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This is the video that Nia Berry and I created to show how we can help the community of West & Southwest Philadelphia

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By Anthony Buchanico and Teige Dougherty
For the days of the week, or in spanish "Los Días de la Semana" we have a song that goes along with it

The days are:

Monday= lunes

Tuesday= martes

Wednesday=miércoles

Thursday= jueves

Friday= viernes           

Saturday=sábado

Sunday=domingo

 

*notice that the days are not caputalized unlike the english translation.

 

Teige walks up and talks to Anthony who is singing the days of the weeks

Anthoney ¡Hola! ¿Le gustaría decir los días de la semana conmigo?

Teige: ¡Sí!

Breaks into song

lunes martes miércoles jueves viernes sábado domingo

lunes martes miércoles jueves viernes sábado domingo

All: Yay

 

English translation

Anthony: Hello! Would you like to say the days of the weeks with me?

Teige: Yes!

Monday Tuesday Wednsday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Monday Tuesday Wednsday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

All: Yay!

I found it interesting that we needed to use recycled materials for our first quarter project.  It is unlike anything I have ever been assigned, in art class or otherwise. I like the idea of doing something different for art, but trying to stick to recycled materials made things a little more difficult for me. At first I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I realized that I had a huge pile of bottles that was just growing day in and day out, and I decided then that I wanted to do something involving recycling plastic bottles.

First I decided to build a small scale raft with several bottles, some tape, card board, a plastic bag, and some pencils. This idea didn't translate very well when I tried to bring it into physical form. In the process of building the raft I realized what I wanted to do, and it didn't involve boats of any form. I decided to make a small comic strip showing the steps that some recycled materialS go through before they are redistributed. I used bits of plastic bottles and a few caps to cover the pictures somewhat. I usually stick to drawing or sculptures. I don't feel very confident when painting, so I chose to stick with something that I felt more comfortable with. 

At first, ideas for this project weren't exactly in high supply. But finally it hit me, a way to incorporate my own ideas with the task at hand, to make something involving the environment, and my own style as an artist. I took a note from the new Pacific Sunwear bags that look like this..


But I adapted it for this project and my skill level. What this is, is a progression with shapes with objects coming through them that have a message or a pattern. Since my project had to involve recycling and being more aware of our environment, my project features things harming the environment while on opposite side it has this that help/save our environment. As a piece, I'm proud of my work. I've attempted things like this before but have never been able to finish it. I also think my message is clear, all these things are are hurting the environment and the ecosystem have to be changed into things that not only do not hurt the it but help them.

Process:

1. I started small with pencil on the negative bubble pattern just starting with only a few objects in them and with the beginning of the center piece. 

2. Then I finished the outline bubble pattern with the negative factors on the environment. 


3. I then added the positive side of the bubble stream.


4. I then began to add color using water color pencils.


5. After finishing coloring with chalk pastels all I had to do was write my name on the back and be done.

Marian Harrison explains her experience with voting.

Hello my name is Trevor Hinton and I am a junior at Science Leadership Academy, our quarter one art benchmark was to take something we find and use everyday and transform it into recycled art.

For my recycled art project I decided to take a old lightbulb and transform it into a usable candle. The inspiration for this came about when I was searching the internet for ideas and came across an interesting picture of a glossed out lightbulb with a candle light coming out of the bottom in which I then began to search around to find instructions as to how I could complete this myself. The materials that were needed were old lightbulbs, a screw driver, needle nose pliers, gloves for safety and a knife. I wanted to make my lightbulb candle look a lot different from the one that was displayed on the website so I tried looking for different color candle waxes and illuminates  so that when the candle was ignited it gave off a different color other than the standard orange flame. When I began this project what seemed like a fairly easy task of pulling apart the bottom of a lightbulb soon turned into a big mess because of broken glass, filaments going missing, wax being poured into wrong ends etc. etc. However I did learn from this a better understanding of not only how candles work on the inside but also how artist carefully need to plan out each step when creating a work of art from something else, I found myself many nights wondering if this project would actually even come out like a lightbulb and if in fact it would even work.

Although I was unable to fully finish the project and light my candle, I was able to gain valuable experience from this and that when working with recycled items it brings about a certain joy knowing that what your goals are for the piece and what you are aiming to complete may be able to be used on a daily basis and that what you are working with didn't end up in a landfill or someones trashcan. I really like that this project was giving to us and hope that we can continue to complete projects like this in the future.

This marking period, I had difficulties trying to grasp a idea that my heart was into. First I decided to make a art project that was very abstract, using recycled glass, bottles, and other materials that would usually land into a landfill. That project wasn't a fail but it wasn't heartfelt. So I decided to do something that I do best, poetry. Every time I write a poem a truth bleeds out. In order for this project to be advertised and different I've decided to spray paint it on the windows in the art studio. I currently don't have any images of what this project will look like. It takes many steps and hard work to complete it. I had to measure the windows, figurre out the font size, and cut out my stencils for the spray paint. I have a sample of what the poem is: "

If it isn’t the latest fashion trend we won’t allow the human species to be recycled,

Our hearts to be reused, more like thrown in a landfill because you can’t be saved here,

No matter how many shirts we decide to wear that claim we are going green, we don’t change we are selfish

Wrapped up in a diabetic tornado, it isn’t sweet here. We’re dying."- Toni Marshall

This quarter in art, hearts will change and beat a different tune, we are getting in touch with ourselves.

For this quarter we focused on making art out of recycled material. I particularly liked this unit because the fact that were using things that could potentially harm the earth. I feel like its good way to get people to start recycling by doing more then just tossing the recycled materials into the recycling bin.

For my project I wanted to make an entire picture out of using only recycled materials. I feel like that is the most effective way to show other options of saving our environment. I used materials such as newspaper, plastic bags, bottle caps, and pipe cleaners. At first I wanted to make an entire scene out of the recycled materials but I then decided that it would be better If I made a single object that represented the environment completely out recycled materials.


This is my first draft. I wanted to make a scene out of cotton balls, newspapers, and bottle caps. After a while I decided that this wasn't going to work because the outcome wouldn't look like it took me all marking period to do. I then moved on to my next idea.


My next idea was to make a cardboard recycling bin with the recycle logo on it. While doing this project however I experienced several problems. After I finished cutting out the pieces that were supposed to be glued onto the boxes, I couldn't a good enough box. I then decided that this project was no longer any good and once again moved on to my next idea.


My final idea was making a flower out of recycled material. I particularly liked this one because it represents a small piece of the environment. I chose to make the leaves out of newspaper and plastic. And to make the middle of the flower by using a bottle cap. The stem potentially would be made out of green pipe cleaners. This project fits for because its made completely out of recycled materials. Also because I like to cut and paste which is how most of this project is done. I painted over the plastic to give the petals some color and then glued plastic bag over it to be able to see that this project is actually recycled.




BOTTLE CAP PROJECT :

We were asked to make poster to recycle plastic bottle caps, and below is a picture i painted of a recycle bin and a bottle lying on the the ground beside it. This picture was mad to create the message of instead of throwing the bottle on the ground an littering you can put it in the recycle bin and it can be put to good use. 

  My name is Brooke Thompson and I'm 16 in the 11th grade. Personally I don't consider myself a very artistic/ visual person. But when taking a art class I became more excited and interested in things that meant something to me. 
At first I wasn't to comfortable with being in a art class but when I was introduced to Aurora Robson, an artist who used all recyclable materials to create beautiful art work, I became more interested.  I wasn't good at drawling or painting so I didn't like using those mediums but then I realized recyclables thing could be my medium. 
For our project we were asked to make something out of recyclable materials that meant something to us. So i had to think of something that meant the most to me, and the first thing that came to my mind was clothes. The things I wear on my body man a lot because their how I express myself. So I decided to make a dress out of recyclable materials. 
I worked with a partner on this project and we used materials such as trash bags, plastic cups, wire, bottle caps as well as news paper. She created the skirt and I created the bra. We used the trash bags to create the skirt. And we used plastic cups wire and cloth to create the bra. 
We didn't get to finish the project but its a work in progress and we do plan on finishing below is a preview f our work so far. 

Below is apart of the skirt as well as the start of the bra.

            Working with materials that have already been made is a daunting task. The intuition required to look at something, like a tricycle and a hula-hoop, and see something else in it, like a spine and rib cage, is very rare. It takes many people many years to be able to see something in a form that has already been made. Needless to say, when faced with the project of creating recycled art I was stumped. The options available and vagueness of the prompt was so elusive that simply narrowing the playing field was difficult. I tried and failed at many different styles of recycling. Plastics were too inconsistent; bike pieces and glass, too sharp. I didn’t know what to do.

            My project came about as I was sitting in a book room surrounded by, obviously, books. In a fit of temper I picked up the Encyclopaedia Britannica and chucked it at the opposing wall. As it slid to the ground the pages made a very delicate and interesting curl. I had seen pictures of other artists who had taken books and twisted and carved at the pages to make interesting wave patterns. I took inspiration and began tearing the pages out and curling them. The shapes and lines of the type were endlessly attractive and from there I built one loop on top of another. Fastened to a wooden rod the pages hung, reminiscent of water droplets.

            The project is not finished, to be honest. The form is lacking all of it’s body and the flow of the piece is not completely controlled. However, from what there is, the shapes, depth and interaction of all of the separate parts of this larger sculpture give an interesting feeling. There is a juxtaposition of hanging squared lines and weighted curved droplets that makes the sculpture almost whimsical.

            I can’t say that I’m incredibly proud of it. There was very little preparation and the inspiration was rash and almost ill-advised. I like the idea of what I wanted to do but the presentation of the idea left something to be desired. As I looked at it I nit-picked each flaw that I saw and attempted to remedy it with more paper loops. That caused the whole thing to become a little overwhelming and messy. I also feel that, given more time and a little more care, the project will turn out to be alright. It’s just not done yet.

            I know that my piece is not quite finished because when I look at it I imagine more and I can visualize more dimension and movement. Now, technically, all art work is a continual state of creation but there is an evident sense of incompletion. I want to add more volume in a couple places and include strips of paper that hang from the bottoms and edges in order to give the downward pulling motion a little more delicacy.

            Basically, I’m gonna finish it soon, but what I have now is pretty chill.

Art is creativity on display. Art can show you the mental working of the artist, and their way of expression. Art can be in multiple forms, such as performance, written, or hand designed. That is why art is individual and unique. No peace of art is the same as another.

I chose to start from scratch, literally. I took newspaper and recycled it into canvas. This process consisted of turning twelve newspapers into strips, then using a blender and some water turning the strips into pulp. After the put was made, I used a picture frame and a thin cloth to fish out the paper and strain it. Once the pulp was strained it needed to dry, so it was placed between two towels and I used a rolling pin to squeeze the water out.

After the, newly formed, canvas was dried I glued the thin cloth to the back to keep it sturdy. One the glue dried it was time to paint. I used watercolor paint to create abstract lines and figured on the canvas and glued on various recyclables. Thus was my form off art created.

            In art class, we’ve been talking about how much plastic we use that isn’t recycled and how much plastic animals and humans eat. This made me think about how much paper fish must eat, seeing as paper is used more if not equally as much as plastic. Just simply walking on the street, I have seen newspapers, candy wrappers and other things on the ground and near the sewers.

            I decided to do a seascape. I decided to use a seascape because our oceans are affected severely.  I cut patterns from magazines into fish shapes, all different shapes and sizes. I decided to use magazine cut-outs to symbolize the paper that makes its way to the ocean, I cut the cut-outs into fish shapes to show that the fish consume what makes its way into the ocean. I cut them into all shapes and sizes to show that just as we are different so are fish; they have an identity just as we do.

            I usually don’t paint because I do not believe I am very good at it, but in this particular project I decided to paint to add a texture and opaque color to the newspaper. In health class, we were cutting images out of magazines to make a collage about ourselves. I decided to use an old Vogue magazine for my fish seeing as there is a lot of unique and creative patterns designers use in their clothing lines. I figured this could show so individuality in the fish I cut out. I also used newspaper print in a few of the fish to show that paper makes its way into the ocean.

Natalie Sanchez

11/5/10

Art – D²

I have always been interested in the art that is in our natural world. I have always looked at the environment around me and seen a piece of art. Right after I would get home from a long ride, I would run directly to my room to sketch that red and brown tree that I saw on my way, releasing withering leaves onto the front window of my dad’s small and beat up Toyota.  I would always enjoy drawing small doodles on the sides of my paper whenever I was in class. I enjoyed the magical feeling of getting paint on my hands and clothes. I would enjoy the black spots that my pencil tip would leave on my index finger after an hour of vehement shading under the shade of the gates shielding my backyards. I have always loved the feeling of being an artist because with this new title came the right of depicting the world the way that I see it with paints, pencil, or even clay. This is why I am an artist.

In our art class, we are collecting bottle caps in order to make bottle cap art. Our teacher, Ms. Hull, was inspired to do this by Aurora Robson who builds sculptured out of blown bottle caps. To mold the bottle caps, Aurora goes through a process of melting the bottle caps and then blowing them up, like glass blowers blows up glass. What is cool is that not only does Aurora use bottle caps to create art, but she also uses bottles and other recyclable material.

Aurora holds a pretty deep message with the art pieces that she creates; she is trying to raise awareness of how important it is for us, Americans, to recycle. This is why she uses only recyclable materials to build her sculptures and art pieces. She uses bottle caps in her sculpture because, although bottles are recyclable, bottle caps are not, so she uses them on her sculptures in order to reuse them in a way that will bring out their beauty and value. She does not use spray glue because of the contamination that it might add to the gases in the air and she makes sure to make all of her artistic processes eco-friendly. Currently Aurora Robson is working on an art piece that was in fact inspired by a recurring nightmare she used to have as a child. She explained in an interview that, she would frequently dream about being in a dark place surrounded by colorful blobs that were the size of huge buildings compared to her size. She decided to build a life-size mural of her dreams using bottle caps and bottles. She wanted to make a different representation of her dream. She wanted to turn something that was originally scary and unknown into something cool and beautiful.

Recently, in our art class, we were assigned a task to create a piece of art made out of recyclable material. This assignment was made to mirror the importance of recycling and the value that recyclable material can have. As soon as I received this task, I started thinking of a million different ways that I could go about this assignment. My first idea was papier-mâché a basketball. After this I was going to pain the ball with blue paint and then I was going to make the continents out of scrunched up newspaper (to show a sort of topography on the “pieces of land”). I was gong to later paint the “land” brown. Eventually I thought about cardboard boxes. I was reminded of a fish tank. After this, I started planning out what I would place inside of the fish tank. I thought about using newspaper to build my huge fish and using play sand to form my base. I was going to use plastic wrap to form my water in the background.

At the end, I used a cardboard box to make my fish tank. I cut out the frame, then I painted it a dark grey. Inside, I placed its sand. At the back, I attached its water, which I created on a separate frame. I then wanted to make my fish out of bottle tops, in order to make a stronger statement. In the end, I ended up with a pretty sturdy fish tank. I am thinking of using a more adhesive glue, because the paint that I used before is pealing off. Other than that, my project cam out better than expected.

With this fish tank, I was trying to show how important it is to collect bottle tops. My fish tank represent a fish haven, but the fishes inside the tank are made out of bottle tops. This represents the many fish that have died because of the caps they have ingested. These bottle caps are tossed in the trash, which eventually gets tossed into a body of water. This is where fish wind up eating these un-recycled bottle tops, causing them to die, because of our negligence to collect bottle caps and reuse them. This is what my fish tank represents. I call it “Fish haven”.

            

I do the work I do because I just simply like it. I get the assignment and own the requirements. What I mean by that is that I sort of take the black and white requirements and color them in my favorite colors. The requirements are still there, you just see my likings all over them. My goal was always to try and help as much as I can to clean up the world and stop trashing it and harming the animals.

The way I make decisions when it comes to my work is pretty simple. I just do what I like. I always have my own idea of things so I take that idea out of my head and into the art. I select materials by determining the difficulty of working with them and if it will open eyes. I do this because I don’t want my art to be something everybody has been before. I want my art to be unique so I take risks and use odd things. I chose to sew the bag by hand because I wanted to feel like a sewing machine. Usually people just take the easy way out and use a sewing machine. I wanted to see what the sewing machine went through even though it is an inanimate object. It still uses up energy and part of my inspiration for this bag was saving resources and energy and keeping the ocean clean because these Caprisun pouches end up right in the water or just on the floor somewhere.

My current work, stated before, is a handbag made entirely out of Caprisun juice pouches. I never thought of where these Caprisun pouches went when they are thrown away until I was given this assignment. I was looking up ideas for my project while I was drinking a Caprisun. Then I looked up a Caprisun bag and there it was. I went home and started thinking more of where the pouches go and it drove me deeper and made me more interested in making this bag. Also, I am a bit interested in the fashion world so it just made it all the more exciting. I was going to get a sewing machine but I figured it would defeat the purpose of babying the world and not harming it anymore. I am attempting to make recycled art fashionable. I may even start making accessories and clothes out of recycled things.

            Crocheting has been a hobby of mine since I was six years old. My great-great aunt Stella taught me how to do simple stitches. After I mastered the basics, I moved on to patterns and she showed me how to follow them and how to make my stitches tighter. After I got more and more practice, I became better at making my rows even and my stitches neat and tight. My goal was to make beautiful doilies and table clothes like my great-great aunt Stella made using thin, fine thread.  I’m not quit there yet but I will someday learn.

            I am in the middle of constructing a patch quilt afghan. I had to decide if I wanted to make this afghan a solid color or multicolored. I chose multicolored because I saw that I could make different patterns throughout the afghan by using different stitches that could only be noticed if I used different colored yarn. I am switching up the pattern every time I switch a color. I am either crocheting stitches that go, single, treble, single, or single, double, single. Both patterns I am using follow a A B A B pattern which means after making a row that consists of treble, single, treble or double, single, double, the next row I crochet will only consist of the single crochet stitch. I chose to make these patterns because when I am done the afghan, these different stitches are going to be very noticeable and it will look very neat. Using these stitches will also make the afghan thicker, therefore warmer.

            When I crochet, I feel like I am spending my time wisely because I am getting a task accomplished, even if I am sitting on the bus going to school. It is achieving a goal and keeping me occupied anytime I just have time to sit down and relax.

            Crocheting has been a hobby of mine since I was six years old. My great-great aunt Stella taught me how to do simple stitches. After I mastered the basics, I moved on to patterns and she showed me how to follow them and how to make my stitches tighter. After I got more and more practice, I became better at making my rows even and my stitches neat and tight. My goal was to make beautiful doilies and table clothes like my great-great aunt Stella made using thin, fine thread.  I’m not quit there yet but I will someday learn.

            I am in the middle of constructing a patch quilt afghan. I had to decide if I wanted to make this afghan a solid color or multicolored. I chose multicolored because I saw that I could make different patterns throughout the afghan by using different stitches that could only be noticed if I used different colored yarn. I am switching up the pattern every time I switch a color. I am either crocheting stitches that go, single, treble, single, or single, double, single. Both patterns I am using follow a A B A B pattern which means after making a row that consists of treble, single, treble or double, single, double, the next row I crochet will only consist of the single crochet stitch. I chose to make these patterns because when I am done the afghan, these different stitches are going to be very noticeable and it will look very neat. Using these stitches will also make the afghan thicker, therefore warmer.

            When I crochet, I feel like I am spending my time wisely because I am getting a task accomplished, even if I am sitting on the bus going to school. It is achieving a goal and keeping me occupied anytime I just have time to sit down and relax.