Kusama Pop Art Pumpkins

Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins have become one of my students' favorite projects. Why, just the other day as I was rummaging through my file cabinet filled with inspiration, a few of my students were elbow deep in there with me. Suddenly one of my examples of a Kusama - Pop Art Pumpkin emerged to shouts of, “Hey, Mrs. C-G, this was my favorite! Can we do it again?”

I encouraged them to keep digging, and the entire time, the three 10-year-old archeologists kept reminiscing of last year when they created their own versions of Kusma’s Yellow Pumpkin in Naoshima.

This, I will admit, is one of my favorite lessons to teach, for so many reasons.

1 - I love teaching this lesson in the fall when the students all think we’re drawing pumpkins that will turn into jack-o-lanterns.  After all, what else would you do to a pumpkin? I then tell them we're going to cover them with dots. They think I've lost it. We plan, work tirelessly, and as projects begin nearing completion, we all start seeing spots.

2 – her avant-garde work lends itself to interpretation for elementary students. It’s bright, colorful, rhythmic, and encourages them to think outside the box. We add to this project the exploration of wax resist with liquid watercolors, which brings a new level of excitement during production.

3 –my mini galleries were introduced, years ago, during the first launch of this lesson. (See example below.)

Now, I’m not taking credit for inventing this idea, that goes to some other amazing art teacher out there. I am taking credit for not letting such a cool idea go by without using it. I love these not only for introducing the art and artist, but they're perfect for hanging with a hallway display to educate the viewers about the art and artist too.

4 – it’s a project in which everyone finds success! 

      …and they want to do it again. If only I’d let them.

Kindergarten Magic Art

In the last few weeks of school, I teach a Kindergarten theme called Magic Art. Surprises and experiments are a fun end of the year way to keep students interested while teaching the elements of art. My students love combining literature and play with our art works.  Below are the lessons and books I use with the magic idea, along with the materials list. 

Abracadabra! Art is made.

Magic Line

Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson

White crayon resist with white oil pastel lines on white watercolor paper make a beautiful line base.  When students brush watercolor paint over the white crayon, it causes magic oohs and ahhs. You can add salt and lemon juice for more magic fun!



I am so thankful to have a kindergarten teacher who makes room for artwork outside of her classroom!

Tissue Paper Dye Spring Flowers

Beautiful Oops by, Barney Saltzberg (two art periods)

Apply tissue paper to large watercolor paper with brushes and water. The magic occurs the second art period when they peel away the tissue paper to reveal beautiful color. I gave them a long narrow piece of watercolor paper, and then a bigger piece of paper for a second artwork. I knew they would be done quickly with the first paper, and they were! It does make a large dyed mess, but I always have wipes on hand and you can protect tables before the project starts. You definitely need a large area to dry them.

Mouse Play Dough Mix

 Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh

I pass out the colored play dough two primary colors at a time. Many kindergarten students will mix them all up at once and make a brownish color. My goal is to make sure they could merge the two primary colors to make secondary colors. Of course, as they are squishing their play dough, we pretend they are little mice, mixing up their colors before the cat sees  them.

 

A Twist on Teaching Line

Kooky - crooked - spirals - wavy - bending - zig-zags - twirling - repeating - weird - wiggly. 

These were just a few of the adjectives that filled our art space discussion, as the third and fourth grade artists studied the art element line the other day.

Sure, you can always grab some drawing tools and have them draw lines, but this year I wanted to take our lines to another level. We made 3D lines using bright and colorful quilling paper. It's narrow, long, and easy to manipulate for the most part. A few Band-aids later, from all the paper cuts, my new approach to line study appeared to have been a success.

We curled, we bent, we rolled, we stretched - not only paper strips, but our imaginations. Our 3D sculptural lines and forms came alive with each new idea. My little artists were thrilled with the variety of lines that were emerging and interacting with other lines as our study continued. It appeared as if there were an endless supply of movement found in our creations and around the room as everyone wanted to share a new way they discovered to shape their lines. Gotta love collaboration!

The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom

I use Davis Digital curriculum in my art room, and whenever textiles come up, I am frantically looking for unique ideas online. I don't have a "crafty" bone in my body. I was a painter and printmaker back in "ye olde college days".  We discussed textiles in "ye olde Art History class", but I never touched undertaking textile work (except for the major hemming failure back in '81 when even the neighbors heard my mom's frustration with my ineptness on a sewing machine). Textiles are beautiful works of art, but I have to beg, borrow, and steal to find hands -on textile work for my students to practice.

I like to use literature when I teach and when I ran into this Dick Blick Story Quilt Youtube video, I could instantly see how this could be done using textiles and stories. 

I actually went out and bought the materials myself(yikes, I know you can't all do that, but I only have a few kids in my fifth grade class). Next year, I will purchase the materials through my school as this is one of the lessons I will definitely be repeating. The results were beautiful, each child was able to tell a personal story, and I met the standards of teaching about textiles. Voila!

I first read my fifth grade class The Patchwork Path, by Betty Stroud. I never knew that quilt symbols were used as maps to help slaves follow the Underground Railroad - neither did my students. They loved the story.

We then discussed symbols and looked at quilts on my handy dandy Pinterest board.  I pointed out how SIMPLE symbols are..usually without much detail. My kids LOVE details.

The students got out their sketchbooks and began sketching out symbols that could tell a story about their own lives. We later had a demonstration on using the water soluble wax pastels (with water and without), and how to use patterns, repeat colors, and use further symbols in the framing of the quilt piece. 

The students loved the vibrant color, the ease of using these fabric pastels, and the choices they could make on subject matter.

We displayed the quilts on black paper, but it looked kind of lame, so next year, I will be putting a few stitches in each quilt piece and put it on a black fabric to hang.

I thought I had ended on a beautiful note with my textile curriculum objectives until I glanced at the next Kindergarten lesson..EEEEK! The running stitch! Visions of hems crowded my rational thinking until I remembered, “He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart.” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I can learn anything for those cuties in my Kindergarten class. They pay in smiles.

Darth Vader, Campers, and Grotesques

We finally got a kiln at our school this year, it’s been on my wish list for the past 10 years, and we finally got one! (Gotta love meager art budgets.) The third and fourth grade student artists were about as excited as I was with the idea of working with clay, but we needed a vision, somewhere to begin our clay work; we needed ideas!

We started by talking about gargoyles and grotesques, how they were alike and the difference between them.  I then shared some images of them from the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. (Their favorite: the Darth Vader grotesque! Yes, there is a Darth Vader grotesque on the National Cathedral.) After that, we began our work on “thinking paper” and came up with as many ideas as we (gargoyle and grotesque designers) could and anticipated our next class together.

Well, today was the big day that we got to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. The all-important skill of joining clay was taught, after all these creations were going to have LOTS of add-ons. Everyone started making a pinch pot and our imagined, distorted, and peculiar creations began to take shape. Tongues sprouted, horns emerged, eyes multiplied, and warts even collected on the noses of some. My student artists were in their creative zone.

And right in the middle of the hubbub of it all, I heard a small little voice announce, “This clay smells like my camper.” It smelled of a memory.  The memory of the camper’s smell was probably the mildew and dust from being in storage all winter. As for this art teacher’s memory of that same smell? The mold, bacteria, and dust…, they stirred up the memory that I had just spent an hour elbow deep in allergens, and I didn’t take any Benadryl this morning.

“Achooo!”

Towering Giraffes

With all the attention that April the giraffe, at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, NY, is getting, I thought it was a perfect time to join in on the fun by sharing this project that found my students going through the roof with excitement!

They were thrilled with the subject matter. I mean who doesn’t love giraffes? They stand tall and have big hearts – something we want all of our students to do too.

One of my objectives was to get my student artists to draw bigger than usual, this is no small feat because I have found that no matter what size paper you give some, they have a secret yearning to become postage stamp designers. To encourage this larger than life drawing we started on the white board and Smartboard in my classroom – a challenge to see who could draw the tallest giraffe. Then, I gave them tall, narrow, blue paper, and because of that we needed space that would allow us to work BIG. This meant the hallway, on our stomachs; stretching not only our arms to reach the top of the paper, but our ability to draw bigger than ever before. And blue because I think that starting off a project on color helps with the beginning of a background, which many students overlook.

I was seeing amazing things as I looked around. Even though the subject matter was the same, each giraffe took on a personality of his/her own. That’s an amazing thing about student artists, they all bring their fascinating personalities to their work, and whether they realize it or not, it shows!

Our giraffes were completed using chalk. Who doesn’t love chalk? Okay, many don’t, but the colors, the blending, the experience of nine-year-olds turning up their noses at the thought of it. What art teacher wouldn’t want that experience? Exactly!

Pam

Artist Dale Chihuly

Okay, I admit, I was seeing tons of Dale Chihuly lesson plans on Pinterest and not really that interested in studying him as an artist until... I actually looked at his work.  I mean seriously, can you say you don't want to do something just because so many people are doing it? His work is glass, light, color, environment, and size.  I am in love.

Kindergarten watched a YouTube video of the artist's apprentice blowing glass for Chihuly.

 "What happened to his eye?" "That's cool!" "Fire!" "Whoa!"

They were mesmerized by his large body of work, the FIRE the glass was put into, and the blowing of glass itself.

"Don't try this at home, kids"

Using "Solo" like cups from Target and permanent markers, we created our own melted glass work. Students added patterns, colors, shapes, and designs to the clear glass cups.

I took them home(the cups, not the children) and put them in a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes. I put the unbaked cups on aluminum foil (bottoms up) and wrote their name in permanent markers by their cups on the foil. After they melted and cooled, I could then write their name on the cup without it shrinking.

I had to drill holes into two spots on each cup and then strung them up on plastic wire with beads to hold them in place. I decided a display would be pretty awesome in a window in our school hallway. Two tension rods later, I had a beautiful display that people still ask about!

Of course the kids are begging to take their "Chituly" glass home. When ready, I will cut theirs from the cords and send them on their way.

When we do our brain pop, they see the name Chihuly and all yell, "Chitoooley" and they remember fire and glass and color and size. Most importantly, they remember that they too are Chitooleys and that makes them proud.