"Images of Arlington" art exhibit at the Arlington Center for the Arts
***The following letter was sent home with the fifth graders about this exhibit. Please take the time to read as all Arlington fifth graders are involved in this art show.***

Dear Arlington 5th graders and families,
We are so pleased to welcome you to the 5th annual “Images of Arlington” art exhibit!
All Arlington 5th graders will be creating their own unique “Images of Arlington” in their art classes at school. ALL the students’ artwork will be on display at the Arlington Center for the Arts from March 29 through May 16, 2010. We look forward to exhibiting your artwork and seeing you here for a fun celebration of your artwork and our town! Your art teachers will explain the Images of Arlington project in class. Our hope is that each of you will think of something special about Arlington that you will share with our community.

YOU’RE INVITED! Please join us for a special exhibit of ALL the students’ artwork:
Images of Arlington Art Exhibit Sunday, May 16, 2-4pm Arlington Center for the Arts 41 Foster Street
We look forward to seeing you on May 16 for a wonderful celebration of all the children’s artwork! Refreshments will be served.

IN RECOGNITION OF OUTSTANDING WORK, ACA will select one artwork from each class which will be published in the Arlington Advocate. In addition, ACA will award special honorable mention to other outstanding artworks, which will be featured online at ACA’s website, acarts.org.

Winning Artwork will be selected based on:
1. ORIGINALITY (depicting a place in Arlington and making it “your own” through creative
use of materials or point of view)
2. SKILL (demonstrating a high level of accuracy in drawing – for example, using perspective
and proportion in a drawing of architecture)
3. EFFORT (demonstrating that the artist really cared about doing a careful, well-thought-out job)
4. CHOICE OF SUBJECT (capturing something unique about Arlington or presenting a familiar
Arlington landmark in a unique way).
ARLINGTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS 41 Foster Street, Arlington MA 02474 www.acarts.org | (781) 648-6220




Kinoptic Suns and Moons

The fifth grade students created kinoptic art of suns and moons using watercolor pencils based on the sun and moon art of the Aztecs. The Aztec people worshipped various gods, including the sun god and moon god, and had beautiful and intricate artwork based on them. The students observed and discussed the ancient Aztec Sun Stone Calendar and other Aztec sun and moon images.

Kinoptic art is art that tricks the eye and is achieved when two images are created in one artwork and can be seen at two different angles. When one views the right side of the artwork, only the first image is seen, however when the left side of the artwork is viewed, one can only see the second image.

After a demonstration, the fifth graders were asked to create their own kinoptic art using mostly warm colors for the sun and cool colors for the moon. Warm colors are the colors on the color wheel that range from red to orange to yellow, while cool colors range from blue-green to blue to purple.
    
These artworks were created by drawing the pictures of the suns and moons, cutting them into one inch strips and gluing alternating strips of each image onto oak tag. Finally, the oak tag was folded using an “accordion fold.” The resulting artwork is definitely fun to view!

Aztec Sun Stone Calendar
(lesson visual)