Happy Friday!  Here is some Ceramic Art…  (more stuff here at our blog)

Humans and masks have always gone together.  Cultures throughout history have made masks for ceremony and ritual.  The masks simultaneously hide the wearer while transforming them, exaggerating some power or characteristic within.  Animal features are often used to represent the wearer taking on that animals spirit or traits.  We looked at various masks from around the world and students created their own.  Here are some!:

Mary Ramirez

Sam Melvin

Gabby Katsma

Mitch Ludwig (more…)

Emulating the style of graphic artist Nikki Farquharson, SHS art students created their own marker drawings, choosing and tracing a subject matter and then surrounding it with colorful patterns.  Happy Friday and here they are:

Tessa Lyman

Grace Wombacher

Diana German

Rachel Tougas

Gabby Katsma

(more…)

Hope you all are enjoying this spring weather!  Here is some art from my 2-D class.  As a class, we went on a little field trip and did a photo scavenger hunt to try to capture interesting pictures.  Students then picked their favorite to turn into a linoleum print.  By hand, they colored on top of the grey tone photo, to simplify it into only 3 shades, black, white and grey.  They traced these shapes onto linoleum and cut them in layers, printing in whichever colors they wished.  Here they are:

Gabby Katsma

Rachel Tougas

Grace Wombacher

Diana German

Cambria Robinson

Amber Clark

Jesse Cantrell

Tessa Lyman

Tiffanie Rook

Alice Pfeiffenberger

Shyann Washik

Iris Anderson

Hayden Tiner

Here is some art from the Advanced Ceramics class:

We made lanterns to hold candles and took inspiration from Japanese style stone lanterns.  Here are the results!

Karen Rasmussen

Alex Ashford

Ben Miranda

Matt Moore

Tyler Quiring

TJ Allen

Chelsea Olesiuk

Audra Atwood

Izzy Barnwell

Julia Davenport

Here are some goblets we made.  We took inspiration from Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, the epic scene where the Nazi choses the wrong cup and ages to dust before your eyes! “He chose poorly”… I think they did a great job, here they are!

TJ Allen

Julia Davenport

Hannah Norris

Ben Miranda

Tyler Quiring

Emily Quinn

Audra Atwood

Richie Mack

Hayden Beard

Izzy Barnwell

Chelsea Olesiuk

Alex Ashford

And check out Jamie Jacobson’s Elephant!  The tail is a drawer that slides out to store something.

Here is some new work from Seward High’s Graphic Design class, all done using Photoshop:

Concert Poster

Jack Broughton

Riley O’Reagan

New Money

TJ Allen

Hunter Doan

Jack Broughton

Future Profession Faux Stencil

Jack Broughton

TJ Allen

Seward’s Choice Logo

Hunter Doan

New Projects from SHS Ceramics:

Tooth Brush Holders

Daren Sanderson

Tristan Boor

(more…)

Seward Highs 2-D class is really filled with talent this semester.  For their first big project they did a portrait of a person of their choice using the technique of grid enlargement.  This is a common art technique, utilized as far back as the middle ages. We studied the art of Chuck Close, which has always been based on a grid, although the style changed from photorealism to looser, more abstract styles like his self portrait below after he became partially paralized.

Students first chose a photo, folded a grid on it, and then folded a grid of equal proportions on a much larger piece of paper.  Then they drew the photo box by box, paying attention to the angles and placement of lines as they intersected the lines of the grid.  Its a pretty mathematical process.  They looked at values too, shading their drawing to show shadows and depth.  After they finished the value drawing, students could lightly trace it onto a new paper, and do a final draft in any medium they chose.  Both the grid drawing and final products turned out really cool, here they are:

Hayden Tiner – Watercolor & Ink

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Here are some Soap Dishes too!

Renzee Comia

Gabby Katsma

(more…)

We have a small but talented Graphic Design Class this year, here’s some stuff they’ve been working on!

Pop Art

Jack Broughton

Hunter Doan

Sierra Vandervegt

TJ Allen

Hybrid Animal AD

Jack Broughton

Hunter Doan

Regional Basketball TShirt Design

Hunter Doan

Riley O’Reagan

TJ Allen

Text

Hunter Doan

TJ Allen

Concert Poster

Hunter Doan

TJ Allen

Mount Marathon Logos

Hunter Doan

Riley O’Reagan

TJ Allen

Silver Salmon Derby

Jack Broughton

Riley O’Reagan

TJ Allen

Seward Halibut Derby

Jack Broughton

TJ Allen

One of the fun things about ceramics is the creativity involved.  You can drape clay over almost anything to take its form as it dries; wood, plaster, newspaper, glass… Draping a slab of clay into a concave surface is called a slump mold and onto a convex surface is a hump mold.  We did both methods, using paper plates as our slump molds and paper bowls as our hump molds.  You can also use just about anything to texture clay; your fingers, a fork, a leaf, a toy, stamps, whatever you can imagine…Seward High Ceramics first assignment was to make a textured plate and bowl and they really did a great job.  Here are some of the best:

Mary Ramirez

Gabby Katsma

(more…)

Here are some more ceramic projects from SHS!

Tea Pots

Hannah Stovall

Kira Ludwig

Sherelle Holmes

(more…)

Congratulations to Gretchen Lindquist for creating the winning mural design!  Her Jellyfish design will be located on the bathrooms by the skate park.  The Mural Society ordered us six 4′x8′ aluminum panels (thanks Jennifer Headtke & Abby!), which we cut down to 4′x6′ (thanks Ronn Hemstock!) to facilitate the 6′x 24′ design.  We then sanded, washed and primed all of the panels.  Gretchen is currently drawing/projecting the design onto the panels.  Once she’s done, her classmates will help her begin to paint!

Here are some more random projects from Advanced Art Students at Seward High:

Ashley Whiteshield

Ben Miranda

Ben Miranda

Emma Farris – Tree Dreamcatcher

Michael Marshall

Michael Marshall

Richie Mack

Izzy Barnwell

Brianna Honebein

TJ Allen

TJ Allen

Chelsea Olesiuk

Dylan Gillespie

Alex Ashford

Happy Thanksgiving!  Here is some of  Seward High Students recent artwork:

This assignment was simple, create a mask which extends beyond the shape of the face.  This is what they came up with!

Jon Kingsland

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Dream Catcher

Intro to art students created dream catchers using metal hoops, fake sinew, feathers and beads.  Dream catchers were first made by the Ojibwe Nation (aka Chippewa) to hang above sleeping babies.  The dream catchers were meant to entangle bad dreams while allowing good dreams to pass through the hole in the center.  Native groups around the country, including here in Alaska since have adopted the artform.  Here are Seward High Students versions:

Mason Olson

Autumn Young

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Advanced Art Students were asked to create a piece in any medium they chose focusing on texture.  Here is what they came up with:

Michael Marshal – Acrylic Paint

Ashley Whiteshield – Oil Pastel

Ben Miranda – Pencil and Crayon

Gretchen Lindquist – Ceramic Textured Tea Pot

Josh Dotomain – Acrylic Paint

Izzy Barnwell – Sharpie and Watercolor

Richie Mack – Pencil

Brianna Honebien – Ceramic cup and bowl

Kyle Hubbard – Ceramic Dragon Teapot

Dylan Gillespie – Ceramic cup set

Kyle Hubbard – Picasso Painting Homage

Here are some more ceramic projects.  There are lots more here at our blog.  We made gargoyles for Halloween and they turned our awesome!  Also, please vote on your top three choices for the skate park mural design!

Gargoyles/Sculptures

Rachel Tougas

Jessica Degnan

Diana German

Andy Hughes

Tiffanie Rook

Matt Moore

Sherelle Holmes

Erin Lane

Jamie Jacobson

Hannah Stovall

Wheel Projects

Sasha Hamner

Sherelle Holmes

Josh Dotomain

Emma Farris

Sasha Hamner

Erin Lane

Alice Pfeiffenberger

Zack Martin

Butter Dishes

Hannah Stovall

Kim Leavitt

Tiffanie Rook

Students first researched various famous painters from art history.  Then they picked their favorite artist and chose one of their paintings to recreate.  They drew it by hand, then painted it with acrylic paint using the verdaccio (italian) or grisaille (french) technique which was developed in the middle ages.  In this technique, the painting is first done entirely on a gray scale to create depth and value, and then color is added in glazes.  They did a great job, and succesfully integrated their own personalities into these paintings, check them out:

Billy Joe Wardlow

Pablo Picasso

Ayla Bunch

Dali’s Windmills, not by Salvador Dali but an homage to him…not sure who did this?

Mary Ramirez

Edgar Degas, Four Dancers in Half Figure

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I have two ceramics classes this year and they are filled with creative, patient students.  Here are some of their projects!

Butter Dishes

Jessica Degnan

Erin Lane

(more…)

For their first project, Seward High Cinematography students created digital stories about an object in their life that holds some personal significance.  They wrote about the object, photographed it, and interviewed eachother about it.  We studied color palette in films, and they were asked to create a color palette for their movie.  They used Photoshop to edit their photos to follow the color scheme they had chosen.  To create their digital story, they combined audio recordings, text, photos and music.  I think they did a great job, here they are:

 Noah Hamlin

Autumn Young

Advanced art students made self portraits….  They did some self reflection and thought of an emotion or state they would want to convey, and chose the medium they’d like to use.  Then, they drew themselves using a mirror.  Here are the end results!

Emma Farris

Dylan Gillespie

Alex Ashford

Briana Honebein

Michael Marshall

TJ Allen

Ben Miranda

Gretchen Lindquist

Richie Mack

Izzy Barnwell

Ashley Whiteshield