Art is Essential: Art Education Exhibition

Art Is Essential: An Art Education Exhibition was a collaborative show featuring

works by students from First Ward Creative Arts Academy, South Charlotte Middle School,

Independence High School, and their teachers.

The opening reception was May 4, 2013 at UNC-Charlotte’s Rowe Gallery.

Music by J.S. Bach/Jethro Tull (1969).

STUDENT WORK

South Charlotte Middle School

Scribble Gesture Drawing: Grade 6-8

Kimon Nicholaides book The Natural Way to Draw introduces a method called "scribble gesture" to help capture the motion of a figure in action. I demonstrate this technique to the class and then show some of my earlier drawings using this method. Students view images of figures in action on the overhead projector, making two or three minute scribble gesture drawings of tennis players, dancers, boxers, gymnasts and other athletes. The objective is to be able to convey the motion of the figure in a quickly made drawing.

Essential Standards: 2.03 Differentiate among techniques and processes for working with

each material. 2.04 Discover the expressive potential of various media and

techniques. 4.04 Convey meaning through original imagery that does not rely on

copying, tracing, patterns or duplicated materials.

Sword Fight(scribble gesture)Kaylie Brooks

Grade 8Graphite pencil on paper

Short Track Speed Skaters (scribble gesture)Kaylie Brooks

Grade 8Graphite pencil on paper

Man (Scribble Gesture)Cullen Harmon

Grade 7Colored pencil on newsprint

Stick, Ink and Watercolor Drawing and Painting:Grade 6-8

The objective of this lesson is for the student to be able to create achromatic and polychromatic watercolor drawings that demonstrate a broad value range, representational accuracy and dynamic composition with a well-chosen and rendered area of emphasis. Many artists and art teachers (although not this one) believe that a necessary condition for being a successful visual artist is being able to draw accurately the world we see. Drawing occupies a significant place in most Art school curricula. This lesson is the final part of a unit dedicated to giving students the tools to draw well and thus further their art training. It is also an assessment of drawing abilities thus far gained in the course, as well as an introduction to painting, which some might argue begins when the artist moves from a dry to a liquid medium. Students also experiment with an Impressionist palette which omits black from their color choices.

Essential Standards: 3.03 Apply diverse original solutions in the problem solving process.

3.04 Apply intuitive perceptions in the problem-solving process.

Still Life with Study of SpaceJamie KuGrade 8

Black watercolor on watercolor paper

Still Life with FruitSamuel Shoemaker

Grade 7Black watercolor on paper

Still Life with Bowl and FruitClara P. Link

Grade 6Graphite on newsprint

Still Life with Fruit(Lost and found edge study)

Gordon RogelbergGrade 7

Black watercolor on watercolor paper

Still Life with Bottle, Cup and FruitRiley Outen

Grade 7Black watercolor on watercolor paper

Still Life with Vase, Stick and FruitMichelle Zheng

Grade 7India Ink on watercolor paper

Still Life with Fruit (Impressionist Palette)Macy Shelton

Grade 8Watercolor on copy paper

Still Life with Fruit (Impressionist Palette)Jamie KuGrade 8

Watercolor on copy paper

Still Life with Fruit (Impressionist Palette)Lindsey Lanier

Grade 8Watercolor on watercolor paper

Still Life with Bottle and Fruit (Impressionist Palette)Elizabeth Strassenko

Grade 7Watercolor on copy paper

Clay Vessels and Sculptures:Grade 8

This is the first and only clay project of the semester but it builds on previous lessons students have likely had over the years. All CMS programs require at least one clay project per course. The objective is that the student be will be able to execute the “score and slip” method of attaching clay pieces, basic coil construction required for hand-building vessels, and to make a vessel or sculpture that represents their values or can hold tiny objects that represent their values.

Essential Standards: 8.V.2.3 Create original art that conveys one or more ideas or feelings. 8.V.3 Create art using a variety of tools, media, and processes, safely and

appropriately. 8.V.3.1 Apply knowledge of safety and media to maintain and take care of

the work space and art. 8.V.3.2 Use a variety of media to create art. 8.V.3.3 Evaluate techniques and processes to select appropriate methods to

create art.

WellChristina Duverglas

Grade 8Cone 5 clay, underglaze, acrylic polymer

EggBrian Moo

Grade 8Cone 5 clay, underglaze, acrylic polymer

ShoeJamie KuGrade 8

Cone 5 clay, underglaze

BirdbathMegan Morales

Grade 8Cone 5 clay, underglaze

WhaleRachel Methner

Grade 8Cone 5 clay, underglaze

AnimusMaxwell Rousso

Grade 8Cone 5 clay, underglaze

Winter Landscapes:Grade 7-8 (Honors)

The objective of this lesson is for students to be able to create a landscape painting that creates depth by utilizing several painting techniques such as atmospheric perspective, object placement on the picture plane, and diminishing object size. Students also incorporate important principles of art such as emphasis, contrast, pattern and unity.

Essential Standards: 3.02 Explore and apply the elements and

principles of design used in an aesthetic composition.

Winter LandscapeAndrew Tiedeman

Grade 8Black and white water color on toned paper

Winter LandscapeTori Donelson

Grade 7Black and white watercolor on toned paper

Silhouettes and Shadow Puppets Show:Grade 7-8

The silhouette works of African-American artist Kara Walker is our inspiration for creating shadow puppet shows. The objective is for students to be able to create a dynamic shadow puppet show with scenery made of silhouettes and which deals with an important and relevant ethical issue such as bullying, substance abuse, eating disorders, loneliness, peer pressure, or sportsmanship. The performance playing on the monitor in the exhibit explored issues faced by a young girl who’s over-protective and intolerant parents force her to use her resourceful and clever intellect to find freedom in her life.

Essential Standards: 8.V.2.3 Create original art that conveys one or more ideas or feelings. 8.V.3 Create art using a variety of tools, media, and processes, safely and

appropriately. 8.V.3.1 Apply knowledge of safety and media to maintain and take care of

the work space and art. 8.V.3.2 Use a variety of media to create art.

Wings and FeathersAmanda Feldsberg, Ismael Garcia, Andrew Gardner,

Claire Goldstone, Caroline Hausler, Juan Diego Garcia Martinez Grade 8

Video-taped puppet performance

Abstract Drawing and Painting:Grade 7-8

The objective of this lesson is for students to be able to create an abstract drawing or painting. The inspiration for the lesson is the work of Jewish artist and Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak. As a child, Bak lived in the Vilna ghetto whose population was almost entirely obliterated by the Nazis. After experimenting with several contemporary abstract styles as an adult, Bak settled on an abstract style of painting more akin to one used by famous Renaissance painters. He believed it was the best technique for keeping the Holocaust alive in our consciousness and conscience. My students, inspired by Bak’s life story and technique, abstract the elements of form, line, texture, color, pattern etc. from several different objects and combine them into a new, abstract creation. This exercise prompts excursions into other types of abstraction.

Essential Standards: 1.04: Understand and discuss that ideas from reality and from fantasy may be used to

create original art. 3.02 Explore and apply the elements and principles of design used in an aesthetic

composition. 4.01 Use visual arts to persuade and communicate ideas. 4.04 Invent original imagery to convey meaning. 4.05 Explore how artists develop personal imagery and style. 6.03 Explain how other's work and ideas are unique expression of themselves.

Paintdrops and Brushes (Abstraction)Madilyn Brewer

Grade 8Watercolor, marker on watercolor paper

Wolf (Abstraction)Madelaine Kuwada

Grade 7Watercolor on watercolor paper

Untitled (Abstraction)Katherine Darden

Grade 8Watercolor, colored pencil on watercolor paper

AbstractionYajie CaiGrade 7

Watercolor, colored pencil on watercolor paper

Gears of Time (Abstraction)James Teague

Grade 8Colored pencil on watercolor paper

Disintegrating Apples (Abstraction)Cullen Harmon

Grade 7Colored pencil on watercolor paper

Color (Abstraction)Connor Ager

Grade 7Watercolor on watercolor paper

Palette Knife and Spherical Object Painting:Grade 7-8 (Honors)

The objective of this lesson is for students to be able paint the colors they actually see. To this end, students incorporate the Impressionist techniques of eliminating black from the palette, optical mixing and simultaneous contrast, rendering the planes of objects as distinct colors rather than shades or tints of a “local color” and using a palette knife to paint. Painting colored blocks and spheres is a common practice in the American Impressionist tradition, a prerequisite for landscape, figure, and portrait painting in this style.

Essential Standards: 8.V.2.Apply observation skills and personal experiences to create original art.

   8.V.3 Create art using a variety of tools, media, and processes, safely and

appropriately. 8.V.3.1 Apply knowledge of safety and media to maintain and take care of the

work space and art. 8.V.3.2 Use a variety of media to create art. 8.V.3.3 Evaluate techniques and processes to select appropriate methods to

create art.

Block and Spherical Object (Colorist Study)Damin Ryu

Grade 7Acrylic paint on canvas paper

Colorist Still Life with FruitHannah Tuckman

Grade 7Acrylic paint on canvas paper

Colorist Still Life with FruitMichelle Zheng

Grade 7Acrylic paint on canvas paper

Colorist Still Life with FruitLindsey LaBoyne

Grade 8Acrylic paint on canvas paper

WORKS

Ted Cooke

Ted Cooke – Artist Statement

My Art is an expression of my inner search. More than anything else, I want my art to work with my philosophy to pull me closer to reality and my true nature. Sharing this inner journey will always be the ultimate point of my teaching, philosophy and art. My training in Art and Art Education is very different from most others in these professions. I did not discover my love of Art until later in life. As a boy, I lived near the Silvermine Art Guild in Connecticut. My mother walked us there to see new exhibits and discuss them outside by the pond. Those experiences were formative. The schools I went to, however, offered very little Art instruction, so Art was not a part of my life until my late twenties, when I began to teach myself to draw. When I was twenty-seven, just beginning my doctoral program in Philosophy at Marquette University, I purchased a copy of Betty Edwards’ book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. My interest was originally philosophical because I wanted to understand how the unity of consciousness was fractured in people who underwent cerebral commissurotomy. As I read on, however, I began to view successful drawing as a localized brain function. The book, with its various techniques of immobilizing the left hemisphere of the brain and activating neural pathways on the right side of the brain, helped me to draw. In my spare time, I worked through the drawing exercises in her book. When I graduated from Marquette, I took a Drawing course at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and from there onward art became a constant in my life. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, the desire for a logical understanding of the fundamental nature of the world and our place within it. Having taught Metaphysics, Ethics and Modern Philosophy at the university level for over twenty years, but taking Art courses all the while, I came to understand Art as one way of world-making, no less valid, important or exciting than Philosophy. Art and Philosophy, through their respective heightened perceptual and conceptual rigor, connect us to distinct modes of reality. Art and Philosophy work together to uncover what neither grasps entirely on its own.

 My deepest desire is to know myself through philosophy and art. Yet, every inner plunge leads back to my role as a teacher, father and husband, and to the people I love. My art begins introspectively, but unfolds into expressions of love for my wife and family and for sublime nature. This inner pursuit is empty unless I share it with my students. Like my philosophy and teaching, my art is always a pointing to within.

Windyrush TrailTed Cooke

Oil on panel

VotiveTed Cooke

Metal

States of MindTed Cooke

Wood

EmbryonicTed Cooke

Conte` crayon on paper

PennyTed Cooke

Pastel on Wallis paper

Ted Cooke and Family