Art
Our Lady of Grace has an award-winning art department, highlighted by our talented art staff: Gloria Swanson, Angela Rosati, Patricia Aubuchon, and teacher/director, Anne Nicholson.
Grades one through six use Laura Chapman’s textbook series, Discover Art, and Adventures in Art. This series was developed in conjunction with the J. Paul Getty Institute and includes all four elements of an excellent art program as mandated by the California Visual and Performing Arts Framework. Artistic perception, creative expression, historical and cultural components, and aesthetic valuing are all taught in every grade. The texts display reproductions of both classic works of art and examples of student work. The series also feature cross–curriculum connections (how art relates to science, social studies, math, etc.)
The series is a skills continuum, which means each year builds on the material that was presented the year before and sequentially in the current year. Certain lessons are included in each text – the self-portrait, homes and cityscapes, collage and composition, and perspective (although in the lower grades it is not identified by that name.)
Grades four through six also have formal art history classes, studying the lives of artists and analyzing, critiquing, and creating original work based on the classic art studied.
Grades seven and eight work on projects that typify ways we use art in current society. Grade seven focuses on optical art (Op Art) used so prevalently in the advertising world. Grade eight does graphic arts projects, with each project illustrating a different aspect of visual expression.
During the second trimester grades one, two, and three will learn about warm, cool, and neutral colors; tint and shade, and cityscapes.
Grade four will learn about symmetry and the asymmetric, views of famous landmarks, and study the work of famous artists.
Grade five will learn about portraits, self-portraits, architecture, trompe l’oeil, and still-lifes.
Grade six will learn about still-life drawing, create fantastic creatures with a history, and experiment with visual balance using formal and informal compositions.
Grades four, five, and six will study landscapes by Bierstadt and Bruegel, portraits of "Pinkie" and "Blue Boy" by Lawrence and Gainsborough respectively, and works by African-American artists Pippin, Duncanson, and Hughie Lee-Smith.
Grade seven will create compositions using radial focal points, bull’s eye distortion, and the classic box-in-perspective checkerboard, "The Corner." They will also make a "Snakes Alive" abstract.
Grade eight will complete a limitation lesson on Merlin the magician, design yearbook covers, and learn the Renaissance method of enlarging to reproduce a master artwork.
As an art teacher, I believe that there is a synergy between art and knowledge. One of humanity’s best and most basic attributes is the ability to create and appreciate art; one joy that never ends is the ability to learn. When art is coupled with knowledge, the world is suddenly "charged with the grandeur of God," as said in the words of Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. When we have been educated this way, we see with new eyes and appreciate not just painting or sculptures, but the weave of every cloth, the print in each book, the design of every car, machine, building, or sign—all are designed by human beings using their God-given artistic talents.
When we create art, we mirror the image of the divine. Art is not an extra, a non-essential. It teaches us something about ourselves and the universe that cannot be taught in any other way: the inherent beauty of creation inspires us to love ourselves and others.
May God bless you with much beauty in your lives, and may you glimpse the glory of God in the beauty around us.
~ Anne Nicholson