NHS Art Video

I was searching for some photos a while ago and discovered that I had an odd collection of old photo's that hadn't been sorted.  Many I hadn't seen in a while, so I decided to throw them all together in a quick video.  I posted it on Facebook in my Art Edventures group.  Here are some of the comments from former students.....  hope you enjoy....  here's to the next ten years.  If I last that long.

*Alycia Kniskern It was so sweet and I teared up a tiny bit...I loved it
*Kyle Puff goodness a lot of that stuff seems so longggggg ago haha
*Brittany Fantau fantastic, beautiful, amazing.
:)
*Bethany Fulford Ahhhhh I'm gonna cryyyy! I want some of those pictures! haha  
*Sarah Bayless Aw this was really sweet! So many memorieeees! I can't believe that picture of me with the looooooong RED hair :D
*Justin Mitchell AWESOoOoME! Too many great memories lol. I'm glad I got to see even more great work from my peers and past and present students :]
Thanks Mrs Gant ♥
*Chanel Lee Man....I had tears!!! But I LOVED IT! 
*Chris Thomas The fine arts department at NHS is a grand tradition in the making; and I'm so proud to have played a part in it.    

Back to School= A Blank Piece of Paper!

Welcome back to a new school year everyone!

 I love the time of year when brand new sketchbooks are available and new pens, pencils and supplies (and sales) are everywhere! I even love the SMELL of said supplies. When I was younger and my parents would go into a bank in England I would grab lots of the colored blank deposit slips with built in carbon pages. My Dad would bring home old stamps from the office. My sister and I would use these supplies to play "office" for ages- stamping the forms and writing and playing.....such fun! Nowadays I go in to Staples or Office Max, Target or Wal-mart and practically salivate at the over-abundance of supplies.

White paper and new books has always signaled new beginnings to me. I start my new visual journals in January only because I can then write the year on the side. (I know..a bit OCD...don't ask.) Everything else in my life starts over when school starts again. In Belgium, growing up, it was called the "Rentree des classes" (back to school!). One of my FAVORITE things to do was to choose my "Journal de Classe" which was basically a homework agenda. It was cool to fold each page over when you were done with it so you could easily find the next page. I guess my love affair with paper started a long time ago!

New beginnings this year include a daughter who has moved into her first apartment, a son who is entering high school and a son entering 2nd grade. As for me- I am starting my 21st year of teaching art! It only counts on the books as the 19th though so I still have about 12 to go before retirement! I do still love doing this though- from my Coastal students to my high school students (on and off line!) I enjoy sharing my love of art with them.

I am also working hard on my blog to fill it with my favorite links and pages, so when someone asks about the trip to Greece next summer, I can say "look on my blog!" Links- look on my blog! Current events in the art world- hopefully,... on my blog!

I have also set a goal to walk/run a 5k with my best friend in September. Hopefully the health benefits of this training will give me more energy to keep up with the new soccer seasons that both boys are about to embark on!

Life is good. I hope we all have a wonderfully exciting year, full of discovery, learning, creativity and imagination!

NHS FALL SEMESTER students please click here: Click for information form.

CCCC students please click on the form in the Icebreaker information in the Getting Started folder. Thanks!

Moon Mandala Journal

I started a round-robin altered book group almost a year ago.  This is one of the recent ones I worked in. The rest of the group had done such exquisite work in it that I was afraid to touch the pages for a long time!  I finally got going and did these pages.  The theme had to 'revolve' (sorry!) around the idea of the moon. This first photo (which was actually my last page) was at about 2am and I was tired, and all I could think of was that there were TONS of songs out there about the moon!  The second had to do with my love of all things triskell/trinity/three's.  (Three photo's posted to my blog!?......)   Finally the last one was a card I bought somewhere and have kept because I just love it.  I photocopied the card and used the paper.  I am not too thrilled with these as I could be....I could have done more detail, but they are ok!   The last photo is a rare one of me (I normally hate having my photo taken.)  A student was playing with my iPhone camera.  This was a day they were working in sketchbooks and everyone was engaged and on task. I had to get involved- so I brought out my sketchbook and worked a little in it.