@NipRockArt

Each month, the grade 11 art class will have one week completely devoted to learning about new materials and techniques.  Each “Week De Technique” will focus on providing students with the chance to become more familiar with media in order to develop their skills and to provide a wider range of options when they are responding to themes in class. Some of these materials and techniques might include: shading centering clay on the potter’s wheel linear perspective monoprinting animation (ex. stop motion) collage stitching contour line drawings silkscreen printing etc.... It is important to remember that artists don't always work with traditional techniques or materials. Depending on an artist's goal or message, he/she might work with unconventional media... such as rainbow loom elastics, moss text, or sound installations. In this class, effective communication is key.   Artists communicate through their use of materials. We simply have to fi...

Senior art students have been busy these past two weeks! It's been great to get back into the swing of things and to reconnect with this class of artists. Our first major project has begun.  Students began this project by responding to a quote by Keith Haring : I am me. I may look like you, but if you take a closer look you will realize that I am nothing like you at all. I am very different. I see things through a completely different perspective because in my life I had experiences that you didn’t have, and I had feelings you didn’t have, and I’ve lived places and seen places and experienced life from a completely different point of view than you have. I may be wearing the same shoes and the same haircut, but that gives you no right to have any preconceived notions about what I am or who I am. ~ Keith Haring (Source:   Engaging Learners Through Artmaking , 2009) These responses extended into a studio assignment that was meant to challenge both their technical skills as ...

Grade 9 art students learned about the #refugeecrisis today in class. We watched @ctvcanadaam's interview with Chris Alexander (Canada's Immigration Minister), and we listened to Thomas Mulcair, who talked about the image of Aylan Kurdi, who drowned because his family was trying to escape an awful situation in Syria. We discussed the power of images and how they have the ability to raise awareness and understanding of events and issues. After studying Picasso's "Guernica", and the photograph of a young Vietnamese girl who was burned by napalm (photographer was Nick Ut), our class began to think of possible responses to the #refugeecrisis. How can our artworks help to make a difference? Can we develop a better understanding of events that matter in our world? Can we share our opinions with others through art? Can these expressions raise more awareness about an issue that upsets us? #art #artsed #arted #syria #society #immigration #NipRockArt A photo...

"A Simple Piece of Paper" 27 new grade 9 art students joined me in my class today. After I talked about the course, expectations and materials, they were given their first Challenge. I held up a blank sheet of paper and asked, "If I gave you this piece of paper, what could you do with it?" The answers started to come: "draw on it", "write on it"... "Good," I said, "what else?" More answers: "cut it", "fold it"... I went on. "What if this paper represented you? Would you lay flat? Would you be drawn on? What would be drawn? What colours would be painted? Would you be a sculpture? What form would you take? Would you be cut or torn? Would you be crumpled? ..." A simple piece of material, with so much potential. Just like us. I can't wait to see their papers tomorrow. #NipRockArt #art #artsed #arted A photo posted by Colleen Rose (@colleenkr) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:03pm PDT