Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tanna had been putting the finishing touches to a medium station when she saw her students come pouring in and gave each of them a wave and smile on her wave as she sidled up to the front of her classroom to begin.

"Welcome to Art IV and congratulations on all your excellent OWL scores! This year we'll be taking a look into modern art and the different mediums of sculptures. To start that off we'll have a brief look into what that entails.

Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. It begins with the heritage of painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all of whom were essential for the development of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubist Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art world with 'wild', multi-colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism, one of four artistic movements which were named Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism. Now as usual I have photos and painting reproductions along the walls and a few smaller sculptures towards the back but not as much as I would've liked due to how much space the sculpting mediums took up. Though, I can't exactly find myself to feel bad about that funnily enough." Tanna told them all with a conspirator grin and chuckle.

"Much like Modern Art, Sculpture is a wide branch of art encompassing many different kinds of three-dimensional work. They can be designed for outdoor usage in a garden or public display or exclusively for indoors. Artists can make sculptures from anything at hand, including sand, food and recyclables. However the main mediums are:
Clay: a versatile medium in sculpting. It can be the medium to build a finished product, or to make molds for other media. Clay sculptures include small objects that need to be fired in a kiln.
Steel: welded together can create large or small sculptures. Sculptors create public art form steel as well as artistic candle holders and table top displays.
Stone: People have carved stone for centuries to create sculptures. Italian artist Michelangelo chiseled a piece of marble into the 17-foot statue of David.
Wax: Wax museums feature realistic models of famous people created from wax. Beeswax can be carved with the same tools as clay or wood.
Glass: Artists can blow heated glass to create sculptures. Broken shards of glass can also be fused to build sculptures, with or without the addition of other sculpture media.
Ice: Ice carvings can be elaborate pieces of functional art as seen in the ice hotels of Sweden or Quebec. Smaller blocks of ice also become decorative centerpiece sculptures for weddings or other events.
Wood: Artists carve wood into sculptures. Some artists carve exclusively with a chain saw to create elaborate wooden sculptures while others use more precise tools to carve and shape the wood. Wood also often serves as a base for other sculpted material.
Recycled Material: Artists can create assemblage art from discarded materials. Artists have used automobile parts, broken clocks, household items and tools to build sculptures of all sizes.
And finally, Food: Chocolate sculptures are temporary pieces of art that can serve as centerpieces for special events. Food sculptor Jim Victor has used butter, pepperoni, peanut brittle and cheese to create statues.
Now for today I'd like you to take a look around at the different sculptures and mediums I have placed around the classroom and find the one you think you'd most be interested in working with. Also, by the by, I know how much chocolate I have stashed in case anyone decides to get any ideas." Tanna chuckled.

Tanna waited behind her desk reading one of her many art magazines sometimes pausing to write little annotations in the margins. Her eyes strayed towards the picture she kept on her desk of all her boys and her daughter waving over at her from what looked to be a playground. It was so adorable and she was pretty sure she had about a thousand pictures of her family in her office because of it. She loved her job but she hated that she would sometimes meet the little things with her family because of work. She was happy that she could go home on the weekends and she had all summer to make up for it, but it wasn't quite the same. When she looked up and saw that her class was there and waiting she grinned a tad sheepishly and stood up to go over to the board to write, 'Matisse' before turning to face them.

"Hello again class, as routine, we'll have a short go-over of Matisse before going to our art lesson. I think you'll really like this one! But first, Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse mainly known as Henri Matisse or just Matisse. A French artist known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship, he was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.

Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art." As usual, Tanna waited for her students to catch up before moving on to sculpting.

"So for the past few weeks you all have been working hard and diligently with whatever medium you so choose and I'm so happy and excited for all your hard work. And now we've come to the final stretch, the last thing you can add to your artwork: an enchantment. For those of you who haven't completely finished your sculpture or would rather not practice on their artwork, I have plenty of small sculptures you could use for this spellwork." As usual, she had one of her older NEWT students standing near the back awaiting her call and when she smiled and nodded towards them they came to the front while she grabbed a small puppy sculpture and placed it on an empty desk for the class to see. "This spell doesn't require too much wandwork but a lot of concentration so please pay attention to what you're doing. Simply tap the sculpture with your wand saying the words, 'Statua Mobil.'" Tanna looked at her student expectantly and watched them correctly do the spell and clapped happily as the small puppy who blinked slowly then began wagging its tail and pouncing around the desk looking for something to play with. Too precious. "This spell lasts indefinitely so please choose a statue that is non-hazardous and not dangerous to yourself or the rest of the class" She said looking at the puppy who seemed to bark in affirmation of her words. "Great job! Your note is on the desk and your extra credit shall be added by the end of the day." she told her older NEWT student who grinned and nodded before exiting the classroom. "Now that you've seen how it works, go ahead and give it a try. If you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask." Tanna grabbed the tiny puppy statue wondering if her daughter would like it.

Tanna didn't have much to do usually in her higher level classes mainly because so little students actually continued on after their OWL's. It saddened her that so many students would drop her class but on the plus side that did allow her to focus more on her remaining students and encourage their growth. She was sitting at her desk reading over a text she was thinking of having one of her younger years read when she heard laughter and looked up to see Hannah having successfully enchanted an owl with actual glasses perched on his beak. How adorable! She stood up and walked over to the Hufflepuff's desk with a large smile admiring her work in detail as it hobbled about. "Very lovely Miss Grey! I think ten points to Hufflepuff is justice for such a cute creation." the professor awarded her giving the small wooden statue a light pat on its head.

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
"Everything you wants a dream away
We are legends, every day"
That's what she told me

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
"Everything you wants a dream away
Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds"

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
"Everything you wants a dream away
We are legends, every day"
That's what she told me

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
"Everything you wants a dream away
Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds"

Tanna was already in front of the classroom as the students (student) filed in and once she was seated she immediately began write "Pablo Picasso" in her curly script.
"Picasso is quite possibly one of my favorite modern artists as well as one of the most well known and loathe am I to do so, in the interest of time I've shortened the normal lecture down so that we have more time for your sculpting. However, there is the option of an extra credit essay on Pablo Picasso. Extra credit and possibly chocolate will be awarded to all those who turn in something at least two feet in length! Alright, on to the synopsis!

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, also known as Pablo Picasso, was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the Bombing of Guernica by the German and Italian airforces at the behest of the Spanish nationalist government during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in mid-1949. In the 1950s, Picasso's style changed once again, as he took to producing reinterpretations of the art of the great masters. He made a series of works based on Velázquez's painting of Las Meninas. He also based paintings on works by Goya, Poussin, Manet, Courbet and Delacroix. He was commissioned to make a maquette for a huge 50-foot (15 m)-high public sculpture to be built in Chicago, known usually as the Chicago Picasso. He approached the project with a great deal of enthusiasm, designing a sculpture which was ambiguous and somewhat controversial. What the figure represents is not known; it could be a bird, a horse, a woman or a totally abstract shape. The sculpture, one of the most recognisable landmarks in downtown Chicago, was unveiled in 1967. Picasso refused to be paid $100,000 for it, donating it to the people of the city." Tanna had to hold her tongue to stop herself from continuing on about the famous artist and swallowed down her remaining lecture while waiting for her students quills to stop wagging. Only once everyone had stopped did she continue one with the lesson.

"I hope everyone is happy with their chosen medium or mediums, now on to the basics! There are four basic techniques usable by all mediums:
Carving: Carving involves cutting or chipping away a shape from a mass of stone, wood, or other hard material. Carving is a subtractive process whereby material is systematically eliminated from the outside in.
Casting: Sculptures that are cast are made from a material that is melted down—usually a metal—that is then poured into a mold. The mold is allowed to cool, thereby hardening the metal, usually bronze. Casting is an additive process.
Modeling: Modeled sculptures are created when a soft or malleable material (such as clay) is built up (sometimes over an armature) and shaped to create a form. Modeling is an additive process.
Assembling: Sculptors gather and join different materials to create an assembled sculpture. Assembling is an additive process.
Now just like last time there are different stations for the different mediums so start playing around with the items...err, the safer ones I mean. If you're not comfortable with fire or carving just yet I'd move on. Have fun and please don't hesitate to ask questions!