intentions with isaias

One of the very cool things about focusing on living artists in my curriculum is being able to meet some of the artists first hand and to develop relationships with them. Case in point- and I have loved being able to share this with my students- a couple months ago, I discovered through instagram, that artist Isaias Crow was painting a collaborative mural with visiting artist Leon Rainbow, in my neighborhood. I recognized the house from the photo he posted and excitedly hustled down the street to check it out in person. Isaias, who is one of the kindest and most generous people out there, took time to talk to me (and then my wife when I brought her down, too). We suggested that if he ever needed another wall in the village to paint, that we had one.

the mural that led to this design activity!

 the process of the intention murals.

Fast forward a month and we were meeting with Isaias to participate in his Intention Mural series. He guided our family through several collaborative and reflective exercises and then we came up with a word to guide the mural process. We chose "now" because as a family we need to work on being more present with one another, and not detached with our focus on our various device screens.

He came back on MLK day and led us through the mural process- he sprayed "now" on the side of our garage and my wife, 2 kids, and I took turns adding more lines to the wall in order to break it up and abstract the surface. Once that was complete, we used mural and house paint to fill in areas, changing and combining some of the shapes as we went. After lunch we finished the color work with a variety of spray paint colors. It was such a wonderful experience to be a part of. I got to play the role of student to his process and gaining experience with spray paint.

our intention mural!

As soon as the mural was complete, I knew I had to lead my students through a similar activity. So, the 4th graders have been experimenting with paint technique, abstraction, and meaning in art while using Isaias' Intention process as the guide.

After looking at several of his intention murals, including ours, I ask the students to write a list of 5 words that symbolize things that are important to them. They then narrow things down to 2 words and practice arranging them in long horizontal sketches. They can use bubble letters, block letters, upper, lowercase and they can spread them throughout the rectangle any way that occupies the space effectively.

They then draw their word much larger and more lightly on an 8x16" sheet of watercolor paper. I model how they can extend lines to break up the background and how they can add more lines to echo letter parts of their chosen word. I emphasize that the word does not have to end up being readable to the viewer.

Students can then choose a few crayon colors to use as their crayon resist. They can use the crayons to trace pencil lines to trap paint colors and they can use crayons to fill sections. I suggest half crayon, half tempera paint. When filling shapes with crayon, I encourage students to experiment with hand pressure to create light and dark color values.

When they move on to painting, the color choices are theirs to make- they can be similar to the crayon colors or they can contrast against those colors.

The final step is to complete an exit slip that asks students to identify why they chose that particular word. It also gets them to compare their work to Isaias's and to reflect on the most challenging part of the whole process.

The kids have been super engaged with this activity and many students have been coming in at morning recess AND lunch recess throughout the week to continue working. The art room has been buzzing with creative energy all week long!

the art room has been HOPPING at recess!

something sweet?

Popsicles and painting anyone?

There is a store in San Diego called Viva Pops. The owner, Lisa Altmann, makes the most delicious popsicles my family has ever tasted. We have been there a couple of times and the organic flavors she combines in her pops are just delightful.

In her store is a fantastic mural by local muralist, Isaias Crow and his collaborative team called  the Prizm Process. The painting takes up the entire length of the west interior wall of the store. It's as much a visual delight as Lisa's pops are a tasteful one.

The last time we visited, Lisa was kind enough to give me contact information for Isaias. I knew that I HAD TO do a project based on the mural with some of our students. We have been in touch several times, and it is my hope that we can have him visit Zamorano in the near future.

I showed the 4th grade students a number of murals Isaias has completed and they were blown away by the scale, the color, and the style of the works.

Isaias and his team use mostly spray paint and some acrylic paint to complete their large scale murals.

I then showed a few photos of the Viva Pops mural, both in process and complete. When I said we would be making a popsicle work there were roars. When I mentioned that we would use spray paint to add a finishing touch, mouths dropped.

Before jumping in, I also talked about Isaias's use of natural shapes in his work. This was a good contrast to the geometric shapes students used in the Dalek designs. We also identified that the popsicle flower looked more 3d than other parts of the mural because of the use of tints of colors to create areas of light and shadow. The students had used tints in their previous Dalek designs to add variety to their image, but not a 3 dimensional element. We also looked at the rotational symmetry present in the popsicle flower.

Instead of using complementary colors in this project I pointed out that we would use a color family, or an analogous color scheme, to start out with. The students would be able to add other colors later on in their images, but the large pop and flowers would be in a selected analogous color scheme.

The project was broken into to sessions. In the first, student made the large pop and flowers by using collage, cutting and gluing paper.

The second session involved adding pattern and decoration to the 2 flowers on the pop, creating the popsicle flower, and adding a spray paint pattern element at the end.

1. cut drippy popsicle bottom and glue to large base sheet

2. use a brown construction paper crayon to add one or two popsicle sticks

3. cut 2 or 3 slightly different size or shape flowers and add to large pop

4. add patterns to flowers using construction paper crayons

5. draw out pop flower, add color with crayons, pressing lightly to make tints

6. cut out pop flower and glue to big pop

7. cut wax paper stencil to add spray paint pattern element

8. spray paint pattern on to large pop 

The spray painting was done outside. Students placed pattern on their image and blocked out areas that they did not want painted. I did the spraying to facilitate consistency. The students loved seeing the gold on their projects. 

There could be class management issues wit this last step, since some students are outside, in line, or inside finishing up, but I was very pleased with how all the classes monitored themselves in the classroom. I think my classroom was the cleanest they have left it all year, and we used a lot of different supplies that needed to get picked up and re-sorted.