuley Parker

Honorable Mention: Mary Todd Romanowski

Trinity 7th grade artwork at Zoe's on Zelda Road

Okay, It is up ! They sent the letters on Thursday and I passed them out to the students in class today. They will need this letter to receive a free kids meal and free entree at Zoe's / Zelda location only. Their artwork is also for sale. They ask for a donation of $20. All of the proceeds will go to Trinity. We are going to use any money that we receive to plan an out of town fieldtrip !! The money will help cover transportation and and ticket fees. Atlanta or Birmingham are in our sights !!

Here is a picture that marketing director Casey Boswell emailed.

New Year

Welcome to our New Year in the art room !

6th grade has been researching concepts for the Alfa Farmers Poster Contest: "Agriculture, A Growing Story". They will be judged on creativity, originality, neatness, overall appearance and relevance to the theme.

We were able to spend 2 days learning to draw a dalmatian puppy using basic shapes. This drawing skill can be used to draw anything including the animals and elements that the sixth graders are including in their posters. We have discussed the importance of farming in our community, state and country.

7th grade completed their fruit paintings for Zoe's restaurant in Zelda Place. Zoe's supports local schools and will be selling and displaying our artwork. They are trying to get the art work up this week. Zoe's will also be giving the students a thank you letter for some free food ! I will hand these out to the students when I have them !!

We have moved to the study of abstract art. We are looking at the work of Russian artist, El Lissitsky and his Proun design.

I have selected some student art work that will be on display during the Kindergarten Open House on Thursday, January 13. Some of the work will be on temporary art panels and other pieces will be in display cabinets in the Willett Hall Lobby and entry to Upper / Middle School offices. Your students have been working hard and also inspire me with their creativity!