Identity Project

Rooms 404 and 406 learned about the proportions of the human face and how to draw individual features before drawing themselves in a self portrait. They practiced their colored pencil drawing skills to add color to their drawings before adding their own individual personality to the background. Students used the medium of collage to glue words and images to the background to represent aspects of their identity.

Darron

Anyra

Brenda

Nia

Jennifer

Brittney

Jade

Takayla

Mosa

Kentreal

Demenica

Dorian

Derek

Celebrating Life on the 4th Floor!

Our 4th Floor ofrenda

A traditional ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos

In October, middle school students learned about the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Students discovered that the holiday that is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd has nothing to do with our American celebration of Halloween. Unlike the dark holiday of Halloween, Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of life. This holiday is celebrated in various ways in different areas of Mexico, but is focused on celebrating the lives of deceased family members. One way that family members and friends are memorialized is through an 'ofrenda' or alter with pictures of the person and a few of their favorite things from life.

In art class, middle school students created decorative artwork traditionally used in the celebration. Students created sugar skulls, 'papel picado' or paper banners, and brought in pictures of their own lost loved ones to contribute to our traditional ofrenda.

Below you can see the process of putting the sugar in the skull molds and popping them out. The skulls had to harden overnight before students could decorate them.

After the skulls had hardened, they were ready to decorate. We viewed traditional sugar skull decoration designs before designing our own skulls.

Students also designed cut paper banners or papel picado to decorate the ofrenda and fulfill the 'wind' requirement for the 4 elements of life that must be included in an ofrenda. The four elements of life are earth, wind, water, and fire.

A small group of students were selected to visit the National Museum of Mexican Art in the Pilsen neighborhood to view an exhibit that featured ofrendas. They then shared their knowledge with the rest of their classmates when they returned to class.

Middle school students also helped to share the meaning of the ofrenda with younger students at NTA. Many classes joined us on the 4th floor to learn about our artwork and Dia de los Muertos. Our younger NTA students were fantastic audience members for our middle school guides !

Sketchbook Paintings

At the beginning of the year, all students created sketchbooks to keep art class notes and sketches organized. The front of each students' sketchbook also holds a grade sheet to track daily participation and "I CAN " objective grades, which means that all middle school students always know their grades! Sketchbooks are also a place to practice drawing skills if students complete a project early.

The first element of art that we learned about this year was LINE. NTA artists of all ages learned about many types of line and how this simple element can create amazing designs. Middle school students used various tools (cardboard pieces, combs, etc) to move paint around a piece of construction paper to create line designs for their sketchbooks. Middle school was off to a great start to the year with this project !

Keith Haring Paintings

Artwork by Keith Haring

The first artist that middle school students were introduced to this year was Keith Haring. We observed photographs of his artwork and learned about his life as an artist. Haring was a contemporary artist who created public art, or art that could be seen by everyone. He created large murals and made his art accessible to everyone. His work often showed a social message and he created many works of art for many causes. Middle school NTA students used bright colors, simple figures, and lines to show movement and emotion to create their own artwork inspired by Haring.

Some classes created individual paintings to visually express a universal idea such as war, love, friendship, conflict, family, etc...

Another class worked as a group to portray "Celebrations and Challenges in School" using the style of Keith Haring.