Room for Art

Over the summer I reflected on my favorite lessons and themes of my five years as an art teacher and posted about them to get this blog rolling. I also posted some of my recent printmaking work. Throughout the school year I will update the blog regularly with what students are currently working on, as well as my own art adventures.  So, enjoy a trip down memory lane (I sure did!)…and stay tuned for what is to come.

Shadow Puppetry - 3rd/5th grades. This is always a magical experience for me and the students. These photos are from two different projects we did, one in 3rd grade a few years back and the other in 5th from last year. In 3rd grade, students created environmental parables inspired by the story Flight of the Hummingbird by Haida artist/illustrator MN Yahgulanass. In 5th grade, students wrote “fractured fairy tales” in language arts class and we brought them to life in art class.

Surrealist Collaged Paintings - 7th Grade. Students learned about the Surrealist art movement with focus artists Salvador Dalí and René Magritte. Before the cutting and collaging began, students created a simple painted landscape in tempera paint with a background, middle ground, and foreground and practiced painting these different “grounds” in that order -- back to front. Then it was time to get weird! Students learned about three Surrealist artistic strategies: dislocation, transformation, and juxtaposition. They identified how the Surrealists used them in their work before including examples of each by cutting out images from magazines and placing them in strange, unexpected ways throughout their paintings. Students really let their imaginations run wild - the stranger, the better!

Exploring the Art Elements via Abstract Painting - 7th Grade. In this lesson, students analyzed the abstract paintings of Wassily Kandinsky by breaking them down into the art elements. Then they built the elements up in their own compositions, starting with line paintings in black India ink. As they gradually built in shape, color, value, and even sometimes (the illusion of) form, they became more familiar with how to use paint in different ways. As a follow-up activity, they wrote an essay in which they compared and contrasted their use of the art elements with Kandinsky’s in one of his paintings.

Ukiyo-e Prints - 6th Grade. When students studied Asia in their social studies curriculum, they took a look at Asian art forms in art class. In this printmaking project, the focus was the Ukiyo-e (“floating world”) woodcuts of Katsushika Hokusai. Students examined how he portrayed the natural world and created their own high-contrast compositions. They learned how to transfer their image to “Softcut” rubber blocks, carve them, and finally print them! As an extension to the project, they looked at the art of contemporary Japanese comic artist Yoshitomo Nara and overlayed colorful, comic elements into their prints.

Self-Portrait Prints - 7th/8th Grade. This project started with a selfie, taken on a cell phone or digital camera. Before photographing themselves, students looked at famous photographic portraits and noticed how they used cropping, positive/negative space, body language, lighting, and gaze to create an interesting composition with a particular mood. After looking at and discussing art works with differing degrees of realism and abstraction, students then worked to create several abstractions of their photo using mark making with Sharpie, ink, and cut paper. Once they created a high-contrast image they were pleased with, they transferred the image to a Softcut rubber block and carved it. They then made a series of prints using different colors of ink and paper. 

Imaginative Cityscapes - Kindergarten. To create these colorful cityscapes, the Kindergartners looked at the work of artist and architect Friedrich Hundertwasser. They learned about his connection to nature, they observed his use of line and noticed that he rarely used straight lines, and also the different nature-inspired patterns he used.  Then they created their own mixed media cityscapes, first creating backgrounds using watercolor oil pastel resist, then adding buildings on top. They learned about warm and cool colors along the way, using one color family for their background and the other for their foreground. They used edging scissors to help them use as few straight lines as possible and let their imaginations run wild...some students even made their cities 3-D!

The Self-Portrait as Self-Expression - Kindergarten/4th Grade/5th Grade. The self-portrait can be approached in so many ways, and these three examples show an approach that emphasizes authentic expression over accurate depiction. Kinders read the book I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More, drew themselves big using shapes (no stick people!), and then painted themselves whatever colors they wished. 4th graders chose one line from the “I Am” poems they wrote in their homerooms and illustrated them using mixed media (photos collaged onto an oil pastel/watercolor resist). The 5th graders, inspired by outsider artist Howard Finster, created painted wooden cut-outs that contain text snippets from a “This I Believe” essay they wrote in language arts class. This last project was completed as part of a grant from Intuit's Teacher Fellowship Program.

Two Approaches to Radial Design - 4th/5th Grades. Origami Relief Sculptures and Symbolic Mandalas. In both lessons, students learned about radial symmetry, where there are multiple lines of symmetry radiating out from a central point. They learned that radial symmetry is found in nature and the art of many different cultures. In this first project, each students first became origami experts by learning five different folds. Students also learned what a relief sculpture is before setting out to make their own out of their origamis. They created eight lines of symmetry and a central point by folding their black paper base.  Then they set out to create a unique radial design with their folded papers, combining, layering, and patterning them in interesting ways.  In this second project, students studied symbols of different cultures and created symbols based on the novel Tuck Everlasting that they had just finished in language arts class. Then they took a look at both the form and function of Hindu and Buddhist mandalas. Students used a challenging transfer technique to repeat their design around their circle, first in pencil and finally in watercolor and Sharpie.

Portraits of All Kinds - Kindergarten/1st Grade/2nd Grade/4th Grade/7th Grade. Can you tell I love portraits? I sure do! There are just so many different ways to go about them, so many artists and concepts to learn about, and they can be done in just about any media. I’ll also admit to a personal interest in drawing the human face ever since I can remember. I won’t describe each of these projects in detail, but...the first two portraits are observational self-portraits made by Kindergarten students at the end of the year using mirrors, after they’ve developed their drawing skills throughout the year. The second set of mixed-media self-portraits were “quilt squares for change” inspired by artist Faith Ringgold. The cubist portrait is another 1st grade project, inspired of course by Picasso. As an introduction to a Surrealism unit, 2nd graders looked at the goofy mustache self-portraits of Salvador Dalí and made their own. The 4th graders created portraits not of themselves but of the people they studied for their African-American biography project in social studies class using glue/chalk pastel resist. And finally, the 7th graders created Pop Art self-portraits using the comic book, Ben-day dot technique of Roy Lichtenstein. Whew!

Building A City - 3rd Grade.  Throughout the school year, third graders study their own city, Chicago. In art class, they started out by reading Iggy Peck, Architect, a story about a second grade architect. They started small: each student first designed and constructed a house out of a milk carton. Then, as a group, they discussed what urban planners do and brainstormed about what makes a city safe, happy, and healthy. Each student chose a building to focus on, then designed and built it. They expanded on these skills learned while building their houses using various 3-D paper techniques to add dimension to their buildings. Lastly, students discussed the importance of green spaces in cities, from parks to yards to gardens to sports fields. They then created these too, becoming landscape architects as they worked collaboratively in small groups. These vibrant cities that reflect 3rd graders’ collective vision of what a city should be. Shout-out to Annie Sutula from grad school who gave me this idea during student teaching!

Weaving - 4th Grade/2nd Grade.  Weaving is a great art form to bring into the classroom. Often, I am surprised at the students who excel at weaving -students who struggled through the drawing and painting projects sometimes find their groove in a weaving project. Weaving is also great because there are lots of cross-cultural connections to be made (i.e. Kente cloth of Ghana and Navajo weavings). The circular weaving project, while it took longer than I would have liked, engaged the 4th graders. They made their looms out of wire hangers, strung them with 17 “spokes” like a spider web and then started working their way around over-under-over-under, being careful not to pull too tight! The second project here was completed by 2nd grade. Since about half of my 2nd graders struggle with tying knots, I went knotless! The looms are  four popsicle sticks hot-glued together and then strung with yarn wrapped around the sticks in 6 “warp” yarns. The students wove with "weft” yarns only long enough for one row. This quick project allowed the students to focus on creating patterns and get the hang of weaving without all the stress of knot-tying! Yarn of all sizes and types, ribbon, and cloth strips are all great weaving materials.

Abstract Modernist Sculptures - 7th Grade/8th Grade. This is one of those projects that every student seems to love. Inspired by Modernist sculptors Hans Arp, Henry Moore, Naum Gabo, & Barbara Hepworth, the middle schools explored abstract Modernist sculpture, then tried their hand at making their own. Using a wire hanger armature covered with a nylon, each student created a unique form, then solidified it with white glue and painted it with acrylic paint. Some students carved holes into their pieces before painting them and added other materials such as wire and thread afterwards. There were very few requirements about how to use paint and other materials, so students really personalized their sculptures. As a follow-up activity they were asked to title their piece and describe their artist influences.

Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead - All Grades! Each year I do a few projects in honor of this colorful Mexican holiday. Since this holiday takes place right after Halloween, I use it as an opportunity to contrast the two holidays, which are very different. We often read books, watch video clips, and look at photos of the ceremonies that take place in Mexico. Even though the Day of the Dead art looks bright and fun, it is important for students to understand that this holiday comes out of reverence for the dead and a belief that the spirits come back to the land of the living this one time of year. Included in this photo set are papier-maché & puff paint skulls, or “calaveras”, calaveras prints made from styrofoam blocks, colored, and strung into papel picado, skeletons in motion made from air-dry clay and pipe cleaners, scratchboard calaveras, and cut paper calaveras. Sometimes, if invited, students will choose to honor someone in particular with their project.

My subjects are mostly drawn from the world around me; living beings always seem to find a way into my prints. I often work from photos I have taken and create an image that is my own but still captures the essence of the original subject. I also enjoy creating images for specific purposes, such as the save-the-date and album cover designs.