I was a little distracted with my family for a bit....
Olive Ann Marable was born a few weeks after her due date, on Dec 22, 2010. She was 9 lbs 9 oz and has been wonderful just about every minute. Between holiday breaks and snow days, I think I only missed about 5 weeks of class time with students. In that time kids learned 2-point perspective, made coil pots, and did pen and ink drawings with a guy named Mr. Balda. He also brought in some advanced metalsmithing materials from home and taught a handful of students how to caste metal. That was a very cool opportunity for our art students!
I returned in early February to a very clean classroom! Since then we've been very busy making collages, popcorn drawings, relief prints, layered metal projects, contour drawings, watercolors, and so much more I can't even list it (oh, and a mess!). Here are a handful of examples:
We've also started back with the Hour of Innovation... it's a little different these days- the students are given specific supplies to use instead of the entire room of supplies. For the first few Fridays students had access to x-acto knifes, paper, and glue sticks (one set of classes also had images of Topeka they could use). I was really impressed with the results:
Last year several students made bird houses to be a part of a show in Topeka. The book involves a process of project based healing. Students processed different major life issues while creating a very personal birdhouse. Images of these houses are found on packaging for the newest Birdhouse Project book! Pretty exciting stuff!
Over spring break we also had a little Art Club trip to Minneapolis. Three students came along and we went to:the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts- a huge museum with floors and floors of amazing art from all time.
We spent an afternoon at the Walker Art Center 
- a really interesting building filled with contemporary art (some really odd stuff!). There is also a large sculpture garden at the Walker. The girls had a great time there.... as did my little Willow! 
When we weren't going to museums we were checking out the Mall of America, eating really good food, and watching
be filmed at the amazing Orpheum Theater!
Watching a talent show like that be filmed was quite an experience. We saw an opera singer (good), man that hung by his hair (bad), a horse open a cooler and bring a guy a soda (weird), and all kinds of other "talents." Giant X's and silver scaffolding adorned the amazing stage that is pictured above. The judges had make-up, snacks, and drinks between each act... while the audience was entertained by a guy making fun of various people in the crowd. It was LONG and as some of the crowd bailed we moved down to the front. That was a nice change a few hours into a 4 hour show!
On our way home, we stopped at the Des Moines Art Center-
for a bit more art and to stretch our legs. I think the girls liked the gift shop best at this one!
So... I guess that sums up what's been going on with Art lately!
