Gargoyles, gifted offspring artwork and end of the school year countdown!

3 Weeks and Counting...

Holy Schmoly. I am SO happy the school year is ending (about 3 weeks!), but I wish the school year can end without the heat coming with it. All the free time that comes with summer break gets squashed by the heat and hence, cabin fever. Bleh. Seriously, this climate was never meant to be inhabited. And here I am amongst the hell. Bleh.

But the end of the year has some good things. I do my Gargoyle ceramic unit (12th-mid 13th century Gothic architecture) with junior high. Here are some of the 8th grade Gargoyle's from last year:

More of the 8th Graders:
(I mean, the 8th Grade Gargoyle's.)

This year I hope to see a nicer array of colors, as there are more glaze colors, thanks to some nominal blood money that was squeezed from the turnip of the nil amount of money in this lovely state of affairs. But last Fall/early Winter(?) I did get a small monetary bone thrown my way in which I ordered a bunch of glaze colors. I can't wait to see how this year's Gargoyle's turn out. Just like last year's, their Gargoyle's have to have open mouths, because the original purpose of Gothic Goygoyle's of the French Romanesque was as drains or waterspouts. Sure, by the time Gargoyle's re-surfaced some 700 years later in the "Gothic Revival" of the mid-19th century, they were used only for decoration, but I keep the "open mouth" requirement due to the historical significance. The second purpose of Gargoyle's in that Gothic period was they provided a service to frighten away evil spirits.

Gifted Offspring
The pretty picture on the top is Mikelle's watercolor painting from her Monday afternoon art class. I love it. She matted it on pink paper and I'm going to get one of those IKEA frames that work so well with artwork and hang it on her wall.

Having Mikelle take art lessons from someone else is proving to work out much better than her trying to get the goods from me. That was never more evident than it was tonight. She came back from her art lesson all chipper and her art teacher at Blackbird has good things to say about her and she loves her teacher and all is happy in their world (as she should love her art teacher - Ms. Melody used to teach at a fellow K-8 school in the same district I work in and left last year due to not putting up any further with the district's issues , and it was the district's loss as they blew it to throw people way they did. But let's not go there..... And Mikelle benefits from her wisdom at Blackbird! ) but then I broke out a little bit of clay remnants for Mikelle to mold and play with and sculpt, and of course, the mother/daughter clashing occurred when she would ask for my assistance, but in my attempt to give it and guide and teach, she would argue and fight me on every turn, despite the fact that I was trying to guide her the same way I do my students. Yes. She and I do much better when she gets the lessons from someone else.

It's like a lady in my ward who teaches piano lessons. She teaches piano, but not to her own children. She sends them to another teacher! It's just better that way. And it's not like Mikelle and I don't do artistic projects together. We do. And she still learns from me and I get the rewarding experience of working with her. It's just good that a big bulk of it goes to sweet Ms. Melody at Blackbird! This is where the saying, "It Takes A Village" makes its point beautifully!

Stay-Tuned
Well, I wanted to add some beautiful Chagall-inspired abstract profiles from my 7th and 8th graders earlier this year (February/March), but time doesn't permit. I'll be back to add some of those highlights. Besides, it may be a little confusing throwing Gothic Architecture of the 12th-14th centuries at you along with 20th century Surrealism with the watercolor abstract profiles. So perhaps it's good to wait on that.

Toodles.