Drawn to Art

We explored the fun surrounding the ancient Egyptian language, known as ‘hieroglyphs’.

Ptolemy's name on the Rosetta Stone in cartouche.

We know that the code was finally cracked by a Frenchman, Mr. Champollion and he diligently worked on the language for 8 years. We learned that three things helped him, 1)- His ability to read Ancient Greek. 2)-Finding the name of the ruler Ptolemy V in Greek. 3)- Discovering the name of Ptolemy V in hieroglyphic form, as all names in Egyptian were surrounded by little boxes (and he called them ‘cartouches’).

We then explored the phonetic similarities between English and the hieroglyphs by using our language key.

Your assignment was to do either a)- write out the name of a person from your family, or favorite sports team in hieroglyphics. Use of color is encouraged.

Option b) – construct your own alphabet symbols, and provide a key for them A= * , B= *… and so on.

Tags: cartouche, Champolleon, demotic, Egypt, egyptian, France, greek, hieroglyphics, language as art, museum, Napoleon, phonics, rosetta, sphinx, stele, stone

Better late than never, more Coats of Arms.

Tags: coa, coat of arms, family, heraldry

More student coats of arms. I am playing around with Picasa, and thought I’d try making a slideshow for you. This way you can see all of the cool details. I hope it works.

Tags: coat of arms, picasa, slideshow, student

I have to say that those of who were prepared to present their coat of arms to the class this week did an awesome job. There are pictures below that many of you Lords and Ladies submitted to me.

In review, you should have the following ready to present:

1. the crest – the part above the shield, usually with some kind of helmet with an object or two mounted in that area.
2. your shield area – the central part of your assignment, you can split up your shield into many quadrants, but be expected to explain all of these aspects of your design… (even the colors!).
3. supporters -  the animals, people, symbols, objects on each side of your shield.  Why are these items a reflection of you?
4. your motto- a phrase, verse, piece of poetry, movie dialogue, or saying that is personally important to you. It can be in any language.

You can use the internet, and are encouraged to talk with your family members to research your heritage. Research is fun.

If the paper I gave you is too small, make a poster. I would love to give out some extra credit!

I hope you use your time wisely in this next week to finish up this project so we can move even further back in time in our exploration of symbols. Can’t wait to see what you all will crank out!

Tags: colors, crest, family, field, helm, heritage, internet, language, motto, nationality, research, shield, supporters, upbringing

We are learning about heraldry in class. We have constructed our own ‘coat-of-arms’.

We realized that knights and royalty used the coat of arms to display many different features about their lives, demeanor, birth order and so on.

Here are two links that I would like for you to visit for ideas on your own personal coats of arms:

The College of Arms

Heraldry Symbols list (REALLY cool)

So, my students have at least a week to prepare something for class.  Remember that your coat of arms does NOT have to follow all of the medieval symbolism, but the symbols you invent should make sense to you and mean something to you personally. Don’t add things to your coat of arms just to look cool, ok?

Here are some pictures that I used in class, maybe to help you with your choice of ‘supporters’ for your shield.

Don’t forget to bring in your personal family crest for extra credit!

Tags: coat of arms, college of arms, crest, england, europe, heraldry, heralds, kings, knights, medieval, queens, royalty, shield, supporters, unique

I received a gift today that was very awesome.

I commented on a student’s excellent art one day a few weeks ago and said “wow, that design needs to be on a shirt…”

And that is just what a couple of students did.  They made me an official and original ‘Unicorn Crossing‘ shirt.

"Halt! Are you a unicorn? Yes? You may pass..."

We know it's a Uni Crossing because of the rainbow.

I was proud to wear this tonight. My own kids were pretty jealous.

Maybe you too can be a Unicorn Crossing Guard, but I don’t know if you can handle it.

Do you have any T shirt design ideas? Can your symbol design handle being put on a shirt? Give it a try!

Thanks again to my shirt creators!

Tags: color, crossing, fantasy, guard, shirt, sign, student art, suggestion, unicorn

As promised, I have added some pics of student work from our ‘Symbols’ assignment.  Many of you had some very good ideas, and used color to accent things in your world.

All of these symbols that we use in our time and culture had to come from someone, why not you?  Will you impact the future by making new symbols?

Tags: beware, crossing, future, icon, logo, signs, student art, symbol

As I prepare this unit, I wanted my students to think critically about the everyday things that they see, and specifically in the area of symbols.

We see signs and logos and icons everyday, yet we should ask questions like the following:

• What is the meaning of this symbol?
• What components are used to construct this symbol?
• Are the colors, or lack of colors relevant in communicating the message in this symbol?

Here are some common symbols that bring forth some kind of message, please note that there are no words used.

Let’s also recognize that an artist had to design these symbols in the first place.

Some of your symbols will be up shortly for our viewing pleasure.

Tags: alchemy, anti, biohazard, disabled, flammable, icon, image, likeness, logo, olympics, planets, radioactive, sign, symbol