Knit Picking!

Miamisburg Middle School officially got knit picked! Knit picking is a form of temporary graffiti that was born from the international sensation of yarn bombing. This year all grade levels participated by learning how to finger knit in their art classes. We asked for donated yarn, knitted sweaters, and knitted blankets and thanks to our volunteers we had a great turn out! 

For those that stayed after school to help knit pick we appropriately named them, Knit Wits. The whole purpose behind knit picking is to be anonymous since it is a form of graffiti so the Knit Wits had to create their own Knit Wit name and dress up as their alter ego. Some of the names included; BeYARNce, RhiYARNa, Captain Knitters, Sir Knits A Lot and many more!

Next year we are hoping for an even larger turn out and much more yarn! This was a fantastic way to help keep our school all warm and fuzzy : )

Tape Casting!

This semester's students were able to engage in a new sculpture project! First students were introduced to the street artist, Mark Jenkins, and learned about his sculptures and how they are meant to trick the viewer into thinking they are real. 

Then the students were placed into groups and they had to figure out a way to trick the viewer with their human sculptures in the school some way. 

Then started the casting part of the project! Each group decided on a model and then the other group members would wrap the model in packaging tape by wrapping one layer sticky side up and then two layers sticky side down. After carefully cutting the casted body part off the model the group had to simply tape the parts back together and voila! They had a tape casted human being.

The final step of this project included the students dressing up their tape sculptures and displaying them within the school building while we critiqued them. They sure did scare some teachers!

Speaking with Hands

Students continued their exploration of hands by viewing Henry Buhl's exhibition, 'Speaking with Hands'. This photograph collection consists of different hands of artists, politicians, dancers, celebrities etc. The purpose of the exhibition is to show that our hands communicate in different ways. Students worked in groups and took photographs of their hands with the purpose of communicating

a message to the viewer.

Hand Drawing

Students observed different parts of the hands including: folds in the palm, knuckles, finger nails etc. They brought in an object that represents them in some way and then they had to find an interesting way to hold their hand with the object to encourage an interesting composition. After that students then learned about shadows and highlights of the hand and added those values to make their hands look more realistic. Students had four choices for their finals: white paper and pencil, white paper and pen (using stippling or cross hatching), gray paper and chalk/charcoal, or black paper with white colored pencil.

Graffiti Tags

Students explored examples of early to modern graffiti from all around the world. They had to design their own graffiti lettering and write their first and last name in this unique style. Students then used watercolor to finish their tag. Great work overall!!!