Art in Our School

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post, but I had a good reason. I now have a brand new hip, have recuperated nicely, and am ready to start back with students this week!!! Anyway, I do have a few things to share. First, a little bit about the last project 3rd graders worked on . . .

Around 80 years ago, when our school was built, a frieze depicting Theodore Roosevelt's life was installed outside the door of the main office. That area is now located inside the office, the result of remodeling. We believe the frieze was carved by sculptor, Robert Merrell Gage, who was responsible for quite a few local public works of art, as well as a few national treasures, as well. From 1928 to 1958 when he retired, Gage was the Chairman of  USC's Fine Arts Department.

Third graders explored the frieze, discussing all the details that they found. 

 They helped each other and used crayon to trace over the indentations of the carving, making replicas of some of the items. 

 Then, using centimeter rulers they measured parts of their own drawings and then other parts of the frieze.

I love when students can become actively involved with their surroundings both as artists and researchers. In this case, our research generated a LOT of mathematical comparisons!!

I am thrilled that our students have the opportunity to study and appreciate authentic art in their school environment. We have quite a few murals on campus as well as this frieze, so I am planning to have students explore these, too. More later on this . . .

Papier Mache Leaf Displays - 3 Variations

Remember the papier mache leaves we made the last 2 sessions??
The 3 below were painted using the paintings of Kim MacConnel as inspiration. You can see his work here. I love his abstracts for their colors and patterns!! You can find Parts 1 and 2 of this lesson here and here.

Well, here is Part 3, with 3 ways to display the leaves.

Our first variation is to create sculpture with the leaves. Glue All and clothespins to hold the leaves will work, but a parent or teacher manning hot glue guns at a station for kids to rotate through is faster if you have the man-power. I suppose older kids could be trusted with this step, but it always makes me nervous to put hot glue guns in the hands of children in a classroom.

These are mounted on black illustration board.

Combining the leaves gives students an opportunity to experiment with  "form"

Option #2 is mounting the leaves flat on illustration board (or cardstock) with at least one edge outside the boundary. This provides an opportunity to discuss positive and negative space.

Display Option #3 is to make a mobile. These were hard to photograph showing the dimension, but I think you can get the idea. You can see the hole punched in the leaf with an awl (a metal skewers, too). The leaves are hung with fine monofilament fishing line so it looks like they are falling. One of our science units is "Balance and Motion" and these mobiles give students practice in getting their leaves to balance.

Here are the "MacConnel" leaves hanging from a twig. We have lots of trees with fallen twigs around school, so it is easy to have students go out and find a suitable ones.

This Mondrian inspired mobile is hanging from a small portion cup with 4 holes punched at "12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock. Again, fishing line is tied on the line and in the punched holes in the cup. You can see the close up below.

This last example is a combinaton of sponge painted leaves and leaves painted with colors to match famous artists' works.

Most of these leaves were painted with acrylic so they have some shine. If you use a more matte finish, you might spray the leaves with a shiny glaze before the final assembly.

My original thought was to do class mobiles -- large affairs with kids hanging their all their leaves from one large branch -- but that's not going to happen this hear.
Happy papier macheing!!!

Frank Stella - like Abstract Collage Results

Here are a few of our 5th graders' finished 3-D collages. I wrote about the lesson here last week.

Students first made 3 crayon patterns using complementary colors on paper they had cut to whatever shape they wanted to paint on (following Frank Stella's advice to "Make what you want to paint on.")

They glued them on a piece of 8" X 10" foam core and used water colors to "extend" their patterns onto the background.

One boy wanted to extend his pattern around the corners onto the sides -- GREAT idea!!

A few are on display in the classroom, but the rest will be posted in the Auditorium for all to see. The pieces stick out too far for me to mount them on our glass display boards.

 Students found the brush control necessary to paint some of these more intricate designs pretty challenging. I am trying to decide whether to display them as separate entities or....

push them together like this (above) and make a more collaborative display.

I am kind of liking this "together" idea. I can have the kids work together to find sets where the colors from one piece merge with the same colors on another piece -- like the orange/blue sections above. What would you do???

Frank Stella: "Make what you want to paint on."

Using the dimensional art of Frank Stella and this great little video clip of the artist explaining how he began creating the shapes of his "canvases" (click here for video), our 5th graders set out to make the shapes that they were going to use to make their art on.

Everyone started with a rectangle of white drawing paper. They were to make 2 cuts (one long and one shorter) to create 3 interesting shapes to design. I asked that they either make 2 straight cuts, or 2 curvy cuts -- but not to mix them.

Next, after reviewing what complementary colors were, and why artists often use them together (for contrast), I asked students to design each of their pieces using 2 complementary colors or black and white.

The next step was to glue the pieces on a piece of foam core board (paper would work, too) manipulating them to stick out from the board and off the board, too, if they wished.

Here are a few that are drying.

Next week we will be using watercolor to extend each of their designs onto the boards.  This part of the lesson will focus on trying to match the colors using a different media and brush control.

For this piece the background is done with watercolor and we can talk about the fluidity of the paint vs. the more solid feel of the dry medium.

This background is done with pencil as the 2nd medium. It presents the opportunity to discuss different gradations of color.

Here is another sample that varies from the complementary color requirement. It also has black crayon lines defining the designs, which makes it easier to paint without the colors running into each other. This would be good for emphasizing repetition of color, line direction, etc.

I originally saw this project done at Whittier International Arts Program using oil pastels and watercolor and more than 3 or 4 pieces of designed papers. The results were fabulous (but, unfortunately would take more time than we have allotted.) Please check out their results here.

I'll post our results next week. I can't wait to see them!!!!!!

3-D Mondrian Sculpture

I'm sure we all have "great" project ideas that we end up not using for one reason or another. Well, this was one of those that turned out taking too many sessions (four -- because of drying time!!) for me to be able to use with my fifth grade groups at school, but I thought I would share because it might be fun for someone else with more time than I have to try.

The supplies are minimal, 2 sheets of newspaper for each "ring, newspaper strips, paper mache paste (I used a mixture of flour and water because it's inexpensive and works just fine), gesso and acrylic paint.

First, I rolled 2 sheets of newspaper diagonally and tucked the ends together to form a ring. I made 2 rings, bent them into interesting forms and paper mached them. Once they were each covered with wet strips, I laid one on top of the other and paper mached the "joints" so the two would dry stuck together.

I always have kids paper mache on a plastic plate or a meat tray  because it makes storing and carrying easier.

When the structure was dry, I painted it with white gesso.

When the gesso layer had dried, using images of Mondrian's Compositions and Frank Lloyd Wright's window designs, I painted the black lines.

The last step was to add small blocks of primary colors to some of the areas created by the black lines, leaving most of the sculpture white. Voila!!

This is a great project for kids to do at home!!! It provides opportunities to discuss color(primary colors and balance of color), line, shape, form, balance and repetition.

A Red, White and Blue Friend

Last week I was pondering how to replicate the art mask given to me by a friend to use as a classroom project. I had thought I would use plaster cloth like the original but try a different sort of hair.

Instead of the plaster cloth, I tried a paper mache version, molding 2-3 layers of newspaper over an upside down bowl. I lined the bowl shape with foil first so I could lift it off the mold easily. When it was dry, I cut around the base to even everything. You could leave the foil on the inside for stability, but I pealed it off and that worked fine, too. Then I painted the whole "dome" with a layer of Gesso.

Instead of shells for the spiky hair, I rolled triangles of magazine paper to make long paper beads (like we used to make for necklaces in Crafts classes as a kid).

 I found I actually liked the paper mache better than plaster for classroom use because it was easier to poke holes to insert the hair. I just used a push pin (you can see it on the lower right), poked a hole and then wiggled it around a little to make the hole large enough for the end of the paper bead to go through.

For the eyes I ended up tying a piece of black perle cotton (like sewing thread, only thicker -- but not as thick as string) criss-crossed - like you were tying a package around each seed pod. I poked holes in the mask, inserted the threads and tied them together on the inside. Then I secured the perle cotton on the inside with a piece of duct tape. You can kind of see the inside in this next photo.

I also liberally applied glue to the inside of the hair spikes. I started using Glue All, and it probably would have worked, but then decided to take Phyl's advice (see last post comment) and used Tacky Glue, too. I also put some Tacky Glue under each seed pod eye so they wouldn't wobble around.

For the color,  I used red acrylic, watered down a bit so I'd get some texture and variation of color. When I had glued all the hair spikes and eyes, the last step was to paint the blue designs. I use acrylics for this step, too.

I love having time during the summer to try things out. To be honest, this was fun to make, BUT I don't think I'll be using it in the classroom because of all the various steps of drying time. All in all, it took 6 different days just to dry, plus the painting and bead-making steps!! GREAT for a "do at home" project with the kids, but it won't work in the classroom setting I have. It also takes a bit of patience and dexterity, so I  probably wouldn't do it with grades younger than 4th.

Speaking of 4th, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY everyone!!! I'm now off to bake dessert for our yearly barbecue!!

Crazy Face

Years ago a good friend gave me this little guy saying she just knew I could use it as inspiration for an art lesson someday.  It still hangs over my desk, staring at me, and I think challenging me to do just that. I remember attempting it once with a class and not being too happy with the results, but now I am giving it thought again. (I wish I knew who the artist was because I'd love to give her or him the credit due for such a great idea.)

I am thinking about using squares of pre-cut plaster cloth shaped around small bowls lined with foil for the armatures. Acrylic paints, thinned slightly, will be perfect for a variety of surface designs. I don't have access to the thousand or so shells it would take to do the hair this way, so I am thinking of various pasta maybe. We have trees right at our school that shed these same pods, so that will be no problem at all. I don't want to have to use the glue gun, so I am hoping that my trusty Elmer's Glue All will do the trick. I'll let you know how it all works out, but meanwhile you might want to use this idea as inspiration and try an adaptation of your own!!

Sweet Tweets!!

1st graders finished up their Calder-inspired, rocking birds this week. Here are a few:

I posted the whole lesson earlier in the week HERE and HERE.

One little disclaimer. Attaching the wire was WAY too hard for my classes (25ish in a group) to do on their own and have them not wobble. Fortunately, I discovered this before we started, so guess who spent an evening in front of the TV twisting wires and applying a bit of masking tape to cover the sharp end?!! Not really as bad as it sounds:))

I also cautioned kids to pinch the blue spot with one hand when they moved the wire neck with the other (if they had to move the neck, that is). That kept the neck from wobbling.  These turned out pretty cute, but if I were to do it again, I'd allow time enough for the kids to make feathers come out of the top of the heads:))

Calder with 1st Graders

I have definitely been on a "Calder kick" this year after seeing a great exhibition last summer in Newport Beach. This week, after seeing a brief clip of a video on Discovery Education explaining how Calder (at age 8) made his first animals as a gift for his parents, first graders will be creating their own kinetic (moving) bird sculpture.
My sample:

Here's the plan:

Each child gets a pre-cut circle (about 3" diameter) folded in half for the body, which will rock. These were from old wall art calendars that I have  a LOT of. This was a good way to make use of them. They also get a piece of galvanized steel wire, 24 guage (about 7 inch length), a small piece of folded copy paper (1  1/2 inches by 2") for the head, and a 4 1/2" X 2 1/2" piece of copy paper for the tail feathers. This may sound like a lot of preparation, but it really didn't take too long.

Students insert the wire from the underneath side and twist the wire til it holds. I pre-bent the wire at the point where it needs to bend back towards the neck. I anticipated kids having trouble knowing how much wire to leave for the twisty part. Frankly, I am a bit anxious about that twisting, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that most of them will be able to do it without help:))

Once the neck is assembled, we draw the head on one side of the fold and cut it out. Then they can draw a matching head on the other side. The bottom part above is the fold line. That is where the wire will be sandwiched when we glue

The tail feathers are pretty straightforward. Students  color...

fold into narrow strips, cut a point on one side and then cut apart on the fold lines.

The head gets glued first. Notice that it faces the body. This is important when adjusting for the balance point as kids glue tail feathers.

Tail feathers are glued last, making adjustments in the neck for balance.

I'll take photos of the kids at work so you can see if this all works!!