Halloween {insert scream here}

Halloween is the artist's holiday. It's a day to be someone you are NOT. It's creative. It's fun, It's creepy and it's whatever you want it to be. Most of my students know how much I love Halloween. I come in dressed up and I encourage my students to do the same. Last year I took our white wedding dress from our Studio 2 observational drawing and made it into a Zombie Bride costume. We are lucky enough to have a state-of-the-art photography studio in our school and our advanced photo students take full advantage of using it! Halloween is the perfect time to shoot images of anyone and everyone dressed in costume. Last year advanced photography student Vincenzo Dimino took these images of me in my costume and a new tradition was born.

Now, with the help of Vincenzo, Ms. Harney and the photography studio, Halloween is brought to a whole new level. This year Vincenzo, Alannah Allen and I decided we would recreate Frida Kahlo's famous painting, The Two Fridas.

The Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo

If you have taken any of my classes, you know that Frida Kahlo is my favorite artist. I have been planning on being Frida for Halloween for some time now. When Alannah, who is one of my honors students volunteered to be the "other" Frida for this project I nearly jumped out of my skin! We spent most of September plotting out our costumes and painted the background on an old sheet. We had the shop teacher cut the plastic heart I bought at the halloween store in half and painted some rope red for the vein that connects the Fridas and BOOM>>> we did it! Vincenzo worked his magic in the studio and this is how it turned out!

photographed by Vincenzo Dimino

Alannah Allen as Frida

Me as Frida


I just wanted to say THANK YOU again to Vincenzo and Alannah for making this project happen! Not only was it FUN to be Frida for a day, but the process was a creative journey. I have decided that every Halloween, we will tackle a new a new artist and recreate an iconic work of art!
Currently taking suggestions....

Fall Wrap up and Update

October is such an exciting month in the art room that it's hard to keep up with everything that is happening, while it's happening! I thought I would take a few minutes to post a round-up of October and fill everyone in on what is coming up!

Studio Art 1 has been hard at work since the beginning of the school year. Their first assignment was a collage piece that required them to learn about two very famous collage artists- Romare Bearden and Faith Ringgold. To see some of Bearden's work and learn a bit about him click: HERE.  To see some of Faith Ringgold's work and learn about her life click here: HERE Students enjoyed working in the medium of collage and were challenged by creating a work of art that needed to be a self portrait without drawing themselves or taking a photograph. Take a look at some of the creative works of art they produced!

Molly White

Ashley Sanchez

Kevin Plante

David SanPaolo

Students in my Studio 1 class have since moved on to learning about the color wheel, tinting and shading scales and are now finishing up their painting projects. I will be sure to post those next month when they are all completed! 

Drawing 1 students have been hard at work learning the basics looking and observing. We completed our unit on contour line, which teaches our students how to really look at what we are drawing. It is the difference between drawing what you actually see and drawing what you think you see. We talk a great deal about line quality in this unit. Contour line drawings are my favorite because the line is a very slow detailed line. It sometimes appears exaggerated and can be described as yarn-like. Take a look at the some of the amazing drawings from this unit.

Elizabeth Arias

Marisa Enes

Haley Blanchette

Haille Glaser

Jacqueline Wonson

Jessica Oliver

Kayla Saltonstall

Fulton Cunha

Julia Demarijan

Katey Latassa

Drawing 1 students have now moved on to learning about shading and how to use value. They all received a set of drawing pencils and will soon be working on how to make flat shapes look three dimensional with just a few pencils!

Stay tuned!