Daily Art #2 – Lemon Love – 5/29/23
My aunt gifted me these fabulous lemon fabrics and I finally got inspired to use them. I love lemons so I…
Daily Art #1 – 5/28/23
I’m trying to do at least one art every day. Daily art can include any media, any craft, any artistic gesture.…
Still Life Art
I taught a Saturday art class in the winter and the kids made some fabulous still life artwork. They glued newspaper…
Matisse the Chameleon / Chameleon Mommy Blogger #1
Hello blog. It is time to introduce you to my adorable baby chameleon, Matisse. Welcome to my new blogging series -…
Jacob Lawrence
This is from a while ago, perhaps a year ago. But I did this project with my lower elementary students. We…
Some Sculptures with My Students
For my Saturday art class this fall, I taught students how to create a lot of sculptures. We started out using…
New Studio & Some Things I’ve Learned
I have a new studio for grad school! So far, I am loving my studio and the space it gives me…
Saturday Art Studio
These are some of the projects we worked on in Saturday art studio this spring. The first project we made was…
Drawings Made in a Place
everything moves too quickly too slowly at the same time.I’m frozen in timeand I’m speeding down the highwaydays blur,weeks and weeks…
Kindergarten Flowers
Kindergarten learned about Georgia O’Keeffe today and created their own close-up, enlarged flower artworks. Kindergarteners looked at fake flowers for inspiration,…
Hamsa Hand Inspired Designs
Middle school created hand designs inspired by Hamsa hands.
Teaching Updates
I’m a bit overwhelmed with teaching right now, but I am doing the best I can. These are some of the…
Texture Animals
Lower elementary created textured backgrounds using tempera paint and different texture tools (bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, palette knifes, bottle caps). Students…
Fall Leaves
This fall, lower elementary made these lovely fall leaves using chalk pastel and construction paper. Students practiced tracing leaf templates and…
Kindergarten Self-Portraits
Teaching kindergarten about self-portraits is really fun because they come up with such creative ideas and their drawings of themselves are…
Making Paper With My Students
This fall, I taught a weekend art class at my local arts center. Since the classes were smaller, I really wanted…
Primary Colors & Color Mixing
I taught this lesson with lower elementary a few weeks ago. We talked about primary colors and how they are super…
All Art is a Self-Portrait
I think all art is a self-portrait. Regardless of whether it is intended to be a self-portrait. I sometimes feel selfish…
Art Rut – a reflection on the creative process
When I first started coming up with ideas for this piece, I struggled a lot. I hated everything I drew out…
Process Art
I think process-based art relates to mindfulness because with process-based art, you only focus on the present and make marks and…
Quilts at the Museum
About a year ago now, I saw these beautiful quilts at the BMA. I don’t know why, but I much prefer…
Upper Elementary Rhythm & Pattern Designs
Last school year, one of the lessons I taught was about creating rhythm using repetition and movement (moving the eye around…
Crochet Cardigan
I finished my crocheted cardigan! At the beginning, I planned to make a pullover sweater, but then as I was working…
Crocheting, Painting, and My Other Recent Artsy/Craftsy Projects
I’m working on a ton of small projects lately. I get bored of working on one thing and then I have…
End of Class Activities
These are some of my favorite ideas for the end of class that I came up with/learned about in college. Honestly,…
New School Year, New Classroom!
I was moved to a different classroom this year and at first I was disappointed because my classroom last year was…
Recreating Van Gogh’s White Roses
I painted Van Gogh’s White Roses. Why? Because I had started this painting 3 years ago and I needed to finish…
Making A Mosaic
I needed to smash stuff to cope with stress and anxiety. So I bought a few cheap plates from a thrift…
How to Make Paper – My First Time Making Paper
This was my first time making paper! (Actually, technically, I did make a sheet of paper at a paper mill a…
My Recent Sewing/Textile Projects: Art, A Bag, & A Quilt
Lately I’ve been really into sewing and making things with textiles, fibers, yarns, beads, and crafty supplies. I made this small…
Cardboard Collagraphs (Day 1 of Printmaking Camp)
Last week, I taught a printmaking camp. I was subbing in for another teacher, and even though I had her lesson…
Warm, Cool, & Neutral Colors
Warm & Cool Sun & Moons: I taught this lesson during my student teaching and I taught it again when I…
Earth Day Stewardship Hands & April Showers Bring May Flowers
Earth Day Stewardship Hands For Earth Day with lower elementary and kindergarten, we read the book Earth Day by Todd Parr,…
Art and Science: Cell Sculptures and Printmaking
These three lesson ideas are related to looking at cells and microbes up close and under microscopes. Low-Relief Cell Models Students…
Play With Your Food!
When I was in high school, I took a summer 3D art course at my local community college. One of the…
Eric Carle Inspired Earrings
I made Eric Carle Hungry Caterpillar inspired earrings! This was a tedious process, but I am super happy with how they…
Motivation, Warm-up, and Introduction Activities
In one of my art ed classes in college, we had to make a teacher’s resource notebook. One of the sections…
Self-Portraits
I started teaching at my current school in February 2021. Because I was a new teacher starting mid-year and I wanted…
Paper Weaving
A few weeks ago, I taught a lesson on paper weaving to lower and upper elementary. We looked at textiles from…
Lower Elementary Still Life Art
Lower elementary learned about still life art and created their own still life vase with paper crumpled flowers. Again, another lesson…
100 Sketchbook Ideas + Ideas for Page Backgrounds
My high school art teacher had a ton of awesome lists of sketchbook ideas that we used for inspiration. I loved…
Art Critiques & Reflecting on Art
These are some of the different ways students can reflect on their own art and respond to their peers’ art. Post-it…
GIFs, Stop Motion, & Appropriation
A few weeks ago, I taught a multi-day lesson on GIFs, stop motion, and appropriation to my middle school students. We…
DIY Woven Tapestry Earrings
I made this pair of woven tapestry earrings using embroidery thread, yarn, pieces from a wooden skewer stick, thread, and fishhook…
My Daily Self-Portraits
Because I already had an alarm set for 8pm each day, I decided I might as well draw every night when…
Paper Earrings
Paper earrings! My new favorite things to make. The first set of earrings I made were Matisse collage inspired earrings. I…
DIY Rainbow Tassel Earrings
I found a pair of earrings I really liked from Amazon, so I decided to try to make them on my…
Setting Up An Art Classroom As A First Year Art Teacher
I graduated college in December 2020 and then I started interviewing and looking for a job as an art teacher. One…
Symmetrical Creatures & Asymmetrical Backgrounds
I think this has been one of my favorite lessons I’ve taught to lower elementary this year. The project is fairly…
Katharina Grosse: Is It You?
I’ve seen photos of Katharina Grosse’s art, but it was so different seeing it in person. I walked around the outside…
Artsy Earrings
I decided I want to be like Ms. Frizzle. I had free time this weekend and started making earrings, and then…
Art Rut
I miss making art. Not making art makes me feel lost. I have lost my art soul and I don’t know…
Why do people make art?
I’ve been thinking about why people make art. Mostly because I am questioning why I make art. I stopped painting for…
People Looking at Art
I always find it interesting to see how people look at art in museums. I feel like there’s 3 different types…
confusion soup process
Confusion Soup helped me break free of painting the same old way I always had – realistic, detailed, and slowly. For…
Inktober 2018 – Day 8, 9, & 10
This week has been super busy because I have been trying to finish all my studio work before fall break. I…
Inktober 2018 – Day 7 (Exhausted)
Today I actually had time to make a somewhat decent pen drawing! The official Inktober prompt is “exhausted”, which was very…
Inktober 2018 – Day 6 (Drooling)
It’s not the best drawing, but I actually did the prompt today! I also edited the drawing in Adobe Illustrator again…
Inktober 2018 – Day 5
I spent most of my day in class, and then I went to the painting studio at 6:00 and I ended…
Inktober 2018 – Day 4
I really ran out of time today, and all I have for Inktober is a bad doodle I did during class.…
Inktober 2018 – Day 3
Sadly, I ran out of time today and didn’t have time to do the prompted drawing. However, I still made a…
Inktober 2018 – Day 2 (Tranquil)
I was planning on doing a more detailed pen drawing, but I had class all day and by the time I…
Inktober 2018 – Day 1 (Poisonous)
I thought I would try to participate in Inktober this year, and attempt to follow the official Inktober one word prompts.…
College Art – Freshman Year (Part 2)
Hello again! Here is an overview of second semester of freshman year (to see first semester see previous post). The classes…
College Art – Freshman Year (Part 1)
I am currently a sophomore in college, and I just wanted to do a recap post of some of the art…
Figure Drawing
This summer, I finally got around to going to figure drawing sessions at my local art center. I had never done…
Painting Process
I have always struggled with painting faces, so I decided to try and recreate portrait paintings from master artists and hopefully…
Art Update: Acrylic Paintings
Hello! I just wanted to share the art I have been creating recently. Usually I paint with oil paints, but since…
Annika Marthinuss 