Christmas Ghosts

One of my proudest moments as a teacher was working with my Design Team students to create and build the Christmas Ghosts for Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."  They did an amazing job.  The Ghost of Christmas Past (in white) was about 6' tall.  The Ghost of Christmas Present (in Green) was about 7' tall.  And the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come was just over 10' tall and had about a 12' arm span and cable-operated fingers.  Here is a photo of the final costumes following the opening performance.  The ghosts became instant celebrities and audience members gathered around following the shows for photos.  It was a wonderful way to cap weeks of hard work.

Life Drawing

As an art teacher, most of my curriculum is founded on life drawing.  I believe it is the best way to teach perception for visual artists, and I have found that students from 7th to 12th grade respond well to the drawing sessions.  Below are some student drawings from 2010-11.  All these were drawn from observation of a live model.  Drawing time ranges from about 15 minutes to 1.25 hours.

B.B., 11th Grade

C.N., 11th Grade

A.F., 11th Grade

B.F., 7th Grade

M.D., 11th Grade

DaVinci Academy's "A Christmas Carol"

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been getting ready for DaVinci Academy's production of "A Christmas Carol."  All of our hard work culminates this weekend, and I'm pretty sure the glue burns, late nights, and brain strains will be completely worth it.  The Design Team and Theatre students had the opportunity to design and build costumes/puppets for the four ghosts (Marley, Past, Present, and Future), and they did a wonderful job.  Here are some behind-the-scenes photos.