In Week 5 of the Digital Technology graduate course I am currently taking, I have explored the Google Art Project Gallery site. This site has different presentation templates for exploring a wide variety of artwork from major museums around the world. Once you establish an account with Google, you can assemble works of art into collections or galleries that you create with a specific theme in mind. I think this site will be great for me to create visual introductions and discussion topics of various works of art for my elementary students. This week I created a gallery titled “Creating Depth in Art” where I would introduce some of the techniques that artists use to create depth or space on a flat 2-D surface. Check out my gallery at:

https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/user-gallery-edit/creating-depth-in-art/mAJSso7Y4jvIJA?projectId=art-project&preview=true

This past week I have been exploring the world of Apps for my graduate course on technology. I quickly discovered that there is so much I have yet to understand about technology indeed! I was exploring an App called Photo Editor in which I took the photo below and used the App to change some things about it by exploring with the different tools. Check it out!

I choose to explore the tools of this App as I hope to teach this as a lesson one day soon to my 5th graders.

It felt great to spend 7 hours painting in my studio  today! I was finishing up on assorted works that I started last week. I am trying to devote one day, either Saturday or Sunday, to studio work as my next graduate studio class will be starting March 9th. It can be very challenging to organize one’s time to work on their art but there is much value in doing so. I know that I like to work in a series of three similar works of art to see how one idea evolves into the next. My painting palette today does have an assortment of colors on it as I was finishing up on two fall landscapes and working on three winter ones. How do you organize the colors on your palette? This is a 8 x 10 glass one so I really limited my surface area but use a multitude of brushes!

Marcia

As I was setting up my blog, I decided to use the photo of the tree rings provided by Edublogs for now as it reminded me of the many layers that each of us has. We may identify ourselves as artists and educators first when we are asked “What do you do?” But we may also be the head of the household, a parent, a sibling, a volunteer, an advocate, a neighbor, a go-to person, a good listener, a worker bee, etc. also on even the shortest of notices. My point is that we all live our lives in layers and as time marches on with each new experience, much of it I think becomes engrained into who we are at the core of our existence. Just some food for thought as we grow together as artists and educators.

Marcia

With a new year upon us, I am excited to begin another chapter in my social media life entitled “Blogging”. The goal for my site is to make and reinforce the connections that exists between our dual lives of artists engaged in the process of making art and the teaching of art to others in both public and private sectors. I find that both tasks are extremely time consuming and taxing on our brain and bodies yet in the next moment both can be extremely rewarding personally and fulfilling our enthusiasm to share our passion on to others.

It is my hope to blog about my “aha” moments as an artist and as an elementary art educator. I plan to share articles, websites, and photos pertaining to both sides of my “working” life with you. Please feel free to leave a comment or question if you want.

Marcia Bryce Connors