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Ed Ruscha's exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco presented a fantastic and challenging teaching approach not just to art creation, but also to the whole definition of art. Ruscha painted with pastels and drew with pencils, but he also made art using Pepto Bismol, carrots, and spinach. In this article, the author describes an art project inspired by Ruscha's art. (Contains 1 online resource.)

Orland is a small agricultural town in Northern California. The community has been deluged with fundraisers and requests for money. The author knew there must be a way to self-fund. She took a closer look at what made some of their community artists successful, and she looked at what the public bought. Her challenge was to put together a project that would sell. She traveled to local studios, talked to thriving artists, and got their views on the local market. In this article, the author describes an approach to self-funding an art program with art. (Contains 1 online resource.)

Visitors to the campus of Orland High School (OHS) will never question that they have stepped into a world of the masses: kids, activity, personalities, busyness, and playfulness--a veritable cloud of mild bedlam. The wall of ceramic faces that greets a visitor in the school office is another reminder of the organized chaos that the teachers adore. For years they had a principal who would only allow them to display temporary art in designated locations. No murals were permitted, no matter the quality or the goal. This article describes how students from art classes made the ceramic faces on the wall of OHS. (Contains 1 online resource.)

In this article, the author describes how she introduced an art project to her students that incorporates balance. She relates that she initially allowed brainstorming before they carried on with the project. She states that many rough sketches were done before students were able to figure out the details needed for the success of their project. (Contains 1 online resource.)

Teaching high school students the "grammar" of art--the principles and elements of art and design--while also teaching them about creativity and concept can be difficult. This author has found that combining beginning lessons in line, shape, value, texture, form, and color with projects requiring innovation and inspiration, though challenging, is achievable with experimentation and time. The author describes an activity that encourages students to explore the many varieties of textures in the visual arts, both historical and contemporary, and in their own environment.

The author describes a lesson she did on abstract art with her high school art classes. She passed out a required step-by-step outline of the project process. She asked each of them to look at abstract art. They were to list five or six abstract artists they thought were interesting, narrow their list down to the one most personally intriguing, and do a bit of research, and finally complete a paper in which they included a little biography, information regarding the timely importance of their artist, and short critiques of two artworks they photocopy or print. Their personal critiques were imperative. They structured their final painting to resemble the style of their chosen artist in their final project. A "Web Link" list of web sites related to topics discussed in the article is included.

Lori Stevens teaches in the art department of Orland High School, a small high school of 600 students in Orland, California. Her program includes Art 1, Studio Art, and Advanced Placement all in one room, with one budget, and one teacher. She has been teaching art in this setting for twenty years. This article features a color photo of her class room as well as numerous ways to engage student interest, and keep them eagerly coming into class each day asking "What are we doing today?" She describes a vibrant, stimulating art room as a creative space where teachers care more about kids staying after class to work on their art than how clean the sink is, or the teacher's grade book as being stuffed with sticky notes signed by students who have checked out books and supplies. She further describes her own class room as having a clothesline with socks, scarves, and a hamper full of potential still-life objects, and an inexpensive CD player with CD's of jazz, blues, classical, Celtic, oldies, folk, and Peruvian flute music. Many of the ideas shared in this article, could easily be adapted to add excitement and creative energy to any art class room while keeping budget limitations in mind.