We just had one of the best days in the art room at Nickels Intermediate School today! Students were able to work with artist, Jennifer Mercede, from Portland Oregon. She has work on display at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum right now for ArtPrize. Check out her mural here: 
http://www.artprize.org/jennifer-mercede/2013/rockin-colors-mural 

I saw Jennifer's work when I was down there visiting and fell in love with it right away. The bright colors, textures, and energy in the work just draw you in. So I sent Jennifer an email to see if she would be interested to work with our kids. She emailed me back and we started quickly planing from there! It is so exciting that this was all able to come together and I felt the excitement in the room today from the kids as well.

Students were given the opportunity to work in an expressive way that is very intuitive. It was exciting to hear the comments as they worked side by side on the mural with Jennifer. The first couple of groups were able to choose drawing tools to work with and then the later hours got to work with paint. Jennifer talked to them about different ways to paint, slow, fast, close your eyes, non dominant hand,  etc. It was really neat to see how they reacted to the different feeling in the varieties of ways to paint.

Tomorrow we will have another round of kids work on the mural with Jennifer and then she will add the final layers to the work. Once it is installed in the hallway over 250 pairs of hands will have had a part in making this work. The kids may not be able to see exactly what they added to the piece once it is finalized, but they will always have that memory of what it felt like to be a part of creating this kind of art and they will know what they contributed to the work. It is sure to brighten up the halls at Nickels. More photos to come later!

This truly is one of the best days of the school year and we are so lucky to have administration that supports our adventures in learning. We had a super day downtown Grand Rapids today for our ArtPrize field trip. We were awarded a transportation stipend from ArtPrize to help with some of the transportation costs. 

In the morning we looked at art in many of the outdoor venues including: the B.O.B., KCAD Federal Building, outside of the Children's Museum, Rosa Parks Circle, and other art along the way! At lunch we even had a special visitor that brought a Twister game for us to play with! Needless to say, we had a fun and busy day! : )

In the afternoon we went to the Ford Museum for an event called, Confetti Landscape Art Quilts and met with artist Ann Loveless. http://www.artprize.org/ann-loveless/2013/sleeping-bear-dune-lakeshore
Ann is a fiber artist who lives in Northern Michigan. She explained her work and process to the kids and then showed them how to create their own artwork. This was an event put on by ArtPrize Education Days. It was an excellent chance for the students to express themselves through color, texture, and composition, while using nature as inspiration. Here are some of the examples of the students work from today.
http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=70045

Another highlight of the trip was stopping by the mural of artist Jennifer Mercede. She has a large mural on display at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. She will be coming to Nickels on Monday and Tuesday to create a mural with our 6th grade students! This will be a super exciting experience for the kids. The piece will be installed in the hallway in the building. We are so excited to have her at our school and we will be posting more updates on it next week!
http://www.artprize.org/jennifer-mercede/2013/rockin-colors-mural

Right hand on red! Break out Twister, impromptu game!

Ann Loveless telling the kids about her fiber art and the process she uses.

Kids working hard to create their own Confetti Landscape Quilt art.

Collaboration takes many forms. We have been working hard on learning color theory and learning to make visual textures and patterns. Teachers in the building provided quotes for us to jump start our art. Each student created a letter that is in the quote. Once we put the quotes up in the hallway, it was interesting to see that each individual letter is a piece of art and as a whole it is art as well. To see more or our quotes and individual pieces that put together make the whole, please visit our artsonia.com gallery.

http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=70045

Students have been working on creating artwork for the Sooper Yooper art contest. In the past we have participated in the Sooper Yooper art contest and we are going to again this year! Mark Newman, the author of several children's books comes to Nickels each year to do a presentation on the invasive species of the Great Lakes. This ties directly into our Science curriculum that is studied in 6th grade. There are more details about the Sooper Yooper art on the website listed below.

http://sooperyooper.com/index.html

6th grade parents, I am currently updating the artsonia.com accounts. If you were getting emails last year, you are all set! If you have not confirmed your account you are missing out on viewing your child's artwork. Artwork from last year is in your account, you able to view it if you respond to the email that is sent by artsonia.com. Not sure if your child has an account, fill out the form that was sent home with them last week and I will check into it for you. You can also send me an email and I will enter your information. Please let me know if you have questions.

New to Nickels or did not fill the form out last year? Complete the form that was sent home or download it and return to school.

Attention 5th and 6th grade boys and girls, Nickels will be having Art Club again this year! If you are interested in signing up, pick up a purple form in the office or from Mrs.Marshall in the art room. You can also download it here, print at home and bring it in. We will meet twice a month on Wednesday after school. You will need to arrange for your own transportation. Again, it is open to both 5th and 6th grade. It is a fun place to learn more about art and make new friends who love art also! Get your forms turned in to Mrs.Marshall to save your spot!

Artsonia.com is promoting an art contest and we can enter artwork. We will not be working on this during class time, but if you want to work on it at home I can enter the work for you!

Here are the details from the artsonia.com website:
Accepting artwork until Friday, November 15, 2013
Welcome to the 2014 Space Foundation International Student Art Contest! Entries are now being accepted. Read on to learn important details about this contest, including the method for submitting entries right here on Artsonia, new age categories and acceptable artwork format.

Each year, the Space Foundation International Student Art Contest invites students, ages 3 – 18, from around the world to submit original artwork based on a space-oriented theme. The 2014 contest theme, “My Spaceship Looks Like…,” challenges students to design their own spaceship – and then interpret that idea into an original work of visual art (drawing, painting, mixed media or digital).

The Space Foundation will give a total of 25 awards to 24 winners: 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd- Place for each of age categories. In addition, the Space Foundation will confer a Space Foundation Achievement Award, which will be selected by the Space Foundation graphic arts team from among all the winners. 

Acceptable Artwork Media/Format:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Mixed Media
• Digital art

The Space Foundation, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, is a global, nonprofit leader in space awareness activities and educational programs that bring space into the classroom and major industry events. For more information on the organization, visit www.SpaceFoundation.org.

2014 Contest Details & Entry Information
Entries will be accepted from August 23, 2013, until November 15, 2013.
 
Prizes and Exposure!  Winner Categories -- 24 Total Winners / 25 Awards

• 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners (24 total) representing each age category
• One Space Foundation Achievement Award 
• All entries will be publicly displayed in the online Space Foundation art gallery on Artsonia.com and Winners will be showcased on the Space Foundation website

Things You Need to Know

• Public, private and homeschool students are eligible from all nations
• Teachers/instructors/homeschool teachers must submit artwork on behalf of their students
• The contest is free to enter
• Winners will be notified by no later than January 15, 2014
• The Space Foundation will then maintain ownership of the digital artwork and the right to use the digital images of the artwork for display and promotion.
• Click here for official rules on the Space Foundation art contest
• IMPORTANT: Original artwork should be uploaded in high-resolution digital format for reproduction and display
• IMPORTANT: Click here to download parent permission form for teacher to receive prior to submission

The year is going to begin for students tomorrow and I am very excited to see them all again! 6th grade is a fun year in art and we will create  many things before the end of the semester. 

This year in art you are required to have a two pocket folder and a number 2 pencil. We will not be using a sketchbook this year. These folders can be purchased at just about any office supply store. Try Meijer or Wal-Mart as well. They should be about 15 cents.

I am looking forward to a great year! Please make sure to check the website often for updates on what is going on in the art room at Nickels Intermediate School.