James Turrell Light Art Class Party (2023)

 

Hey guys, I hope everyone is having a great summer! It's been way too long since I've touched this blog, but I'm hoping to share a few new event themes from this year and art projects I enjoyed making with my students this past semester. Today I'm sharing an art theme inspired by the Light and Space Movement, an art movement I was actually newly introduced to. I discovered it when my art appreciation class was learning about modern art movements and we had covered all of the main art movements from prehistoric to contemporary art, and I was researching lesser known but impactful movements. Basically, these artists considered light and space their art 'mediums' and made works that simply focused on and sometimes changed our interactions with light and space, making viewers consider them in a new way (or should I say in a new light). My students love Van Gogh, but I already themed art class parties on Van Gogh/Starry Night, so I wanted a new theme. One of my three students in that class expressed special interest in James Turrell, an artist who made light installations, and they all appreciated his works, so that was my theme. The student who enjoyed his work most made the one-pager poster on the whiteboard, shown below. 

For supplies I ran to Walmart the night before and found blue tie-dye balloons for around $1.50, bought white balloons, and made a balloon arch the morning of. I printed some of his works to stick on the board. I had some transparent plastic paper on hand and cut out a '2023' with that, layered construction paper ovals behind it, and at the back I attached a dollar tree button light that I had on hand to make it glow. I cut out geometric shapes used in his works to place below with the extra plastic paper. The best part was a light I found at Walmart for $10. It was pricey, but I thought it could be used as a gift or something after and I loved it so much that I ended up keeping it. My students loved it too, so I am going to use it in my classroom for future occasions. It was a small, plug-in light that moves the light in water-like motions at various speed settings, can change colors, and is super relaxing, so I had that lighting up the ceiling and walls during the class parties. 

For my end-of-the-year gifts this year, I ordered photos of individual students and class photos to send home, wrote letters on the back and made an acronym of positive adjectives for each student. I order bulk large stickers (the kind for laptops, water bottles and such) of animals and Bible verses to put inside, but the acronyms took so long, I ended up having students pick out their own three stickers. 

I hope this party theme and these class gift ideas are helpful for other art teachers and art enthusiasts. Thank you for visiting!

-Lauryn 

DIY Teacher Valentine Gift Idea + Art Class Valentines for Students

 This is a bit late, but here are some Valentine's Day gift and card ideas I created this year for my teacher colleagues and students. Some of the student cards are themed around artworks/artists, such as the middle school ones, which had a Howard Finster pun since we've been studying GA folk art. I found an artwork of Mark from the Bible to go with my markers and marker pun for my second graders. I used sweet treat artwork by Wayne Thiebaud for some of my lower school student gifts. Some of the gift tags just had a pun and I handwrote them. For the teachers, I bought containers of Valentine's Day donuts, put two in each bag, and separately packaged soap roses I fond at a local store in bulk. The poem I wrote for them is below on the free printable, but if you needed to change the wording like the word "colleague" or do different gifts, I made my tags in the Paint program most computers come with. I shopped all over and the stores all kept running out of supplies, so I had to do different things for each class. I gave glitter pens to my first grade class (since they all love glitter) and ice cream pens, chalk markers and chalk tags to my second grade class who expressed interest in using chalk markers, Sharpies or special pens with glitter glue sticks or rainbow pens for my third-to-seventh grade students, note sets with cats or dogs for my high school small group members, and stacked highlighters for my art appreciation class. I decorated my classroom with a balloon arch you may recognize from the party I recently posted (it was still put together, too, which saved a lot of time), and gave the option of spending the Monday before Valentine's Day creating Valentine's cards or drawing animals holding hearts in art class. I unfortunately did not really photograph the beautiful works before I sent them home. 

Free Printable Cards:

I hope you enjoyed these free printable cards and find the Valentine's Day ideas handy for next year! 

-Lauryn 

10 Day Art Challenge for Quarentine (Free Printable)

Hey everyone! Today I would like to share a fun, quick 10 day art challenge that will hopefully help you grow as an artist which I created the other day. At the very least, maybe you can try out some new techniques or media. If you are like me, you have plenty to do so you aren't really 'bored' but you lack the motivation to do what needs to be done. If that is the case, maybe this will get you excited and spark some energy. I can't speak from experience since I will be trying it out with you for the first time, starting today. If you are bored, then here's a cure for your boredom! Below is the free printable challenge checklist. Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting!
-Lauryn

DIY Gift Basket for Artists/Creatives

This gift basket is perfect for teen girls, women and artists especially. You could change it up, of course, and do a boy version. It's super easy to put together. You just need:

-A little plant (the one I used was $1 on sale)

-A notebook/sketchbook

-Stickers 

-Other goodies such as a candle, sugar scrub, washi tape or paper

Place everything in a basket with tissue paper or paper shreds. Easy as that, you have a lovely, practical gift!

I hope you find this inspirational!

-Lauryn

10 DIY Gifts an Artist Could Make for Less than $2

Whether it's for Valentine's, Easter, birthdays, or Christmas, gifts are difficult. They are also, many times, expensive. So, here is a list of stylish but practical gifts artists can make for less than $2!

1. Design a tee-shirt. I buy tee-shirts from Dollar Tree, and then paint a character the gift recipient loves with acrylic paint. Not only is it a custom, thoughtful, and fun gift, it's also very practical!

2. A Typography Print. Typography/calligraphy prints are very popular, fun to make, and stylish.
They can be made either by hand or digitally.

3. Draw or Paint a Character. This is a great gift for children!

4. Create Pottery. Okay, this will probably cost more than $2, but if you divide the clay into separate gifts, each gift can still be less than that. As an example, I created ring-dishes for friends and a teacher.

5. Polymer Clay Jewelry. There are countless tutorials and ideas for necklace charms, rings, and other polymer jewelry. These all require small amounts of clay, and should therefore cost less than $1.

6. A Custom Portrait. If you like to draw people, you could draw a custom portrait of somebody (or of their pet). Who wouldn't like that?

7. String Art. You can get a free pallet from almost anywhere, buy the string at thrift stores for $0,50, and all you need are the nails (assuming you have a hammer), which cost around $1.50. 

8. A Custom Sign. Again, find a free pallet, but this time only use one board, and paint a custom massage with acrylic paint (which is $0.50 a bottle at Walmart).

9. Draw or Paint a Landscape. Think of somewhere the gift recipient loves, and paint or draw a picture of it.

10. A Scrapbook or Journal. Who wouldn't love a sentimental scrapbook, bible journal, smash book journal, or vacation journal? Whatever type of journal it is, it is sure to make a great gift and can easily be done for less than $2.

That was all ten gift ideas. I hope this is helpful!
-Lauryn