looking into the eye of the beast.

During this rotation, my 5ths are exploring paint, color value, and symmetry. We have been looking at the work of Australian artist Brad Eastman for inspiration for this experience. Brad is a very prolific artist who draws much inspiration from the patterns that are found within the natural world. I really love his play of geometric and natural shapes, his use of contour line, and his wonderful sense of composition as he pulls everything together in works that range in scale from intimately small digital works to immense wall murals.

I start the activity by sharing two murals that Brad has done that are similar in subject, symmetry, and use of color value gradations. We spend a few minutes identifying these elements and talking about what these works remind us of- what the students see in them.

To start the hands on activity, the students and I create a small sketch inspired by these two paintings. I want them to see how they can break up the picture plane to create a design that emphasizes symmetry and repetition. We start with the eye form and then add matching lines to the top, bottom, left, and right of the eye. The point of this is for them to see how they can start with simple large shapes to set up the compositional framework. Then, I encourage them to add more lines to give their sketch more detail.

Once that sketch is complete, students create a second sketch that starts with a shape of their choosing. They break up the picture plane in a similar fashion to the first one.

With both sketches done, students choose one and enlarge it softly onto a large (12x15") sheet of watercolor paper. They hold off putting their name on the paper until the drawing is complete. They do this, so that they can use the back of the paper to restart their drawing if the need arises.

To create the bold contour lines, students may trace their pencil lines with a crayon, chisel tip sharpie, or fine tip sharpie- or a combo a couple/all of them, depending on the detail present in their drawing.

When students move on to the painting step, I demo creating light and dark values by adjusting the amount of water used with the tempera cakes that we are using. Each student gets a scrap of watercolor paper to test out colors while they are working. Students choose a brush to start with- large, medium, or small. If they need to change brush size, they are responsible for cleaning the brush in the sink, putting it back if the right bin, and getting a different size brush. They are also responsible for changing the water in the cups that they are sharing with their paint tray team.

Most students have needed about 2 hours to complete this activity. Some more, some less. I meet with my 5ths for 90 minutes, so this activity has been completed over 2 sessions. When they complete their painting, students reflect on their process by answering 3 questions on an exit slip.

I am really emphasizing question 2- What was the hardest part of this activity? How did you deal with it.

I want them to really think about that. How did they solve that problem?

I really have been digging the variety in approaches to this activity. The students have been thoroughly engaged during the painting experience.

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!

jamming with jeremy

Searching for local artist inspiration a little while ago, I came across the work of Jeremy Sicile-Kira. I soon discovered that Jeremy is autistic and that he is nonverbal. One of the ways he communicates with the world is through his painting. I love his bold, bright palette and his use of masking tape to create lines throughout his compositions.

I have since used his work as inspiration for painting experiments with a couple groups of students.

I have 2 class moderate/severe special education classes and I thought his world would lend itself so well to experiments with liquid media and color mixing. We broke the process down into 3 parts- coloring a sheet with crayon while trying to use the side of the crayon, then placing tape down and adding color with cake tempera, adding more tape and more cake tempera, and finally, more tape and liquid tempera. The cake tempera gave us transparent colors while the liquid temperas gave us more opaque colors. The first class is younger and required more hand over hand assistance with these steps. The second group is older and more independent and through the activity with less help.

At the end of each experiment, students helped each other add paint to large canvases that were already taped. Again, exploring color mixing. Earlier in the year, they created the first layers of color on these by driving vehicles through primary color paint to make secondary colors.

I've also introduced Jeremy's work to my first graders and when doing so, I have talked about how he is a wonder like Augie from "We're All Wonders', which the 1st grade team has read. With these experiments, students have followed the same steps, although the first layer of crayon is a bit more complex in shape and detail. With each step, we talk about creative choices- what parts of the image do they want to protect from the next layer of paint. We also go over proper care of each of the paint mediums and the paint brushes.

The activities have been a blast to do with each of the groups- there has been A LOT of excitement as the tape gets peeled off at the end of the activity.