I get by with a little help from my friends and #pln (Robert Ponzio)

I find myself telling my friends, parents and others..."If you see something cool take a photo of it and shoot it to me on text or email" This is a great example of how this is beneficial to many aspiring art students and art teachers. I have a friend, Meredith, she is great at this. This past weekend she was with her son at Oak Hall School in Gainesville, Florida for a lacrosse game. Yep, she passed by these buildings that had these outstanding Big Self Portraits on them.

On Monday, I decided to track down the art teacher from Oak Hall and his name is Robert Ponzio. If you click here it will take you to his schools Visual Arts Webpage. I promptly emailed him with some questions and he replied with a ton of information to share!!! I love #pln (Personal Learning Networks)!!! Yes, that is how art teachers communicate in the 21st Century. I have found that with this blog my sister and I have been so inspired by all that we see just linking up with other art teachers on social media. (Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

Here is our correspondence:

Hello, Robert!

My name is Kim Daniel from Maclay School. I am the middle school art teacher. One of my friends was on your campus over the weekend for a LAX tourney and saw the way super cool portraits. She sent me some photos of them. We would love to know more about them. Would you be able to direct me in the appropriate direction to find out more information on how you all went about creating them. I would be very grateful for any information you can share.

Thanks in advance!

Creatively, Kim Daniel

He responded with:

Hi Kim,

Thanks for the note.  This is a fun project that the students really seem to enjoy.
I do these mid year with my Drawing and Painting Honors class.  This class spends the first part of the year working from life and as it progresses, challenges the students to get more creative.  I have them paint these self portraits with their brushes at the end 0of long sticks.  This enables them to get back from the painting, forces them to deal with the drips in a slightly out of control way. We start by looking at the art of Francois Nielly http://www.francoise-nielly.com/index.php/galerie   Try to use her high key palette. They are painted on pieces of plywood with exterior gloss acrylic paint (front and back), and then coated with a clear coat. With the help of our maintenance crew we put them up outside.

Here is a Facebook album of one classes project from start to finish. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151656765906377.1073741841.518731376&type=1&l=9ea259587f

Also check out more of our work on the OHS Visual Arts FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/oakhallart

Thanks for your interest!

Robert Ponzio
Chair, Fine Arts
Oak Hall School
8009 SW 14th Ave
Gainesville, FL 32607

 

For more information on Robert Ponzio please visit his website

http://hardcorepainting.com/ 

Robert also sent me these links for more examples. Check it out =)

Oak Hall Expressive Self Portrait/ Public Art Project 2013 on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151234005676377.449045.518731376&type=1&l=7eff6276ec

  

Mr. Ponzio shared this album on Facebook with me...much love for this lesson 

Drawing and Painting class Self Portraits: "The Shady Bunch"

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150494327426377.367417.518731376&type=1&l=fa0ae660e4

So here is to you Robert Ponzio for sharing and inspiring our Visual Arts Department here at Maclay! Kyle, Cathy and I are super excited to explore our options on something funky like this for Maclay's campus. I hope it spurs something creative for my sister, Karen, at Westfield in Perry, Georgia. For all of the other art teachers that run across this post check out the links, you will be glad you did!

Thank you, Meredith for being my art scout! You, my friend, are the bombdiggity and I love your keen eye for artsy things!

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