June 4, 2020

Faith Ringgold, United States of Attica, 1972

via Pinterest, artist unknown

@artworkbychill on IG

@eme_freethinker on IG

@madame_maya on IG

Gratitude to Cindy Ingram for curating this collection of images. Will you make any art to express your observation of this moment?

APRIL 29, 2020

WORK POLICY
ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT ANY TIME. DUE DATES ARE ONLY ENTERED TO HELP STUDENTS WHO NEED THAT STRUCTURE. NO WORK IS CONSIDERED LATE.

GRADES WILL BE POSTED IN POWERSCHOOL. ALL WORK CAN BE EDITED AND RE-SUBMITTED. ALL GRADES WILL TRANSLATE TO PASS (60 OR ABOVE) OR FAIL (59 AND BELOW) AT THE END OF THE QUARTER.

STUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO MAKE THEIR BEST EFFORT AND TO CONTACT ME WITH QUESTIONS, PROBLEMS, OR CONCERNS.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

It's kind of cold for Earth Day, today, but I hope you get outside and appreciate nature today. Bring a mental photo back in your brain, and make some art, remembering what you saw. 

Remember to try to take GOOD PHOTOS OF YOUR ART before you place it in your google doc that you submit to me. Crop them, adjust lighting, etc.

I hope you are all managing OK. I so miss our classes and your faces.

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2020 

1. ALL WORK FROM YOUR CLASS PAGE THAT WAS "SUGGESTED" WILL NOW BECOME "WORK DUE" FOR PASS/FAIL GRADES.
The assignments will be listed in Powerschool for Quarter 4 and graded as they are submitted to me. Due dates are in PowerSchool, but just do the work when you feel inspired and I will enter your grade. If you haven't done the "suggested" work, go back to March 13 and start there. 

2. I'd like you to start a google doc, where you can upload and share images of your work to me. I think that will streamline where to find all of your work and avoid me missing an email from someone.

3. I'm trying to find artwork that you can do from home, but if anyone wants me to prepare an "Art at Home" care package for them, please let me know by Wednesday. I can go into school and make up a bag and leave it for you at the HS meals distribution area.







I've posted new suggested work on each class page as of yesterday. Just to be up front, as we switch on Monday from "suggested" work to "required" work, my first assignments will be for students to do all of the suggested work posted March 17 - now. So, if you've been reading your class page but not really getting around to doing the projects, maybe you could start today? 

Hope everyone is well! Miss your faces very much.



April 1, 2020     I hope you don't get pranked too hard for APRIL FOOL'S!! 

Lots of people are using the social distancing time to revive their creative brains. I'm seeing so many posts about drawing and crafting together. I hope that you, as an Art student, are also using this time to make some art. One friend is doing a daily facetime call with her niece and they each make a drawing from the same prompt, then show each other their work. I love this idea of connecting with a distant family member while also working out your drawing muscles. I have a list of drawing prompts posted on some of my class pages (tabs at top of this page), but here is another one, if you'd like to challenge yourself.

March 25, 2020

March 25, 2020
Hi Everyone. Long time, no see.
I've posted some new suggested work on the pages for each class. I hope you will do this, or some other artwork, during your break. In fact, I'd be so interested in seeing what art you are doing! Ms. Ellis shared some artwork pics sent to her by a student in her class. She doesn't even take Art! So, ya know...

March 19, 2020

I had a sad moment last night when I realized we were supposed to have been in Boston, seeing all of our Artworks gloriously displayed...boo! So, show some of your art here, would ya?

Here's my message for today. (More 2D tomorrow)

My video for March 19

March 16, 2020

Hi Art Students, 

I hope you are all doing well, staying home, washing hands, and taking precautions to not spread the virus. I know we all enjoy a snow day and a school vacation, but this feels weird. I will post some work under your class page, and while you don't HAVE to do it, I think you'll find it will bring you some normalcy to your days if you keep your creative mind active.

Along the top of this page, you will see a bar with the Course names listed. Click on your course to see what's up. You can also email me: mmcnally@shschools.com anytime. I'll be checking it frequently.

First Semester, 2019

Jake O.

The Art Department is humming along in our first months back to school. Our AP Art and Design students are trying to figure out the new College Board portfolio requirements, while also trying to figure out their futures - college is looming on the horizon!

Bella Y.

Ellie R.

Bella Y.

SHHS Art classes had a very productive first semester. In Clay and Sculpture classes, students embarked on a project to raise money for Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria relief. Students brainstormed designs, then voted on each other’s designs to come up with three final choices. Those three designs were used as templates for the students to create over 300 handmade ornaments which were sold in the community. Their efforts raised over $245!

In the Art I classes students created stop-motion animation videos using the art room iPads. Students were challenged to create a short video using handmade artistic scenes. The themes for their videos were either “Addressing Global Warming” or “How to be a Good Friend”. Some of those videos can be seen on Ms. McNally‘s webpage.

Several students had work exhibited at the Holyoke Community College Biennial High School  Art Show. This exhibit is a great showcase of exciting young artists in our area. Works from Northampton, Granby, West Springfield, and others were displayed along side our South Hadley artists. The reception was well attended, and our artists received many accolades for their fine pieces. We are about to enter the exhibit season, with pieces going to the Massachusetts Art Education Association Yout Art Month exhibit and the Congressional Art Competition. Students will receive all of their work before the year is over but some of their pieces will be on exhibit in Boston and in other locations across the state.

We have resurrected our chapter of the National Art Honor Society. The Society is service driven and a bit more of a serious commitment than a drop-in Art Club. Members are working on an educational art display project for the school.

On Wednesday, Dec. 20, students traveled to Salem to visit the Peabody Essex Museum’s Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit. The exhibit was stunning and second semester work will reflect some of the art we saw on the tour. This trip was assisted by a grant from our Local Cultural Council which has been so helpful in enriching the lives of our SHHS students in years past. We are very grateful.

Ms. McNally’s SH*Improv group will host a comedy show on Friday, Feb. 2 at the high school. Proceeds from the show will help students going on the service trip to Nicaragua, so make sure to mark your calendar. SH*Improv shows are funny, unique and always a good time.

Happy New School Year! I'm excited to work with all my new classes. 

There's a cool new movie coming out...maybe there's a field trip in our future? Watch:

Friday, March 24, 2017  

The Cloisters at the Met Museum, NYC

If you attend the museum in person, you will see and sketch several of the pieces of art there. If you stay behind and are in class on this day, watch this video about the sculptural work on display there.

Miniature Sculpture

These pieces were designed for a Christian audience who were devoted to prayer and knew the bible stories. We are going to update and broaden the target audience. We will create a miniature sculpture to depict a story known in our current culture. It could be a popular book or movie or even a fable or fairy tale. While we cannot duplicate the intricacy of the boxwood carvings (yet!), we can use available materials to create miniatures with high detail. 

Procedure: (Do this on Friday in class)

1. Decide which story you would like to illustrate/sculpt.

2. Make a quick, simple sketch of the scene from this story.

3. Decide what the background, middleground and foreground of this scene will be.

4. Draw and color in the background and glue it into the Altoids box. It should fit perfectly - no box showing.

5. Draw and color the middlegound and carefully cut it out with scissors or knife. Glue it into place in the box, using spacers to separate it from the background enough to create depth.

6. Repeat for the foreground of the scene.

7. Decorate the outside edges of the box to complement the scene inside.

Mick Napier: A Place of Yes

Recent Work - Cubist Portraits

Art To See in Massachusetts

Sol LeWitt exhibit at Mass MOCA

I recently visited Mass MOCA and The Clark Institute while attending the Massachusetts Art Education Conference in North Adams, MA.

We are lucky to have so many wonderful museums close by. Go for a visit and be inspired to make your own art!

Happy New School Year!

Here is a little bit of the Art work that has been coming out of classes this Fall.

Hi Everyone,

This year, first semester, I am teaching Art III, Foundations, Clay I, and Art I. There is a page here for each of those courses, and each page has a course overview and homework list. Hope to see you in the Art Room!

AP Summer Work - Clarification!

Jay P. sent an email seeking clarification of the many papers I gave you before school closed. Here is my response to him. I thought I would share it here in case any of you are wondering...Happy Art Making!

You are being graded on 5 total projects. 3 must be drawings (although you may draw with pencil or crayon or ink. Understand drawing here to mean not an aqueous medium, not a collage, not a digital artwork.) The other 2 can be any medium of your choice. That might mean more drawing, but it could mean any of the above-mentioned media that are "not drawing".

You should, in addition to these more completed projects, also be doodling, scribbling, thinking in your sketchbook. Though I did not it in print, your summer sketchbook will be graded along with your first sketchbook prompt in September. (I guess I thought we were all at the point where we know how valuable sketchbook is, so I didn't think I needed to be all teacher-y about how it is graded?)

The blue worksheet is not mandatory, it is simply a list of ideas in case you're out of them. There is no "large vs. small sketchbook". Work in whatever size sketchbook you have. The 5 assignments should be as close to the sizes I specified on the Summer Assignments sheet as possible.

Principles of Design

 With thanks to Ms. Chen, from whose blog I borrowed this concise listing of the Principles:

http://practicumjourney.wordpress.com/art-10-drawing-painting/principles-of-design/

Principles of Design

Principles of Design are descriptions of how artists organize the elements of art. List of the principles sometimes varies, but the main points are covered here.

Balance

shows equalizing visual forces, so no one part overpowers, or seems heavier than any other part. Visual imbalance
makes the viewer feel that the elements need to be rearranged.
Two types:

• formal (symmetrical)
• informal (asymmetrical)

Emphasis/Proportion

making one part of the work dominant over the other parts, in another word, making an element or an object stand out.

Movement/Rhythm

Rhythm refers to the way your eye moves throughout a picture. Some pictures move you throughout in a connected, flowing way much like a slow, stately rhythm in music. Other pictures move you from one place to another and give you the impression of movement.
Rhythm in art is created by the repetition of elements. Similarity of elements, or flowing, circular elements will give a more connected flowing rhythm to a picture, while jagged, or unrelated elements will create a more unsettling, dynamic picture.

Pattern/Repetition

shows repetition of an element or elements in artwork

• Random Pattern – a pattern in which the elements are repeated but in no particular way
• Fixed Pattern – a pattern in which the elements are repeated over and over again in specific way

Contrast/Variety

shows difference, for example when combining one or more elements of art to create interest by adding slight changes
Some of the most common ways of creating Contrast are by creating differences in:

• Sizes – large vs. small
• Shapes – geometric vs. organic/free form, real vs. abstract
• Values – light vs. dark
• Colors – warm vs. cool, complementary, intense vs. dull
• Textures – smooth vs. rough
• Direction – horizontal vs. vertical/diagonal/curved

Unity/Harmony

quality of wholeness, oneness or completeness that is achieved through effective use of elements and principles of art, key focus on simplicity, repetition and continuation.
Ways to Create Unity:

• Repetition - By using similar lines, colors, shapes, textures, values or forms, you can create a feeling of unity because of the similar elements being used.
• Proximity - one of the simplest ways to create unity is by grouping objects in a work of art closely together.

• Continuation - A subtle method of unifying a work of art, which involves the continuations of a line, edge or direction from one shape or area to another.

Sources: 

• https://sites.google.com/a/ripon.k12.wi.us/ripon-middle-school-art-studio/elements-and-principles-of-art
• http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/skaalid/theory/cgdt/designtheory.htm