Waconia High School remembers MLK Jr. by having a day of service – a part of Make It Count. Our school worked with Kids Against Hunger over the school day to create meals. In order to offset some of the costs of this service project, we decided to sell t-shirts that promoted MLK Jr. Day of Service. I created the design below.

If you are interested in buying one let me know! We still have some smalls and mediums left over.

In our classrooms, teachers are encouraged to take part in service projects of our own or remembering MLK Jr. legacy. Inspired by the artist Candy Chang and her community input artwork, I created these small sheets of paper that students could reflect on their own personal goals that they could work towards. Amy Fischer, an art teaching co-worker and department chair, suggested they make them artistic as well – as you can see some students really enjoyed! Here is a selection of their dreams. It is a really simple idea, but I loved getting to know our students better through it.

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on Digital Photography for a new course I’m teaching at Waconia High School. I knew that Columbia College had an awesome photography program and an amazing free gallery – Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP); but, I didn’t know they also have a educational website on how to use cameras – Foundations Photo Lab. I really enjoyed “Motion and Shutter Speed” in particular. There, I found some great examples of how shutter speed affects the same shot. Look around. It is an awesome resource!

This poster seems to be working its way through creative circles recently, just thought I’d add to it! Here is a poster created by Philbrook Museum of Art. My favorite is “How long have you been photoshopping?” Reminds me of public service ads of the 90′s (when I was growing up).

I have always loved origami; ever since kindergarten, when I learned how to fold fortune tellers. There is something so fun and satisfying about bringing an object to life just from one square sheet of paper. This Thanksgiving weekend, my husband suggested that we watch a documentary called “Between the Folds”. It is an excellent film about all aspects of origami – the creation, the many artistic viewpoints, the mathematical and physical complexities and their real world applications. I highly recommend it!

I arrived early to a broomball game at Augsburg’s Ice Arena so I decided to take a stroll down to the UofM Katherine E. Nash Gallery. They had work on display by Lynn Hershman Leeson. I greatly enjoyed my time in college where I got the chance to study the feminist art movement. Lynn Hershman Leeson had several artworks/exhibits on display. But I particularly love the comic book !Women Art Revolution by Spain Rodriguez that accompanies her movie about the rise of the feminist art movement. The comic book is so awesome because it quickly recounts the movement as it started and grew in a very understandable and witty way. I’m very impressed with the power of comics as teaching tools.

Here is an excerpt from the movie, by Lynn but was not on display, about how difficult it was to battle sexism and break into the art world. This clip is all-ages-friendly but the movie is suited for older audiences.

Some of my students have finished their mod podge water etched vases, and I was just too excited to wait… So… here are some of our first attempts! I like water etching without any glaze – just the texture.

The students first had to construct his/her vases out of thin cardboard. Then they put the vases together with clay. They applied mod podge to at least two sides (of their potential 4 vase faces). These two designed sides were inversions of each other (mod podge was switched in application).

We applied the mod podge in the leather hard stage, let it dry, then gently used a damp sponge to wipe off the non-resisted parts of the clay. So fun! See the video that inspired it all here!

Here is my painted pumpkin design for 2011 inspired by a basket/woven theme for the Waconia High School “Pumpkins on Parade” contest.



(Detail, From Above, Full Shot)

During MEA weekend, I took a trip down to the Quad Cities to hang out with my sister and take some pictures of her family. The day could not have been more beautiful, and her children are adorable. Take a look at some selected images from the shoot.

I was just watching Antiques Roadshow with my husband when some Maria Martinez work was being appraised. I thought, “We talk about her in Ceramics!” Antiques Roadshow has a fantastic search engine including images of art and videos of the appraisals. I think it would be awesome to show one of these clips after learning about an artist in class!

I am always looking for new ideas for ceramics. It is just one of those mediums that inspires experimentation. I have recently signed up for the fantastic newsletter from Ceramics Art Daily and came across this demo on water etching. Since I’m not a big fan of wax or shellack for high school students, I wasn’t so sure if I’d be doing water etching in the near future. But I, was definitely wrong. The folks at Atlanta Clay have done a spectacular job showing off this great technique using Mod Podge. I bought 1 gallon of it at Dick Blick ($30-$40 or so) and I’m pretty sure it will last me all school year too.

Check out this awesome demo. I am incorporating mod podge water etching soon. I’ll for-sure post the results!

-Shalanah Dawson

As a birthday present, I setup the website Consider a Cake for my dear friend Megan Greulich. We met in college, and boy, am I lucky to be friends with her! She’s awesome and an amazing cake baker/chef. Suffice it to say, I have gotten to enjoy many of her desserts! In particular, I remember a scone party, a candy cake comes to mind along with key lime cupcakes for my recent bachelorette party! So check it out, and order a cake or cupcake for your next occasion!

I cannot take the credit for the beautiful design of this site! The credit really goes to the free gorgeously simple WP Beauty and Clean theme. I setup the site and only really helped Megan add images since she is already a WordPress pro.

Enjoy!
-Shalanah Dawson

Grant and I were invited to participate in a close friend’s triathlon (which was really fun!). Grant competed and I thought for the first year it would be fun to take photographs instead. Action photography is hard and you just have to be ready to take a lot of pictures. The major difficulties are focus (because of the speed and direction) and variable light because I was moving from one spot to the next. I really enjoyed it, and it was a great refresher for me on sports photography. For the  photo nerds: using Nikon D300, 80-200mm lens with 2.8 aperture, and 2000 shutter speed, 200 ISO for beach and 1600 ISO for bike/run.

Here are some of the highlights.

- Shalanah Dawson

Here are some recent screen prints from this summer in Open Edition at MCAD. I think I would like to do a series of the Easy Macs in the near future. It was, however, a long road to completion. I completed 1 whole run of 3 color failures before redoing it to the final below. The Lounging People however was a pretty quick edition especially because registration didn’t need to be perfect. Hope you enjoy!

Easy Mac Print and Two Details

Lounging People

- Shalanah Dawson

Here it is. I’m sure I’ll do a couple iterations of this one (excluding the neon colors ) But it was fun to create. Look at it or buy here.

-Shalanah Dawson

So it is back to school time (almost) and I was visiting with the other art teacher (she is also the department head) this past week. I noticed in my room that several of my Elements of Art posters were ripped and in bad shape from falling and the summer cleaning process. I love the content on the posters; however, they are impossible to read for students from far away except for the titles (line, shape, form, color, texture, space and value). I thought it is about time that I just redesign these for learning and economy. So here it is! I hope other art teachers enjoy and use it as well. My next poster to tackle is the Principles of Art and to put up some throwing on the wheel guides. So stay tuned!

-Shalanah Dawson

I am taking a class this summer at MCAD called “Open Edition”. It is ten weeks long where printmakers may use the MCAD facilities, learn new print techniques and even create an edition for a themed book/body of work. This session’s theme was “Facades”. I drew inspiration from the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota Florida. There were several large marble cameos by Augustus Saint-Gaudens that I quite enjoyed, so I decided to try and create one as a print. The image itself comes from a portrait from my wedding.  It was really challenging getting the right colors on the paper because silk screen ink looks very different when dry (usually much darker). I was constantly checking the ink and waiting for my washed screens to dry to start a new color test. The dimensions of the paper are 8″ x 10″. See the process below!

- Shalanah Dawson

Tony Ryan and I have been working on a new website for Midway Driving School. Could not meet a nicer man — or someone with a better left-side broomball shot! His company specializes in helping nervous adult drivers or ESL (English as a Second Language) students with adult behind the wheel driving hours in the Twin Cities (Saint Paul and Minneapolis), Rochester and Duluth Minnesota. The site was redesigned with WordPress to make it easier as time goes on to create new looks without losing content. Take a look! We’ll be adding more content as the summer progresses.

Thanks!
-Shalanah Dawson

Hockney-like photo of Ringling Art Museum

Grant and I are having a great time in Sarasota, FL on our honeymoon. We were so excited to have stopped at the Ringling Museum of Art. We were also fortunate that it was Thursday when we decided to go because of their discounted rates and extended hours.

The grounds at Ringling are extensive and beautiful. There are several destinations: art museum, summer home, circus museum, rose garden, theater and a walk along the Gulf of Mexico. I particularly enjoyed the art museum. The galleries were intimate and numerous. They housed a spectrum of art from late Middle Ages to modern times and even some Late Dynasty jade.

My favorite part of the exhibit was discovering an artwork by Giuseppe Arcimboldo created in the late 1500′s. I love how whimsical and modern his paintings feel. Now-a-days, to complete an artwork like this, it would most certainly would be aided by Photoshop. Pretty cool stuff!

- Shalanah Dawson

Hooray! Daniel Taylor’s website wordtaylor.com, a mix of his multifaceted interests, is up and running! He is a writer, speaker and traveler. I love reading his blog and skimming through the amazing photographs from his trips as a Professor at Bethel University and independently as a travel guide. There is a whole lot more, check it out!

-Shalanah Dawson

Amy Fischer – art teacher at Waconia High School – arranges an Art Honor Society field trip every year, and it is always a pleasure to come along. The highlight for many of us this year was the stop at the FOCI Minnesota Center for Glass Arts in an old General Mills distribution center.

Craig J. Campbell first showed us some of the properties of glass by stretching it all the way across the room and shattering it when it wasn’t cooled properly with small pressure applied to it. You can see his work here.

They also offer courses that are very reasonably priced. Check it out!

- Shalanah Backus