Grade 8

2019-2020

KEEP CALM & CARRY ON

You have probably seen this poster before. It has become one of the most successful memes in history. But, do you know the history behind the poster and the meme?

During WWII the British Government's Ministry of Information had this poster, as well as two others, created as "morale boosters". The "KEEP CALM and CARRY ON" poster was the third poster in the series and was never "officially seen by the public".

Here is a link to a video about the poster - the origins and how it was eventually rediscovered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI&feature=emb_logo

McCarthy's example

grade 8 assignment

Grade 8 Students were asked to watch the video and read an article about the history of the "Keep Calm" poster. They were then asked to consider how art is often a historical representation of a specific time and place and why this poster is memorable. With these ideas in mind, the students designed their own "Keep Calm" poster that represents our current historical time.

Artist’s Statement:

I began my “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster in Google slides by first beginning a new project, then selecting a background color for the slide, which would later become my poster. My inspiration for my poster to be about turkey hunting came from me trying it for the first time just a few days ago, and having only been a deer hunter in the past, it was a new, entertaining experience, as well as something distracting from the insanity of staying at home for months on end.I wanted the color to be bold, but also relate to the subject at hand: turkey hunting. So, I went with the orange because it is often associated with hunters, specifically their outfits, plus happens to be symbolic of the emotions of joy and enthusiasm. Many people (including myself) have found hunting to be a nice way to get out of the house and enjoy nature during the current pandemic quarantine, so I found the color symbolism to also be a pleasant coincidence. This also relates back to the origins of the “Keep Calm. . .” posters, which revolve around finding light in a tough time, as they did in WWII, and now in the age of COVID-19. To make an analogy of it, turkey hunting is to COVID-19 as “Carrying On” was to WWII. The phrase I chose for the poster seemed to simply pop into my head, so that was a success for me. I wrote it in brown, so that it would stand out while also connecting to the natural side of hunting. One temporary roadblock I did face was finding a suiting image to go above the text. I originally used realistic photographs, but then decided it diverted attention too much from the text. This led to me selecting a silhouette. In the future, if I am to make another “Keep Calm. . .” poster, I will most likely search for silhouette images right off the bat because I learned that in this area of art, simplicity is key. My favorite aspect of this piece is probably the font, because it is fun, youthful-looking, and seems to bounce off of the page.

For this piece of art I remembered mother's day was coming up so why not kill two birds with one stone. I thought this was a fun simple task and I enjoyed making it.

To make my “Keep Calm poster” I used google drawings. I had a challenge of coming up with the quote that had not already been used. I wanted to say something about keeping distance but there are a lot of quotes about that already. So I added something about not getting the coronavirus in my quote and also looked it up and it doesn’t look like it has been said before. I don’t think I would change anything, I’m proud of my work. My inspiration was to make a quote that was not used before and hope people might use it. I was proud that I was able to come up with this.

How I made this piece keep calm and keep a little light in your light, was by first finding what I wanted to say and going through my options. Then I picked a photo that I thought represented what I said and that was sunflowers. I always see sunflowers as a bright and colorful flower and thought it represented what I said very well. I didn't have very many challenges on making it set finding sunflower symbols. if I were to do it again I think I would want to explore different background choices. My inspiration was the fact that in this scary time we forget to look at the happiness that is still in our lives. I am proud of what I accomplished overall and the fact that I got to learn how to use google drawings better.

I made it with google drawing. The challenges that I came across were to come up with the wording. If I was to do it again I would try to draw it by hand.

I made this using my sisters notebook and markers. Something I would change would be to make it cleaner, it's a little messy. A challenge was trying to make the letters neat. My inspiration is the media. This is the message I hear every time I turn on the news. I am proud that I did it with only three materials.

I made my poster by creating a drawing, writing the text, and choosing what colors I wanted using the ‘Drawing’ feature under the ‘Insert’ tab in Google Docs. The main challenge I had while making my poster was figuring out how to get the colors to work for both the text and the background. If I were to make another poster, I would try to add details other than just text. I tried to do it this time, but I couldn’t figure it out, and I had lots of other school work to finish. What inspired me to write these words is that so many people in the world are trying to be like other people and not themselves. I think it’s important, especially in the crisis we are in now, that we should all be focused on being ourselves and not trying to be like someone else. What I like the most about my poster is the contrast of the yellow words with the black background. I never knew that yellow went with black as good as it does until I played around with the colors for a little while. The thing I am most proud of is the message I wrote, and I think it could mean a lot to others if they saw my poster.

For my KEEP CALM and CARRY ON art poster, I decided to go with “KEEP CALM and get you NETFLIX on.” A lot of people are under tremendous amounts of stress during this time and watching your favorite TV show or Movie helps lower that stress. Even Trying to find something new to watch can help take your mind off of it or other things. I took a red piece of paper, a pencil and sketched out the words. I painted over the words with some white paint and I think it came out pretty good. One of the struggles I ran into was painting the words because some were so small. If I was to do it all over again I would make it on a bigger piece of paper. I am very proud of the N at the top of the poster because it looks just like the NETFLIX logo.

Artist's statement

For this project I started out by taking two pieces of paper one red, for the background color, and the other white, for the words. Then I took about thirty minutes to cut out all the letters and glue them to the paper. Then I cut a circle out, colored it to look like the cause of this historic event, and put it on the top where the crown was. Which it got its name from. A challenge with this was that my first draft I chose to write the letters on a white piece of paper, and then realized that I would have to color the whole thing. So I restarted on a red piece of paper and chose to cut out the letters instead. If I were to change something about this project it would be to make the letters neater and more proportional to each other. The inspiration that I got to make this project was to make it about something going on in my life or in others lives. I am proud of how in the end it all came together which was my main goal.

I wanted to make something that relates to the times that we’re in so that's where I got my inspiration.

I went on google docs and made a color background and then wrote what i wanted to write and found a picture of a cat and put it in the doc. My cats are quite nice and i love them. Thats why i chose keep calm and get a cat.

I created this piece in drawings. I started by choosing what I wanted my poster to be about, I picked one of my all time favorite shows, Supernatural. My favorite character is castiel (cass for short). I had an issue with a photo I wanted to put in, the background of the photo was white while the one in my poster was red and black so it didn't fit. I am really happy with the background color but if I could change anything it would be the lack of a photo.

Title of Work: Gain Weight and Forget About It

When making this art I had a challenge of thinking of what to do, how to do it, and how to follow the rules and do it. I thought when making this art that almost everyone that is in lock down gained some weight so why not make a “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON” poster (plus it is the assignment). I thought of an idea. Choose a funny background, thanks ---. As well as making a cupcake topper, literally, and thanks, again, ---.

I have made my own version of the “keep calm and carry on” poster it represents… the historical time we are living in right now. I think the best thing everyone can keep reminding themself is to “keep calm and stay strong” to take care of them self and others.

My inspiration for this idea came from when I was reading the task my mind went to what I have been doing alot of the time as we have been home. I am always going for a walk with my puppy (Brody) . He is only 7 months old so he has a lot of energy and gets into things but after causing lots of mischief he falls asleep next to me as I work on my school work. So in these hard times I have had him right there so I think keeping calm and playing with your pets can help you through it. I made my poster with paper, pencil, sharpie, and paint. The most challenging part was the letters because i hate my big writing so i had to do them over and over again until i was ok with them. Next time I might try different colors or even a different way of saying what I wanted to say because I had two ideas. I'm proud of the outcome. I thought it turned out nice.

student work

Dilations & Relief Sculpture

Having learned about dilations in math, students then learned about dilations in art. Most often dilating a shape is seen when creating perspective. However, for this project students created a relief sculpture by using a shape that they dilated a few times.

A lovely digression.

Members of the Mochida Family. Havard, CA, 1942 Photograph by Dorothea Lange

Documenting History

National Core Art Standard

Anchor Standard 11: Relate artistic ideas and words with societal, cultural, and historical content to deepen understanding.

Enduring Understanding:

People develop ideas and understandings of society, culture and history through their interaction with and analysis of art.

The visual arts play a huge part in both the documentation and our understanding of history. Photography, as it has evolved, allows for almost instantaneous sharing of an image. This has had a huge impact on how we learn about current events. Photography has become pivotal to our understanding of times, places, and people.

Dorothea Lange, arguably one of the most famous U.S. photographers, and her work have had lasting impacts on the world of photography as well as our history. “During World War II, Lange turned her camera to the conflict’s impact on Americans. Some of her most affecting images are of the Japanese Americans sent to internment camps in 1941, after Executive Order 9066 and subsequent orders authorized their imprisonment. Lange had been hired by the War Relocation Authority to document the internment, but the photographs were withheld from circulation. ‘They had wanted a record,’ Lange later recalled, ‘but not a public record’” (2020, https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/245).

Manzanar Relocation Camp, CA, 1942. Making nets for the War Department

Pledge of Allegiance, San Francisco, CA 1942

Manzanar, CA. 1942Dust Storm

Oakland, CA, 1942

All photographs by Dorothea Lange

https://anchoreditions.com/blog/dorothea-lange-censored-photographs

Documenting OUR History

Students were asked to watch the two videos (linked here) :https://vermont.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/lang14.soc.ushist.intern/picturing-japanese-american-internment-dorothea-lange/

....and to consider a few questions such as:

What do you notice about Lange’s photographs? How do you think the people in these photos felt and why? What can we learn about this time in our history (1942/WWII) by looking closely at these photographs? Why were Lange’s photographs controversial?

Students were then asked to think about how they could create a visual representation of our current time. What they want future generations to know. How has this moment in time affected them, their family, their school, the greater community, the country, or the world?

These students, once again, created thoughtful, powerful and personal work. Following are some examples of their work.

I chose to do this because it is important to stay 6 feet apart right now. I searched on google for some ideas and I came across one similar to this and changed it a little, so I wasn’t coping. I want people to take away from this and remember it is important to do so, so we won’t be in this pandemic forever. I put people in this to show that everyone should be keeping distance. I am very proud of what I did and I surprisingly did not have any challenges. I’m proud of the people I drew, they are not the best but certainly not the worst.

Right now there are alot of people who are scared, this makes them act in different ways than they normally would. In my picture it is two girls, one covering her cough and the other freaking out and spraying dis-infectant at her. This is supposed to represent how we handle simple situations, instead of putting on a face mask and staying 6 feet apart from each other she freaks out.

My work I want to represent some of the things I and people I know have lost during this time.

I don’t know how but I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to do an eye of some sort with hands looking like they were stuck because we may look like we're happy and fine but on the inside everyone is all alone and secluded and are desperately trying to get out. I created this piece out of a few different graphite pencils, a black gel pen, and a teal colored pencil.

I chose to make it the way it is because it looks like a happy picture but then when you think about it, it has a bit more meaning behind it. For this project I just used paint and different sized brushes, I also used tape for the straight lines. Something I want people to know is that we are all going through this together. A challenge I came across was making the paint thick enough and having to put on multiple coats without ruining the painting. But the thing I am most proud of is the lines of the house and how straight they came out.

Safer at work

I chose to do a collage representing jobs that people do wearing masks. With the current situation going on, it feels like people aren’t safe anywhere including at home. I found these pictures on the internet, printed them out, and arranged them the way I did to balance out the colors and to create effective contrast. I decided to outline each picture with black marker to make each picture POP! The thing I want people to take away from looking at this collage is that as unsafe as we may feel in our daily lives, even when we are at home, there are people facing far greater risks at work. I chose these pictures because they were all similar in size, had great color, and illustrated many types of dangerous jobs. The biggest challenge I faced was getting the pictures to print in the right size. I am most proud of the balance and contrast of the colors.

I took a picture of me in a mask, representing corona virus and Silence = Violence on my forehead and “Which knee bothers you more?” written on my hand. I wrote these about the current situation that has arisen with the death of George Floyd. I usually don’t condone kneeling for the national anthem, but the message Colin Kaepernick was trying to get across is that there is still racism circulating, but no one is doing anything about it. The Irony is that George Floyd was killed by a cop kneeling on his neck. A challenge I faced was writing that on my forehead in the mirror. I’m proud of the way my hand is somewhat darker than my face, kind of like a lingering question.

“Life of a Face Mask”
Here I sit upon your noseSeeing all there is to seeReaching arms around your earsThere’s no place I’d rather beBut being a mask isn’t always so easy, you seeTugged, yanked, and moved all aboutBreathing in each cough and sneezeInside of here it’s scorchingWithout a nice summer’s breezeI’m the walls of a steam sauna, a sauna of your disease Quite tired of this, I amWatching meetings every hourDrone on from your computerOh, and PLEASE TAKE A SHOWEREnduring such days like mine, you’d see why I’m so sourYou smudge me with your makeup Foundation, blush, and lipstickYou want to sip your coffee? The vile stench makes me so sick!Every night I pray that the next morn’s day will go by quickDespite all of my complaintsMy quite dramatic displayDon’t take my whining to heartFor after all, my greatest payIs taking pride in keeping everyone out of harm’s way.

In this piece, I chose to create an image that displayed realism, and incorporated modern still life. I found the “still life” aspect to be befitting to the times, as it elucidates to the way time has seemingly stopped as we work within our homes and refrain from socializing for months on end. I began by setting up a scene on my desk using objects I had in my own home. The focal point, I decided, had to be the computer because it would show how much our society is relying on technology during these times. Next, I placed a medical face mask by the computer because they are among a few prominent objects during this pandemic that I believe future generations will associate with the year 2020. Face masks are one of the most visually evident alterations COVID-19 has placed upon our world. Along with the mask, I set up a glass of water that would stand for the vitality we seek to protect by listening to the government and following the stay-at-home order, as well as the blandness that comes along with it. I left the lamp set up on my desk, offering some form of normalcy to the image. I took a picture of the scene to use as my reference. Using a mechanical pencil, I roughly drew the outline of the desk, the objects atop it, as well as my window. I also added a calendar hanging from the window. Next, I took my time shading the base of the lamp and utilized my knowledge of value to show where light from the window hit my lamp. Then, I moved on to the computer, and drew a Zoom meeting happening from the screen, because that is how many people across the globe have been spending their days: in Zoom meetings. After completing the calendar, window, and glass of water, I tested out a couple of blue colored pencils to see which ones would best match the color of the mask in the photo I took. In places where the mask was folded, I increased the pressure of how hard I was coloring. One of the final steps was to shade my desk. My biggest challenge in making the artwork was figuring out the very premise of my idea. Unlike Dorothea Lange, I am not in an area where I could photograph other people going through tough times (in hospitals, out on the streets, etc.) and I struggled to come up with a concept that would catch a viewer’s eye and be interesting. I did not know exactly how to show the situation, because I thought, “It feels like all I do is sit at my computer all day!” So, that’s exactly what I decided to display in my artwork. A success in making this art was having the slight splashes of color (done with Arteza brush pens) pop out from the page. I am most proud of the way I incorporated the blue, green, and red to draw attention to the three main aspects of my art. The blue makes eyes shoot to the mask, the red puts focus on the calendar, something that would otherwise be looked over. I like the way I showed the times even down to the subtlety of the calendar, where I revealed events being crossed out from COVID-19 cancellations, like on my own calendar. Then, the dot of green from the light on the computer adds to how components related to the virus stand out above all else in the art, similar to the bigger picture of current life. Proceeding my “completion” of the piece, another idea popped into my head to include another feature of the times: an iPhone next to the computer with a tweet from President Trump popping up on the screen. In future, I may add this. Overall, I am happy with the final product of my “Documenting History” assignment.

Lyrics To My Song:

What do I need to remember this time by

Is it a picture or a few left dried

And if I freeze these will my life go by my eyes Just making my time capsule of surprise

my time capsule of surprise

Time Capsule Art Finale:For my final project I decided to make a time capsule. In the time capsule I put some flowers to represent a certain happiness that's come from this time. I think that now we as a whole will be safer and more prepared for other situations like the one we’re in right now. The next thing I put in was a picture of me and my friend from a photo both to show how that has been affected and that we have been closed off from each other because of covid-19. I also put in a pin from my First Night performance this year with the kingdom all stars because I can’t play with them right now and I miss playing music with other people. I included a barnet bracelet to show that school has been affected and also I put in pencils to show that I have been able to spend more time writing and drawing because of this situation. I put everything in this coffee container with a note and am planning to dig a hole and bury it. The only challenge I can think of when making my time capsule was the fact that finding a container was proven difficult, but I was able to find this and hopefully it will stay together. I am proud of the thought I put into my project and into each of the objects I chose. I chose to make a time capsule because I’ve been wanting to for a long time and I thought this was a great opportunity. In the end I want people to take away the “flowers” of our situation and make the best of what we have been given.

I chose to draw this drawing because it represents kids in middle school and highschool who are having a hard time with online school and can’t focus. Which is pretty what is happening. I chose to just draw with a pencil because it was something that is simple but meaningful to me. A challenge for me was deciding to draw a man or woman. It was very difficult to draw the eyes and face so I left the eyes but it makes him a little mysterious too. And one thing I am proud of is how the sweat pants look.

I chose to make my work like an empty roll of toilet paper because everyone is taking toilet paper, so an empty toilet roll for many is an infection or not. I used a black sharpie, a black pen, a brown crayon, the edge of a tissue box, and a pencil plus a piece of paper. I want people to laugh even in dark times as well simplicity is sometimes the key. One and probably the only challenge is finding materials. I am proud that I actually did that.

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