Arts & Activities articles from February 2009

Arts & Activities archives from February 2009

Creative Student Art Contest.(arts update)
February 1, 2009... As we go to press, the January 31, 2009 deadline for Royal's Annual Creative Student Art Contest is nearly upon us. Students can win gift certificates and cash, and the winners' schools will receive Royal Brush gift certificates. Seen here is...

NAEA goes to Minneapolis.(arts update)(2009 National Art Education Association)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... The 2009 National Art Education Association (NAEA) Convention will be held April 17-21 in Minneapolis. The theme will be "Visual Arts Education: A Landscape for 21st Century Learning." The NAEA convention offers opportunities for art educators...

Getty museum Web games.(arts update)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... "GettyGames" is a free Web feature where children can reassemble van Gogh's Irises from jigsaw puzzle pieces, find the changed details in Walker Evans' Two Elderly Men Conversing, and match the animals on Breughels' Entry of the Animals into...

Ketchup Creativity.(arts update)(Heinz U.S.A.)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Now in its third year, Heinz[R] invites schools nationwide to help students make a big splash in the world of art by participating in the 2009 Heinz Ketchup Creativity Contest. This artistic, educational program allows students to put their...

Int'l Youth Art Exchange.(arts update)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... For the past 22 years, the International Youth Art Exchange (ARTex) has shared American art with other cultures, allowing students around the globe the opportunity to communicate through the universal language of art. The exchange provides a...

Ruth Duckworth: A Life in Clay.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
February 1, 2009... RUTH DUCKWORTH: A Life in Clay. VHS or D VD/30 min./$14.95. Level: High School and Adult. Crystal Productions. "I am a sculptor," explains Ruth Duckworth in this engaging biography that spans her life using clay as a sculptural material....

Handbuilding Ceramic Forms.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 1, 2009... HANDBUILDING CERAMIC FORMS (2008; $29.95), by Elsbeth S. Woody. Allworth Press. Clay is found along rivers and lakes, and just below topsoil. Objects made out of clay are part of everyday living. Long before we had the potter's wheel,...

Gargoyles: How to Create Them.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
February 1, 2009... GARGOYLES: How to Create Them. VHS or D VD/21 m in./$29.95. Level: Middle and High School. Crystal Productions. The process of creating clay gargoyles and chimeras is made to look simple and exciting in this very specific video. Peggy...

Skutt kilns.(shop talk)(FireBox 14 Fusing Kiln)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The FireBox 14 Fusing Kiln--which runs on regular household voltage--is reported to be the largest 120V kiln one can buy that effectively reaches glass-fusing temperatures. Its chamber holds a 13" x 14" shelf--the...

Crystal Productions.(shop talk)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Part of Crystal's Art Display Cards series, "Ceramics" introduces ceramic concepts such as wedging, pinch pots, coil building, hump molds, throwing, trimming, sculpture and more. Art examples and diagrams illustrate...

Peter Pugger.(shop talk)(Pugger-Mixer)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Reclaim leftover moist clay with a Pugger-Mixer. The clay can be stored in the hopper and recycled between classes. Load a batch into the hopper, push a button and the machine homogenizes it. Switch to PUG and the...

Laguna Clay.(shop talk)(OvenCraft Clay)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Laguna OvenCraft Clay has properties that allow it to bake hard in a standard kitchen oven (no microwaves). An adult should oversee the entire one-hour baking period, following the instructions and warnings on the...

Paragon Industries.(shop talk)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Paragon Industries has released a ceramic fiber lid for glass kilns. The lid is optional on firebrick kilns. The ceramic fiber lid on top-loading kilns includes a stainless steel cover to protect the lid top. The...

Innovation and Change: Great Ceramics from the Ceramics Research Center, Arizona State University Art Museum Collection.(LEARNING from EXHIBITIONS)(Cover story)
February 1, 2009... Clay is one of the oldest materials known to humanity and has been used for utilitarian purposes and creative expression since prehistoric times. Clay tablets were used as the first writing medium when inscribed with cuneiform script around...

Young artist.(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] My name is Samantha Childress and I am 10 years old. I first started drawing when I was 3. I liked to look at an object and then draw it on paper. One of my favorite things to draw, and still is, are horses. I...

Bowls for the hungry.(COMMUNITY connections)
February 1, 2009... A few short years ago on one painfully early morning, a question began rattling around my skull while I sipped my first cup of coffee: How can I get my junior-high art students to use their artistic talent to make a positive, meaningful impact...

Soulful survivor sewing.(art ACROSS the CURRICULUM)(Yvonne Wells)(Biography)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] My, how far we have come! The 20th of January 2009, will always be known as the date of the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States. The journey--historically, socially and...

Clip & save art notes.(William S. Horton)(Biography)
February 1, 2009... ABOUT THE ARTIST Say the names Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, and what automatically comes to mind is French Impressionism. Hear the names Maurice Prendergast, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam or Ernest Lawson, and you probably...

Art print: Towers of a Thousand Eyes.(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] William S. Horton (1865-1936). Towers of a Thousand Eyes (no date). Oil on canvas; 92 x 11.8 cm. Photograph by Gerard Blot. Musee de la Cooperation Franco-Americaine, Blerancourt, France. [c] Reunion des Musees...

Classroom use of the art print.
February 1, 2009... Horton, William S. (1865-1936). Towers of a Thousand Eyes (no date). Oil on canvas; 92 x 11.8 cm. Musee de la Cooperation Franco-Americaine, Blerancourt, France. THINGS TO KNOW William Samuel Horton was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., and...

Handbuilt hang-outs: slab houses with a twist.
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] In the second semester each year, my high school art classes start a unit in ceramics. most of my classes average 12 students and I only have four wheels, we always have two projects going at once, one wheel-thrown...

Testing 1-2-3: the way to firing success.
February 1, 2009... Why do glaze tests? For a number of reasons. With so many glazes and underglazes being manufactured by different companies that label and number them differently, it can be confusing. Though some of the properties are similar, many are...

Making ceramic cameras.
February 1, 2009... I have been exploring pinhole photography as a way to incorporate photography into my ninth-grade art curriculum. I began experimenting with the idea of creating functional cameras from clay, allowing students to experience ceramics,...

Magician artists.(CHILDREN'S art diary)
February 1, 2009... I was 59 when I got my first magic kit in a box. I bought it at a garage sale on the other end of town from a colleague, who used to be a magician like me. The cardboard box with a handle still had all its tricks in the original compartments....

Strong pictures get the point across: teens put life (and art) up on a billboard.
February 1, 2009... Teens have issues! They talk about suicide and war. They experiment with drugs, drinking and smoking. Their lives may have been touched by abuse, gangs or guns. Young people worry about these issues and many others as they work out their...

Tints, shades and frost.(LITERATURE in the art room)
February 1, 2009... Robert Frost is one of the most acclaimed and beloved American poets of all time. He may be remembered for his eloquent reading of his poem, "The Gift Outright," at Robert F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Although born in Northern...

Getting "fired up": tried & true tips for art teachers.
February 1, 2009... As we focus on ceramics, let's get "fired up" with some great tips so everyone can enjoy creating with this "plastic," malleable material! As a segue into working with clay, I'd like to pick up a thread I wove through December's column. I...