NEW BLOG

Hello!
In 2014, I left the art classroom to work in an art museum setting. I am currently teaching at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and I'm a curriculum consultant and adjunct faculty for the Michener Art Museum. I also had a baby named Teddy in June 2016 and decided to start my own blog with DIYs and educational activities (and lots of baby pictures) called U Ready, Teddy? Please check it out!! www.ureadyteddy.com

Warhol Endangered Animal Prints

Here is the slideshow presentation from my PAFA workshop. Enjoy!

Lesson Plan and Picts to follow.

What's new?

Hello everybody!

A lot of exciting things have happened since my last post so I figured I would catch everyone up. I got married this November in Philadelphia and my new name will be Mrs. Meves! (Pictures to follow)

My picture was in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philly Business Journal for the Philadelphia Museum of Art which was really exciting! I've been teaching a lot of Art Speaks tours on Thursdays and Fridays and have recently started teaching Middle School and High School tours.
Learn more.


I also just taught my first Family Arts Academy workshop at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It was a lot of fun teaching about Andy Warhol and his Endangered Animal printmaking series.
Learn more.

I am looking forward to more exciting things like my Jamaican honeymoon and a brand new year! Happy Holidays everyone!

A New Look and Name

Miss Smith's Art Site has a new look and a new name. We are now Artfetti!

Why the name artfetti? Because why not?

Check us out at http://artfetti.weebly.com

I hope you like it!

If You Could Do Anything Tomorrow

This is a cool (and quick) design project that I found while browsing the internet. http://www.ifyoucould.co.uk/prints   Two designers from the UK started this collaborative art project.  Different artists participated by creating a design that answered the questions "if you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?" The designs needed to use only three colors; red, white and black. I use this project a lot when I have a substitute because there aren't a lot of different supplies and there is a fun guessing game I do in the beginning where they look at artist examples from the project and try to guess what the artist wanted to do tomorrow.

Here are some student examples. See if you can guess what they want to do tomorrow!

Jane Mount Ideal Bookshelves

Inspiration for lessons can come from anywhere. I came across this book in Anthropologie a few months ago and I was instantly attracted to the patterns and bright colors.

I looked at the artists website www.idealbookshelf.com and saw many different examples of these cool "still lives" which are really more like portraits because you can tell so much about a person by the books they choose. I decided this would be a great project for our sixth graders who follow and identity theme.

I tried a sample done in watercolor and ink but I thought it might be too difficult for the students. Instead each student used various strips of colored paper, used pen and markers for the lettering and markers or Prismacolors for the designs. I thought it was much more successful this way and it took less time because the strips were precut. They were also able to arrange and rearrange the strips to help with their composition. 

I collaborated with the librarians who taught a lesson about the 100 most influential books of all time and we both taught a little about typography and what different fonts can tell you about a book. Students chose anywhere from 4-10 books and sketched while they were in library. Then they could use their sketches or redesign the book spine to look different if they wanted. 

To finish up students glued their finished strips to a big piece of white paper (I had lightly drawn ruler lines already drawn along the bottom) and then they outlined with black marker and signed their name. 

It was a great way to incorporate reading and it was great seeing what the kids are reading.

Here are some student examples:

 

Pinterest and Other News

Hi!

I just figured out how to put things from my blog onto Pinterest so I am really excited to pin some projects I did last year but haven't had the chance to put up on my blog.

If you want to know how just go pin from your own blog go to: http://business.pinterest.com/widget-builder/#do_pin_it_button  Enter your blog URL and then the image URL and the description you want to show up when someone pins you. Then there is a hyperlink you just need to copy and paste to the spot in your blog where you want the 'pin it' button to show up.

In other news. I recently left my old teaching job in York and this August I will be starting a new job at Jenkintown Elementary right outside of Philadelphia. I am very excited for all the opportunities that come with teaching near a big city that is so full of art! I am also very excited to have my own classroom. Just one. Not two. That I don't have to share with anyone else. It will be fabulous!

-Devon