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Canal Alliance After School Art

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Mentor Artist Sofie Siegmann reports on her after school Drawing and Sculpture Class this past year at Canal Alliance
viviana lizette     toy 2
The first time our group of after school artists met on a Friday in January, we brainstormed ideas of what we wanted to do. I tried to extract the students’ preferences (definitively no printmaking, but yes, we want to draw a lot).  Besides contour drawings, we worked on observational drawings, watercolors, and collage (with newspaper).
The most difficult project was the wire sculpture. As anybody knows who has worked with wire before, it’s hard on your fingers, there is a lot of poking, and wire doesn’t necessarily do what you would like it to – but we all endured for many weeks to first sketch ideas, then build a structure, and finally add details.
We looked at artists such as Ruth Asawa and Alexander Calder to discuss how they manipulated and used wire to express their ideas. We looked at videos of contemporary artists such as Nick Cave, Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor, and one day I brought in my work as well. While wrapping the toy sculptures with masking tape, I introduced the gigantic and temporary art of Christo.We listened to music as we worked, we got to relax as the weeks went by and build new friendships. We will miss each other! Here some testimonials from the students:
donna     donna b.w

There are only two things utilized in this type of drawing: a pencil and an eraser. I decided to draw a dandelion. I chose this, because it seemed as if it would be simple to create, but as it turned out, it was actually kind of complicated to get the exact details. In my opinion, art is a satisfying activity. I like to spread paint on my hands. –Donna

 
nayed    toy7

The black and white pencil project was a kind of difficult project. We had to find an image we liked and draw it with only pencil. We had to add every detail we could that was on the image the we picked. Once we finished, our images looked almost 3 dimensional. To me, art is everything, a cactus, a car, a simple pen, it is all art.–Nayed

alex      toy 6

The b/w drawing is great, because I like explosions.  If I mess up I go back and redo my mistake. It looks like an explosion/hamburger. Art is beautiful.–Alex Bautista

 

I chose to write about my tree wire sculpture, because I am very proud of how it looks. I really like trees and I liked how I was inspired by my love for trees to make this sculpture. I especially like this tree, because it’s my creation and I can make it symbolize it whatever I want. For example, this is the tree of Dreams and Hope.

 

daneidy

“The Giving Tree”

toy     daneidy b.w

Art is really important to me, because it makes me feel free (and stressed) at the same time. I enjoy the feel of the clay or wire touching my hands. I might not be the best artist, but I hope to improve, it’s a way to express myself. –Daneidy

 
collage 2       collage3     collage 1

The Amaryllis Watercolor Collage was a unique artwork, because there was a lot of personal freedom. So everyone put their own style to their project. Art makes me relax.–Marina

 
neidy       neidy b.w

I chose the amaryllis watercolor collage to write about because it drew my attention. It was a way for me to join different colors and pictures together. It is a representation of life. It shows that sometimes you don’t need the same thing to make something look pretty. You need to blend, match, and mix to see the beauty within it. Maybe that’s why I like art, it gives you a blend of reality and a dream creating this beautiful masterpiece. Art is able to make me see different perspectives, opinions, and open my eyes more to everything I haven’t learned yet.  Art is able to make me believe everything is going to be ok.–Naedy

 
toy 3        toy4        toy 1

The toy sculpture was really easy and fun to do. You got to choose the toys you wanted to have in your sculpture. Once you decided what you wanted to have you started arranging the toys the way you wanted it to look. Then you put the pieces together with hot glue. You waited. Once everything was dried, (you wrapped the toy sculpture with masking tape and then) you decided the color you wanted then you painted over the sculpture many times. After all of these steps you had this amazing, cool toy sculpture. I express art in a number of ways. The first way I think I would describe art is creative. You can do whatever you want and design anything you want in a way you like. Art can sometimes be stressing, but also very fun. Art is beautiful, fun, cool, and awesome. I enjoyed the weeks I have been doing art and I hope I can take this class again.–Tanya

 
tania joselin diana

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