Welcome Back to School!

I thought it would be nice to start the school year off with some inspiration! The art work below is by 5th grade student, Janejira N. Janejira is an amazing artist that has taught herself how to draw on the computer from watching Youtube videos! Since 2nd grade, every day she gets out her computer drawing tablet and creates a manga style cartoon!

Each year art teachers in the district select one student to participate in the Gallery 62 program. This last school year it was Janejira. She had a 4 part self-portrait (one of the parts is shown below). The assignment was given as an in-class drawing assignment, but Janejira took it home and created the work digitally! Wow! Great work Janejira!! 

My hope is that her art will inspire us all!

"We can always be friends, even if we're different"

"Plant Omega"

"A Seal from Sweet My Comic"

"The Musical Side"

"Artistic"

"The Idea"

Day of the Dead

Today and yesterday (November 1st and 2nd)  are holidays in Mexico, and other countries in Central and South America as well as parts of Europe. This holiday is filled with colorful art work, music and food. It is a happy celebration of the lives of loved ones that have passed. Alters are built, food is set out, and sugar skulls are made for the deceased to enjoy.

The 5th graders at Cumberland created colorfully decorated skull prints in the style of Day of the Dead. Students were given a skull image to start with. They adorned the image by adding shapes, lines and patterns. These designs were transferred onto a piece of styrofoam which made a printing plate. Each student made 2 prints of their skull with white ink onto black paper. They used oil pastels and Crayola color sticks to draw details and add color to their prints. The final step was adding glitter if they chose to do so.