American Flag Redesign

It flies proudly over our schools and public buildings but how much do we know about our flag?

Our first flag was the "Grand Union Flag". It was used between 1775 and 1777 and pre-dates the Betsy Ross flag with it's circle of stars.

Grand Union Flag

At first any manipulation of the flag was considered sacrilege. Today people have become more accepting of it's use in clothing and political satire. 

The class assignment was to re-design the american flag to create a social or political statement. 

• Like the original it must be red, white and blue.
• Other colors were used for effect. 
• Some form of stripes and at least one star was a basic requirement of the project. 
• Most students opted to use tempera paint, but colored pencils and collage were also used.

The students projects reveal a lot about us as a people and took on some very difficult issues....

Beyond the border watercolor

 

SURREALISM

a 20th-century cultural movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind. 

Creating artwork from your DREAMS! Students were introduced to the art movement surrealism. Students learned about artists like Dali, Miro, and Magritte.  We analized different surrealism pieces and discussed the meaning and success of the artwork in groups.

Then we created our own surrealism art work.  the only objective was to create a hand doing something that would NOT make sense in real life.

 

Check out what our creative students at Mahopac came up with....

 

Chuck Close Inspired Portraits

Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close (born July 5, 1940) is an American painter and photographer.  He achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits.  Photorealist is when you create art that looks like a photograph. Chuck suffers from prosopagnosia (face blindness) and has suggested that this condition is what first inspired him to create portraits.  By painting portraits, he is better able to recognize and remember faces.  He also has a learning disability and struggled with reading and writing.

On December 7, 1988, Close felt a strange pain in his chest. He suffered a seizure which left him paralyzed from the neck down. The cause was diagnosed as a spinal artery collapse.  Most believed that was the end of his career but Close did not let his injury prevent him for making art.  Close continued to paint with a brush strapped onto his wrist with tape, creating large portraits in low-resolution grid squares.

 

Student's in Miss Church's studio art class created large scale portraits of the High School administrators.  Each student was responsible for one 12x12 inch square.  They had to grid the original image and using math to create a large scale reproduction of the photograph.

 

CHECK IT OUT!!!

 

 

Portrait Drawings

Student's in Miss Church's art class have been learning how to use the grid system to create a realistic drawing. Students were able to create value by using different pencils.

 

Check it out!

 

       

             

COME CHECK OUT THE GREAT ARTWORK ON DISPLAY ALL AROUND THE HIGH SCHOOL