Expression through Art is PERFECTION

Aboriginal Australian Dot Paintings

Dot paintings of the Australian Aboriginal desert peoples are often called sand paintings. This reference stems from their genesis in ground paintings that are created by clans as they move from place to place in the desert. The clan gathers around a central site, which is cleared so that "paintings" can be created using seeds, flowers, sand, stones, feathers, and other natural substances. The clan elders sing their way through the painting process, imparting tribal knowledge to younger members of the clan. The various symbols are explained and interpreted as lessons in the clan's history and heritage, its creation story, and the location of sacred sites, food sources, and water holes.

Today, these designs are painted on art board and canvas for sale to the outside world. While the precise meanngs of the designs are usually unclear to outsiders, they have deep cultural significance to clan members. Details usually are not revealed to anyone outside the clan. Even then, only males who 'graduate' to high rank in the clan learn the full menaing of the designs.

Mexican Folk Art

In this lesson we're covering bark paintings, ceramics, Oaxacan wood carvings, Day of the Dead (dia de las muertes), serapes and huichol yarn painting. The production is a bit daunting for younger children. The adults testing this out were a bit tested as we attempted to make sharp corners out of yarn.  We're opting to purchase wikistiks or Bendaroos for the younger ones to allow them to have more success.

The goal is to teach them about warm and cool colors as well as the entire Mexican folk art culture and traditions.  We don't need them melting down over glue on their fingers and yarn that won't stay put.

Download folkart-k-2-001.pdf (1337.7K)

Download folkart-3-5-001.pdf (1337.7K)

 

 

Mary Cassatt 1844 - 1926

"I have touched with a sense of art some people - they felt the love and the life.  Can you offer me anything to compare to that joy for an artist?" - Mary Cassatt.

The production involves watercolor, colored pencils, crayons or pastels.  Students will be making a small frame using the colors in the color wheel in order by blending. Start with the three primaries and make the three secondary colors for the frame. 

Part II:  students will draw a genre scene (every day life happening) and mount it on the rainbow frame.

Here are the links:  PDF of the script for  3 - 5  PDF of the scirpt for K-2

Please read through the scirpts.  There is something different - you are to be a sort of "mad scientist" before the slide show giving them the basics of mixing primary colors to create secondary colors.  The questions in the lesson will make more sense to them with this activity ahead of time. Invite students to be your color assistant.

 

Don't count it, paper chain it.

Sometimes we take the simple skills and crafts for granted and forget what a big deal it is for younger ones to learn how to master scissors and staplers.

Our children ask regularly how long until a certain event, or, "How many more do I need to do to get BLAH?"  Instead of getting frustrated each time they ask, I ask our five year old to make a paper chain about it.  He loves picking out the paper left over from other projects, counting out how many strips he needs to link and then putting it together.

He's working on his scissor skills and sometimes gets tired of cutting, depending how far in the future the event is.  He loves the stapling part.  We use this to teach counting, patterns and fine motor skills.  He just loves cutting and stapling.  I even enlisted him to make a weight loss chain for me with a different color at various markers. I was grateful he didn't ask the question, "What if you need to put them back on the chain?"

As their skills increase, challenge them to try this variation with a folding chain of people.

Gold Paper Mache Eggs and Carl Faberge

Today's project went well!  We had a couple of hiccups - substitute teacher, my daughter was home sick, my husband was with her. Plan B - VERY helpful, wonderful students that made it so enjoyable.  The photos were taken by the students after they finished their projects.  I think they liked the camera as much as making the eggs.

Homemade Construction Paper for your Projects

Our school had an artist in residence today.  She tackled the entire school with her vision.  The projects were done in phases.

PHASE I:
Gather one class from each grade into the drop-cloth covered gym.
There was an enormous tarped area in the center with three basic sheets of 11 x 17 paper painted with: Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.  This was our base for what we were about to make.
The children were taught what cyan and magenta were - not blue and pink.
Four children went to each of 10 tarped stations around the big center.  Each station had either plates with solid tempra paints and brushes or a combo of two of the three colors.

For five minutes, the children were told to paint the paper with the color at their station leaving a 1 - 2 inch border so they could hold the paper better as they painted it.
Those with two colors at their station blended variations.
As papers were completed, they were added to the color wheel in the center. 

By the end of my 45 minute session with two classes - 1 kindergarten and 1 first grade we had approximately 250 completed colored papers.

This went on with increasing creativity as the classes were progressively older children.

PHASE II:
All completed papers were gathered, shuffled and passed out to ALL classes so they all had a bit of each grade level's work.

PHASE III:
Each grade level had projects to create with the papers ranging from masks to collage landscapes.  The results were AMAZING.

Full instructions and PDF here.
Download colormixing.pdf (991.1K)

Hokusai Production - scratchboard landscapes

To go along with the Hokusai course, today we showed the slides and taught the first-graders about Hokusai.  They loved the stories about his life and how he actually drew birds in flight on grains of rice.  The production piece used a 1/4 sheet of scratchboard paper - like the old India ink over paper.  They children had a short burnishing stick - pointed like a skewer.  We gave them a scrap for practice before we gave them the larger piece.  This was smart.

Paper Button Blankets - Northwest Coast Native American Project

Today we taught the class for the Pacific Northwest Native American course.  We made paper button blankets from copied templates (see previous post), Sharpies, glue, black paper and sequins.  It was easy and the children truly enjoyed it.

Stained Glass Paper Windows