2025 Student Art Show

Justin Holdren — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 15:29:00 GMT

Our RMA student art show will be on display in the middle school gym from Monday May 5th through Friday May 9th. Due to schedule conflicts with other events, we will not have an opening reception for the show, but I will be posting a video tour of the show here on the arts blog. You can email me at jholdren@rivermill-academy.org to arrange a time to view the show in person. I will be available from 3:00-3:30 every day that week if you want a tour of the show. Parents attending the high school awards ceremony on Friday May 9th can exit through the hallway and Middle School gym to see the show on your way out. Middle and High School will have 2D and 3D work represented and K-5th grades did one large collaborative tabletop city project. I will send an email with a link to the video tour once the show is up. See the flyer below for details.

Art clubs Information

Justin Holdren — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:10:00 GMT

In February we started a 2nd-5th grade art club as well as a club for Middle and High School. Every elementary class was given a sign-up sheet, and we had over 40 people sign up, with the largest group being 2nd and 3rd grade. Because this is meant to be a small group with more individualized instruction, I had to split the 2nd and 3rd grade names into groups to be fair. I emailed the first group for 2nd and 3rd two weeks ago to their teachers and that group will attend for March. Anyone not in that group will attend in April and I will email teachers that list before April meetings start. Club Meetings are as follows for March: 2nd and 3rd meet every other Tuesday from 2:30-3:00. 4th and 5th grade meet on the alternate Tuesdays from 2:30-3:00 Middle and High school meets every Wednesday from 2:30-3:00 4th and 5th will meet on March 4th and then will alternate weeks with 2nd and 3rd grade. PLEASE NOTE! Any student who is not in after school will have to arrange to have parents pick them up at 3:05 at the front office lobby, just like on tutoring days. A schedule for March was sent to the elementary teachers showing what dates 2nd-3rd meet, and what dates 4th-5th meet. If you have any questions, email me at jholdren@rivermill-academy.org or call me at 336-229-0909 after 2:30 each day. Middle and High school is a smaller group so they did not need to sign up in advance but will have to arrange their ride home just like the elementary clubs. Looking forward to some great club meetings!

Sculptures for September!

Justin Holdren — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 16:22:00 GMT

September was a busy month in the art room. Middle school and high school art students worked on oversize food themed paper mâché sculptures. These start with a cardboard construction for boxed items and newspaper "bags" for the items that represent bags of food. All pieces are then covered in strips of newspaper and glue, then primed white, and finished in acrylic paint. This is always our longest project, as it takes the students almost 3 weeks of work with many steps and drying time in between each step. I am so proud of my students because these turned out amazing! Check the captions under the pictures below to see if the picture is a high school or middle school sculpture. Some of my middle school created high school level work for these! I will update the blog again soon with some of our October projects. I will have a display of all of these sculptures set up in the art room for a mini- show starting Oct 16th. Feel free to drop by and see them. Enjoy the sculpture pics! High School - Giant Ring Pop Middle School - Half Gallon Milk Carton Chick-Fil-A Nugget box with nuggets (Nuggets not Pictured) High School - Cheesecake slice Middle School - Happy Meal Box Sonic Ice Cream on a stick and Royal Honey Power Bar - High School Ramen Packet - High School Jumbo Pop Tart Box - Middle School Punk Bunny Brand Coffee Bag - Middle School Tru Moo Chocolate Milk Carton with straw - Middle School

Welcome Back and Art show Recap!

Justin Holdren — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 17:33:00 GMT

Welcome back to Art class for the 2024-2025 school year! I have many amazing and fun art projects planned and can't wait to share them with the students. I never had time at the end of the school year to post pictures from our year end art show last school year, so I am sharing them with you in case you did not get to attend. Looking forward to a great year this year. Enjoy the photos!

Upcoming K-12 Art show!

Justin Holdren — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 19:22:00 GMT

We will have a school wide art show this month so mark your calendars. The art show will run the same dates as the book fair. The art show will be displayed on the stage in the cafeteria and will be on display from Friday, March 22 - Thursday March 28th. We will have the official "opening" on Tuesday March 26th from 4-6. This will take place at the same time as the book fair hot dog supper, so if you are attending that event, come to the stage and view the art show as well. In addition to paintings and drawings we will have some fun sculptures as well. I have pictured the donut sculptures middle school has been working on this week below. We hope to see you there!

Lots of New Artwork in the Art Room!

Justin Holdren — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:57:00 GMT

We have been having a blast in the art room over the last month and half since we started second semester. I have shared below just some of the great art that middle and high school have produced. The pictures are a mix of finished projects as well as classroom process exercises to allow the students to learn the media we are working with. We have a schoolwide art show coming up at the end of March and I will make a post with all of the details soon. Enjoy looking at the art below! Ink and Watercolor (High School) Ink and Watercolor (High School) Ink and Watercolor (High School) Watercolor (High School) Zentangle Designs (Middle and High School) Zentangle Designs (Middle and High School) Picasso inspired Abstract Portraits (Middle and High School) Ink and Watercolor (High School)

Winter Projects and Sculptures

Justin Holdren — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 17:28:00 GMT

We have had fun over the last few weeks working on winter themed projects with elementary classes. Middle and High School have been learning how to sculpt with air dry clay. Their finished sculptures were painted with acrylic paint after a few days of drying. It is so rewarding to walk in the art room and see many art projects in progress! These students have done so great this semester with their projects, and I hope they continue to do art after they leave art class. Below are some examples of elementary, middle, and high school projects we have been working on. I included examples of some sculptures before they were painted as well as some finished with paint. We will start reviewing portfolios this week and I hope the students see how their skills have progressed this semester. Enjoy the art! Elementary Winter collage project High School Clay Sculptures Unpainted High School Sculptures unpainted Middle School Sculpture Painted Middle School Sculpture Paint Process in Progress High School Sculpture Painted High School Sculpture Painted High School Sculptures Painted High School Sculptures Painted High School Sculpture Painted

Mixed Media Fun!

Justin Holdren — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:47:00 GMT

In the art room over the last few weeks we have been doing various mixed media projects. This has included everything from low relief cardboard sculptures and ink on painted backgrounds for high school to various forms of printing with elementary and middle school. Since the "Day of the Dead" celebration was this week which honor those that have passed, high school art also did a one day project of themed art using either animals or the traditional sugar skulls representing that. We often study the traditional art of other cultures, and the students learn techniques used to make that art which broadens their skill set. Although we do complete larger finished projects each month, we do a lot of process-based learning in high school and middle school which focuses on learning the process to make the art which doesn't always result in a finished piece. Learning the process is important in order to get to those finished pieces. Below are some examples of things we have worked on the last few weeks. Elementary monoprint designs with black paint High School Low relief cardboard sculpture High School Ink Drawing over painted paper High School Day of the Dead Themed animal art

Mexican Inspired Folk Art Designs for Hispanic Heritage Month!

Justin Holdren — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:54:00 GMT

For the last week of September, we focused on studying various forms of Mexican Inspired Folk Art and created designs based on that style to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. The students created some amazing pieces and I have shared a few examples below. Mexican Folk Art Designs focus more or bright colors and flat shapes and patterns instead of images with a lot of realistic shading. We worked on some version of these designs with Elementary, Middle, and High School Classes. I am so proud of these kids and their hard work! I hope you enjoy the examples below. The captions below each picture will tell you if the piece was Elementary, Middle, or High School artwork. Enjoy! Elementary Middle School Middle School Middle School High School High School High School High School

Welcome to RMA Visual Arts!

Justin Holdren — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 18:30:00 GMT

Welcome to the blog for Rivermill Academy's Visual Arts Department! My name is Mr. Holdren and I am the K-12 art teacher here at RMA. I will be posting weekly to this blog to share what we are working on Elementary Art, Middle School, and High School as well as sharing photos of amazing work done by our students! This is also the place to get updates on opportunities for your kids like art competitions, shows, and school art related topics. I have been a working Freelance visual artist for almost twenty years, and I have a passion for art and enjoy sharing that passion and the things I've learned as a working artist with our students. Featured below are some giant junk food papier mache sculptures made by last year's second semester high school art class. They did an awesome job on these and one of the students sold their sculpture to an interested buyer getting their first art sale! We will feature some more student artwork in the next post! Stay tuned! Junk Food Art Sculptures

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