wavy faces

Last week the 5th graders looked a the work of California artist Erik Abel. I have used Erik's work to teach students about different elements in a few projects before. In this one, we used Erik's work as the focus for an exercise in color value and relief sculpture.

Erik's work is all about the water. We looked at numerous images from his website and looked at the wide variety of work he has done that ties into this theme. The image we focused on was called "Neptune's Crown of Coral". I pointed out that Erik and created variety in color by adding white or black to mainly one color.

The 5th graders have been working with tints and shades for a few lessons, but not with the limitation of using only one color to make a monochrome image, so I thought this would make for an interesting visual challenge for them.

Erik's painting is flat, but I thought it would be cool to add a relief element to the project, so after students drew out and colored their abstract portraits they cut them into several pieces and reassembled them on black paper. I showed them how they could have each section pop up once or twice, depending on how many places they added glue to. These pop outs tied in well with the water theme of the portraits too:)

We did draw out the basic shapes together- nose, eyes, mouth line, but I offered variations at each step. If students wanted to do something different at each point, they could go for it.

hanging out with louise.

This week I got thisclose to completely installing the sculpture projects the 5th graders completed in small groups last year. It was my original intention to go in over summer break and do it. Alas, real life intervened.

The project was inspired by the work of sculptor Louise Nevelson.

However, if I had accomplished that goal over the summer, I would not have had the pleasure of working on it with small groups of exceptional students from this year's 5th grade classes. Watching their expressions as they hold a drill for the first time, as well as  their reactions to hearing the sound of the drill, have been priceless. It's so new for most of them. They have painted and drawn, worked with clay, made prints, but for many, this is their first experience with power tools. The students have been enthusiastic, a bit nervous, and extremely helpful.

They have been pre-drilling holes in the plywood pieces, assisting in placement on the wall, and drilling the screws into the wall. I get to do the drilling into the concrete wall. I am out of shape. There are 4 more squares to go. I am hoping to be done by Monday afternoon.

The original installation format has been modified to deter vandalism. As the change in composition occurred it grew on my more and more. Instead of being a stationary, grounded sculptural form, the collection of squares brings forth an abstract vision of flight.

After the installation is complete it will be spray sealed to further protect it from the elements.

day 1

day 2

day 3

It's finished. The final four squares were installed this morning. Now I can put the drill away and let my out of shape back muscles recuperate!

Thanks to all the 5th graders last year for making the sculptural squares. Thanks to all the 5th graders this year that helped with the install. Thanks to my father in-law for helping me cut all the panels. Thanks to the 5th grade teachers for their cooperation and support.

taking off with louise.

One of the pioneer female artists, breaking new ground in the art world with her found object assemblages, busting into the all boys club of the art world...

You gotta love Louise Nevelson.

She made hundreds of sculptures that kept evolving and more often than not, kept getting bigger and bigger. I love that she elevated scrap material and other people's throwaways to high art status.

I did three projects based on her work this year. One was more tied to her work than the other two, but her sculptures provided a springboard for our students to think sculpturally.

I introduced the 5th grade classes to her work and emphasized the concept of unity through her monochromatic paintings and discussed the differences between freestanding and relief sculpture.

These classes worked in teams of 3 or 4 students and assembled wood pieces on 18x18" squares of plywood. I stressed that they didn't have to make their relief sculpture look like anything- a park, a city square, and to just arrange shapes of different sizes in an interesting way. The next class was spent painting these pieces either all gold, white, silver, or black.

My goal over the summer is to install these small group pieces and assemble them as one giant relief sculpture on our campus. It will be approximately 15x8".

  

The 4th graders created relief sculptures as well. However, they were not limited to the square format. They were introduced to Louise's work, as well as the concepts of radial symmetry and complementary colors. Their sculptures could show symmetry or asymmetry, but it had to show radial. 

After assembling and gluing their pieces they were able to chose a pair of complementary colors and paint it. They could also add white to make tints. By working with opposite colors, I emphasized that they could make certain parts of their sculpture pop out and create focal points in the design.

This project was done in an extended lesson during testing at our site. I met with the class for one hour & 45 minutes.

The 2nd graders created freestanding sculptures based on the artist's work. Their limitation was that they had to fit the bottom of the sculpture on a 4.5 x 4.5" cardboard base. They could then build up as high as they wanted, as long as their sculpture was stable. It had to have stable balance. They built it the first day and when I met with them the following week they painted the pieces using a set of analogous colors- 2 primary colors that are mixed together to make a secondary color.

  

Ribbons.

In college I shared a 2 bedroom apartment with a rotating crew of guys over the course of a few years. Rent was cheap split 4 ways and it was right across from the school campus. When snowstorms shut the campus down, I could get to the print studio and have it to myself for hours. Bliss.

One of those guys was a student named Aaron Wexler. He's doing well for himself in New York and beyond these days, making super collages, window installations, and designs.

I was checking out his website and discovered an installation of various ribbons he did with another artist.
Project inspired!

I decided to do it with 1st graders, but it could be modified for any grade really. Instead of moncochrome, each class worked with an analogous color group. The project focuses on gluing, cutting, and looping paper.

Individually the projects look sharp, and they also are striking when gathered and dsiplayed together.

1. intro to Aaron's work, talking about unity and the skills we would use to complete the project
2. cutting a circle out of a 6" square
3. cutting another 6" square into 4 equal parts and gluing them to the cirlce- all gluing is done on the backside of the ribbon
4. gluing 12 rectangles that are about 1 & 1/2 x 9" around the circle shape.
5. after strips are glued, add glue to the inner edge and loop the far edge to it
6. gluing 8 rectangles that are larger, 2 x 12" in between the skinnier ones, then glue & loop
7. glue 3 rectangles that are 1&1/2 x 12" to the bottom of the cirlce so they hang down like the verticle part of an award ribbon
8. flip over to the good side and cut & glue a smaller circle to the center of the bigger one. i used metallic origami paper to give it a "fancy" finish

the kids really thought this was a good one. Like they got an award for doing the task- the ribbon itself