Art 2 & 3 – Soul Art Renewal – Jessica Risenhoover

Middle School | Art 2 (7-8 Grade) | Art 3 (8 Grade)

Elements/ Principles: Texture

Focus: Narrative Art, Printmaking

Project Details

All 8th Grade Art 3 students from across Denton ISD were invited to participate in a public show at the Greater Denton Arts Council (GDAC).

GDAC created a mono-printing project based off of an annual show they host named Soul Art Renewal. Educators were given a chance to see the show in the summer. After viewing the artwork, educators were given a demonstration on mono-printing with gelatin plates, then given the opportunity to explore the medium themselves. GDAC provided all the materials for the project.

Students were tasked with reflecting on the past few years of their lives. At RMS, we focused on what we were grateful for and how we had grown. However, due to the nature of the past few years, students explored many topics in their work.

Greater Denton Arts Council

The young artist will pull from their life experiences over the past school year to create a serious of small mixed media figurative images. The foundation of their pieces will be drawn from observation and perception of 2020. Their pieces can express their cultural heritage, thoughts of community, and self-identity. The students will make design choices as they layer their background, middle ground, and foreground with self-portraits, found images, and patterns they create with original mono printing techniques with the use of Gelli block printing methods. Images will be created from layers of patterns and image transfers using magazine, stencils, and stamps, both from hand-made and found objects. The students will follow their work with a written artist statement of their thoughts and how they used the art elements and principles of design to create a work of art that expresses their personal experience, identity, and imagination.
Christine Sanders, GDAC

Greater Denton Arts Council Project Page

Project Process

After talking about our experiences, students were taught how to express those ideas in their wokr using images, colors, and words. Students used mono-printing and Styrofoam printmaking to create their project backgrounds. Then, students collaged and included original drawings on top of their printing to create narrative art.

While only the 8th Grade Art 3 students work was submitted to the show, I did this project with both Art 2 and Art 3 so that they could experience telling a story through art. The galleries below contain images from all classes as well as images from the show’s reception.