ZENTANGLE!!!!

If anyone has sat next to me during meetings or lectures, you have seen my elaborate doodles. I have always been a better listener when I have a marker or pen in my hand. I even have a favorite black pen that I like to bring to meetings or lectures for this purpose.

I just found out what I have been doing all these years.... zentangling!

Check out the web site - Zentangle- however, I don't think you need a kit... just your favorite black marker!

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 and died on May 2, 1519. He was a Renaissance genius who is considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time, and possibly the most talented person who ever lived.

At the young age of fourteen, Leonardo was apprenticed to the artist Andrea di Cione. He was exposed to many artistic skills including drawing, painting, sculpting, and modeling. By the age of twenty, Leonardo was qualified as a master in the guild of artists and doctors of medicine. His earliest known work is a drawing in ink of the Arno Valley, drawn on August 5, 1473. From then on, Leonardo worked in Milan, Rome, Bologna, Venice and France creating art that would create history.

In the 1480s, Leonardo created three well known pieces of art, St. Jerome in the Wilderness, the Adoration of Magi, and Virgin of the Rocks. Virgin of the Rocks is the only finished painting due to problems with completion and payment with the first two paintings.

Leonardo’s most famous painting from the 1490s is The Last Supper, painted in Milan. Unfortunately, Leonardo had used tempera as his surface, resulting in his painting flaking and molding quickly. Due to this problem, The Last Supper is one of the most reproduced works of art.

It was in the 16^th century that Leonardo created his most famous work of art, the Mona Lisa. To this day, no one knows why the woman is smiling. Many tests have been done on this mysterious painting, and one exposed a faint veil over the women’s face. In Leonardo’s time, women wore veils when they were pregnant. So it is assumed that she is smiling because she is pregnant. However, it is just a guess. Leonardo’s use of subtle shadowing around her mouth and eyes makes this an impossible puzzle to solve.

Throughout his life, Leonardo created works of art that astonish and inspire any artist who set eyes on his work. I admire Leonardo’s sense of mystery, and how his paintings leave questions unanswered. He pays a great deal of attention to the details and due to his artistic talent, has created beautiful masterpieces. Leonardo da Vinci was not just an artist. He was a genius.

By: Sansara Deshpande

8^th grade

Drawing by Jamie Raupp, Saline Middle School Art Student

Jamie Nicolle Raupp, a young student in 8^th grade, has been taking art class for 10 years. Not only does she have pure passion for this activity, but she inspires others to feel the same way. One of her most favorite pieces of art was when she was in 7^th grade, her drawing of Winston Churchill. She told me, “This man was an inspirational leader of England. He was the Prime Minister of England during World War ll.” pausing to take in her amazing poetic words, she then said, “I enjoy this piece quite much, because it shows off the roughness of lead when applied in different shades like the rough war that divided the world.”

These words touched my heart. I truly felt the meaning of her art. Not only can she draw incredibly, but she can feel her masterpiece. So the next the time my pencil touches the canvas, I will remember the internal pain she lets out on her paper creating sparks of beauty.

Written by Catherine Marchenko, 8^th grade

11-11-11 CRANBROOK

Cranbrook Art Museum is re-opening 11-11-11! Check out their website for more information on the ongoing events! Cranbrook Museum There are lots of events for artists of all ages!
Not only do they have the "Saarinen House"
but they also have artwork from the recent alumna that just spoke at U of M... Nick Cave!

Pittsfield Township Hall Art Show

The Saline Area Schools Art Department is holding an art show at the Pittsfield Township Hall from now until January 6th, 2012. The hall is located at 6201 W. Michigan Ave (across from Burger King). The main entrance is around back and the show is located just through the doors. Township business hours are Mon. – Fri. from 8:00am – 5:00pm. Please stop in and see the talent of our terrific Saline students!

Art Project, powered by Google

Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces! Explore the great masterpieces from museums such as Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy or the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam by cilcking on www.googleartproject.com. You can :

• Explore museums with Street View technology:virtually move around the museum’s galleries, selecting works of art that interest you, navigate though interactive floor plans and learn more about the museum and you explore.
• Artwork View: discover featured artworks at high resolution and use the custom viewer to zoom into paintings. Expanding the info panel allows you to read more about an artwork, find more works by that artist and watch related YouTube videos.
• Create your own collection: the ‘Create an Artwork Collection’ feature allows you to save specific views of any of the 1000+ artworks and build your own personalised collection. Comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared with friends and family.

Check out the visitor guide to learn how to use this site:

http://www.googleartproject.com/c/faq

by Janice Martin

Interesting Article

Why The Arts Are Good For Business

This is a great article as to why more than ever the arts programs are relevant in the education of today's student.



Janet Hughes

Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

USA Today created a list of the 10 Great Sculpture Gardens Across the USA.
One of them was right in our backyard!
The Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

Canstruction

This weekend at the Detroit Institute of Art there will be a charity event showcasing sculpture made out of cans! Yesterday over 17,000 cans were transformed into 8 very cool Detroit-inspired canstructures. These will be on display starting today through Sunday! To learn more about the event, please visit the Canstruction web site.




Canstruction Detroit | Channel 7 | DIA | Canstruction

Graffiti Art

9th Annual Teen Graffiti Art Exhibit

Now through October 27, 2011 -- Malletts Creek Branch: Exhibits

The AADL Teen Graffiti Contest is an annual event held during Ann Arbor's summer Art Fairs. Teens gather in the staff parking lot of the Downtown AADL to try their hand at the art of graffiti.

Each young artist receives a four-by-four foot board and a variety of colors of spray paint. The end result of the contest is a display of a multitude of styles and levels of talent for the community to enjoy in this brilliant exhibit.

Art is all around! A current exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago has an exhibit about artists who have illustrate ABC's children's books!
ARTFUL ALPHABETS: FIVE PICTURE BOOK ARTISTS
June 11–November 6, 2011
Picture Book Gallery
Ryan Education Center
Illustrator Mordicai Gerstein sees sculptural letters formed out of creatures. Chris Raschka portrays a man and his cat in an alphabet adventure. Mary Thelen’s colorful pictures of shapes and lines illustrate a toe-tapping text, while Stacy Innerst explores the world of music from A to Z in paintings on board and tin. Hand-colored woodblock prints by Mary Azarian explore the garden theme and expand vocabulary with word and picture. All of these artists prove that are as many artful ways to illustrate the ABCs as there are ways to see the world.

de Kooning: a Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art

The exhibit includes selected paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints by Willem de Kooning (American, b. the Netherlands, 1904–1997). Among these are some of the artist’s most famous, landmark paintings—including Pink Angels (c. 1945),Excavation (1950), and the celebrated third Woman series (1950–53)—plus examples from all of his most important series, ranging from his figurative paintings of the early 1940s to the breakthrough black-and-white compositions of 1948–49, and from the urban abstractions of the mid-1950s to the artist’s return to figurations in the 1960s, and the large gestural abstractions of the following decade.

As a painter, de Kooning has been a huge influence on my own personal work since graduate school. His gestural brushwork, color sense, and the scale of his canvases are most impressive. To find get more information about this exhibit, click on the moma website listed below.

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/dekooning/

Google Doodle honors Gumby Creator Art Clokey's 90th birthday

Google on Wednesday celebrated the 90th birthday of Gumby creator Art Clokey with an interactive stop motion homepage doodle featuring well-known characters from the Gumby series.

The doodle, which went live on international Web sites yesterday, features a child's block with the letter "G" followed by five balls of colored clay for the remaining letters in the search giant's logo. Click on the balls of clay and Gumby characters will appear—The Blockheads, Prickle and Goo, Gumby himself, and Pokey. They pose for a moment before melting into a pile of clay and rolling back into a ball.

Click on www.google.com to watch the characters in action!

Go to gumbyworld.com for the latest on the iconic green toy and other characters.

Penny W. Stamps Speaker Series

Penny W. Stamps Speaker Series

Brought to you from the Michigan School Art & Design, the Penny Stamps Speaker Series brings respected emerging and established artists/designers from a broad spectrum of media to the School to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities.

Unless otherwise noted, all programs take place on Thursdays at 5:10 pm at the historic Michigan Theater, located at 603 E. Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor, and are free of charge and open to the public.

I can not wait to see Nick Cave speak about his "soundsuits" on November 10th! More on him later.....

Excitng Art Exhibit at University of Michian Art Museum

http://www.umma.umich.edu/view/exhibitions/2011-mimpressions.php

Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints

July 16–October 23, 2011

This exhibition presents works by forty-one leading printmakers from contemporary China to showcase the extraordinary innovations, in both technique and conception, which have transformed this long-established art form in recent years.


I just visited this exhibit..... AMAZING! It will only be at the UMMA for a few more weeks... so hurry!!!