Student Art 2017-18

I've been particularly proud of my students this year. The 2017-18 school year was a rough one. I was on maternity leave for two months (luckily our Christmas break was in there along with a snow day so I technically only missed 5 weeks, not 8) and the flu outbreak this last winter was insane. However, I am very proud of my students for sticking with it and applying themselves to the fullest degree of their ability.

Mother's Day was in reality gloomy and rainy, but my students brightened up their parents' day with hand print sunshine cards using a mixture of yellow and orange tempera paint and writing sweet notes with sharpie markers. 

 One of the most memorable projects we did this year was portraits of a loved one. The question I asked my students was, "Who in your life is the most awesome, the most fun and the greatest being?" The result was mothers, uncles, friends, grandpas and uncles and of course... family pets.

 This most recent project was also one to remember. There has been so much rain lately that the tv and radio stations are overloaded with flood warnings. However, for those of us who live near wetlands, we have these hoppy little dudes hanging around and the kids were very eager to put their skills to the test and paint a likeness.

This project was created in my American Girl class. We've studied American Girl Kaya, a young girl from the Nez Perce tribe and this project came about as a way of showing my students what Kaya's village would've looked like. They loved using Crayola Model Magic to create their villages. We also added some rocks and painted to complete the look.

 This project was during the flu outbreak, so my classes had a low student count. However, the three students that did manage to make it to class had a blast making examples of art inspired by Andy Warhol (the Campbell Soup artist, if that rings a bell). Repetition and crazy colors were the name of the game and hand prints are always a win.

Last but not least, I wanted to include an honorable mention from the 2016-17 school year. We had a special project where the students could paint whatever they wanted on a stretched canvas (a HUGE hit) and this student chose to do a painting of horses running through water, inspired by my own piece Wild and Free that I completed for ArtPrize 2015. (You can check that out here: Wild and Free by Brittany Rudd.) This nine year old student was so unsure and scared and had so much self doubt about her talents and abilities that year, but her face said it all when she showed me her finished project. Absolutely stunning.