Upcycled Gift Card Jewelry | Art Classes Reno Nevada

Once redeemed, plastic gift cards often find their way into the local landfill. Instead, my wearable arts students, upcycled their used cards into whimsical, chic bracelets and earrings.  The students donated pieces toward raising funds at our Fine Arts Dessert Night on May 16th, 2014. Mark your calendars. It will be a great event.

Scholastic Art Awards 2014 | Reno Nevada Artists

Tonight, we celebrated the Scholastic Art Awards. Several of our McQueen High School artists were recognized for the creative, skillful craft they have been nurturing and honing over the years. Our region is all of Northern Nevada which means everything but Las Vegas were on exhibition tonight. I'm thrilled to be a part of their lives as we dissect and decipher art together; as we develop ourselves and our art together. Congratulations, Stella, Gigi, Lewis, Maya, Will, Kacee, Lindsey, Lucile, and Valerie. It's a privilege to have you in class each day.

 Miss Hojin Stella Jung with her Gold Key Digital Comic Art.

 Silver and Honorable Mention Recipients played on digital screens throughout the gallery. 

My girls…xoxoxo

Using Project 52 in the Classroom

I teach an introductory high school art class where the focus is on drawing. However, I believe the students are served better by exposing them to several artistic media. With photography, I like to include it in our daily art analysis or in extra credit offerings. In the past, they could photograph any public art they saw and print that out for extra credit. However, many of the students have camera phones, some have access to DSLRs, and most are connected online into social media groups so we started a Project 52. Each week a new theme is given and at any week a student can jump in or out of participating. They submit their work to a Facebook page (Skye Snyder Photography  or NvArtworks) or hashtag (#skye52) on Instagram. Friends can post for other friends if they are not members of those social media groups. I like the idea of sharing our inspiration. It's extra credit. It expands their artistic eye by having the tool so readily at their fingertips--the moment of inspiration can be captured and shared easily.

This week's theme is organic. Last year I was fortunate to have a box of educational skulls delivered to my studio by the wildlife department. My K-4th grade students used them not only to learn about mammals but as studies for our Georgia O'Keeffe inspired paintings. I knew I wanted to photograph them while I had them but didn't know quite what I wanted from them.

I, too, am participating in the project. I want to be more mindful as I am composing and spend more time turning over themes in my head. I want to improve my storytelling skills in one single image and force myself to improve my technical skills. I tend to avoid using techniques that I am not familiar with instead of learning them.

From another trip to the California Academy of Sciences, I photographed a wall of foliage in the biosphere area. Again, thinking for a future project. The formulas are from a partially erased chalkboard.

The results are the compilation of these two moments.

2/52  |   O R G A N I C
puma concolor  |  the mountain lion

ursus americanus  |  the black bear

If you would like to share your ORGANIC inspired art, upload to the Skye Snyder Photography Facebook Wall or tag using the hashtag #skye52 on Instagram. I am @skyesnyder on IG. Look forward to seeing your images!! This is open to anyone who is looking to participate in a supportive, creative online community.

Missed week one? Here is the link

Pumpkins at Night

As a follow up to the color wheel lesson, we pulled out the paints for some primary color mixing for an autumn themed drawing and painting lesson (inspired by DeepSpaceSparkle's Sparkle Pumpkin blog) We started with a reading of The Littlest Pumpkin by R.A. Herman. Many of the children had read this story at home or in their regular classroom but we read it with a focus on the shapes of the pumpkins. We compared and contrasted the colors and shapes of some real pumpkins in class and began drawing after a quick lesson in creating a more life-like shape.

Time for Painting
The kids were given only yellow and red watercolors to learn to mix orange and its various shades and hues. We also discussed painting by following the direction of the shape to help with the realistic curvature of the subject. Some of the children were ready to move on so they were given a blue pod and encouraged to make green and add leaves to their pumpkin.

We completed the paintings by cutting them out and pasting onto black construction paper. Then we added the night with sparkling stars, moons, owls, etc. For students, who were wanting to discover another medium, I pulled out the fall colored fabrics for them to create fabric leaves for our pumpkins to rest upon.
I think the first graders did a wonderful job and this was their very first time painting in art class at school!!