Middle School Gallery

Current Event Grid Drawings

For this project, 8th grade artists reflected on current events and chose a photo––from books, magazines, or online––that illustrates a personally meaningful cause. Using the grid technique, which artists have used for centuries to reproduce images, the students recreated the powerful pictures in colored pencil. When viewed collectively, we can see which events of our time are impacting how these young artists see the world.

Romare Bearden Collages

For their first major project of the year, the 7th grade artists studied Romare Bearden. Bearden called on personal memories, African-American cultural history, and literature for his subject matter. He placed aspects of African-American life within the context of universal themes. His style was influenced by numerous sources, including Western European art, African sculpture, the art of his contemporaries in America and Mexico, and music––especially blues and jazz. He’s most famous for his collage work, which he used in unique and innovative ways. For this project, students created collages that reflect what their lives feel and look like today. In this way, they not only learned what it feels like to work in the same medium as Bearden, but they also experienced what it means to honor your perspective by sharing it with others.

Fine Arts

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Middle School Gallery

Current Event Grid Drawings

Romare Bearden Collages