making meaning with jean-michel

The 3rd graders are starting their color and chalk pastel unit by looking at the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat for inspiration. This activity allows students to focus on meaning in art and gives them opportunities to experiment with themes that are important to them. 

I have always loved the boldness and the energy of his work. There is a rawness to it the captivates me. I know his work can be difficult to approach with students, but I encourage you to give it a chance.

We start out by looking at a couple photographs of Basquiat at work, so the students can identify with him. We talk about how his parents were immigrants- his father was from Haiti and his mom from Puerto Rico. At Zamo, we have a diverse population and many of our students have family members that have come to the US from different countries. We all know the political climate today, and I think it's so important to recognize the positive impact immigrants have had after they and their children have established themselves here.

We then look at three paintings that Basquiat created. I ask the students if art needs to be pretty or beautiful all the time and they have responded with a resounding NO in each class. We talk about how art can convey different feelings by how things are drawn or depicted and I ask them to keep this in mind as we look at his paintings.

In the first one we focus on his use of large areas of background color and the presence of a portrait in the painting. We agree that the portrait is not realistic, and that we still recognize it as a face. The second one leads us into a discussion of symbols and how they can convey meaning to the viewer and that we may "read" the meaning of those symbols differently than one another, depending on the experiences each of has had. Students see that he has used a crown in both paintings. I bring up the fact that Basquiat used those to signify his importance in the art world. He was visually establishing and connecting himself as part of an art royalty.

Students also notice the amount of words used in the second painting. They recognize Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford. I point out Miles as Miles Davis- the amazing jazz pioneer and how Basquiat was deeply moved by jazz, blues, and hip hop, rap, and experimental forms of music. They also notice Frank and the fact that we don't know who HE was, but the name/person had significance to Basquiat.

We look at one more painting and notice another crown, more connections to money and commerce, more bones, including a skull and teeth.

Before getting started with the hands on portion of the activity, I remind students that we aren't copying his work, but we will be borrowing his methods for constructing his art and his use of symbols and words to create meaningful self portraits.

Step one is to create a gestural abstract background with 2-3 colors that are important to them. We apply color with the side of the chalk, working to keep elbows up in order to keep the color from smearing. After adding the background, students can add areas of white to lighten colors and they can smooth areas as well. I encourage them to find a balance between smooth and rough areas.

Next come the symbols- I ask them to add 2-4 personal symbols. These are things that have importance to them- they could connect to family, school, hobbies, sports, etc. We use the point of the chalk to add these elements. I encourage students to hide or obscure symbols if they aren't satisfied with how they are drawn or if they want some messages hidden in their work.

The portrait element is the 3rd step. Again, I emphasize that the portrait does not have to be perfect. We are aiming to give the viewer an idea of ourselves. I put Basquiat's paintings back up to see and I also let the kids know that if they have a certain way of drawing people/characters, that they can use that style as well. We draw the portrait in chalk and then go over it in oil pastel to give the lines more clarity. This also connects to how Basquiat used large oil sticks to create lines, symbols, and words in his work.

Finally, come the words. Students add a few words that connect to family, heroes, friends, etc. We talk about text as a visual element. Do they want to use all capital or lowercase letters? Do they want to mix them up, do they want some words to read upside down?

Then, it's time to clean our mess up;)

Next week, I plan on having the students reflect on the process by having them do a short written reflection on choices that they made throughout the activity. 

chalk lung... for real;)

So. Much. Dust.

6 weeks of chalk pastels in my classroom is done! I think the kids were able to apply just a little chalk to their paper than to themselves over that time.

That said, all grade levels really rocked the chalk and their projects are bold and vibrant.

This week my 2nds and 5ths worked with chalk pastels to create landscapes inspired by our San Diego coast. Both grades identified and applied warm and cool colors to their landscapes. Both created a lot of space in their work. The 2nds did so through value, size, and overlapping. The 5ths did it by using overlapping, color value contrast, and through the amount of detail in areas.

The 2nds started off by reviewing how we created depth with overlapping and value in their Aaron Draplin inspired landscape skate decks. Then they looked at a photo of our Coronado Bridge at sunset and noticed how those space makers were present. We then looked at how dark the bridge is compared to the background and how this makes the bridge come to the front. They built their drawings up from the background to the foreground. All chalk pastels, some areas rough, some areas blended, and finished the drawing by using black oil pastels to make the bridge. (I like to switch up with oil pastel at the end because it's more controllable.)

The 5ths worked with the same concepts of color and space when they did their chalk and oil landscapes. The biggest difference was the complexity of shapes and the use of details in the foreground to make the tidepool area stand out in the foreground. When drawing those pools, we talked about perspective and point of view. Why the shape or shapes would look more like ovals and not circles.

Next week we move on to painting madness!

chalking it up.

What a week!

I introduced my kinders and 3rds to a couple quilt artists this week and we used their work as an introduction to chalk application and color concepts.

The 3rd graders looked at a quilt by Kathryn Upitis. I've been focusing on 3d space with them and her quilt, September Dawn, was an interesting example of depth in a more abstract sense. We reviewed fore,middle, and background and then looked at the quilt and  tried to see the depth in it. Kids struggled to do so, until I gave them the title of the piece and then things started to click- the ground stands out because it's really dark, but what about the sky? Kids noticed darker and bigger clouds at the top and smaller, lighter ones at the back.

We interpreted this in chalk instead of pieced fabric. I modeled how to hold the chalk to keep themselves and their paper clean. We built the sky and smoothed it out, added the ground and left it rough. We then built the clouds with oil pastels. We used white first and went on top with blue and/or purple. We used tints of colored paper to make our Carol Wyatt inspired landscapes, but this was the first time we mixed those tints in class this year.

We knocked out an exit slip at the end that addressed tints, 3d space, and how their work was different than Kathryn's.

I got through one day this week and then my son was admitted to the hospital. I knew I was going to be out one day, but ended up being out until today. I am very relieved to say that he comes home today and we have a diagnosis and treatment plan. I will be so over the top thrilled to see him sleeping in his own bed tonight:)

Anywho, because I knew I would be out one day, I put together a short video for the sub to use for chalk technique and project intro. My goal is to do more of these in the future. Back in class today, I used them and I was able to distribute supplies while kids watched my demo. Pretty cool being in two places at once!

Meanwhile the kinders looked at a quilt called Full Bloom by LA based quilter Latifah Saafir. (I just discovered the MQG ((Modern Quilt Guild)) website, so be prepared for even more quilt inspired projects!) We talked about what they saw in the quilt and how the title of a piece can guide your thinking when looking at art. We did a chalk pastel drawing of Latifah's quilt. We drew our shapes in white chalk, added chalk color and smoothed it out in the leaves, added color to the background and left it rough, and finished things off by using black oil pastels to make the outlines bold and strong.

Next week, I will have both grade levels experimenting with oil pastels.

While sitting with my son this week, one of the ways I coped was drawing on my ipad with a new app (for me), autodesk sketchbook. Getting a little better using my fat fingers to make thin lines on the touchscreen:)