#TinyDoorsSUA

During our mandated home learning segment between Thanksgiving and the new semester of 2020, Ceramic students created Tiny Doors to be placed in the community. We discussed the purpose of street art and how we can focus on our community. Students chose a location that was special to them, designed a ceramic door based on the essence of the location, and donated the piece to the establishment. Our goal was to encourage playfulness, curiosity, and togetherness during an isolating time. Sometimes when we can’t physically be together, we just have to open our creative “doorways” and think about things in a new way! Check out the Tiny Door Season 1 Video below!

Students from Semester 2 carried the tradition and put 28 more doors out in the community. Follow the Scavenger Hunt Map from door to door around the Greater Toledo Community! Snap a pic and tag #tinydoorsua for a chance to be featured!

Getty Museum Challenge

During the Spring of 2020, we were mandated to convert to online learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. My Ceramics class had to adapt to the changing world. Without clay or access to a kiln, students made artwork from objects found around their house. Sometimes when you have less, you find you have MORE creativity. Students constructed artwork from paper, soap, and even themselves! During the Getty Museum Challenge, they chose a famous work of art and re-created the composition using similar colors, objects, and real-life subject matter. My student, Zion took a photo of herself and her sister, recreating a print by Kitagawa Utamaro, from the Edo Period in Japan. Their photo was selected out of thousands globally to be published in the Getty Museum's book, Off the Walls.

Cleveland Institute of Art: Residency

I pushed my artistic skills and put myself in the shoes of the learner again during my time at the CIA Residency during the summer of 2019. Not only did I expand my breadth of art skills and exhibit my creations, but I also had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with other art teachers from across the United States.

Blacksmith Demonstration and Sculpture

Dane Turpening, of Toledo Twisted Iron, generously offered his time, materials, and talents to create a sculpture that he gifted to Saint Ursula. Set up in our school's garage, he explained and showed students how to create a flowering vine from a piece of metal using traditional blacksmithing skills. The sculpture's design was based off of a quote by Saint Ursula's patron Saint, Saint Angela. "Do not cease to prune the vine that has been entrusted to you." Dane and I brainstormed visually ways to express the idea of spiritual growth.

The demonstration was televised on BCAN, along with my interview. Video attached.