Tar Paper Paintings

I went to the AAEA (Alabama Art Education Association) fall conference this weekend and got to share ideas with fellow art educators...how glorious!  Being a singular art teacher within my school, I often feel isolated.  I also don't get the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with other teachers in my content all of the time like the classroom teachers do.  So, this conference was a welcome change in that regard!

I went to several workshops where I learned about alot of art techniques to bring back into the classroom.  I am very excited!  One of my favorite ideas didn't even come from a workshop. 

I got the pleasure of meeting Nacy Raia, the community outreach director at Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope Alabama.  She was also named "Special Needs Art Educator of the Year" for 2011 in Alabama.  Go Nancy!  She showed some of her students artwork.  The artwork was created by painting onto tar paper with acrylic paint.  She finished them by varnishing over them.  The aquatic themed paintings were created as a response to the recent Gulf oil spill.  I think they are beautiful!  In case you are wondering, yes tar paper is that stuff you put on a roof before you put down shingles.  You can get it at your local hardware store in a large roll for around $20 and cut it to size as you need it.

I already purchased some tar paper for my classroom and can't wait to experiment with painting on it with my students.  Wish us luck!

Mixed Media Windows

One of the main mediums I create my own art in is mixed media reverse painting and collage on old windows.  My best friend's dad had all of the windows in his house replaced and gave me some 30 plus windows.  My studio at home could not handle such a large quantity and I immediately thought about doing a lesson with my older students with the windows.

I also connected it to behavior and effort.  At the beginning of the school year, I showed my students examples of my window art and the blank windows I had brought to school.  I informed them that if they worked hard on their art throughout the year and had good behavior as a class, that we would create a collaborative artwork on a window in the Spring.

I collected old education books and maps from the thrift stores and let them cut out images that they liked to collage onto the back.  Then the classes brainstormed on shapes, and each class voted on one shape to use to create a repetition on their window.  They drew them on with sharpe markers.  Finally, they finished the windows by painting them.