Art and Media Honor Society: Remembering 5 Pointz

Today we are going on our annual field trip to NYC and what was supposed to be 5 Pointz in Queens.  I stopped by 5 Pointz a week before it was destroyed to scope it out and shot a short video of the murals which I posted above in remembrance of the artspace.  Have a great Thanksgiving Break!

PS- Banksy fans might want to take a look at this NY Times article on the fate of the final Banksy work, the graffiti ballons, which was put up just down the street from 5 Pointz.

AP Art: The Gedenk Award for Tolerance

The next theme we will be working on comes from the Gedenk Award for Tolerance which is sponsored by the SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING AWARDS this year. 'Gedenk' is a Yiddish word meaning “remember” and the award asks us to consider what we can all do to learn from humanity’s mistakes.  Five National Medals and prizes of $1,000 each will be given for work in any of the Awards’ categories (which can be found in the link above).  We will critique and collect them after the Thanksgiving break and submit them in December.

Photography: The Portraits

Today we'll be critiquing the completed studio portraits such as Nicole's images which are pictured above and look terrific along with the results of the three part portraits that were due on Friday, below is a favorite from Nick.

 

Studio Art: Creating Fonts

In Studio Art we have been working on creating fonts and learning the elements and tools of graphic design and below are two great examples of fonts created in class by Jordan and Nikki,  This part of the project is due on Monday and you will use it next week when you design a poster with your fonts in Photoshop.

The theme of the poster is ‘Across Opposites’ from the Typography Day 2014 student poster contest.  You should take a look at these two designs from last year's competition which was 'Between The Lines' by Richard Doubleday and Christine Mitchell to get an idea of the expectations.

Photography: Altered Portraits

In photography class we are currently working on portraiture doing two assignments at once, the (6) studio portraits which we are shooting in groups as well as the (4) three part altered portraits like the one shown above that was the demo in class.

Art Honor Society Field Trip Reboot

If you haven't heard the news, yesterday the murals at 5 Pointz were all destroyed by one of the owners to end a controversy about trying to save the building vs. it being torn down so we will obviously no longer be visiting it on our field trip next week.  We will still be visiting the Metropolitan Museum (and possibly another short surprise spot but we are currently trying to work out the new details and timeline).  It is certainly a sad day for art, our club has visited the engaging spot for years and it's always been a terrific experience, below are some of the highlights from the past few years...

Photo Contest: Photo Forum

Today is the due date for the 34th Annual College & High School Photography Contest so students in photography and AP art should think about entering because the fee is only $5 and the award are $25,000.  Last year two students were finalists and had their images printed in Photo Forum.  Below are the basics, best of luck!

•    Rights remain with photographer
•    Subject matter is open
•    Finalists notified by January 24, 2014
•    Winners notified by February 10, 2014

Image Size should have a long dimension of at least 1000 pixels and no more than 3000 pixels

Save file as (JPG) with maximum quality.

Color Space should be Adobe1998, sRGB or untagged color space.

File Size should be no more than 4 Mb

All Uploaded Entries are FINAL and Cannot be Replaced, Deleted or Edited

Prizes
2 FIRST PLACE GRAND PRIZES
$2,000 Best COLLEGE Color or BW PLUS Nikon D7100 camera and lens system (MSRP $1,999.95) $2,000 Best HIGH SCHOOL Color or BW PLUS Nikon D7100 camera and lens system (MSRP $1,999.95)

2 SECOND PLACE AWARDS $1,000 cash grant 2nd Place College $1,000 cash grant 2nd Place High School

2 THIRD PLACE AWARDS $500 cash grant 3rd Place College $500 cash grant 3rd Place High School

10 FOURTH PLACE AWARDS 5 $100 grants to 4th Place College 5 $100 grants to 4th Place High School

200 HONORABLE MENTIONS 100 College and 100 High School Honorable Mentions will be listed in the May 2014 issue of Photographer’s Forum magazine and will receive a certificate of outstanding merit.

PARTICIPATION GIFT All entrants from the U.S. and Canada receive 2 FREE ISSUES of Photographer’s Forum

Studio Art: Type Design Basics

In studio art we are currently working on our graphic design unit and we are now beginning type design.  Above is a video from artist Sean McCabe and below is a video from artist Dave Foster showing off their type design skills and we will be following a very similar process to design fonts then import them into Photoshop to create a poster with.  Today we will begin by taking a quick look at the film Helvetica about one of the world's most influential and used fonts then we will go over the basics and sketch out 10 original ideas for fonts in our sketchbooks.

Art and Media Honor Society Fall Field Trip

This month is our Art and Media Art Honor Society Fall Field Trip to 5 Pointz in Brooklyn and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.  This will likely be our last trip to 5 Pointz as  it looks likely it will be torn down in the coming months to make way for an apartment building so bring your camera and take some pictures!  The trip is on Tuesday, November 26 (the day before our Thanksgiving break) so it'll be here quickly.  Take a look at the map of the Met if you haven't been there so you can plan out what you want to see.

Photography: Type Photography

In photography, now that we've taken pictures that represent letters we will now write out part of the HOLSTEE Manifesto using these letters in groups.  The Manifesto is below and each group has been assigned a fragment which should be completed by Friday.

Studio Art: At the auction

Studio Art Yesterday the two big NYC auction houses had sales of modern art featuring record prices for some of the artists we recently studied notably Francis Bacon, who's triptych of friend and artist Freud sold for a record art price of $142.4 million at Christie’s Post War Art Auction.  Take a look through the slideshow at some of the pieces and also check out Banksy's Laugh Now which sold for $485,000 at Phillips Contemporary Auction along with works from Warhol, Murakami, and De Kooning.

 

Quarter 2

Welcome to quarter 2, above is a great image created by Irene in Photography using images from around the school last quarter. Today we are starting new assignments in every class for the new quarter which are listed below, anyone with missing grades make sure you hand in work today as grades are finalized on Wednesday.

Media Art: We begin our hand drawn animations today by going over the basics of animating and story design.

Studio Art: We begin our design sequence to with an introduction to poster design and Adobe Photoshop.

Photography: We begin studio portraiture with the SLR camera along with environmental portraits concurrently in groups.

AP Art: Media and drawing students will begin new projects based on the theme of the Symbolism.

End of Quarter 1

Today is the end of the first quarter and all assignments are due by the end of the day. In AP art the media students just completed the triptych assignment and here are 3 great examples from Juliana, Allison, and Lena, nice work!

 

 

Media Arts: Bullying Public Service Announcement

In Media Arts we are currently working on creating visual infographics based on bullying statistics for our bullying Public Service Announcement.  Above is a great example by Michelle which outlines some surprising numbers and includes all the necassary information such as where the statistics are from and a good sense of heirarchy.

Art Honor Society Voting

Today we are voting for the new cabinet members of the 2013 Art Honor Society in Smithtown East and below are the links to the polls which close on Friday:

Vice President
Upper Cabinet
Lower Cabinet

AP Art: Double Exposures

In AP Art the media students will be working on double exposures and ways to use the techniques to create an emotional response or narrative in the work.  Above is a simple demonstration with Allison using two color and done entirely on the iphone.  I demonstrated three additional techniques and students are free to use any, all, or none of them just as long as they create an original work with at least two exposures by the end of class Friday.

Photography: Alphabetography

In photography class we are taking pictures of things that resemble letters (known as Alphabetography) which we will then edit in Photoshop.  The example above is from class and includes the full alphabet along with an asterisk and and exclamation mark for balance. The first step is to take pictures of things resembling letters then we'll be arranging them together in Photoshop and editing them like the example above.  Finally we will actually write out photo words with the letters we created.

Media Arts: The Bully Interviews

Last week Smithtown High School East media arts and AP students in Mr. Needles classes had a chance to have a talk with actor and performer Nick Cannon about bullying and the world of entertainment.  Above is a short clip from the question and answer portion of the event which underscored a few of the most important points.

Media Arts: The bully interviews

This week we had the opportunity to talk with a few celebrities about their careers, advice on the industry, and most importantly bullying.  Here's the first edited clip from the interview with Brock Ciarlelli (from ABC's The Middle) with a good question from Sabrina.  Additional clips will be posted next week.