See you in a year!

I would like to thank all 45 000 of you who have stopped by here over the past few years, for sending so many encouraging messages to myself and my students.  You will notice that I won't be updating this blog very much (if at all) during the next while, as I'm due to have a baby at the end of August and will take a year off.  I'm really going to miss teaching and I will especially miss my students.  However, I'm incredibly excited to be a first time mother and to keep focusing on my own artistic practice (www.samanthageorge.ca).  I promise that I will be back in a year with more ideas and awesome art to post.  If my replacement chooses to keep a blog, I will also add a link to it.

Thank you all so much again!  

Sincerely,

Ms. George-Easton 

My re-painted tables for September 2014.  Thanks to my senior students who persistently begged to freshen the room up again- you make teaching so happy :) 

My Art Class- Video Trailer

In order to entice elementary students to come to our high school, teachers were asked to give interviews about what made their classroom and our school special.  I decided to go one step further and turn my promo into a video trailer (so easy with iMovie!) which you can watch above. You can find the entire video about our school on the Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board YouTube site, as well as some videos that I created for the Nicaragua and Dominican Republic mission trips.

Grade 11 Multimedia (AVI3M-AVI3O)

These are actually from last semester.  They're multimedia pieces- you take photographs printed on a laser printer (or photocopier) and transfer them onto canvas with gel medium, and from there it's up to you... most of these students added washes, splatters, paintings, drawings, etc.

Imad

Last week we were privileged to have my good friend Imad Ahdab come to our classes and talk about what it's like to be a Muslim and immigrant in Bruce County (for those who don't know the area, we have a predominantly white/Christian/rural population).  He opened our eyes to racism, peace and equality- delivered with his great sense of humour.  Thank you so much for coming to visit Imad, please keep coming back!

Imad and Ms. George-Easton, 2013

Walkerton Juried Art Show 2013 Student Winners

Congratulations to Anna Lennox who won 2nd place (the lamb) and Carolyn Diemert (the instruments) who won 1st place at this year's Walkerton Juried Art Show.  The whole school is very proud of you, as well as the 13 other students who submitted their art to be put on display in April/May.

The winning pieces- sorry for the blur!  

Grade 11 Pastel Drawings (AVI3M-AVI3O)

This year I haven't focused on making new assignments for my students to do- with an upcoming maternity leave (yay!) I wanted to have the semester go as smoothly as possible with tried and truly successful assignments.  However, after a trip to Spain in March and seeing a lot of Gaudi and Picasso, I was inspired to make a new assignment for the grade 11 pastel unit.  For this piece, the students were asked to use a photograph that they took themselves, break it into shapes of their choice, and put it back together in a new composition.  I LOVE the results and will probably keep this assignment in rotation for a long time.  I'm sorry that I didn't get photos of the entire classes's work (I'm not sure what happened).  Please enjoy what is here.

Grade 9-10 Stipple Animals 2013 (AVI1O-AVI2O)

Some highlights from our newest batch of God's creatures.  Great work!

Grade 11 Pattern Drawings 2013 (AVI3M-AVI3O)

For this assignment, the students were asked to draw an object that is moving, with a dynamic pattern in the background.  The students who drew these represent a variety of levels, from students who have never taken art before, to students who have taken for two years before.  These drawings are also LARGE and were a very impressive addition to the display case at the front of our school.

Grade 10 Conte Drawings 2013 (AVI2O)

These drawings are fantastic on the computer, but I wish you could see them up close- they're LARGE and even more impressive in person.  I was very proud of this work, all showed the top skills of a variety of student levels.

Soapstone 2013 (AVI1O-AVI2O)

Here are some highlights of the grade 9-10 soapstone assignments that we did last month.  What I love is how different each carving is, even if students use the same animal as their inspiration- the shape and colour of the stone will give them a truly unique creation each time.