Snowman Teachers!!

I got this idea from another awesome art teacher blogger on the internet, Art with Mr. E, who got his idea from another teacher who blogs as well. Here's the link to his blog about his snowman teachers: http://artwithmre.blogspot.com/2010/12/snowmen-st-at-tge.html

I decided to do this in both the junior high and elementary school I teach at. My initial thoughts on this project was just to get the staff involved in a group project and show the students that it doesn't matter who you were everyone has a little creativity in them to create even a simple snowman. The teachers could create the snowman themselves or they could have some students help them create their snow teacher. I never thought it would take on such a life of its own with the staff members competing in a sense with how creative they could make their snow teacher. I gave each teacher an outline tracing of a snowman on 12 x 18 piece of white drawing paper. ( A few teachers came back needing it on heavier paper so I traced the template I made on to tagboard for those teachers.) The only other directions I gave them was to cut out the snow man and use whatever supplies you wanted to create the snow teacher into the likness of them or something that interested them. Boy what I got back was a variety of snowman in all levels of creativity. Some had their spouses help them out, others their children at home, and but many pulled all the creativity they could muster out of their imaginations and went to town.

I'm very proud of the staff for being so willing to create a snow teacher, even though this is one of the most busiest times of year for us.

Take a look at how great they turned out. :) Happy Holidays Friends!!

School Supply Shopping!!

Yes friends it is that time of year, if you haven't already done so, you will be school supply shopping in the next week or two. I love this time of year, because the prices for these must have items are fairly cheap. However, here's a tip or two from the Art teacher regarding your child's art supplies. 1st- Don't think that their markers, crayons, colored pencils, or any other drawing tool is still "good enough" to make it through this school year. If you really look at your child's set of these supplies you will probably find that they are short a few colors or sticks are broken. 2nd- This is a great time to buy not only 1 set of each of the above mentioned supplies, but possibly even a 2nd set. It may seem crazy but if your student is like my students at school it only takes about a week before someone is missing something, and then they will be out of luck for that color the rest of the year! Send 1 set to school with your child and hold the 2nd set at home til the start of 2nd semester and send it with them when they go back from winter break. A refresh of supplies 2nd semester will help them get through the remainder of the year. 3rd- Do go for the more name brand supplies like Crayola and Elmer's. I know its great that the RoseArt is cheaper than Crayola by only a few cents, but you are getting what you paid for a CHEAP supply. These markers always run out within a few weeks of school and the colored pencils always break in the sharpener. The glue isn't very sticky and the glue sticks are even worse. They are not high quality items and trust me you will be buying another set of these supplies after school has started to replace what you already sent and that price will not be the awesome back to school price. Spend a little extra if you can on the name brand supplies, they do last longer and with places like Wal-Mart putting these supplies at less than $1, its worth the extra cents. 4th- I know the kiddos love mechanical pencils, I don't know what it is with that clicky thing that makes them go gagga over them, but sure enough the always seem to wonder in my art room. I very much dislike them for this purpose: they always run out of lead when they need it the most and they are always taking the lead out, playing with it, and then putting it back in if they haven't lost the eraser to it first! If you must buy these pencils for your kids, please buy replacement lead for them so they always have pencil lead. It wouldn't hurt to send them to school with some great #2 pencils as well as a back up.

Last but not least, 5th- Don't go overboard on buying school supplies. I've watched kids every year during locker clean out at the end of 9 months throw away notebook after notebook, folder after folder, binder after binder, pencil after pencil.....you name it, I've seen it go into the trash can. It wouldn't hurt to ask your child if they have anything in their locker at school that isn't getting used and bring it back home or donate it to a teacher. There's no sense in buying tons of notebooks, folders, and all the extras if you're student is going to pitch them at the end of the year because they didn't get used. Great prices are Great, but adding to a landfill at the end of the year is just that. Only buy what you need, don't buy extra just because its cheap. You probably won't find it anyways when you need it.

None the less, this is my favorite time of year. I am pretty excited to head back to school in a week and half. I didn't get as much accomplished this summer as I had hoped. But my studio is ready to have art made in it when they weather cools off. I moved into a great new apartment with one of my best friends. I met some great people this summer in all my adventures, especially going back to work at the grocery store for a part time job. I am looking forward to going back to unpack all the art supplies that are waiting for me on my desk at school. I can't wait to see all my co-workers, us teachers go on quite the summer hiatus from each other. Most of all I can't wait to see my kiddos and I am definitely sure they can't wait to see me. :)

Happy Back to School Friends!! 

Studio is Almost Ready!!

Flamingo Rose Studio is almost up and running!! I ranaround Saturday after getting back from Art camp and moved out the things I was storing and brought in my kitchen table, chairs, and loveseat to the space. All this got set up just in the nick of time before my studio friend Darby had her open house. All of us at The Factory Art Studios were there to support and celebrate with her. It was a very fun evening, lots of old and new people visited us up on the 2nd floor. If you don't know where it is, we are located at 321 S. Hamilton in Sullivan, IL. The building used to be the Old Brown Shoe Factory and now is home to AbSeals on the 1st floor, and us, The Factory Art Studios, on the 2nd floor. Each of us have our own studio names, mine being Flamingo Rose Studio. There is also John McDevitt's Yellow Dog Studio, Mark Seeley's Old Man & His wood, Darby Harden's Underground Vintage Studio, and new artists are adding studio and shop space each week it seems. There is usually someone around the building Monday-Saturday during the day. I create ceramics and paintings. Darby creates all kinds of items out of vintage fabrics. Mark creates lamps out of all kinds of different found objects, from beaver chewed wood, sink plungers, tricyles, wooden boxes...all kinds of things. John creates furniture out of reclaimed wood from barnes, houses, etc. He also creates modern wall art as well. If you are ever in Sullivan, stop by and see us at the studio we love having visitors. Our next open house will be in October, there will be lots for sale!! Check us out on facebook at The Factory Art Studios!! :)

ART CAMP WEEK!!!

It's the best part of my summers off from teaching...its ART CAMP WEEK! This is my 8th year being a camp counselor and its the best camp around the central Illinois area. Eastern Illinois University offers this program for 8th grade to just graduated high school students. They come and spend a week taking art classes all day long and then in the evenings there are different activities planned for them to do as group. This year the students can take any of these 3 classes- Sculpture (cold casting with clay, flexwax, and plaster of paris), Exploring Media in Drawing (exploration in dry and wet drawing medias), Color  Monotypes, Abstractions from Life (learning about monotypes and creating colorful abstracts), and Altered Books (create a sculptural book using the interior spaces and pages of hardbound books). The classes change from year to year as we have lots of repeat students each summer. Its $460 per student, but that not only includes your fees for supplies, but room and board in the dorms, 3 meals a day, night activities like tye-dying, build your own sundaes, pizza party, movie night at the local theater, bowling at the campus bowling alley, arts and crafts where the highlight activity is making your own buttons, swimming, and lots more. Many of the students that come to camp, come on scholarships from local civic organizations. They spend all week creating these great projects and then on Saturday we have an art show to highlight what they have made all week. It's a great program, we have kids from all over the state. This year we have 61 high schoolers, I can't wait to see what they can do!! If want more information on the camp, let me know, and we will get a mailer to you next spring.

BODY BY VI- 90 DAY CHALLENGE!

Hello Friends!


Yes school has officially came to a close this week and now I am embarking on two things this summer. 1st getting the groove back and working in my studio that should be up and going in a week or two and selling and promoting this new awesome nutritional shake. I just started a few weeks ago drinking this great shakes from the Visalus company. It's the shake mix that tastes like cake mix! It truly does smell and taste like vanilla cake mix. I was on a peanut butter chocolate shake kick for a while but now with all the fresh fruits in the stores and farmers markets I'm drinking strawberry cheesecake shakes, orange/strawberry/bananan shakes, and well yes chocolate fudge shakes. It's a really simple product, 2 scoops of the Body by Vi Shake mix to 8-12 oz. of skim milk, light orange juice, light juices of any kind, coffee, almond milk, soy milk- practically any drink you can think of, then the extras - fresh fruits, sugar free fat free pudding mixes, fat free yogurt...etc. The combinations of different shakes you can create is totally up to you. Of course you just have to remember whatever calories you are mixing in the shake you will have to burn off- don't expect to over load a shake with an extra 300 calories and wonder why you're not loosing weight. :) Remember the rule KIS- Keep It Simple- here's mine current favorite shake- strawberry cheesecake. 8 oz skim milk, 2 scoops of the shake mix, 1 spoonful of sugar free, fat free cheesecake pudding mix, and a handful of fresh strawberries. Blend it up and drink it up. If you don't want to always be having a shake, you can mix it in oatmeal, yogurt, and cottage cheese as well. Add a couple 100 calorie snacks in between your shakes to help keep your blood sugar steady and high and you'll start loosing weight the easy way.


The product is very cost friendly- less than $2.00 a shake. You can buy 4 different kits from the company- Balance Kit is 1 shake a day of Vi-Shape™ Nutritional Shake Mix which is good for maintaining weight in a 30 day supply is $49. The Shape Kit is 2 shakes a day of Vi-Shape™ Nutritional Shake Mix which is good for weight loss is $99. The Core Kit which comes with 2 shakes a day of Vi-Shape™ Nutritional Shake Mix as well as extra products like vi-pak of essential vitamins and nero energy drink mixes is $199 all for a 30 day supply. Last kit that is offered is the Transformation Kit, this comes with 2 shakes a day of Vi-Shape™ Nutritional Shake Mix; an assortment of our Health Flavors, to add flavor variety, and added health benefits to your shake,1 bottle of Vi-Slim™ Metab-Awake Tablets; 1 box of Vi-Trim™ Clear Control Drink Mix; 1 box of each flavor of ViSalus NEURO™ Smart Energy (Lemon Lift and Raspberry Boost flavors); and 1 bottle of our Vi-pak Omega Vitals capsules all in a 30 day supply.


The best part is after you make your initial invest of the kit you want to use to transform you and your body, you get this automatically shipped to you every month. And if you refer 3 of your friends or family and they buy your kit or higher- you get your product ship to you every month for FREE! Who can say no to FREE PRODUCTS! As long as they are getting their product shipped to them, you will continue to get your product shipped to you for free.


Its a great product, you can visit their website www.visalus.com/bbvi/home/ for more information. I am a distributor as well my website is http://www.katievoegel.myvi.net/. You can send me questions or if you want to be enrolled in the program you and I can enroll you right away and you can get your product in 4-5 days to start getting healthy!


Believe me the product is good, the way it works is great, and there will never be a dull day of eating and getting healthy with a product that is so versitile.

For a an easy $49 dollars you can also become a basic distributor and sell the product and have a great home based business that will always have a paycheck to you every month. That's what I did and its been the best investment yet! I can set you up to become a distributor as well. 

If you want more information you can send me an email on my website and we can get you started on your 90 day weight loss challenge!

Mother Earth Group Show

I feel like an official artist as I was in my first Art show at the end of April. I know we are nearly through May, but with school wrapping up so quickly I haven't had a chance to post any of my pictures from the show. I displayed a lot of my ceramics that I hope to be making this summer in my studio, but I also showed some paintings, crafty art magnets and barrettes, and my mom displayed her new diaper creations (she has expanded from the diaper cakes made for showers, to tricycles and tractors).  It was great to see so many people out for the event and get my studio name and my name out there to the public. It's a wonderful start to a new adventure. Here's some pictures from the event.

Art Show!

On April 20, 2011 our school district put on display our annual Spring Art Fair. All grade levels were represented in a display that always fills our commons area at our junior high. The lower elementary art teacher has her K-3 classes vote on the artwork that is displayed for their school. I teach at the upper elementary classes and the 4th and 5th grade students pick out their favorite artwork to display, every student is required to put a project in the show. I have devised a pretty cool curtain system using pvc pipes to create the stands and 12x12 sheet protectors linked together to display their 9x12 projects. Every project we do at the upper elementary is on 9x12 for this purpose. I do 1 project per grade level on 12x18, just so they have at least 1 project on big paper. The junior high classes are split this year between me and the high school art teacher. I require my students to put in at least 1 project into the show. If they want to put in 2 that is fine as well. I also add in a few other projects per class that I feel are outstanding and need to be shown. The high school art teacher allows her students at both the junior high and high school to choose if they would like to participate in the show. She had some very outstanding work shown at both levels.

 

We also include the Family and Consumer Science (FACS) classes and the Te 

chnology Education (Industrial Arts) classes from the junior high in our art show. Our FACS teacher does amazing work with her students creating quilts, tie blankets, pillow cases, etc. The pieces they create are beautiful and we welcome the added pop of color her projects bring to the commons. The students in Technology Ed. classes do really create woodworking projects as well. They make drag race cars, rockets, shelves, magazine racks, pop up chairs, etc.

 

Of course I am bragging on my students and highlighting my student's work in the show. The kids made the local newspaper as well, twice in a week! They had two full colored pages of the show, which I know made the students feel good to be recognized.

The evening was a  complete success and everyone enjoyed the show. I was super proud of all the students in the district, they did a fantastic job!

The Weekend is Over!

First off a big Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I have spent most of the weekend with my mom, so I am sure she has enjoyed in all of our fun.

Not only have I been shopping and just hanging out with my mom all weekend. My dad and I tackeld into the task of cleaning the walls at the studio. Yes I said cleaning the walls, two of my walls are created strickly from old glass windows. I fantastic idea thought up by my friend Mark who has worked on building the walls for me. However, the windows were extremely dirty and covered with cobwebs. The two of us spent two hours cleaning about 12 windows and we aren't quite done yet. Especially for the right level of clean according to the "Voegel Standard" of clean windows. I'm getting to learn alot about the creation of my own studio as well as what it will take to clean out the old window sealant and putting in new window sealant. That will be my next task after they are spotless.

I loaded in more art supplies to my space, I was shocked to find how many boxes of clay I have brought home from my days at college. I thought it was just a few but I have quite a bit to get myself off and running. I'm very excited, as this is one less expense I will have to purchase to get started. I also carried in my pottery wheel. It's an awesome device called a "Throw n' Go", where all the pieces and parts stack neatly together and you can carry it anywhere and make wheel thrown ceramics pretty easily. The next task is to sit down and re-teach myself how to actually throw on the wheel again. It is just like riding a bike, you don't forget it, you just need to re-learn it. I have a few seats now as well, so I can go up there and relax as well as just hang out. I can't wait to get a couple of tables up there, my last wall up and I can really start using it as a studio. We are just weeks away from that happening.  

Although the weekend has turned into quite the productive one, it has been exhausting and I am looking forward to the week ahead. I more week closer to summer, summer paychecks, and the sound of relaxation. :)

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend, best wishes for the week ahead!

Happy Friday!!

As usual it's the best time of the week, Friday!! I'm a super huge fan of Fridays, in fact its a ritual on Friday afternoons to call my sister and wish her a "Happy Friday!" on my drive home from work. I'm pretty excited to get through this week as it is just getting us closer to summer break at school. 14 days left with the kids and 16 left for the teachers. I think I'm just as excited and ready to be done with school as the kids are. With the school year wrapping up I'm finding it is time to get busy photographing all the artwork for our Artsonia website and I hope to post projects and lessons here on my blog as well. I get lots of ideas for projects from fellow art teachers who have blogs, so its a necesssity I keep in the trend and post projects as well.

I just picked up artwork from the last art show of the year, that took place in a local mall. My students proudly brought home Best of Show, 1st-4th Place finishes in many catergories that were judged, and a handful of honorable mentionings. I'm so proud of my students, they worked so hard all year long and deserve to come home with awards like this. Everyone who participated in the show from the other school districts did an awesome job as well. I took lots of pictures to show the students what others are creating in their programs. Seeing the work of others their age seems to help boost the level of creativity and level of difficulty. Always push for more, Art is limitless in abilities and talents.

That's it for now, I hope everyone has a Happy Friday themselves!