Film: Interview with actor/screenwriter John C Reilly

 
"Keep growing, keep moving and you’ll find the world that you need" 

This Friday's advice comes from Oscar and Grammy nominated actor, singer, and screenwriter John C Reilly who you probably know from films like: Step Brothers, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Chicago, Gangs of New York, Boogie Nights, Casualties of War, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and one of my favorites What's Eating Gilbert Grape. I interviewed him a few times over the years but here's a snippet from the press tour for the 2011 film Terri in which he plays a high school assistant principal. 

Mr. Needles: What's your advice for students who are being bullied or having a difficult time in high school? 

John C. Reilly: If you’re in high school and you’re freaking out about your place in the pecking order and you feel like a monster or an outcast and you feel like, in the deck of cards that is high school there’s the aces and the kings and queens and you’re like the three of clubs, just know that this is true for every single person in the world- the moment you get out of high school that deck of cards is thrown into the air and those who were kings and queens often end up the assistant manager at the grocery store and those who were the three of clubs end up on press junkets for movies starring themselves, it gets better for everybody, and you just have to get through it. Keep growing, keep moving and you’ll find the world that you need. 

Full story: Short and Sweet NYC

Studio Art: Crane Day

 

In Studio Art today is Crane Day! We designed paper and learned how to fold origami cranes so now we will finalize them and string them together. The image below maps out where different parts will end up when the final crane is folded. 

Digital Media: 3D Design and Printing- Modular 3D Puzzle

In Digital Media we are going to begin our 3D Design and Printing unit by remixing a design for a 3d puzzle shown above.  We are each going to create an individual piece that can be interlocked with each other to make a large sculptural form.  It's essential that the depth of the puzzle piece and the size of the cut-out slats remain the same so they are interchangeable but you can modify the design in any other way.  

We'll look at Morphi's  Modular Art Disks (above) and then use that as a starting place for our own unique designs. Below are a few examples of puzzle pieces from students in previous years.

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) February 8, 2019

National Art Honor Society: Talk with Lisa Congdon

 I had the opportunity to talk with illustrator Lisa Congdon speak at the SCAD Guests and Gusto series earlier this week and I wanted to share some of the things I learned. Lisa's work is terrific and she shared that many of her projects with companies come directly from sharing her personal work on social media. She also was asked about her color choices and shared that she will sometimes us a Dictionary Of Color Combinations to infuse interesting combinations of colors especially now that she works digitally on Procreate more often than using traditional gouache paints which had a more limited palette.

I was also able to ask a question about representation which was followed by a question on pricing art and she shared a great resource, Jessica Hische on Pricing Art and the Graphic Artists Guild handbook.

This is a important message to all to remember & the #illustration will soon have a home in my art classroom- thanks for an informative & inspirational talk on #creativity & #art today at @SCADdotedu's Guests and Gusto @lisacongdon! pic.twitter.com/L2e1SihtF1

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) May 3, 2021

Studio Art: Japanese Origami Cranes

In Studio Art class we creating a collection of Japanese Origami Cranes. I took the photo below at the Hiroshima memorial in Japan the day I met Sadako Sasaki's brother Masahiro and Tsugio Ito, a story I shared in class. It shows how origami cranes are traditionally grouped, we'll create a similar grouping of 1000 cranes as well.

Students will each create a unique textile designs (there's an example of traditional textiles below but you can feel free to be creative) on paper then fold them into paper cranes.  

Here are a few examples of student created textile designs as an example. We learned some basic origami skills on Monday with our practice crane and when the designs are complete we will fold them into cranes.    

The video below shows the step by step instructions so you can replay it if you get lost.  After the 2 cranes are completed we will photograph them and mail them away to a memorial!

AP Art: Portfolio Week

 In AP Art our final test is quickly approaching so it is time to examine our portfolio of work, complete our writing about the process, ideas, and materials, and work with classmates to grade it so we can make any last minute changes. The test needs to be submitted on May 20 so we have 13 class days to make changes and be sure it all works together before we send it off to be graded by the college board.

2021 SCALA All County Art Show

 
Congrats to Juliana Napoli, Nethmi Withanage, and Angelina Bhola who participated in this year's SCALA All County Art Show. The artwork looks amazing and represents our Smithtown East creative community well! The full show can be found on the link above.

Studio Art: 2021 Vans Shoe Student Designs

 
In Studio Art and Digital Media Classes we recently completed our 2021 Vans Shoe Student Designs for the theme Head In The Clouds and there were some really terrific, creative results. The four shoe designs above represent a student from each class who took on the challenge including Isabella, Angelina, Victoria, and Dylan (clockwise from the top left). I was excited to see all the brilliant designs so well done!

National Art Honor Society- 2021 SCALA Senior Scholarship

 
In today's meeting of the National Art Honor Society we'll celebrate out vice-president Nethmi who won the 2021 SCALA Senior Scholarship and will receive her award today at an online All-County ceremony. One one senior per school may enter and the awards are First place $750, second place $500.00, third place $250.00.

Digital Media: OKgo Video Week

 

This week OKgo will be releasing a new collaborative video each day and some of them feature the work of students. Today's video will be livestreamed on Twitch at 4pm and OKgo Sandbox has shared that there will be some fun surprises along the way as a new video is released each day. Any student who took part in this extra credit project and sent in there work will be able to see the frame you created in one of the videos! I created one as well so I'll be watching alongside you excited to see the final results!

Come sing along & celebrate with us at the @RollingStone Twitch premiere of our second #ArtTogetherNow video tomorrow🎉 When should you join the party? The livestream begins at 4:00pm Eastern Time! https://t.co/DGcL71mHpv

— OK Go Sandbox (@OKGoSandbox) April 27, 2021

Film: Video Poems for National Poetry Month

 

April is National Poetry Month so to close out the celebration this week I'll be sharing out some of the video poems we created in class. Here's one of my video poem's I made this spring after hitting a year of the pandemic called Still Waiting.

Studio Art: NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 Liftoff

This morning the NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 Lifted Off on it's way to the International Space Station. The crew of Dragon includes: NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and they are scheduled to dock to the space station at about 5:10 a.m. tomorrow, April 24.

Film: Exploring Short VR Films- Age of Sail

 This week we watched Age of Sail by director John Kahrs (who also directed Paperman) and looked into how it was created and intended to be viewed in VR then issued in 2D for the Oscars. We'll be working with VR later this month in class and experiment with our own VR filming.

National Art Honor Society- 2021 Yearbook

 
Today in National Art Honor Society we will finalize our 2021 Yearbook page (pictured above) and continue work on our Storm Drain Murals and our SADD mural collaboration as well as planning the end of the year ceremonies.

North Dakota Virtual Conference

Today I'll be presenting virtually at the NDATL Virtual Conference in North Dakota and I'll be sharing some of the amazing work we've created this year in out virtual and hybrid learning. It's been a challenging year on many fronts but I've been impressed with the terrific work students have created and I'm always excited to share it with other educators!

The First Flight of the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter

 A red-letter day on the Red Planet! #MarsHelicopter pic.twitter.com/Qow8JwhYEo

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) April 19, 2021

The Mars Ingenuity Helicopter took it's first flight early this morning at 3:30am and made flight history as the first powered flight on another planet. Here are some of the early results and we'll take a look at the footage from the Mars Rover when it is received later this week. It is a very historic moment in flight history and may likely opens the doors to many new possibilities in exploring space in the future.

Congratulations to @NASA on the first powered flight on another planet earlier today with the #MarsHelicopter! https://t.co/wbDOyJgPcX

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) April 19, 2021

Here's a ew of my favorite Infographics students created last moth to share information about the achievement, I'll be sharing them out on social media today. 

We had shared some terrific infographics after we completed the assignment in March for National Robotics Week that you can see on my twitter feed below.

Happy #NationalRoboticsWeek! The @NASA Mars #Ingenuity helicopter was deployed from the @NASAPersevere rover & will take it first flight as soon as next week so my art students used tools like @AdobeSpark to create #Infographics sharing facts they learned about this achievement! pic.twitter.com/kX33XMtcav

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) April 9, 2021

Last Day of Quarter 3

Today is the last day of Quarter 3 so make sure any missing or incomplete work is submitted today!

Google Doodle: 151st Anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

This week is the 151st Anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Google marked the occasion with a special Google Doodle showing a GIF with some of the artworks in the museum and where they are located.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens—businessmen and financiers as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day—who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. On this day in 1870, the museum was officially incorporated and soon after acquired its first work of art: a Roman sarcophagus. 

The Met has come quite a long way from that first showing to become New York’s largest art museum, with a permanent collection of over 1.5 million objects, spanning over 5,000 years from nearly every corner of the globe. A sampling of the many works of art found at The Met today are depicted in today’s Doodle artwork—including a Byzantine floor mosaic from 500-550 A.D., the armor of German Emperor Ferdinand I from the 16th century, an intricate traditional Lakota/Teton Sioux beaded dress, and the painting "Self-Portrait" by Samuel Joseph Brown, Jr. from the 1940s.

Whether you're a Met regular or planning your first trip to the Museum, be sure to visit a certain blue ceramic hippopotamus from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom nicknamed “William.” An unofficial mascot of The Met, he might soon become your favorite part of the collection.

Happy anniversary to The Met–and here’s to many more!

STEAM project: Nethmi at the Regeneron International Science Fair

 East senior Nethmi Withanage’s science research project on the behavioral science of color in pandemic art puts the “A” in STEAM as she advances to the Regeneron International Science Fair! Congratulations! @SmithtownCSD pic.twitter.com/WGIzJKRVyt

— High School East (@SCSD_HSE) April 13, 2021

Congratulations to National Art Honor Society Vice President Nethmi Withanage for placing 1st on all of Long Island in the category of behavioral science and who is advancing to the Regeneron International Science Fair with her research on "The Analysis of the Use of Color in Pandemic Artwork Using Digital Quantifications." 

Students from high schools across Long Island competed virtually at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair and only 20 advance to the International Fair which is also being held virtually this year. 1800 students from around the world will be competing for over 5 million in scholarships and awards.  Please congratulate Nethmi and wish her luck as we prepare for ISEF!

Studio Art: Creative Sport Card Design

In Studio Art we will work on a Creative Sport Card Design project this week which will be the first grade for the 4th quarter. We will view examples from Topps 70, a series of baseball cards designed by a number of diverse creative artists and designers from contemporary artists like Futura and Pose (both can be seen below) as well as Alex Pardee and Ron English to musicians like Action Bronson and Snoop Dogg to Celebrate the 70th anniversary of Topps sports cards. 

We will digitally design sports cards based on any player (local or professional) from any sport or Topps set that incorporate a similar creative, original style. Our first step will be drawing out 3 small, color thumbnails to figure out the design then use a variety of traditional and digital tools to create a creative sports card.

Film Class: Yuri's Night- OKgo All Together Now Music Video Collaboration Preview

The #YurisNight preview of the @okgo All Together Now animated music video was AMAZING! So excited my students & I could collaborate w/ @OKGoSandbox be part of it! Congrats to the band & thanks to @amptMN & @PlayLearnLab for the hard work- is it really going to space?!! pic.twitter.com/ftg9GrWUN4

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) April 11, 2021

This weekend was Yuri's Night celebrating the anniversary of the first man in space in 1961 and OKgo received the Spirit of Yuri's Night award and shared a preview of the All Together Now Music Video project we worked on in collaboration with OKgo Sandbox which was pretty amazing. Even cooler is all the images from this first section of the video will soon be sent to space before they are returned to the creators! Take a look at the video below at 4:07:10 to see the talk and preview just after the Upside Down and Inside Out video.

Students who created animated for the OKgo All Together Now Music Video Collaboration should also share them with me in order to get their extra credit before the end of the quarter this Friday. Here's an example from Liz in film class who's frame was featured in the preview.

The Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Infographics

 

The Mars Ingenuity helicopter will take it first flight next week so we are working on creating infographics including 3-5 facts about the first powered, controlled flight on another planet this week. Here's a great example of an infographic from Riley in Studio Art using Adobe Spark and below is another terrify example by Angelina in Digital Media using Firealpaca.

Here's some interesting facts about the Mars Ingenuity helicopter from a few months ago that also clarifies it's role as a tech demo.

Film Club: Soul Watch Party

Today in our Media Art Honor Society/Film Club we'll have our first film screening with the 2020 Disney film Soul. We'll begin watching the film then next meeting complete it and discuss it and look into some of the background of how it was created and developed.

Film: OKgo Animated Music Video Premiere

 CONFIRMED: Damian Kulash of @okgo

Lead singer and guitarist of band OK Go, Damian Kulash, will be joining us and introduce the world to a new video project that @OKGoSandbox has been working on. OK Go will also receive the Spirit of Yuri's Night on April 10th, 2021. #YN20th pic.twitter.com/AXL8g24Res

— Yuri's Night (@YurisNight) April 1, 2021

This weekend the OKgo music video we contributed to through OKgo Sandbox will premiere on Yuri's Night! Below is a version of the frame I worked on in class, it's exciting to collaborate with such a wide group of creative people on a project around the world. I'll be colleting some of the images of frames that students created to shout them out on Friday and Saturday leading up to the event!

So excited for my students & I to be part of @okgo’s animated #musicvideo project with @OKGoSandbox & the great @PlayLearnLab- I can’t wait to see the final #animation in April! pic.twitter.com/yILxp39HfC

— Tim Needles (@timneedles) March 27, 2021

Studio Art: Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Infographic

 
This week the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter is set to take it's first flight which will be the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. To celebrate and share our knowledge we'll research the helicopter and it's mission and create an Infographic to share 3-5 facts on social media this week.

Have A Terrific Spring Break- Stay Safe!

 

Today is the final day before we leave for Spring Break so make sure all your work is completed and submitted (the quarter ends 2 weeks after we return). I hope you all enjoy a safe and relaxing spring vacation, I'll see you all in April!

Studio Art: National Geographic Education's Five Ways of Looking at a Mars Lesson

 
Today National Geographic Education published an article on Five Ways of Looking at a Mars Lesson and it features Mr. Needles as well as the work of Studio Art's Emily Sang. Check out the article which looks at the different ways classes learn about Mars and reflects on some of the projects we've done as well as hinting at some that are in the future!

Film: Storytelling as a basis for short films

In class we've been learning some of the basics of storytelling and we looked at The Moth's Story Map which helps identify the different parts of a story: 

1. The World As It Was... What do we need to know about you to understand this story?
2.  And Then One Day… What happens to set the story in motion?
3.  Raising the Stakes... What do you have to win or lose? What matters to you and why?
4. The Moment of Change... What happens that changes how you see things?
5. The World As It Is Now... How are you different after the events of this story? 

Today we'll be taking our stories and examining the structure based on the map and we'll look at a few examples of stories that were told an turned into short films like the example above from This American Life.

Film- STEAM Power's Book Birthday

Today is the birthday of my book STEAM Power so we'll celebrate by doing a short project from the book which is one of my favorites, video poetry. It'll be an extra credit assignment if you want to complete it and submit it, I'll be sharing poems for National Poetry Month in April!

Film: Film Titles- Spiderman Into The Spider-Verse

 
As we learn about creating film title animation sequences we'll view a few modern classics such as this example from the recent Oscar winning film Spider Man: Into The Spider-Verse from 2018. The opening titles and closing titles are above, they won the 2019 Excellence in Title Design Award at SXSW and were designed and directed by the films creative directors Brian Mah and James Ramirez with influences from  the hand-drawn techniques of comics artist and Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli as well as artists like Dondi White and Roy Lichtenstein.

Marvel has created some amazing title sequences in it's films that integrate with the plot of the film and help introduce themes, here's another great example from Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Director James Gunn described the opening sequence in an early draft of the script as “the greatest title shot ever” so Framestore animation, the company who created the sequence knew they had a tough task. The sequence is all done in 1 consecutive shot so everything needed to be timed perfectly and it required more special effects than any other part of the film due to the continuous action.

Studio Art: Minimalist Film Poster Design

 

In Studio Art this week we will be learning about Minimalist Film Poster Design and the work of designer Saul Bass. We will then be creating our own minimal design for a favorite film digitally.

2021 Eastern Region Secondary Art Educator Award

 
I recently won an award from the NAEA, here's a look at the article from the The Smithtown Patch:

SMITHTOWN, NY — Tim Needles, an art teacher at Smithtown High School East, was recognized as the winner of the 2021 Eastern Region Secondary Art Educator Award by the National Art Education Association (NAEA), according to the Smithtown Central School District.

AP Art: SCALA All County Competition

 This week we entered the SCALA All County Competition and submitted some great work from artists in AP Art and National Art Honor Society such as this drawing from Juliana which she created for her AP portfolio- best of luck to everyone, the results will be announced after spring break.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 
Happy St. Patrick's Day, here's a few of my favorite green paintings from art history to get us in the spirit! The self portrait above is Van Gogh and below is the Japanese Garden from Claude Monet.

AP Art: SCALA ALL COUNTY ART SHOWCASE 2021

 
The SCALA Showcase deadline is today, Tuesday March 16th so work and forms must be completed by 11:30 to be submitted. Nethmi has submitted a submission for the scholarship but we still have 4 spots available for artwork if you are interested, the information is below and the forms are on Google Classroom.

ALL COUNTY VIRTUAL SHOW/ 9-12
Only 6 students per high school building may be entered into the All County show.
CATEGORIES: Drawing, Painting, 3D, Photography, Mixed Media and Digital Media.
AWARDS:
Best in Show 100.00, Each Category - $50.00,
3 Honorable Mentions – $25.00 gift cards
*Artwork will not be included in the exhibition if the artwork is not accompanied by the release form.

SENIOR SCHOLARSHIP
Only 1 senior per high school building is permitted to enter
This portion of the show is open to SENIORS who will be attending a collegiate art program in the Fall of 2021. Students are required to submit 3 pieces of artwork along with a typed written essay.
The theme for the essay is “What inspires you as an artist?” The essay must be typed
First place $750, Second place $500.00, Third place $250.00
*Artwork will not be included in the exhibition if the artwork is not accompanied by the release form.

Youth Art Month- NAEA Daily Prompts

 
As part of this year's Youth Art Month celebration the National Art Educators Association has shared a list of daily prompts for social media with the hashtags #NAEA and #YAM so this week we'll be joining in and posting on Twitter and Instagram.

AP Art: 2021 Global Goals Project

 
This week we completed our collaborative 2021 Global Goals Project on SDG Goal 17, the Partnership for the Goals and the final video can be viewed above on my YouTube page. It was great seeing everyone work together at home and in school, I loved the animations all of you put together! I shared the project with our global collaborators around the world so today we will view some of their projects and leave comments for them.

Studio Art: Album Cover Design

 
This week we are working on creating an original album cover design. We'll learn about visual identity, branding, and review some of the principals of design we learned about earlier in the year. Each student will choose an album or single music cover of your interest and recreate the cover art. Redesign an album cover of your choice using tools such as: brush ninja, adobe spark, sumo paint, tradition pencils and paper or any other medium you see fit.

The final design must be 1:1 ratio (square) and the album cover must include album title or single title and artist name. Use the elements of color, shape and line, and the principle of unity that we discussed earlier in the year to create your design. You can use what colors and imagery that you think of when you listen to the music.

Rube Goldberg Day

 
It's Rube Goldberg Day! Today we will finish assembling our Rube Goldberg machine then test it, film it and film it again and hope it works well repeatedly.

National Art Educators Association 2021 Annual Conference

The National Art Educators Association Annual Conference just concluded and I had the opportunity to present a few sessions to share some of the great work we have done together. One of the best parts of presenting to art educators is the amazing art that comes from it and I wanted to share this sketch drawn during my STEAM Power session on Saturday at #NAEA21 by artist and educator Simon Rios aka @stirfrywillie on Instagram, love it!

Google For Doodle Day

 
Today is the last day to submit your Google For Doodle design for the contest, all entries are due by 8pm Pacific tonight in order to be counted so don't forget to submit online! The example above is a terrific design from Victoria in our Studio Art class which illustrates this year's theme ""I am strong because..."

Studio Art: Youth Art Month

 
March is Youth Art Month (YAM) so we will celebrate by creating a sharable work of art for YAM with this year's theme which is "Art Connects Us". Above is a great example from Sarah in Studio Art, we'll be collecting all the images to share out this month on social media.

Film: Sherlock Pilot- A Study In Pink

 
Today we will watch the aired 90 minute pilot of BBC's Sherlock which is titled A Study in Pink. The episode was written by co-creator Steven Moffat and is a re-vamp of the unaired pilot which was 60 minutes long along with many other small changes.

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards 2021 Articles

Six student-artists from Smithtown High School East and Smithtown High School West have received awards in the annual Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards and I so proud that 2/3 of the students were from my classes. The school recently released the news to the press and Angelina, Alexandra, Kiersten, and Nethmi are featured in articles on the school's website and the Smithtown Patch.

Digital Media: 2021 Rube Goldberg Machine

 
This week we are working on designing elements for our 2021 Rube Goldberg Machine for this year's contest which requires us to shake and pour a box of nerds and today we'll look closer at Joseph's Machines YouTube page as inspiration because his machines are some of my favorites! 

Media Art: The Coded Messages on the NASA Mars Perseverance Parachute

 

The parachute that helped land the NASA Mars Perseverance spacecraft held a secret message- where would you begin trying to decode it? Here it is seen from an upward-looking camera during landing on Feb. 18. Within hours of this image’s release on Monday, people figured out the message hidden in its pattern working together on social media- the message states:"DARE MIGHTY THINGS"

Another part of the rover has small material swatches mounted to the front of the vehicle to help validate NASA's fabric choices for future Mars-bound astronaut spacesuits. These swatches also help keep one of Perseverance's science instrument, SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), fine tuned as it investigates the dry river basin in Mars' Jezero Crater. It has another hidden Easter egg embedded in it as a reference to it's name, can you find it?

Credit...

Media Art Honor Society/Film Club: Freakonomics

Our first screening of 2021 will be the documentary Freakonomics today in Media Art Honor Society/Film Club. The film is based on the best-selling non-fiction book and radio show by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. It features segments directed by: Seth Gordon, Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney, Eugene Jarecki, Rachel Grady, and Heidi Ewing (a who's who of contemporary documentary filmmakers) and was released in major cities with a pay what you want pricing offer for selected preview showings.

We'll watch segments of the movie and how the approach different directors approached telling the stories and conveying the data which made Freakonomics so popular.

National Art Honor Society- Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

 
The National Art Honor Society will begin work on our 2021 Rube Goldberg Machine for this year's contest which requires us to shake and pour a box of nerds as the last step in out machine. We'll finish our registration for the team and watch some inspirational examples of Rube Goldberg machines such as the one OKgo created below.

Shanti Peace Poster Design: Shepard Fairey

 
We are beginning our Peace Poster designs today for the Shanti Contest so I'll share a favorite of mine from artist Shepard Fairey better known by his street art name OBEY. He has created a number of variations based on the poster above that he designed including a mural in Los Angeles and another in Berlin (both pictured below).

The artist first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" images and still incorporates Andre into his current work. He was was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina and  currently lives in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles. He continues to create posters, murals, stickers, and prints as well as book covers, clothing design, album designs, and films.