Blogs

Curator's Corner

Muthanna: Calligraphic Mirror Writing

Monday, January 31, 2022 | Karl Cole

I’m celebrating two national days today with this beautiful calligraphy—National Backward Day and National Inspire your Heart with Art Day. What better way than with an image of calligraph ...

Read More
Podcast

Episode 46: Helping Students Connect Self, Community, and World

Monday, January 31, 2022 | Laura and Matt Grundler

If you’ve been teaching for longer than a week you know each class has its own collective identity. What works for first period may not work for third period. Each student brings their own piece ...

Read More
Curator's Corner

Possibilities of Paper: Kim Hyung Joo

Monday, January 24, 2022 | Karl Cole

Contemporary interdisciplinary artist Kim Hyung Joo explores Korean culture in her artworks, including through papermaking and fiber arts. Means of communicating culture, such as traditional clothing ...

Read More
Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Classic Maya, Jaina Island

Tuesday, January 18, 2022 | Karl Cole

Classic refers to something that, over time, has been judged to be outstanding and of the highest quality of its kind. That would certainly be a good way to describe the magnificent Maya culture in Me ...

Read More
Article

Editor’s Letter: Mark Making

Monday, January 10, 2022 | Nancy Walkup

Mark making is a universal experience, practiced by people across time and around the world. Whether marks appear as lines pressed into wet clay, crayon scribbles on a wall, drawings in sand with a st ...

Read More
Article

Kindergarten Marks

Monday, January 10, 2022 | Craig Hinshaw

With a purple crayon in hand and a four-year-old’s imagination, Harold creates an alternate reality that includes a frightening dragon, a picnic lunch with nine kinds of pie, and more. Harold en ...

Read More
Article

Expressive Stick Drawings

Monday, January 10, 2022 | Sherry White

Drawing Stick Monday has become a tradition that my previous students talk about, new students ask about, and other students watch with wonder. It’s all about expressive mark making and drawing ...

Read More
Article

It's All about the Tubmans

Monday, January 10, 2022 | Rama Hughes

For our art activity in 2021, I prepared a list of important people from Black history. Each student took a turn picking a name from the list. I asked them to choose a name they didn’t recognize ...

Read More
Article

Fingerprint Portraits

Monday, January 10, 2022 | Kathleen Sneed Petka

One lesson that really pushes students out of their comfort zones is finger-painted portraits. It’s a fun way for students to get loose and relax because they have to get a little messy and don& ...

Read More
Curator's Corner

Remembering Wayne Thiebaud

Monday, January 10, 2022 | Karl Cole

We lost a truly unique artist this past December 25th. I associate Wayne Thiebaud more with New Realism of the 1960s, but he has been inexorably linked to Pop Art in many Western art history texts. Re ...

Read More
Curator's Corner

Peace for the New Year

Monday, January 3, 2022 | Karl Cole

The last couple of years have been rather stressful for all of us, I would imagine, what with the pandemic and all its consequences. When I’m stressed out, I tend to want to look at art; the mor ...

Read More
Curator's Corner

HIV/AIDS Awareness Month: Keith Haring

Monday, December 20, 2021 | Karl Cole

During the 1980s AIDS epidemic, LGBTQ+ subject matter in art became more mainstream. The acceptance of such subject matter faced backlash, but the movement has endured into the 2000s. Indeed ...

Read More
Curator's Corner

HIV/AIDS Awareness Month: Donald Moffett

Monday, December 13, 2021 | Karl Cole

Let’s commemorate the beginning of HIV/AIDS Awareness Month with the work of AIDS activist artist Donald Moffett. His artwork He Kills Me sums up how the first years of the epidemic went and why ...

Read More
Article

Surrealist Playtime

Wednesday, December 8, 2021 | John Purcell

My students love surrealism. When I showed them the art of Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, their imaginations soared. They loved the silliness and the dreamlike bending of reality. It m ...

Read More
Article

Prime Time Televisions

Wednesday, December 8, 2021 | Meighan Healey

My objective for this lesson was for students to each construct a 3D television in a pop art style. Students had to include a self-portrait and demonstrate their understanding of background, middle gr ...

Read More
Article

Bringing Play into the Art Room

Wednesday, December 8, 2021 | Keri Reynolds

I felt that my high-school students really needed a change from the tedium and monotony of their daily school schedules. I wanted to come up with a lesson that would give students a chance to unwind a ...

Read More

Always Stay in the Loop.

Want to know what’s new from Davis? Subscribe to our mailing list for periodic updates on new products, contests, free stuff, and great content.

Back to top