Organic artist Nick Neddo visits GEMS

On March 20th and 21st the GEMS art department hosted artist and author Nick Neddo.  He is a 6th generation Vermonter whose lifelong pursuits include the study of the natural world around him, exploring Stone Age technologies, and creating art.
Even before he begins a piece of art, he spends a significant amount of time preparing and making the tools and materials needed to make the art.  He uses only materials that he can find from the landscape around him.
He shared with our students not only his amazing art and handmade tools, but also his curiosity of how things are made and the all the possibilities hidden in the natural world.

Nick Neddo, 2015, wild-crafted willow charcoal on paper

Nick shared his work with the students.

He taught the students how to crush rocks to make paint.

Everyone enjoyed painting with their own handcrafted paint!

Learning About Camouflage and the Art of Liu Bolin

The first grade classes studied animals in winter in their classrooms. They learned that animals can survive in the wild by camouflaging with their environments
We looked at artwork and a video by Chinese artist Liu Bolin where he disappears into his surroundings.
We talked about how color, pattern, and texture all work together to help animals, or artists, blend in.

Can you find Liu Bolin?

The first graders all painted themselves like Liu Bolin and made themselves disappear into their own paintings!

1 Nye

1 Matas

1 Dattilio

1 Mackenzie