Visual Art Residencies
Cameras and Composition
grades 3-12, higher ed, adult groups
Students explore the basic use of digital cameras to compose images. They learn about the ways that artists create emphasis in an image and develop a series of photographs that demonstrate this principle. The young artists select one image to develop further into a large drawing, using color to extend and enhance their application of emphasis in the image. Each student receives printed copies of their photographs and their completed artwork (medium to be determined with the teacher or organization).
length and frequency based on the needs of students and programs
Memory from my Youth: Getting Ideas Started
grades 3-5
One of the scariest things in the world for an artist or a writer is a blank piece of paper. In this work, students are guided to explore personal experiences as rich sources of material. The instructor guides them to interact with works by Marc Chagall, and facilitates a pre-writing/pre-painting process. The medium for the artwork and the criteria for student writing are based on grade level and worked out with the classroom teacher in advance. The resulting work can make a fantastic student exhibit.
length and frequency based on the needs of students and programs
Picture Books: Making Words and Pictures Talk Together
grades 3-8
Students develop 32-page picture books from their own writing. Classes are guided through the construction of handmade books and learn about how the physical properties of books impact the work of writers and illustrators. They are encouraged to become hard working lazy people. They are introduced to a process for developing illustrated texts from breaking text apart to fit the available spreads, developing thumbnails, and composing drawings to extend and enhance the reader’s experience
length and frequency based on the needs of students and programs
Action Figures
grade 4 – adult
Students capture the human figure in action, beginning with gesture drawings, students explore ways to make the figure move and act. Their drawings are developed into three-dimensional figures in wire and paper mache.
length and frequency based on the needs of students and programs
Revealing and Concealing: Masks that Communicate Character
grade 5 – adult
Students explore the representation and exaggeration of the human face in masks from cultures around the world. They develop a mask of their own to communicate an essential quality of a chosen character from literature, myth, or life. Masks may be created to be worn, but may also be developed as objects purely for display.
length and frequency based on the needs of students and programs
For more information about the visual art workshops and residencies, developing other customized programs, and scheduling contact
Joel Baxley
Director of Visual Art Education
423-425-4694
[email protected]