AP Art: Senior Art Show 7 Lindsay

Yesterday was Lindsay's art opening and the diverse show had a variety of pieces in different media that show off her sense of humor and ability.  The literary magazine joined up with the art club for a big turnout and viewers had a chance to see Lindsay's full portfolio before it's sent off for the AP Studio art test on Friday.

 

Photography: JR PSA Portraits

Now that Mr.Needles photographed every student in class it's your turn to go out and photograph students for the PSA Project.  Each student should take 20 portraits of students (and that means 20 students not 5 photos of 5 students).  I suggest bracketing like I did so that you get a good image of each person.

Art Honor Society: Spring Field Trip

The Art and Media Art Honor Society have our upcoming spring field trip coming up on Friday May 17 approaching and this year we'll be visiting the galleries of Chelsea, NY, a stop by Mr.Needles' alma mater the School of Visual Arts to see work by Smithtown East AP Art alumni Chris Rodriquez, a walk on the High Line, and lunch at the Chelsea Market.  Below are a few of the selected shows that we'll be visiting to take a look at:

DanzigerGallery
American Darkness- Gregory Crewdson and O. Winston Link

Jim Kempner FINE ART
Stories from Solar Winds- Robert Petersen

Gagosian Gallery
Morgenthau Plan- Anselm Kiefer

SVA Westside Gallery
Geometric Propagation- featuring Smithtown East alumni Chris Rodriquez

Mr.Needles Portrait Studio

This week students in all Mr.Needles classes will be working on the JR Inside Out project along with creating a PSA for the school.  Above are some photographs from Mr.Needles 7th period studio art and below are some images from Mr.Needles 5th period media arts class today.  The finished PSA will feature about 1000 Smithtown students and will be created by the Media Art Honor Society in conjunction with the SIT team and Mr.Needles media classes.

JR and the Inside Out project

INSIDE OUT: The People's Art Project TRAILER from SOCIAL ANIMALS on Vimeo.
We recently discussed French artist JR who won the TED Prize in 2011 and his Inside Out project This week he is in NY, in Times Square taking and posting portraits of everyone who stops by the photobooth truck. The NY Times wrote a piece on him yesterday and a documentary about the project (which the Art Honor Society participated in) screened at Tribeca Film Festival recently and will be shown on HBO on May 20.

AP Art: Test Week

This Friday is the AP Studio Art exam so this week everyone in class should be busy preparing and matting their 5 Quality pieces for delivery and writing and editing their concentration statements on the AP Digital upload website.  Above is an great example which scored a 5/5 on the AP test from  a few years ago by former Smithtown HS East student Aidi Wang (who is graduating this year from Hartford School of Art).  I'll help you edit the statements on Tuesday but everyone should have a finished written statement by the end of class on Monday along with your 12 Breadth and Concentration pieces uploaded.

Studio Arts: t-shirts designs

In studio arts this week we designed t-shirts in Adobe Illustrator and above is a great example from Shelby, next week we'll go over the specifics of actually creating your own small t-shirt shop such as mine on MySoti

Photography: The Lens Baby

In Photography we are working with the Lens Baby Composer this week taking photographs in the key of Spring outdoors.  Above is one of my examples from Wednesday's demo and below is a show film which was shot with a Lens Baby to give you an idea of some of the things it can do.  We'll be using the DSLR camera in groups again and there will be a rolling deadline as there was with the portrait project but each student should take at least 5 photos to create a diptych with a border in Photoshop.

AP Art: Senior Art Show 6 Ali

 
Today is Ali's senior show opening and her creative, meditative art and designs have found a good fit in the gallery alongside some eclectic plant life and curiosities.  Her completed AP concentration is exhibited and it's nice to see all the pieces together as a whole.

Extra Credit: MSG Varsity 10 Photo Set

This week's extra credit assignment for Mr.Needles classes is to take 10 good photos of any school event and bring them in to post on MSG Varsity.  The assignment was originally posted on Mr.Needles Instagram account (TimNeedles) because of being out with the flu and on Instagram the photos can be hashtaged #needlesclass.

AP Art: Senior Art Show 5 Jenna

 

Last week was Jenna's opening and in addition to her enormous talent she showed off her work ethic with hundreds of drawings in all different styles.  Her new large portrait pieces are on display in a space where they can be seen together an look great along with her work in figure drawing, illustration, animation, and fan art.  Make sure you take a close look at the work before it comes down!

AP Art: Online submissions

This week in AP art class we will be uploading the AP Studio Art Submissions for the AP test on May 10. Below is the information you need to know to sign up:

School Code: 335001
School: SMITHTOWN HIGH SCH E CAMPUS
Teacher Key: xwt0100

If you have any questions the College Board has a web demo that gives a step by step run through the process.

Studio Art: Poet's portraits in words

In Studio Art class we created portraits of notable poets in words for National Poetry Month and here are a few great examples by Victoria, Maria, and Nick of Daniel Hoffman, Ezra Pound, and William Shakespeare.

Media Art: Children's Films

Our next film project is creating a short children's film for the "Young Filmmaker" category of the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.  The films should follow the criteria bulleted below and the film will be due in class in May 8 (the festival entry deadline is May 31st). 

The action of the film should be child-driven.

The stories should be culturally authentic, timely, and of universal appeal.

Films submitted to CICFF should be made for, rather than about, children.

Film content should be creative, highly original, and demonstrate artistic and technical mastery.

Content should speak positively to children of diverse backgrounds and cultures & should provide strong role models for both boys and girls.

We'll discuss the details in class and look at some examples but below is a great example of short PSA produced and created by Smithtown East's own Rich Vernillo a few years ago.  He created this impressive short about bullying in high school and it went on to gain a huge number of views and acknowledgement.

Media Art: Local Film featuring James Franco and Jonah Hill

Much love to Port Jefferson Long Island for waiting all day to see me on set of True Story twitter.com/JonahHill/stat…
— Jonah Hill (@JonahHill) April 18, 2013

The upcoming dramatic film The True Story was filming this week in Port Jefferson with two of the actors that I've interviewed as a film journalist: James Franco and Jonah Hill.  Crowds turned out Thursday afternoon to see actor Jonah Hill filming in front of Danfords docks and Jonah tweeted about it above.  The film ironically isn't set on Long Island but Oregon and tells the story of a journalist's relationship with one of the FBI's most wanted.

Photography: Studio Portraits

This week in photography we are continuing our studio portraits so remenber each person should take at least 15 photos and shoose 3 for a black and white series and 5 for a color series.  Above is an great example from our first group featuring Kim and Gigi photographed by Erica.

Extra Credit: Watch and Critique Chasing Ice

The first Extra Credit of the 4th quarter watch and write a short one page critique of the Oscar nominated documentary Chasing Ice which will be airing on The National Geographic Channel starting April 19th, 8pm EST. The film is part of A Night of Exploration - one night each week throughout 2013 dedicated to the hot shots, the mavericks, and the best in their field who have devoted their lives to exploring the world around us and the ground-breaking discoveries that are making a difference.

Studio Art: Digital typography

This week we completed our first digital typography project and the results were diverse and successful.  Students had 3 different options in terms of creating a design for their "bucket list" of things they wanted to accomplish in life and here are two great examples from Jess (above) and Reny (below) that used totally different techniques
.

Photography: The Digital Rayograph

In photography class we recently worked on creating a modern digital version of Man Ray's photogram technique of creating an image without a camera.  We used a scanner and a layering technique in Adobe Photoshop to create our images of objects that we had on us.  Here are a 3 great examples from: Meg, Erica, and Sarah which are all successful and manage to bring a unique perspective.

Mr.Needles Sick Day

Today I'm out sick but don't worry I'm home finishing up your grades not at a wild beach party.  Being that it is National Poetry Month it does bring to mind one of my favorite poems by Pedro Pietri, co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café in NYC which I posted below and on video form above. 

In studio art class we are finishing up our digital typography project and beginning the type art portrait that I introduced last week so if anyone is finished early you can choose any poet off of this list on Poets.org and find an image, a short bio of the poet, and a sample of their writing to work from and I'll introduce the specifics tomorrow.  All my other classes should continue working on their current projects, I'll see you soon!


Telephone Booth #905 1/2 by Pedro Pietri


Woke up this morning

feeling excellent,
picked up the telephone
dialed the number of my
equal opportunity employer
to inform him i will not
be in to work today.
“are you feeling sick?”
the boss asked me
“no sir,” i replied:
“i am feeling too good
to report to work today.
if i feel sick tomorrow
i will come in early!”

Studio Art: Typographic Design

Last week in class we looked at some great letterpress type design and some different emotive type examples so this week we are working on you personal manifesto which can be in either style.  You should have created a list of the different aspirations you have in life and this week we will turn those thoughts into art either by hand like in the amazing Holstee design by the artist Tekst above (which is documented in the video below) or on the computer like the example we looked at last week.  The choice is yours but either way the final design should be turned in digitally by Wednesday.

Photography: Combining images for narrative effect

In Photography we have been working on combining images in order to create a narrative or mood and here are two successful examples that use different approaches from Tianna (above) and Meg (below).  The assignment is due today so make sure to finish it up, save it as a JPEG, and then we'll share and critique them.

AP Art: Senior Shows - Megan

Yesterday was Meghan's senior art show which featured some fluorescent Día de Muertos inspired art and design as well as some colorful cupcakes.  The Solstice literary club joined the art honor society for the opening and everyone was impressed except for Lindsay who wasn't allowed to have any cupcakes!

 

 

Studio Art: Words as Art

We learned about the basics of typography in class and now it's time to bring a creative approach to what we learned.  The image above of the Holstee Manifesto is a great example of great type design and it was created using the old fashioned letterpress technique shown in the video clip below.



We are going to take this design concept and use digital technology to create something similar.  We are going to use the designer Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich's work for inspiration.  He collaborated with Mucca Design and Adobe on a fantastic project called Words at Play which helped advertise Adobe's program with educational and unique images of authors made with type along with information about them and the font.  They project won some coveted awards and was eventually developed into a print book shown below.

Each student in class will create a word portrait in a similar way of a different author and being that it is National Poetry Month I will create a demo today of one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins.  Before starting the design we will research the writer and read some of their word to match their style with their design.  here's a terrific poem titled Forgetfulness by Billy Collins that was turned into a short film by JWT.



In the TED talk below Billy, who was a two-term U.S. Poet Laureate, explains the project and how his poems were animated for the Sundance Channel.

AP Art: 2013 Long Island's Best Show

Congratulations to Smithtown High School East's Gabby Lynn who's photograph was included in the Heckscher Museum's 2013 Long Island's Best Show.  Students from 49 high schools across Long Island submitted artwork for jurying and from the hundreds of submissions Curator Lisa Chalif selected only 80 for display.  All of the pieces were inspired by works shown at the museum and both the student work and the inspiration pieces will be on view at the museum until April 21, 2013.

AP Art: The 2013 Congressional Art Show

Congratulations to Smithtown High School East AP Artists: Brianne Hart, Devon James, (pictured above with Mr.Needles and Congressman Tim Bishop) Ali Parisi, and Kerin Grisanti whose work was included in this year's Congressional Art Show at the Lyceum Gallery in Riverhead. The show was juror was chosen by East End Arts Council and the exhibit’s opening was Saturday where they joined a selection students from schools across the 1st Congressional District and Congressman Tim Bishop who awarded them a special Congressional certificate of achievement.

Studio Art: Graphic Design and Typography

We will be learning about the fundamentals of Graphic Design and Typography.  The next assignment will have 3 parts and  the first part, creating expressive type design, will be the final grade for quarter 3.  An example of great expressive type can be seen her on the artful artsy amy blog.  We will be watching a clip of type designer David Carson's TED talk from 2009 about the power of type with examples of his grunge type designs.  His advice below is something for artists of any kind to take to heart:

“You have to utilize who you are in your work. Nobody else can do that: nobody else can pull from your background, from your parents, your upbringing, your whole life experience.”

AP Art: Senior Shows- Devon

Yesterday was the opening of Devon's senior show which was filled with her unique style and color palette which is appropriate for spring.  Her quirky mixed media pieces and eclectic decorations entertained the big crowd for her show.  The work will be up for a week so if you haven't seen the show be sure to stop by.

 

Guest Artist: Dominique Maciejka

Smithtown alumni Dominique Maciejka stopped by to visit the AP Art class at Smithtown East today and talk about her creative career and her new fashion store in Sayville, the Paper Doll Vintage Boutique.  Her new look book shows off some of her work and she talked about the process of finding her way in her career after graduation Smithtown and going to college at SAIC.  She also spoke about selling pieces to many designers such as Michael Kors who used them as inspirations for their collections.  She was in the AP class before she graduated in Smithtown in 2002 so she also talked a little bit about her creative concentration theme of traveling for which creating 3D dioramas inside of vintage suitcases that were back lit with lights.

Studio Art: Matisse's cutouts and the Chapel of the Rosary

This week in class we studied Henri Matisse's cutout art and the Chapel of the Rosary and today we will continue creating out digital cutouts based on Matisse's work.  They example above is from Mark in 4th period and it's a perfect example because it satisfies all the : it has at least 5 different bright "fauvist" colors, it has organic shapes (along with geometric shapes), it was saves as a 8"x10" jpeg, and it also contains words that are hand created which is optional but impressive.  Tomorrow we will have a short quiz on what we learned.

AP Art: Shanti Poster Contest

Congrats to Brianne Hart who poster design was chosen as a finalist for this year’s Shanti Poster Contest.   The contest focuses on promoting peace through art and education.  Her painting was chosen from hundreds across Long island to be included in the 7^th annual Shanti calendar.

AP Art: Photo Forum Photography Contest

Congrats to Clay Sontag and Gabby Lynn from Mr. Needles AP Studio Art class who were chosen as honorable mentions in Photo Forum Magazine's 33rd Annual College & High School Photography Contest. Their images are posted on the website’s winner’s gallery and will be published in their new hardcover book.  Their work was part of a very selective group chosen from over 16,000 entries from USA, Canada and internationally.

AP Art: 2013 Long Island's Best

Congratulations go out to Gabby who's piece pictured above was chosen for the 2013 Long Island's Best: Young Artists at The Heckscher Museum which will be on view March 30, 2013 - April 21, 2013!  Over the past 17 years, this program has grown to become a prestigious opportunity; it is the only juried exhibition on Long Island that offers high school students the opportunity to show their artwork in an art museum.

AP Art: Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Japan Society

Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto will be speaking at the Japan Society next week on Tuesday, March 26 at 7 PM.  You may know his work from  U2's album cover for  No Line on the Horizon which was his photograph Boden Sea, Uttwil (1993) and his colorful scarf designs for French fashion label Hermès.  He will be doing a Q&A along with Memories of Origin Japan, 2012

Studio Art: Origami

In completing the origami lesson we will take a look at director Vanessa Gould's documentary Between The Folds about the "mesmerizing world of modern origami, artists and scientists craft works of delicate beauty and model cutting-edge mathematical theories."

   

   

Media Art: Documentary Film project

In media arts class we've just began making our first film but take a look at this Kickstarter project from New York filmmaker Jessica Edwards called Tell Me Something which asks 50 documentary filmmakers for creative advice, a great read for any kind of artist!!

Media Arts: Animating the Alphabet

In media arts classes we are working on creating an alphabet animation using hand drawn frames. Each student will create a 50 frame animation based on a letter they are given and morph at least 3 different images that begin with that letter into their sequence (Letter A: Apples, Alligators, Andrew Jackson). All of the letter sequences will be combined into a full animation of the alphabet which can be used to teach elementary school students next year, posted online, and submitted into film festivals.

Here's an example of a finished storyboard


Here's an example of a finished name credit and below is an example of what the final individual animated segment looks like.

AP Art: Looking at the concentration as a body of work

Concentration number 8 is due today in AP Art and there are only 25 class days left until the AP Art test so  in addition to making sure each AP concentration fits your theme and works well as a piece it is extremely important that you look at your pieces as a body of work and make sure they fit together.  The 6 concentrations above from Clay clearly have some stylistic elements that run through each of them and they work together as a whole even though there are clear differences so it's a good example of a successful body of work.  If pieces don't fit together it may necessitate you create replacement works so this is the time to work these issues out because there are only 5 weeks left after next week's vacation.

Art Honor Socitey: Art Show and Year End Planning

Today in Art Honor Society we will be reviewing our annual art show (pictured above) and we'll be planning the activities for the end of the year including our spring field trip, a visiting artist, an earth day celebration, MSG varsity filming, contests, AP Studio art for next year, the yearbook page, our alumni art show, and our induction ceremony.

Media Arts: Storyboarding Basics

This week we'll be creating storyboards for our full-length animated films so we'll be talking about the basic camera shots and angles and how to create a professional storyboard.  When storyboards are completed animators will often use them to create an animatic such as the one shown below for the Gorillaz music video.

Studio Art: Textile design and Origami

In Studio Art class we worked on creating unique textile designs and now it is time to learn some basic origami.  We will be designing our own origami paper like the example shown below then creating 3 origami cranes.  The video above shows the step by step instructions so you can replay it if you get lost.  After the 3 cranes are completed we will photograph them and mail them away to a memorial!

AP Art: Submission Information

Today in AP art class we will be signing up for the AP Studio Art Submission in preparation for the upcoming AP test in May. Below is the information you need to know to sign up:

School Code: 335001
School: SMITHTOWN HIGH SCH E CAMPUS
Teacher Key: xwt0100

If you have any questions the College Board has a web demo that gives a step by step run through the process.

Photography: The Story Behind The Image

Last week in photography we learned about photographer Joe McNally and looked at some of his works and today in preparing for tomorrow's test we'll look at the story behind one of his most iconic images for National Geographic, the changing of the light bulb on the Empire State Building.  The video above is the story of the shoot which took a few attempts to be successful.  This is a very timely lesson as Joe posted earlier today that he had " climbed the worlds tallest building today. What an amazing structure! Tweeting from… http://instagr.am/p/W_VQ0SOlGi/" for a photograph on top of the Burj Khalifa.

Photography: Photo History

This week we learned about a number of important photographers such as Robert Frank who is profiled in the video above.  Friday we'll take the visual portion of the test on all of them so here's a list of all of the photograsphers to review:

1. Alfred Stieglitz
2. Ansel Adams
3. Arnold Newman
4.  Chuck Close
5. Cindy Sherman
6. Danny Lyon
7. David LaChapelle
8. Dianne Arbus
9. Dorothea Lange
10. Duane Micheals
11. Eadweard Muybridge
12. Edward Weston
13. Greg Crewdson
14. Henri Cartier-Bresson
15. Herb Ritts
16. Irving Penn
17. Joe McNally
18. Julia Margaret Cameron
19. Lauren Greenfield
20. Margaret Bourke-White 
21. Man Ray ­
22. Marilyn Minter
23. Mathew Brady
24. Nadar
25. Peter Beard
26. Robert Capa
27. Robert Doisneau
28. Robert Frank
29. Sebastião Salgado
30. Walter Iooss Jr.

Media Art: Morphing Animation Demo

Today we will begin a short demo animation which will teach you the steps of animation with a easy morphing design.  Above is a more complex version but the example shows you how simple and cool the animation can be.  You will create a 10 frame animation morphing one shape or object into another and digitize it for Friday.

Media Art: Animation Basics

Today we will begin learning the basics of animation and here's a short clip about the making of the series Futurama to begin with and see how it's arranged and built.

Comedy Central

AP Art: The Armory Show

This weekend was The Armory Show in NYC and the art did not disappoint.  With the AP Art class looking at research for your concentrations it may be worth while to take a look at some of the work on Art.sy when you have a chance this week!

Media Art Honor Society: Film of the Month Searching For Sugarman

The Media Art Honor Society will host a showing and discussion of the Oscar winning documentary Searching For Sugarman on Tuesday afterschool in room 161.  Mr. Needles interviewed Rodriguez, the subject of the film and will be sharing his raw interview along with video he took of Rodriguez from the Newport Film Festival.

Photography: A Sense of Place

Today our 'Sense of Place' assignment is officially due in Photography and above is a short interview with National Geographic Traveler and Smithsonian photographer Bob Krist who's work and books inspired the assignment.  Below is a great example from Taylor who took some great photos from around Long Island!

Art Honor Society: Chelsea Galleries Field Trip

In April we'll be taking another trip to NYC to visit some of the Chelsea galleries as well as art along the high line downtown.  The tentative date is April 24 but that is subject to change based on the appointments we make.  Currently we are planning to visit the Gagosian Gallery for their Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit and the SVA Westside gallery for their BFA Advertising and Design Department Portfolio Exhibition.


This week is also the Armory Show on Piers 92 & 94 in Manhattan so if you happen to be in the city and not snowed in again it's well worth check out because there are numerous contemporary exhibitions, check artsy for the preview!

Studio Art: Walt Whitman and Visual Poetry

The good grey poet Walt Whitman was born in Huntington and actually taught for a short time in Smithtown school district so this week we will be working on creating a work of visual poetry based on one of his famed poem "Song of the Open Road" from Leaves of Grass for a contest sponsored by the Walt Whitman Birthplace.  We will begin by looking at poem then writing our own short poem about the road which we will the illustrate and design visually using a variety of materials including drawing, paint, photographs, and the computer in order to create a small book.  The project is due one week from today on March 12 and the entries will be submitted later that week.

AP Art: Concentration Art Research Project

Now that we are half way through creating our concentrations we are going to do another artist research project but this time the artist is being chosen based specifically on your concentration thus far.  Many of these artist deal with 'adult' subject matter so be sure to choose 10 slides that are appropriate for the classroom along with a cover page and a short bio on Powerpoint for Thursday.  You may not like the art but it was chosen because some aspect relates to what you are doing so try to learn from the process to aid you if you don't have a strong direction at this point:

• Ali- Yoko Ono
• Alli- Salvador Dali
• Brianne- Nan Goldin
• Carissa- Chris Cooper
• Alejandro- Francisco Goya
• Clay- Kristin Holcomb
• Devon- Sabrina Ward Harrison
• Meagan- Henri Matisse
• Samantha- William Cox
• Jenna- Winold Reiss
• Jessica- Chris Cunningham
• Kerin- Chuck Close
• Kevin- Herb Ritts
• Melissa- Chris Appelhans
• Sabrina- Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich
• Saylor- Greg Crewdson
• Gabby - Austin Kleon
• Lindsay- Joel-Peter Witkin

Media Arts: Screenwriting

This week we will be working on our first screenplay so each day at the beginning of class we'll take a look at a screenwriter and learn a bit about how they work.  Today we'll be looking at Rob Reiner who began his career as an actor winning an Emmy on  All in the Family then started Castle Rock producing, directing, and writing films like  Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally..., The Princess Bride, This Is Spinal Tap and A Few Good Men.  Here's an interview I did with Rob this summer: Tim Needles interview with Rob Reiner.

Tomorrow we'll be looking at Tales from the Script a documentary about screenwriting featuring clips from Frank Darabont and William Goldman among others.

Studio Art: Written Self Portraits

Part one of our self portrait project is complete and above are some great examples from Mark, Victoria, and Emily.  Today we begin part two which will use the same words but painting as well.