Aesthetics Day & Art Exhibition 2014

Since all the core subjects have their own days/weeks for the pupils to engaged in the related activities and PE dept has Sports/Games Day, then Aesthetics department also must have a day where all the pupils get to celebrate the ARTS - music, visual arts, dance and drama. 

So in 2011, i roped in the music coordinator and both of us launched the very first Aesthetics Day. We arranged for dance programs and art activities for all the pupils on our special day. Artworks created by the pupils during the year's art lessons were also on display in the concourse and in 2 available classrooms as part of the JPS Art Exhibition and we had our first art trail during the day too. Finale for the day was our annual musical. 

Vivid memories of the art activities that year. We had pointillism for the P1, hand-printing for the P2, Nortan art for the P3, slippers painting for the P4, tape sculpturing for the P5 and graffiti for the P6. And for all the hard work and long hours we put in, Hui Miin and I won the pair OCA that year... =) 

Then, the baton was passed to Hui Miin to be overall in-charge in 2012, Hayati in 2013 and for this year, it landed on Mark's laps just because he wasn't around during the meeting to say no... oopx! I love how our aesthetic department 'musical chair' the programs every year so that new ideas are constantly injected just because the person-in-charge is different, has different ideas and objectives for the programs... =) 

And my contributions to this year's Aesthetic Day are:  

(1) put up as much artwork on the wall as possible for the art trail that Ain planned and as part of staircase deco. But could only do so for some of the artwork as others were either all sold at the art bazaar or too exploratory for display.... =P 

from the Primary 2s

Self-Portrait inspired by Picasso in Term 1 

(click link for close up) 

Origami in Term 4

from the Primary 3s

Paper Quilling in Term 1
(click link for close up) 

 Printmaking in Term 2
(click link for close up) 

Oil Pastel Blending in Term 3

Watercolour painting inspired by Eric Carle in Term 4

And yes, you saw it right... we even attached the book (bottom right) in which we used to inspire the kids for the term's lesson... =) ... Pupils can browse through it... i just hope that they will be gentle with the book... 

some close ups of the pupils' work:

from the Primary 5s

Papier Mache in Term 3
(click link for close up) 

from the Primary 6s

Fashion Design in Term 1
(click link for close up) 

Personal Project - Theme:SG 50 - Semester 2 

some close ups of the pupils' work:
am super proud of these pupils who had stretched their art  potential higher with their own research. effort and multiple practices

Luv this lesson idea by Ain

(2) planned the P1 and P2 art activity - Making a paper fan
Since the annual musical is on "Mulan", I decided to tie in the value/NE/CCE component on "Love for my Family, Love for my Country" into the art activity. It's a simple enough craft that most (i hope all actually) P1 and P2 pupils could do under the guidance of their form and co-form teachers... =) 

took lots of photos of pupils doing the art trail and the P2 making their paper fan....but but but they mysteriously disappeared from my camera/laptop/desktop/hard disk.... i must have thought i had transferred them when i deleted them.... haiz.... it was a case of "Lost in Transfer"... =S 

only memory is this sample that i did....

The "Interactive" Art Wall

out of the blue in term 1, admin manager informed me that P had applied for coyote fund of $3k to set up an interactive art wall in the concourse and i was put in-charge of it since i was the person in-charge of art. 

if she was thinking of an IT based interactive art wall, she confirmed was disappointed with what i had done with the wall... anyway, did some google search for some ideas then roped in the whole art department to get the wall up and going.... 

it wasnt an easy task at all ... it's the first project that i have even handled that is faced with so many issues and setbacks.... 

(1) many (including P) were shocked at my choice of colour for the wall and weren't use to the additional splash of colour in our usually dull and grey concourse... i wanted the area to be in a neutral colour for the boys and girls, bright and inviting but some others see the green wall as gross and slimy as the colour make them think of mucus... oopx ... 

(2) we were asked to change the position of the whole art tree due to safety reason after we had pasted the whole tree, made from "strand by strand" of brown paper, .... they cited that the brown paper that we had used was a fire hazard and would catch fire as it was placed just next to the fire alarm board..... 

(3) after tearing the whole art tree off from its original position next to the fire alarm board, the wall paper adhesive spray that we used became weaker and could no longer attached the brown paper to the wall and "strand by strand" detached from the wall in the next few days and we had to scramble around to look for other adhesive tape/glue/ industrial adhesive etc... we managed to solve the problem with 3M tapes that are meant for outdoor use... 

(4) then we were told we cant drill holes on at least 80% of the wall as there are pipes behind this piece of wall... and it was a goodbye to the 7 pieces of magnetic boards that i had bought from ikea la... argh!!!... wasted mr ang and my sat driving to tampines ikea to get them and then lugging them to school... =S 

(5) due to the limited area that are suitable for drilling, the position of the blackboard had to be adjusted and the whole layout of the area was also affected... 

so in the end, just like home sweet home, the art wall wasn't completed in one shot, it just grew from June 2014, bit by bit, trial after trial and the final touches were finally done by annual prize presentation day.... Yes, this "interactive" art wall took the whole art department a total of 5.5 months to update till its current state... as it is an "interactive" art wall, according to my definition, activities are changed regularly to attract new and returning customers (the kiddos) ...thank god for pro-active art colleagues... =P  

Proudly Presenting our 

INTERACTIVE heART WALL.... 
(in parts)

The introduction to the art wall is this poem by one of my pupil. We had an art poem competition for the fives and sixers in term 3 and the dept decided on this as the 'winner'. 

Another poem which we gotten through the art poem competition. As always, Mdm Zakiah did the writing and designing while the paint splashes decal were from ikea. 

heART BOARD
It's a 4m magnetic black board where a range of activities can be conducted.... we had pupils write wishes or draw for Racial Harmony Day in July

then for National Day in August... 

Mr Marcus Choo designed the board for Teachers' Day in September... forgot to take pic... ='(

P, VPs and teachers wrote wishes and notes of encouragement for our sixers during PSLE in early October...  

  

laminated fruit cut out drawn and coloured by the P1 were put up for the pupils to form fruit portraits as inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo in late October

then it was a "poster" on Mulan by Mdm Zakiah for our annual school musical in early November

LEGO MADNESS

shelves were freebies from the A is for Art program. Previously, we had used it to display the ceramics pieces which the art club pupils had created for the program. Now it is used to display the lego artworks which the pupils create in their free time (recess)... lego bricks are kept in the coloured boxed which were purchased from ikea.... =) 

it's really a happy sight to see pupils working/playing/creating harmoniously together without any adult's supervision. 

"I Am An Artist" display wall

this is the place where we display journals, learning journey art activities, in progress art work etc... we want it to be an area where more kids can share about their artwork

currently, we have the P6 leaf art and artful thinking questionair from their Arts & NE Learning Journey to the Singapore Botanic Garden

THE ART TREE

the diy corkboard for instructions and templates

   another poem from the competition which we thought complements our art tree pretty well. Our in-house artist, Mdm Zakiah, was the one who wrote the poem onto the wall... i am so so so happy and lucky to have her in JPS.... she's so talented, capable and confident in doing all things art directly onto walls/canvas etc.... 

this art tree is where we gather pupils' response on questions related to art or school events... current question on the tree is "Which is your favourite art activity this year?" 

templates are printed on colour paper and interested pupils would pick them up, follow the instructions on the notice board and deposit the completed pieces. Art teachers who walked past this area will just take our own initiative to pin them up... =) 

Last but not least, our mega palette designed by Aster.... thank god for her too else the school would have to pay $300+ for a designer to do this for us... 

The team that made this possible 

and for our hard work... we won the team OCA this year too... =)   

the 4 of us will be moving in 4 different directions next year but we will make it a point to meet up at least twice a year!!!! - a promise i made to myself.... i am gonna miss this team so so so so so much!!!!