Showing off a Little... and hopefully Selling out!

So my announcement isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. I've been invited to show/ display/ sell my work at some local events coming up! The first I will be displaying some of my necklaces and a bit of pottery at the Renaissance Centers' annual student pottery sale on Saturday December 5th, if you're around stop by! The other event is in Nashville on December 11th. Please come!!! At the "Artists in Nashville" December Art party I will be showing my figures, pottery, as well as my necklaces!

Artists In Nashville

For more information on the Renaissance Center click here

Presented at TAEA/ and it was a TRIP!

This weekend was the TN art educators state wide conference in Gatlinburg TN at Arrowmont School for Crafts! As mentioned in earlier blogs I was selected as a super- session presenter! My presentation was called "Art for All tricks and tips for your Inclusion friendly classroom!" The morning of my presentation (which it was at 1pm) I tripped and fell down the stairs in the house I was staying at on Arrowmont campus and sprained my ankle. First an ambulance crew came- told me I needed x-rays because they couldn't tell how bad my ankle was without it. So someone from TAEA brought me to the doctor there in Gatlinburg. I was so upset at that point I truly did not think that we were going to make it back in time for my presentation! Fortunately they after sitting there a while we were in and out and able to make it back in time to present! I had 20 people show up-some stood in back because a lack of seating even! Miss Bonnie even came and sat front row. I had started late, didn't have lunch, and still received rave reviews from my peers on my presentation! Afterwards the only criticism that my mentor gave me was that I should not have read from the slides- this I did not know but now know for nationals! Kelly said other than that I was dead on every point that I made, thought it was great I had so many questions, and that the resources I brought were awesome!

Aside from my awesome experience presenting I also got to make a honey dipper in wood turning which was SO MUCH FUN!!!! Below is a photo of my honey dipper and Miss Bonnie Rushlow holding up my boot after my presentation!

The Frist Art Center/ Art Quest/ and Sunshine Art Gallery!!!

Today I took my students to Nashville. We went to the Frist and Art Quest as usual. Something new in artquest is their awesome animation station!!! Below are some photos and videos of what my students created!

Animation in Action!!!

Last but not least we did something I haven't ever done with my students before. I took them to the sunshine art gallery in the Tennessee Art League to visit with Shaunna a professional artist there. The students asked questions and Shaunna talked about her creative process. The students were very excited to see a real professional artists studio space!!

Halloween Pumpkins... classic jackolanterns and New England Pride

I don't care that the red soxs didn't make it this year to the series... I still love them!

Dale Chihuly coming to Nashville!!!!

Check out this article about Chihuly's artwork coming to cheekwood and there will also be an exhibit at the Frist at the same time!

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32350

More Completed Skulls!

El Dia De Los Muertos: Skulls in Progress

To celebrate the day of the dead we are kicking it up a notch from last years stuffed coloring sheets of skulls. We are making skull masks using paster gauze and plastic mask mold forms. Once dry the students are decorating them with sharpie markers, paint, sequins, and glitter glue! Of course the project will be followed up with a lesson on the Day of the Dead, a video on the holiday and we will be making sugar skulls.

Students smoothing out the plaster over the masks. Notice that there are circles drawn around the eyes and nose, this is to keep the students from covering up those areas. Skulls do not have eyes and noses only cavities where they are supposed to be.

Students use sharpies, paint, and glitter glue to decorate thier skulls with.

One of the final products. More to come! All will be posted on our schools artsonia.com account!

They Might be Giants: WIcked Awesome Kids Albums Check them Out!

Artsonia Artist of the Week Finalist! GO VOTE!!!!

Dear friends,

Great News! Kenneth595, from The King's Daughters' School, has been selected as a finalist for this week's "Artist of the Week" award for the 10th-12th age group. The finalist who receives the most online votes between now and Saturday October 17 will be selected as our "Artist of the Week."

To view the finalists and cast your vote, simply click on the link below. Voting is limited to one vote per computer per day for each age group!

http://www.artsonia.com/aotw/vote/0/6320864

The "Artist of the Week" will be featured on the Artsonia homepage and will receive a commemorative plaque from Artsonia. In addition, Blick Art Materials has generously donated $100 gift certificates to the winning teachers and $50 to the winning artists.

All fan club members from The King's Daughters' School have just been sent an email inviting them to vote, but we encourage you to personally spread the word at school, making sure all your students cast their votes right away!

Thank you for submitting your artwork to Artsonia and helping every child be an artist!

too cute!

2010 NAEA Conference Presenter!!!

I received two offical e-mails this morning notifying me on the acceptance status of my two proposals. The one titled : Special Needs, Art and IEP's... Oh MY! was accepted!!! I am so excited! The other one job searching outside the box was rejected- but I will re-write it and try again for next year. I was so exicted about the first e-mail reading congradulations, that I originally miss read the second one... but its ok because I did read the first one correct and I am presenting at NATIONALS!!!! Hope to see all my fabulous art teacher friends there!

Chilean Rainsticks!

Over a year ago the Frist Center hosted a free teacher workshop through VSA. Through that workshop we learned how to make rainsticks. Now I made rainsticks in grade school myself but I have to say that these were a lot cooler! We used a heavy cardboard tube- from the papertowel rolls in the schools bathroom, nails, rice & beans, wrapped the tubes in wall paper (from sampler books), and decorated them with strung beads, feathers, etc. Ever since my janitor has been saving those tubes for me. Finally inspired by all the rain that TN has been having, I decided it was about time to make them. The students learned where rainsticks are originally from- Chile, what continent Chile is found on (HELLO social studies CONNECTIONS :) and what the rainsticks were used for, essentially a prayer for rain to come. The students have LOVED working on these! Two weeks and a nasty burn from the glue gun later they are nearly all finished. Here is a list of the materials that we used:

paper towel tube

power drill (drill holes into the tube)

tooth picks

rice & beans

wall paper sample books

yarn/ string

ribbon

pony beads

crep paper

hot glue gun - (to only be used by the teacher!)

feathers

rubber bands

masking tape

sharpie markers

scissors/ paper cutter

Check out all of the finished Rainsticks @

http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=111773

TAEA conference Presenter: November 2009!!!

Here is the description of my upcoming presentation as it will appear in the conference program!

Saturday, November 14th, Super Sessions—1:00-1:50

“Art for All: Tricks and Tips for Your Inclusion-friendly Classroom”
Presenter: Rachel Motta. This session will provide insights and information about how to develop and adapt lesson plans for students with special needs including (but not limited too), MR, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, ODD, Tourette’s Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder, PDD, and Schizophrenia. The presenter works specifically with special needs students and will provide participants with definitions to various special education classifications as well as offer lesson plans that are great for all ability levels. All Levels.
Location: Wood Auditorium

This presentation will be given at Arrowmont School for Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN>

Pinwheels for Peace- The Results art in!

So if you live in Tennessee you know and have been bummed about the rainy weather. Unfortunately on Pinwheels for Peace Day we could not display our pinwheels outdoors as the project calls for, so ours are displayed on the wall outside of the artroom. My students really enjoyed this project and did an excellent job with it! I highly reccomend participating in this project next September if you haven't already planned on it!

Pinwheels For Peace!

We are so doing this, this week in class! This site provides a template for pinwheels and during my dry runs of constructing the pinwheel myself I discovered that the pipecleaner attachment really only works when using the pony beads along with it! Try it out! Easy and fun Art with a Purpose!

http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/pinwheelsforpeace/home.html

A Trip to the Frist Art Center 9/3/09

I cannot rave enough about the Frist Center! It is Free and always FUN! The students love it, it serves as a great good-behavior incentive, and they learn! The students saw the Chuck Close show yesterday and loved it. Ofcourse those that had been before couldn't wait to make it to Art Quest...

Finger Print Portraits (like Chuck Close!), Painting, and Printmaking...

Line Communication, (students draw on the plexi-glass on both sides with dry-erase markers), and magnetic city construction!

My own personal creations.

So I am starting to create my ceramic pendant necklaces to sell at various events throughout the year. Here is the first one of many to come of the KDS logo... heres to hoping they will be a hot seller at the TAEA conference suitcase sale!

Sculptamolding VanGogh's Starry Night!

After talking with the students about how very thick VanGogh's paintings were- we made some super thick paintings starting with a layer of sculptamold over crinkled up taped down newpaper! Super Chunky and Super FUN!





Creating the understructure using newpaper and medical tape (because it was donated to us and it worked well for the project!)

Spreading the wet sculptamold over the matt board and newpaper understructure.

Painting the projects once the sculptamold was dry. I waited a couple days to make sure that the sculptamold was good and dry. The students pallets were limited to metalic silver, gold, pink, blue, and flat blue and yellow.

Check out the results!

All of the individual Artworks have been submitted to Artsonia under the King's Daughers' School and should be up within a few days!