The facts of life!

One fact of life that I've learned in my 30+ years is that things that should be easy never are. Well almost never. Here's a great example. And perhaps this will be the last art show-off entry. Perhaps not. We'll see.

So I dreamed up this idea to do mobile's made from painted CDs because I've got stacks of these old CDs that you used to get in the mail with a free trial offer for dial-up internet service. Remember those. They were so annoying. And they weren't recyclable back then so I started collecting them, sure I'd use them somehow, someday. So my idea was to paint them and then hang them in mobiles. Well, it sounds easy anyway. But they came out so awesome. Check them out:

They hang in the hallway, just under the open rafters and skylights (I know, brilliant, right?).

Another shot of them, lit from the bottom and top. I LOVE how they came out!

One team chose "Disney Characters" as their theme. Each student on that team chose a specific story and then designed a CD for the hero, heroine, sidekick and villain. Here are their CDs up close!

Aladdin - by Crawl & Rhoda

Peter Pan - by Mary Anne

The Incredibles - by Marcus

The Lion King - by Dorthy

The other team chose "The Elements: Earth, Wind, Fire & Water" for their theme. They were able to be a little more abstract with their work.

You take 'em both, and then you have...

We've got plenty of both. Here's some more art work. I'm like a proud mama when it comes to this stuff. I try to teach the kids that the only fair way to judge art is in whether or not the artist got what they intended to get out of it. Beyond that, and certainly once the artist is gone, there is no fair judgement on art. It is what we want it to be and how we feel about it. Completely subjective. So in their art, I really only grade them on their efforts. Some of them get more than they hoped for out of their work, others don't quite make the mark. It's all in fun though and it's really therapeutic I think. Here are some more of their masterpieces.

Crawl's Shrek Piñata

Addison's Princess Fiona Piñata

Mary Anne's "Up" - Hot Air Balloon Piñata

Lillian's Lady Bug Piñata

Ned's Sun Piñata

Argus' Penguin Piñata

Dorthy's Simba - The Lion King Piñata

Kaleigh's Coke Bottle Piñata

Rhoda's Pig Piñata

A display of all our work.

Painted Eggs

Crawl's Humpty Dumpty

Addison's Flowers

Ned's Fiery Night

Hillary's Eyeball

Mary Anne's Mouse

The Sesame Street Gang

Rhoda's Bert, Big Bird & Ernie

Rhoda's Oscar the Grouch

You take the good, you take the bad.

In an attempt to add electives to our very limited class schedule, I teach art. Now, I like to play around with things and be creative from time to time but I'm certainly no artist. Still, we have a pretty good time and the stuff they produce is pretty awesome. Of course, with the good .... you have to take the bad. I know that teachers aren't supposed to have favorites and are supposed to think everyone's artwork is genius, it's own way. Well, I'm not that kind of teacher I guess. ;) Check out some of these:

Lillian's Surprised Panda statuette

Mary Anne's Buck statuette

Argus' Graffitied Brick Wall statuette

Addison's Cheshire Cat statuette

Ned's Surf's Up Wave statuette (Blue Crush, hahaha)

Crawl's Super Mario statuette

Cast of Characters

Ned

Stan

Addison

Elliot

Eliza

Coral

Marcus

Jackson

Jeffry

Dorthy

Kelsey

Lillian

Travis

Crawl

Mugsley

Rickles

Judd

MaryAnne

Susie

Argus

Graham

Dude

Collins

Crate

Gersey

Bo

Welcome Back.

Remember the sweathogs? Well I don't really either. I mean I do, but only from TV Land. I'm living in the land of the sweathogs. :) I work with teens "in crisis." They're not street kids, like TV's sweathogs but they're just as precocious and lovable. It's true that I'm not a man, I don't have an afro and my jokes aren't quite as cheesy as Mr. Kotter's [I don't think....]. But I love my students and I want to tell their stories. Now, the names are changed to protect the ... innocent ... but the stories are true. Mostly. From my point of view anyway. :)

Here's a little clip to get us started.