TRICIA TOONE | artist & teacher

Raku Firing at Frenchtown School

John Fulwood of Kissimmee River Pottery came to Frenchtown School to raku fire the ceramic work of grades 5-8. Despite the rainy day, I have to admit I personally had fun spending the day outside huddled around the kiln with John, and his assistant Marion. John brought a canopy for the students to stand under, although most decided it was more important to get an up-close look at the action than to be comfy and dry.

For most of the students of Frenchtown School, this was their first experience with ceramics. From raw clay to the raku firing, it was fun to appreciate the wonder of the ceramic process with them. I hope to have John back again next year!

Thank you Frenchtown PTA and Board of Education for making it possible!

Skele Guitar Painting Complete

Skele guitar body is ready to go. I've worked on lightening it up overall and making the texture a bit more gritty...as a pirate guitar should be. Once fully dry and varnished, Rick will assemble the custom built neck, electronics, and decorative pieces.

The guitar will come complete with a removable rum flask that fits in the guitar body made by tinsmith Carl Giordano. I think "His Noodliness" would be delighted.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."

- Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson asks important questions about the purpose of education and the 

role of creativity. He describes how we may be educating children out of their creative 

capacities because we reinforce a fear of making mistakes.

New Group Portrait

I just finished this portrait of four sisters. This portrait was commissioned as a surprise gift from family members. So the it ended up being a tough one because it was done completely from photographs and I have never met the women being painted. I usually like to work at least in part from life. Photographs just don't do justice to real life. I know there are a lot of artists out there who comfortably work entirely from photographs and it's typical that they never meet their subjects. 

As I worked on this project, it almost seemed like I did know these girls. Perhaps staring at their images long enough, I constructed imaginary personalities in my mind. Either way, it was a fun painting to do. I think I'm going to miss them when they're gone.

Well, I think the cat approves.

Tim Burton in 8th Grade Art

Tim Burton will be coming up more than once this year in 8th Grade. We just compared a clip from "Nightmare Before Christmas" with "Vincent", a short animated film created by Tim Burton in 1982. Students noticed so many consistent stylistic traits. Here's a few.

• large, vacant eyes
• limited palette, if any color at all
• three dimensional spaces have the appearance of a two dimensional line drawing
• exaggerated forms (extremely round, long, or thin)
• Tiny feet, hands, noses

One student jumped out of his seat to pause the clip of "Vincent". 

"There's Jack!"

True enough, at 5:11 you can see what looks like an early version of Jack and Sally haunting little Vincent. A great example of an artist chewing on an idea over time.

 

Students are now designing an original character inspired by the style of Tim Burton. They will create the character as a sewn material soft-sculpture. I'll post images of the characters as the project progresses. Later in the year, we will revisit Tim Burton as we will attempt stop motion animation.

What Can We Make With Shapes?

In Kindergarten, we have been looking around at all the shapes we can see in the world. Often when we draw or cut shapes  to create what we have in mind, it can be easy to remain stuck in old habits or cliches. (Circle heads, stick arms, corner sun with rays, etc)

In this project, we started with a pile of pre-cut shapes. "Using your imagination, what could that shape be? What could you make with that unusual shape?" 

Students played, trying many options first to see what they could make. They glued down their favorite picture. Afterwards, students created titles for their work.

Some results...

The Furious Superhero Kid by Joey

I love Joey's choice of the "boomerang" like shapes for arms and legs. It gives a feeling of action to his superhero kid.

A Storm by Jon

You can see the victim of this storm seeking shelter under a large brown shape, while "debris" is blowing past.

Rainy Days by Mackenzie 

Small shapes representing rain surround Mackenzie's female figure. I think it is fun to contrast the feel of Mackenzie's weather with the feel of Jon's storm. 

Group Weaving Center

I believe this is my new favorite blog. I love seeing the results of Nan's choice based art room. I would like to gradually work choice based into my art program. However, it requires becoming quite creative with space.

With some 8th grade help, we just began a group weaving center. It has just begun, but I will update the progress.