Monday, March 17, 2014

One and Two Point Perspective: Student Art Creating a Powerful Statement at SOIT!

One of the latest STEAM Art projects:  a One- and Two- Point Perspective Drawing with Color project that has been percolating for the past few weeks in Mrs. Simon's art class has yielded powerful student art works!  

This math/art project entitled, "Cities of the Future" has inspired breathtaking results that are currently being placed in new exhibitions spaces at SOIT created by Art PIR Triada Samaras. 


  












Pictured:  ART PIR Triada Samaras creates Cities of the Future Exhibit at SOIT with works done in Marilyn Simon's classes

Perspective is a combination of art and mathematics. It is a technique used to create the illusion of 3-dimensional space on a 2-dimensional surface through the apparent recession of lines to a vanishing point.  Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446,) an Italian engineer and architect discovered perspective in the 15th century. He observed that with a fixed single point of view, parallel lines appear to converge at a single point in the distance.  He used mirrors to paint a building in perfect perspective, mathematically calculating the scale of objects within a painting in order to make them appear realistic. Many other Renaissance artists used this method of perspective in their paintings.











Many more drawings are being created by the students as this blog is written so look for more images here of this project very soon!

Monday, March 3, 2014

3-D Vocabulary Zentangles!

As noted in an earlier blog posts:  CLICK HERE and HERE  Art PIR and Adjunct Professor Triada Samaras has been developing "3-D Vocabulary Zentangle Projects" both with art and science teachers at GOPA and SOIT and with her WPU K-12 Art Methods students, three of whom are also Practicum students at GOPA and SOIT.

Recently, Professor Samaras had these K-12 Art Methods students create strips of "Art Praxis" vocabulary words in class at WPU to help them retain this art vocabulary for their coming test, an event often fraught with test anxiety.  Students also made zentangles in class while Professor Samaras reviewed vocabulary as a way for them to relax while absorbing large amounts of material for memorization.

Later the K-12 Art Methods students learned about creating displays as future art teachers and they were asked to collaboratively create a display of their zentangles and vocabulary strips to make a "3-D Zentangle Collaborative Display" at WPU.  

Below are the fascinating results!



Above and Below:  WPU Art Methods Professsor Triada Samaras works with WPU  students further developing Three D Zentangles Project at William Paterson University




















 








More Chinese Celestial Dragons



 
Paterson SOIT Principal Gaines, WPU Art PIR Triada Samaras, and Science Teacher Ms. Jarvis
stand below the hanging Celestial Chinese Dragons.








The Celestial Dragons Project at SOIT has continued to develop and expand!


We featured the Celestial Dragons Powerpoint Presentation in a slide show in an earlier STEAM blog post: CLICK LINK 

This Powerpoint presentation is also hanging in "real life" in the hallways near a new display of Chinese Celestial Dragons created by Mrs. Simon's students that have been suspended from the ceiling by Art PIR Triada Samaras. (See image right hand side).

Together these projects merge art, science, technology, and history.



 Art Teacher Marilyn Simon and Art Professor in Residence Triada Samaras stand in front of Celestial Chinese Dragons Powerpoint

 














In addition, the Celestial Dragons Powerpoint Presentation is 
now being featured on the school intranet with a 
soundtrack thanks to Mr. Saleem, Art Department Head at
SOIT (See images below).
Above:  WPU Art Professor in Residence Triada Samaras stands in front of "Georgia O'Keefe Flowers and Bones" Exhibit








Math and Art Come Together at School 2


In December third-grade students at School 2, working with their art teacher Beth Porto and Math PIR Paul Odenwelder, learned how to create Magic Squares (arrangements of numbers in a square grid in which the numbers in each row, in each column, and in the diagonals all add up to the same number.)  (See previous post, "Magic Squares at School 2.")  
Now they have enhanced their works by adding the art elements of color and shape, thus turning them into STEAM projects.  Here are two examples:

The next project for third grade students deals with tessellations.  A tesselation is a pattern of geometric shapes that fit perfectly together, with no spaces in between.  Tesselations can be simple or complex, and can involve color.  Below is the beginning of one student’s tessellation project.  Note that the repeated shape interlocks with adjoining shapes, while the color pattern changes.
Look for its completion, and for other math/art integrated projects in future posts.