Art Club Update + Fav Artist Friday

At our last Art Club meeting, we had a chance to Skype with Nashville-based landscape architect Matt Scott! He took time out of his busy day at Hodgson & Douglas to give us an awesome presentation about the history and process of landscape architecture, environmental art, and the importance of parks and planned outdoor spaces in our community.

Afterward, students got to interview him in real time from 250 miles away! Such a cool experience. Thanks, Matt!!

Now, check out this week's fav artist after the jump!

Fav Artist Fridays!

Allow me to introduce you to Jean-Michel Basquiat, a famous American artist with an uncanny ability to infuse emotion and movement into his work. Jean-Michel was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother. He was very smart and a great artist even as a kid. By age 11, he could speak, read, and write fluently in Spanish, English, and French.

Unfortunately, as talented as he was, he still had a difficult childhood. His mom encouraged him to draw and paint but his parents separated when he was eight, so his father raised him and his two sisters. That same year, Jean-Michel was hit by a car while playing in the street and suffered some pretty serious internal injuries. He also ran away a few times and dropped out of school in the tenth grade, at which point he was forced to sleep at friends' houses and sell t-shirts and handmade postcards to make ends meet. A little while later, he began writing graffiti under the pseudonym SAMO (pronounced same-oh, short for the phrase "same old") with his friend Al Diaz. This was the start of his career as a real artist.

SAMO graffiti on a building
in Lower Manhattan

SAMO graffiti with the trademark copyright
symbol Basquiat and Diaz used

SAMO graffiti found in NYC from 1976 - 79

After the dissolution of Diaz and Basquiat's friendship,
SAMO IS DEAD tags appeared throughout the city

After their friendship ended, Basquiat began participating in art shows like The Times Square Show in 1980. His primitive-style paintings incorporated text with images--a throwback to his days as a graffiti artist--and he became an important figure in the Neo-Expressionist movement. Artforum magazine published his painting The Radiant Child and he quickly gained recognition throughout the art world. He even became friends with another Fav Artist--Andy Warhol! Jean-Michel was also featured on the cover of The New York Times.



Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (fire hydrant) 

by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982



Untitled

Trumpet by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1984

Sadly, Basquiat suffered from depression and drug addiction. After Andy Warhol died in 1987, Jean-Michel became very sad and isolated himself from his friends and family. He died of a drug overdose later the next year. He was only 27.

Jean-Michel has a painting in the High's permanent collection, just like his friend Andy. Contact the museum and go check it out! For more information about this prolific African American artist, a gallery of his pieces, some of his famous quotes, and a collection of artworks dedicated to him by his closest friends visit www.basquiat.com.

House Resolution 1162 + Fav Artist Fridays!

November 6th is fast approaching, voters! If you haven't yet familiarized yourself with House Resolution 1162, please click the apple below and read about the proposed amendment to Georgia's constitution. This issue directly affects your kids, their schools, and teachers like me.

As is often the case, the language being used on the ballot just doesn't tell you enough. Get to know what you're voting for (or against!!) before you hit the polls in a couple months.

Now on to Fav Artist Fridays! (after the jump)

Great News + Fav Artist Fridays!

My apologies for the delay in posts! I was out sick last week and spent this week catching up. I've returned with some pretty great news, though . . .

Super excited to announce that Art Club is officially open to 4th and 5th graders with recommendations from myself or homeroom teachers! We will be meeting every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 2:45 to 3:45 in the Art Room. Our first meeting will be Wednesday, October 3rd.

If your student is nominated you will receive a detailed parent letter and permission form (also available for print below) to be returned with a $20 fee by Friday, September 28th.

 

I've got some really amazing stuff planned for our club--artist talks with professionals, contests, and a big surprise for the end of the year!

In other news, Love T. Nolan will be holding its very first Fine Arts Night and Art Show on February 26th, 2013 in conjunction with our annual Black History program!! We will be teaming up with Artomé and every LTN student will have work in the show that has been professionally matted and framed available for purchase to help raise money for the Art Department! More info soon.

Onward to Fav Artist Fridays! (after the jump)

Fav Artist Fridays!

I'd like to introduce you to one of the artists our third graders are currently studying, Swiss-German impressionist painter Paul Klee!

Klee in his Studio; image courtesy of
http://recontextualizingtheavant-garde.blogspot.com/.

Mr. Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland on December 18, 1879. His parents were both talented musicians--his father a music teacher and his mother a Swiss singer--and taught him to play the violin. He became so talented on violin that he was invited to play as an exceptional member of the Bern Music Association at age 11! Once he reached his teens, though, he decided to focus on visual arts.



Black Columns in a Landscape by Paul Klee, 1919

 

Southern (Tunisian) Gardens by Paul Klee, 1919

After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany he became great friends with artists like Wassily Kandsinsky, August Macke, and Franz Marc who were trying new things all the time! But it wasn't until a visit to Tunisia in 1914 that Klee really got inspired.  He said of his trip:



"Colour has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever... Colour and I are one. I am a painter."



Burg und Sonne (Fortress and Sun) by Paul Klee, 1928



Fire in the Evening by Paul Klee, 1929



Paul Klee's style and technique continued to change throughtout his artistic career and he was influenced by everything from war to jazz. Today, his paintings can sell for upwards of $7.5 million and in 2005 a museum was built in his honor in Bern, Switzerland. It holds about 4,000 pieces of his artwork!



Insula Dulcamara by Paul Klee, 1938

Check out www.paulklee.net/ for more information, quotes, and images.

Fav Artist Fridays!

This is the first in a series of weekly posts about great artists, past, present and future! Some you might recognize, while others may be brand new to you. I thought I'd start with an artist I love and who has inspired a lesson or two in my classroom:  Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. That name is quite a mouthful, isn't it?!



Friedensreich Hundertwasser
(December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000)

Mr. Hundertwasser was actually born Friedrich Stowasser on December 15, 1928 in Vienna, Austria. His father died when he was only a year old. Both Jewish, he and his mother were forced to hide from the Nazis during World War II. Luckily for us, Friedensreich survived the war and became one of the most exciting contemporary artists in Austria!

City View



Good Morning City

Irinaland over the Balkans

Exodus in Space

Mr. Hundertwasser was so talented that he also designed coins and stamps for Austria, Senegal and the UN in the 1970s and even became an architect! His buildings look a lot like his artwork.

Click here for more information and a catalogue of his other works.