color stories

These abstract paintings started with a story.

Each original artwork began with a specific combination of colors referencing the Texas snow storm of February 2021. Students began this project by recollecting objects that kept them engaged, warm, and safe during this historic winter weather. This exercise gave students a distinct color palette when they later made their abstract artwork.

The slideshow below showcases a selection of Color Stories written and composed by Form 5 Artists.

the big word we learned was “appropriation.”

Form 5 Artists observed the digital paintings originally made by their peers. Then, we learned the art word “appropriation,” meaning when artists steal ideas, inspiration, color palettes, or artwork from someone else. Sometimes the steal is a copy and paste. Other times, it’s taking someone’s idea and digitally manipulating it to create your own idea. It can end in a collaboration, much like how Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat collaborated by swapping paintings to finish each other’s ideas.

we were really inspired by the artist basquiat.

Most self-portraits were made in the loose, graffiti-style of Jean-Michel Basquiat. We love our squiggles in Lower School!

The start of the mcnay museum’s
“Spotlight” project

You may be asking, wait… What’s “Spotlight” with The McNay Art Museum?
Spotlight is K-12 art education programming for schools in San Antonio to participate with a designated artwork in The McNay’s permanent collection. Students study the artist and the artwork, and then they create a work of art in response.

The Spotlight artwork for 2021-2022 is “The Sole Sitter” by Willie Cole.
We’ve also studied his “Blossoms” series to begin this process. Each year, SMH Form 4 students create a group-generated poem in Ms. Tess Eggleston’s English Language Arts class and translate the writing to a collaborative artwork. Our short film Walk In Their Shoes will be turned into a short animated film in 2021-2022.

Since Willie Cole loves using shoes in his found object sculptures, photographs, and public art, we dove into the deep-end investigating shoes found in our homes photographed in our backyards.

collaborative stop-motion

These animations show the beginning of creating A Walk In Their Shoes, a short film animated by Form 4 students. High heeled shoes were generously donated by our community, which Form 4 will give to Dress For Success after the collaboration is complete.

cut paper characters by forms 1 & 3 artists
stop-motion tests by formS 2 & 3 artists

This collaboration responded to the book Snippets,
written & illustrated by Diane Alber.

Form 5 artists learned about “kintsugi,” repairing broken ceramics with gold, and “wabi-sabi,” the japanese practice of embracing imperfection.

The clay project started with creating a "pinch pot," which we then purposefully broke to shards. From here, Form 5 learned the lesson of repairing broken things in our lives and learning to embrace imperfections. The way of "kintsugi" and "wabi-sabi" in Japanese culture helped us reflect on how Covid-19 has changed our lives this past year.

Below is a Flipgrid message to SMH Kindergarteners, who also created a “kintsugi” art project this spring. If you click on this Flipgrid link, you’ll be able to see a selection of artwork with artists’ reflections on making this project.