Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Today the fine art classes will take a break from their projects and we will be doing some live figure drawing.  We will be drawing and painting students in costume with 5-10 minute poses and hang the best of the works out in the Artroom161 gallery!

In media arts classes we will be creating infographics using visual.ly and easil.ly (like the one on Halloween to the left) about bullying using the bullying statistics we researched last week. Below is a short video showing you the basics.

Media Arts: Talking about bullying

Yesterday we had a terrific conversation with Nick Cannon about bullying and the entertainment industry and today we are following it up with another talk with actor Brock Ciarlelli (from ABC's The Middle).  Brock has been on the show since 2009 and won 2 Young Artist Awards for Best Performance in a TV Series. 

Our Talk with Nick Cannon and actor Brock Ciarlelli

Mr. Needles Smithtown High School East media classes have been working on an ongoing project this month as part of Bullying Prevention Awareness Month and this week students have the opportunity to talk with actor/singer Nick Cannon (from NBC's America's Got Talent) and actor Brock Ciarlelli (from ABC's The Middle) about bullying.  The performers will be talking to the students and invited guests who had person experiences with bullying via a video conference made possible by Skype in the Classroom and Google in Education Tuesday and Wednesday.

After the talk the students will create a short public service announcement which follows-up on the video they created last year. The students have been working with classes in Japan and Pakistan discussing the issues related to bullying as well as comparing and contrasting their own personal experiences through a Japan Society social media program entitled Going Global.  The final public service announcement will include input globally from all the classes involved around the world.

Studio Art: Banksy's residency in NYC

Banksy's "Better In Than Out" residency in NYC comes to a close this week so I took the opportunity to visit some of the works while they are still around.  I was lucky enough to have found the new Sunday Banksy painting in Greenpoint Brooklyn pictured above just moments after he posted it to his site and Instagram which is terrific because other street artists quickly tag or deface the pieces.  I also had a chance to see both the Waterfall truck and the Sirens of the Lambs truck at the Grim Reaper installation in the Bowery which was quite a scene.

Art Honor Society: The Annual Haunted House

Today is the art and media art honor society's annual haunted house which is part of Smithtown East's Spooky Hallways Safe Halloween program.  Over 100 students volunteered to help construct the 3 room haunted house and perform in it.  Below are a few pictures from the terrific event and here's a link to some of the portraits we took at the event Haunted House 2013!

Studio Art: Interpreting a Master

In studio art the new assignment is to take one of the works from one of the artists we studied and create a interpretation of it using water color paint, pencils, and ink.  Above is a great example entitled from a work entitled Las Meninas- Diego Velázquez did the original on the left and Pablo Picasso did the interpretation on the right (one of 58 versions of the painting he did).  These are just closeups from the larger paintings which you can view in the links above but you can see that each artists style is unique even though they painted the same subject matter.

Extra Credit:
If you're interested in doing an additional interpretive piece you can get extra credit for creating a piece for the Heckscher Museum's contest entitled Young Artists in which you choose a piece from the museum that showed this year and respond to it artistically.  If you're interested look through their education website for more information and speak to Mr. Needles

2013 Art and Media Honor Society Elections

This week in Art and Media Honor Society we'll be going over next week's elections (the candidate's are pictured above) as well as setting up for Friday's Spooky Hallways Safe Halloween event with our annual Haunted House.  We'll also have more permission slips for our fall trip to NYC if anyone needs them, we'll be visiting the Metropolitan Museum of art as well as another art stop in the city next month.

Photography: The DSLR and the Principles of Design

In photography class we outlined the basic principles of design that we use in creating good photographs (we try to incorporate these in all of our photographs when possible) and talked about the basics of using an DSLR camera.  Today is the camera test which you must pass with an A in order to use the school's SLR cameras so here's a DSLR camera simulator to practice with and don't forget the big 3 and how they work together:

• Aperture 
• ISO
• Shutter Speed

Studio Art: Banksy

Thursday is the image test on the art history unit so today we will be reviewing in class and going over your new assignment which is to respond to a work by any of the artists we covered (all of whom are listed below). 

Above is a work by one of the contemporary street artistists we covered, Banksy, who had a improptu outdoor gallery piece put up this weekend under the highline in Chelsea, NYC.  The pieces are a collaboration with well known Brazilian brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo known better as Os Gemeos and they are a great example of the assignment because while they pieces respond to one another the style of both artists is identifyable and intact.  This is one of the most interesting works from his New York residency this month, at least content wise because it refers to the Occupy movement while also keeping a sense of humor commenting on the art world in NY which is based in Chelsea. 

1. Hieronymus Bosch
2. Sandro Botticelli
3. Leonardo DaVinci
4. Rembrandt van Rijn
5. Michelangelo
6. Johannes Vermeer
7. Edward Manet
8. Georges Seurat
9. Claude Monet
10. Edvard Munch
11. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
12. Vincent van Gogh
13. Joseph Turner
14. Salvador Dali
15. Rene Magritte
16. Piet Mondrian
17. Pablo Picasso
18. Henri Matisse
19. Andrew Wyeth
20. Edward Hopper
21. Jackson Pollock
22. Cy Twombly
23. Willem de Kooning
24. Andy Warhol
25. Robert Rauschenberg
26. Jasper Johns
27. Wolf Kahn
28. Marilyn Minter
29. Gerhard Richter
30. Jean-Michel Basquiat
31. Ai Weiwei
32. Banksy

AP Art: College Visits

This week we begin the first of our visits from art schools across the country beginning with Hartford Art School on Wednesday and Mass Art on Friday during class.  Both schools will discuss their programs and then be open to portfolio reviews.  Additionally their is the first of two college nights on Thursday this week at the Heckscher museum in Huntington with schools such as: Adelphi University; Boston University School of Visual Arts; Montserrat College of Art; New Hampshire Institute of Art; Pratt Institute; and St. John's University.

2013 Shanti Poster Contest Finalists

Congratulations to the following six students who were recently announced as finalists in this year's Shanti Peace Poster contest: Gabby, Mikenzie, Andrew, and Lisa from AP Art and Kristine and Rebecca from Photography.  Above are a few examples of their pieces and next week we'll find out if any of our finalists are winners and will be included in their annual calendar.  The Shanti organisation runs a poster contest annually to promote peace and celebrate Gandhi's birthday.

Media Arts Honor Society: The Hamptons Film Festival

The Media Arts Honor Society volunteered at the Hampton's Film Festival again this past weekend and had a chance to meet some of the film industry and see some of this years films.  Smithtown alumni Mike McSweeney was at the festival with his award winning film Kush (preview below).  He shot the film for director and fellow SVA student Shubhashish Bhutiani.



Students also had a chance to meet actress Helena Bonham Carter and actors Will Forte and Bruce Dern among others as well as helping out with the festival production and voting.

Smithtown East's Spirit Week

We are celebrating Spirit Week leading up to Smithtown East's Homecoming on Saturday and all classes can participate in the extra credit assignment of taking 15 images and/or videos of Spirit Week, the Pep Rally, Homecoming Parade, and the Homecoming Game which we'll edit into a short video for MSG Varsity.  Above is an example that I took Wednesday on Patriot's Day using the iPhone 5s's slow-motion feature and a steadycam but you can just use your phone or digital camera to take the pics!

Art Honor Society: The Annual Haunted House

Banksy's in NYC

The infamous street artist Banksy is in New York City this moth doing a series of works entitled "Better Out Than In" along with a website and phone number to call which tells about each piece.  It's been a while since he's been in NY so it's been causing quite a stir with some street artists destroying his pieces and fans rushing to see the work before it's painted over or stolen.  The highligh so far is the Mobile Waterfall Truck shown in the video below which includes a rainbow, waterfall and butterflies and travels around NY.  Hopefully we'll get a chance to catch his work before its gone while on our fall field trip!

AP Art: Art History Research Project

In AP Art each student was given two artists to research and present to the class (the master list is below).  Next Wednesday and Thursday we'll have our written and visual test on the artists and Friday your reaction pieces will be due.  The reaction pieces shouldn't be done in the style of the artists but rather inspired by something in the artwork whether it's a technique, color palette, approach, or aesthetic feeling.

AP Art 2013-2014 Artist Research Project

Needles: Robert Rauschenberg, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Gabrielle- Barry McGee, Jenny Saville
Sabrina- Galerie Scheffel, Claes Oldenburg

Allison- Sigmar Polke, Marilyn Minter
Andrew- Andrew Wyeth, Retna
Dana- Henri Matisse, Wolf Kahn
Allison- Jasper Johns, Marina Abramovic
Harrison- Eric Fischl, Willem de Kooning
Hayley- Cy Twombly, Louise Bourgeois
Lena- Peter Beard, Duane Michals
Michelle- Takashi Murakami, Joel-Peter Witkin
Russell- Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ai Weiwei
Paige- Terry Winters, Anselm Kiefer
Shelby- Donald Baechler, René Magritte
Juliana- Sebastião Salgado, Rineke Dijkstra
Mikenzie- Yayoi Kusama, Erwin Wurm
Lisa- Cindy Sherman, David Hockney
Zachary- Gustov Klimt, Francis Bacon
Erica- Chuck Close, Andres Serrano

Extra Credit- Anish Kapoor, Pablo Picasso

Happy Birthday Robert Wilson

Today is the birthday of American director and playwright Robert Wilson, a Long Islander who opened the wonderful Watermill Center out east and has been a friend tom the program.  Above is a little look at some of his diverse work and hopefully we may get to visit during one of his upcoming programs.

Photo: The Photographers

In photo class we are researching 30 important and influential modern and historic photographers for a test next Friday. Above is a clip of one of the photographers, Chuck Close, giving a piece of advice and below is the full list of photographers that were covering this week:

1.    Alfred Stieglitz
2.    Ansel Adams
3.    Arnold Newman
4.    Autumn de Wilde
5.    Bruce Davidson
6.    Chuck Close
7.    Cindy Sherman
8.    Danny Lyon
9.    David LaChapelle
10.  Diane Arbus\
11.  Dorothea Lange
12.  Duane Micheals
13.  Edward Weston
14.  Gregory Crewdson
15.  Herb Ritts
16.  Irving Penn
17.  Joe McNally
18.  Lauren Greenfield
19.  Lewis Hine
20.  Marilyn Minter
21.  Nadar
22.  Peter Beard
23.  Robert Capa
24.  Robert Doisneau
25.  Starn Brothers
26.  Tim Hetherington
27.  Vik Muniz
28.  Walker Evans
29.  Walter Iooss Jr
30.  William Wegman

 

 

Media Art: Production basics

In media class we began going over the basics of a film or television production and here are two short clips that explain some of the details about the film set and the different jobs involved.  Friday there will be a test on the film terms so you can use my film terms quizlet to study.

Studio Art: Contour Line Drawings

This week in Studio Art we're learning how to create different types of Contour Line drawings.  Above is short video showing how to draw a basic contour line drawing of your hand like you did yesterday.  Today we are going draw a blind contour and a continous-line contour drawing as well as the gesture and contour drawings.