Fantastic Heads

School:: Walton Middle School
Subject:: Literacy
Teacher:: Brittany Grant
Students Impacted:: 20
Grade:: 8
Date:: October 4, 2018

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

St. Joe Community Foundation - $962.83

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 21

Students at Walton Middle School strengthened their visual literacy in art class by creating fantastic creature busts with attachments to understand the additive and subtractive processes of sculpture, importance of planning, as well as learning about non-traditional career paths in art. The strongest benefit of this project, in addition to providing students with a more sincere and authentic artistic experience to promote critical thinking, was to get students thinking about careers in sculpting, beyond simply an artist or teacher. We learned about Anna Coleman Ladd, who worked during World War 1 making facial prosthetic devices for injured soldiers (designing and molding to individuals and planning); a marine biologist who designed and tested marine animal prosthetic appendages and tested whether the animal could function with the device (practice, failure and perseverance); anatomical sculptors developing the models for use in doctors’ offices (design and marketing); Ford Motor Company’s clay modelling studio and apprenticeship; and the art of facial prosthetic makeup artists.

This project had such a positive outcome with students—they continually came to class excited and eager to work, and all showed vast pride in each step leading up to and their final project. Multiple times I had parents contact me to find out more information, wanting to see their students’ work-in-progress to share in their excitement for this project. It was HIGHLY successful and will be a long-standing staple in the WMS 8^th grade advanced art curriculum, and I am grateful for the opportunity allowed from this grant. In addition to this immediate outcome, the non-consumable items-- the aluminum wheels and sculpture tools--will be reused, not just with the sculptural Fantastic Heads project, but with ceramic, sculpture and pottery projects as well. These items have the potential to help our program in multiple ways for years to come.

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Final product of Student work. Pinocchio

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Final product of student work. Horror creature

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Final product of student work. Literary creature

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students working on maquettes

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work in progress on final creature busts

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Original Grant Overview

Goal

Students will be further strengthening their visual literacy in art class by creating fantastic creature busts with attachments, working to understand the additive and subtractive processes of sculpture, as well as learning about non-traditional career paths in art.
VA.68.F1.1: Use non-traditional thinking and various techniques to create two-, three-, and four-dimensional artworks.
VA.68.F2.1: Investigate career opportunities available in the visual arts to determine requisite skills and qualifications for each field.
VA.68.H3.3: Create imaginative works to include background knowledge or information from other subjects (e.g., from history, environment, literary works).
MAFS.K12.MP5.1: Use appropriate tools strategically.

What will be done with my students

8th grade students in the Advanced Studio III Art Class will participate in further strengthening their visual literacy by creating sculptural creature busts, while utilizing non-traditional thinking and materials to meet their personal goal. Students will start by discussing how individuals visually read thousands of images daily, specifically advertisements and posters, and how these creative choices work with background knowledge to formulate different opinion outcomes.

Students will also be shown clips of the SYFY Series Face Off, to show how aspiring prosthetic makeup artists compete against each other, often with the same objective to meet but through differences in artists’ background knowledge and creative justification, develop vastly different creatures. Students will have opportunity to explain who and why they think was the stronger artist amongst their peers.

Using these discussions and classroom technology, students will brainstorm three different character types, sketch out preliminary designs and conference with table mates to pick out the strongest design elements (planning/organizational skills). With these personal choices, students then map out what non-traditional media will help the individual achieve their intended outcome. This project will take four weeks of classes- five days per week of 50 minutes working time (including bell ringer activity, AVID Strategy Wednesday reading support, and clean-up).

Students will start with their busts on the aluminum wheels and decide best way to add armatures and clay to build up their creature. After they build up the base form, they will practice additive and subtractive sculpture to get their desired look. They will modpodge the clay for a solid surface to paint and attach a variety of ready made/found objects (fur, feathers, jewelry, etc) as their final surface treatment.

As a final component to go with the Fantastic Head of their creation, students will be required to develop a brief script about their creature, in addition to self-reflection and critique presentation.

The goal at this time is to have is this project incorporated into the annual curriculum coursework, in addition to providing students with a more sincere and authentic artistic experience that promotes critical thinking. While most of the requested materials are consumable items, the the aluminum wheels and sculpture tools will be reused, not just for the sculptural Fantastic Heads project but with ceramic sculpture and pottery projects as well. The wheels are vital tools in the realization of this project so students are not having to pick up or damage uncured components of their busts, while working on or moving their work to the drying rack.

Benefits to my students

The goal at this time is to have is this project incorporated into the annual coursework curriculum, in addition to providing students with a more sincere and authentic artistic experience that promotes critical thinking. While most of the requested materials are consumable items, the aluminum wheels and sculpture tools will be reused, not just for the sculptural Fantastic Heads project but with ceramic, sculpture and pottery projects as well. The long-range impact of the aluminum wheels will be utilized with about 100-150 students per year, for about 15-20 years, multiple times per year. The immediate participating class has 18 students, but the impacted student body will the see the work development, as well as the final display of the produced creature busts. Overall, this work has potential to help our program for years to come.

Budget Narrative

Foam Head pack of 6 x (4)= $106.04
Aluminum Decorating Wheel x (20)= $629.00 (Permanent)
Modpodge Matte Gallon x (2)= $51.98
Sax 1lb PaperClay x (25)= $115.25
Student Modeling Tools set of 140= $40.03 (permanent)
FEATHERS MARABOU 9.5 OZ BAG=20.53

plus students will have variety of found items/ready mades of their choosing to incorporate.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Foam Head pack of 6 x (4)/ Sax# 1502792	$106.04
2	Aluminum Decorating Wheel x (20)/ Sax#351506	$629.00
3	Modpodge Matte Gallon x (2)/ Sax#455294	$51.98
4	Sax 1lb PaperClay x (25)/ Sax#410706	$115.25
5	Student Modeling Tools set of 140/ Sax#402381	$40.03
6	FEATHERS MARABOU 9.5 OZ BAG/ Sax#086303	$20.53
	Total:	$962.83