2nd Floor Studio @ MCS

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Wacky Wendy Performs at MCS!

We were fortunate to have local artist and performer Wacky Wendy come perform on Thursday, May 21st. Wendy is an improvisational entertainer by nature, a sculptor by training, and a paper wizard by craft. Wendy has been dazzling people with her paper sculpture shows since the 1980's; on the streets, at parties, and at trade shows. Besides creating fun, whimsical hats, masks, and accessories; Wendy also creates large paper sculptures that move! Wendy is a very creative individual who pushes materials to their limits and finds new twists. She is also currently doing interesting work with appliqué and positive and negative shapes.

Wendy performed on Thursday night for half an hour and then the children created their own hats, masks, and accessories using templates that Wendy brought or just creating their own pieces!

The HS Art Club helped children and then created their own original pieces! It was a very fun night! Thank you Wendy!!!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Mandalas on Display at Jack's Caboose in Arkville

The Mandalas painted by the HS Painting class are finally on display at Jack's in Arkville. They are hung in the back dining room. Be sure to check them out, they are beautiful! Each student has created such a unique mandala, which is very unlike traditional Tibetan mandalas in which there are many rules. Overwhelmingly the painting class preferred their freedom of expression and enjoyed painting their own Mandalas. They will be hung until the first week of June.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

HS Drawing Team Wins 1st place at the 2015 Olympics of the Visual Arts!

Beautiful girls in the amazing space they created!

1st Place!

What!? Most Creative Drawing Too!

Yes!!

What an amazing idea!

What an amazing year with OVA! The long term problem for drawing was very vague; "Dots, Dashes, & Diagonals". "Using dots, dashes, and diagonals, make an original drawing that investigates the many variations of creating textures and patterns using marks and avoid relying on rendering and sharing for tonal variations".

Our 2015 Drawing Team (Alana, Itahy, and Lindsay) began to sketch, doodle, experiment with different types of mark-making. They tried different materials, different types of marks such as stippling, cross hatching, hatching, scrumbling, etc. They researched artists and movements in art. I advised them to go with what their passion was, since this problem was so open.

Finally after three different ideas the girls decided to do drawings of tribal women. They drew the women and then drew them larger. They used pens and colored with neon sharpies. Somewhere along the way we came up with the idea of glow in the dark art! Coming up with the structure was one of the most difficult things and finally we decided on creating a hexayurt- a 6-sided yurt. We made it out of ¾" styrofoam that we primed and painted. Itahy measured, cut, and helped install the entire building. It was quite the experience!

For the last three weeks the girls experimented with color, lines, and patterns. They drew original patterns and textures from each culture to surround the drawings. On the final night we took the yurt apart and loaded up a van.

At OVA we set it up and prepared for the spontaneous solution. We were in competition with 13 other high school entries; some were amazing. And yet, Itahy had faith; Alana was nervous.

Finally the awards came; they called 3rd, 2nd, and finally 1st- we had won!!!! The girls ran to the stage to receive their awards and then realized they had also received Most Creative Drawing Overall! This rarely happens that a school receives both awards. The girls were overjoyed!

The judges notes read; "Original idea!"
"Great execution!"
"Your work is not just Art but also an experience"

The girls received the highest points for Evidence of Brainstorming, Evidence of research, Imagination, Originality, and Risk Taking, Communicates the problem, and Overall Presentation. For the Spontaneous solution they received two 4's and one 5 for communicates the problem.

It was an amazing day and a great way for senior Alana to finish her artistic career at MCS. Itahy will miss her but is excited about next year!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

MCS Senior's Photograph will grace cover of new MTC Directory!

Congratulations to Gabby F!

Her photograph has been chosen to be on the front cover of the Margaretville Telephone Directory!
Last year her photograph was 2nd place, so this is wonderful that as a senior her photograph is 1st and will be a nice addition to her portfolio.
More pictures to come soon...

Artist Roshan Houshmand visits HS Painting Class

Mandalas

Roshan came into the Painting class for 6 sessions and exposed the students to Traditional Tibetan Mandalas as well as other cultures' mandalas. The painting class created their own Mandalas (circular in design, radial) and have been painting for the past few weeks. The mandalas will be hung in a local gallery or business this spring. They are amazing and will be worth the visit to see them!

Roshan teaches Art at SUNY Delhi, teaches private classes in her studio, and has many exhibitions. She explores many different themes and topics and enjoys traveling, which gives her art an intimate and unique look.

http://www.roshanhoushmand.com

Congratulations to Itahy!
She has been accepted into Pratt Institute's Summer Art Program.

Itahy will go to Pratt for 4 weeks this summer to help prepare her senior portfolio for College.

Well done Itahy! Good luck!

Wonder what the structure is? It is for OVA, wait until you see what the team is creating!

Thursday, March 19, 2015

MCS Youth Art Month 2015

YAM! Youth Art Month

March has been declared National Youth Art Month. This is a time where we celebrate Art Education and all that it has to offer our youth and students. It is a time to emphasize Art Education in schools and to encourage quality Art Programs at schools.

Creating and exploring through art helps many students make sense of all they are experiencing and learning in school. It is a different way to problem solve and manipulate tools and resources. It plays a vital role in our children's education and we hope to share the strength of our program here at MCS.

The Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce supports this program and several judges came in a few weeks ago and judged our top students' art work. They chose several winners and honorable mentions from different grade levels. The work is now going into Chamber businesses in our school district. Students are encouraged to visit their artwork being proudly displayed in frames out in public with their ribbons.

After the work is taken down in April we will have a Ceremony in our Art Gallery and present the gifts and prizes to the Winners and Honorable Mention students.

Here is the High School portion of the show!

High School Best in Show for 2015!

Katlynn Shamro for her expressive drawing