January - March Art Update!

Whew, we made it to Spring Break! It's been a very busy stretch, thus the reason for the condensed blog post! Enjoy looking at everything our artists have been working on since the last update. Happy Spring Break everyone!

Student Art Show!

The Gallery of Student Art will be taking place for 2025 alongside the 78th Annual Ozaukee County Art Show. Public viewing dates are Sunday, March 9 – Sunday, April 6.

A public opening reception will be held on Sunday, March 23 from 1-4 pm at the CCC. The Ozaukee County Art Committee will conduct a short gallery tour/talk given by a professional Wisconsin artist they have selected at 1:30 pm. (Only the Adult and High School Divisions will be judged as usual- not the youth (K-8) artwork in the Gallery of Student Art.)

Artwork by Mrs. Miller's art students from Westlawn, Thorson, and Parkview.

Kindergarten artists completed THREE art projects since the last update and are now starting a new one! Below you will see pictures of their Clay Cupcakes, Primary Color Nursery Rhymes, and Abstract Found Object Prints. The students are now starting a Robot project!

Clay Cupcakes... construction complete :)

Students chose 1 of 4 nursery rhymes that had characters in threes. They practiced drawing them before creating them with painted paper.

Students painted their paper grid with red, yellow, and blue and also watched a couple of super fun videos teaching them about the primary colors!

Found objects printing with primary colors... SOO FUN! The students used all types of objects to paint and print with. Everything but a paint brush :)

The goal was to create the secondary colors (green, orange, and violet) using the three primaries!

Painting our Clay Cupcakes :)

Stamping gears for the background of our next project... Robots!

First grade artists enjoyed making their clay project inspired by winter showers and then moved to a paper batik project inspired by spring flowers! Below you will see pictures of their Clay Snowmen, VanGogh inspired Sunflower Paper Batik, and their newest project, Japanese Inspired Self Portrait. 

Play-dough practice for our snow people!

The Snowmen were made out of the stacked pinch pots and lots of added details.

A side by side look at a completed snowman and one that has not been fired in the kiln.

After reading the book "Camille and the Sunflowers," students practiced drawing their own vase of sunflowers with a guided drawing. They did an incredible job!

Proud artists!

More artists showing off their practice drawings :)

After coloring our final drawing with crayon using hard pressure, the students learned the mystery step... crumpling up their artwork! Why?? So that when it is painted with black, the paint settles into the cracks giving it the signature "crackle" effect that a batik has.

Bravo Mrs. Staffaroni's class!

Snowmen and Batiks on display at Westlawn!

Creating the background to our Japanese Inspired Self Portraits. The students used a cup to resist the paint in order to create the moon. 

Students drew and painted the tree, then added more branches with blow painting using straws!

Cherry blossom drawing practice in our sketchbooks.

Printing our cherry blossoms with the bristles of the paintbrush. BEAUTIFUL!

Second grade artists had a super fun couple of months in the art room! They had a chance to design their own ocean themed shirts and hats for the 2nd grade musical while learning the batik and tie dye process... so fun! They also had a guest artist visit them leading up to the district wide field trip to see "Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch." A Puppeteer extraordinaire and Parkview grandparent, Jeanette Martinek graciously volunteered her time to give the kids a presentation on puppets, that she made and used in her long career of being a Puppeteer :) The students then got to finish up their "Pop Art Paint & Palettes" project by boing paper mache, painting, and using model magic (air dry clay). We are now starting our next project, Kente Cloth Inspired Paper Weaving!

Ocean themed shirt and hat designs!

Creating a resist on the shirt with paste and glue.

Super fun hat designs!

Students had a blast using many different materials making their artwork a mixed media creation.

Tie dye!!! Thank you so much to the parent volunteers that came to help! 

We also had some amazing parent volunteers that came to help at Parkview :)

Mrs. Abrahamson's class

Mrs. Huber's class

Ms. Miller's class

Puppet Presentation with Mrs. Martinek!!!

Paper mache for our paint tubes. Fun and MESSY! A lot of the students were grossed out by it, but they were all good sports ;)

Students created the "paint" by forming and shaping the air dry clay (Model Magic is AWESOME).

Painting!

Students came up with names for their paint tubes.

A FAVORITE project for sure!

Third grade artists completed their beautifully painted Color Mixed Lights artwork, and then began their clay project, Clay Canopic Jars! 

Students had so much fun mixing colors together in order to achieve a realistic look of overlapping light bulbs. The goal was to trick their eyes!

Some free choice art creations around Valentines Day :)

Way to go 3rd grade artists!

Students learned about the history of the Egyptian artifact, including why and how they were made. Students then had the fun challenge to come with an idea for their own head!

Students added pictures of inspiration to a Google doc that was printed for them. They then practiced forming and shaping the head with play-dough before starting the clay.

Starting the clay by making the base, a cylinder.

Students rolled out slabs, cut them using a paper template, draped them around the foam cup as a mold, and attached a base using the "4 S's" - score, slip, stick, smooth

We can't wait to show off the finished projects soon! In the meantime, the students will be doing lots of creative problem solving and exploring as they figure out how to make their head look like their chosen theme.

Fourth grade artists finished up their fantastic Sewn Stuffies, and concluded the project by doing "musical chairs art critique." They did "SEW" great with this project and really enjoyed the two art processes of dry felting and sewing. The students JUST concluded their Clay Coil Sgraffito Bowls! Some are out of the kiln and others will head there over break. They are AWESOME!

Dry felting on details.

Such a fun variety and sew well made for their first time.

Can you identify their themes? Two students collaborated on an idea.. one made a peanut butter Stuffie and the other made jelly :)

Designing our Clay Coil Bowls and practicing with playdough!

Students built their coil designs on a plastic bowl tightly covered in plastic wrap.

When students were done building they blended the entire outside.

Glazing! They used a glaze that is specially designed for greenware (clay that has not yet been fired in the kiln).

The students were SO creative with their glazing exploring techniques like splatter painting with a toothbrush and blending or mixing colors.

The BEST part of the project was taking the clay bowl off of the plastic bowl (mold) to reveal the coil designs inside!

Mrs. DeGarmo's bowls on display at Thorson.

Fifth grade artists finally finished the paper making unit and their sketchbook cover designs look AWESOME! The students were asked to embellish their paper by creating areas of value and emphasis. They also did a FABULOUS job with weaving and most students seemed to enjoy it, even though it took patience and perseverance! Thorson and Parkview's fifth grade classes got to do a one day project with Ms. Griffith, a field study student from Alverno that is with use Thursday morning and Friday afternoon. The project was a hit and she did a great job teaching it! The artists are now into their next project which will be an Acrylic Paint Pour in a Printed Frame using linoleum printing. 

Foam letters and handmade paper low relief sculpture.

Weaving designs! Students had the choice to do a wall hanging tapestry or a set of two coasters.

Looking good!

A little more paper making. These girls needed to borrow a smock and got a kick out of wearing the little kids smocks from the bin, hehe. 

Pictured are handmade paper sketchbook covers with letter impressions, the original 3D letter, weaving project, and the wo reflection sheets that go along with the projects. The kids enjoyed DOUBLE "musical chairs art critique" when concluding both projects. 

Great kids and great projects!
Ms. Merten's class

Mrs. Wilde's class

Mrs. VanSluys' class

Wire wrapped marble necklace art lesson by Anissa Griffith. Anissa is pronounced with a short I.

So cool and the students loved them! They proudly showed them off as they left art class. Students had a choice between making a necklace or bookmark with the caged marble design. The project was a great intro to jewelry making. Ms. Griffith makes her own jewelry and sells it at https://www.fireflysong.com/

For our next project, we are re-using our 3D letters by gluing them to a cardboard base. The students then painted it with one color of their choice. We will then do an Acrylic paint pour over top and create a printed frame using carved linoleum blocks!

Art Club

Westlawn Art Club students enjoyed another amazing and unique experience at the end of January. Chris Behrs and his high school tech theater crew gave us a wonderful behind the scenes tour of the Cinderella Set design. Even our school superintendent joined us! We started in the HS art dept to hear about the planning and brainstorming that went into the set design, which included 3D models... SO COOL! 

The students are involved in all aspects of the show including the costumes, lighting, props, and of course set building and designing. What an incredible example of many character traits that we talk about and teach at our schools... cooperation, commitment, creativity, and so much more. We saw it all in action and were inspired!

To see all the photos click the link below.

Cinderella Set Design Tour - Photo Album

We are starting to make progress on our stained glass projects! Many students have started copper foiling and others have finished that step and have begun to solder! We are SO grateful to our adult helpers that have so graciously volunteered their time. Mrs. Slater (or Ms. Kari as the students call her), Mrs. LeSage, and Mrs. Young (my mom). We also had a couple of Dad's join us last time to help us solder. One parent is a welder! If any other parents are interested in joining us to help out, let me know!

Our glass cutting experts! Mrs. LeSage does stained glass as a hobby and Mrs. Slater works at Glaze and has a lot of experience with glass fusing!

Almost ready to copper foil!

Grinding and cutting.

Great group of artists :)

The personalized designs made for a more challenging and slow moving project, but they will be even more meaningful to the students when they're finished!

Soldering!

On this day we had Ms. Kari, two Art Club Dads, and Ms. Griffith (our field study student) join us. It was GREAT to have the extra helping hands :)